Woj tweeted the above about 10:00pm PDT. A rather ominous tweet, to say the least. Let’s break this down…
*The Cavs smell blood. They see getting Stoudemire as a big chip in keeping LeBron, followed by a chance at multiple championships.
*Yes, Stoudemire is better than JJ on the offensive end of the floor - he can do everything JJ does but more intelligently, and he can pick and pop, and therefore spread the floor - but Stoudemire also costs 10x as much, and that’s if he opts in next season. If we’re talking about a big-time, multi-year max contract extension … well, that’s an additional story.
*After beating ORL again on Thursday night, the Cavs must be concerned about how the Magic defended J.J. and Andy to be pushing this hard to get a Stretch 4. In a 7 game series, could the Cavs get 36 points of production on 68% shooting out of the PF in 4 of those 7 games with the roster as currently constructed? Remember, this was also without Mo Williams, and with LeBron playing an extended amount of time at point.
*I’m not convinced the Cavs can beat the Lakers without Z. When it comes to the Suns, Ferry knows he can trust Steve Kerr - if the Amar’e deal goes down, I suspect Ferry will be close to 100% sure that Z will be bought out. Now, whether or not Z will want to return to the Cavs … that’s another unknown.
*Jamison is the guy the Spurs would trade for. High character, strong veteran presence, can score and rebound. Will also be 34 years old in June with $28.4M on his contract over two years. Decent production for right now, but any deal that’s being made has to have as much to do with the long-term future of the Cavs as it does the team winning a championship this season. I think we all believe that Cleveland has as good of a chance as any other team in the NBA to win it right now with the roster that’s currently in tact.
*Part of me wonders if the Amar’e talk is all organized posturing between two friends - Kerr and Ferry - who are willing to help each other create chaos in the marketplace in order to get the best deal possible from other teams.
*But I don’t know … I also see this as a potential pissing match between Dan Gilbert and Pat Riley - who was supposedly going all in to get Amar’e as of yesterday. No doubt that the Cavs getting Stat would royally fuck up the Heat’s plans and potentially prevent the ultimate disaster - Heat trade for Amar’e, Heat has his Bird Rights, they re-sign him, and then give Wade a max deal and bring Bron in on a max deal, too.
*I still want Iguodala. Holland still wants Troy Murphy. BJT68 wants Jamison. And LeBron wants … well, who knows what LeBron wants … all we know for sure is that LeBron is LeBron; he’s going to get what he wants.
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