Everyone reporting that he is "blindsided and disappointed" by Kyrie's trade demand. All while he keeps flirting with LA and refusing to commit to Cleveland. This motherfucker has some nerve

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Inclined to give him a pass. There's something going on in Cleveland but it's not really clear what that is at this point.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

It's pretty clear. Nobody knows where they stand or what happens after this year until LeBron says what he's doing. It's absolutely ridiculous for him to criticize Kyrie's decision. And that's without even bringing yo the fact that LeBron "blindsided" his teammates twice in the last seven years as well.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Lebron has his own past of blindsiding teammates (and looked like he was gearing up to potentially do so again) so I feel no sympathy for him for Kyrie looking to jump first.

I'm talking about the GM stuff. We knew LBJ and others didn't really trust Gilbert to put his money where his mouth is on an indefinite basis. Maybe something like that is going on.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

The one thing nobody can accuse Gilbert of is not spending.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Yeah, it's that simple. But James could shoot one of his fans in the middle of Tines Square and vegan would still defend his guy.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

One of the main reasons the Cavs have so little flexibility at the moment is because of how much they've committed to Lebron guys like Thompson.

He's the only guy who can fix things.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

They've been to three straight finals and will go to another one if they remain intact. Pretty sure the money has been well spent.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

The roster drama that has followed this guy will be the legacy of his career. The armchair-GMing brought on by the rise of forum culture values free agent and trade transactions very strongly; not only has GM LeBron's track record there been sketchy from a pure results perspective he's also invited a ton of distractions and fan backlash with his moves.

This is what happens when you follow your brand.

NBA = Nobody fucking cares

They play in the East and have Lebron James. Do you really think they'd have struggled to make the finals if they hasn't bid against themselves for Thompson at Lebron's behest? And if you are praising their roster construction now, then how do your earlier criticisms of Gilbert/the GM situation make any sense?

Pretty sure that comes out to NFC.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

The GM thing is something else. I dont care about Thompson I'm just saying that with LBJ, Kyrie, and Love you're not going to have much flexibility anyway. Having a better PF than Thompson at less money wasn't going to make a difference against GS anyway, and they still wouldn't have much flexibility.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

I mean the Love trade too was a trade carried out to appease a returning James. Now he looks like a busted flush no one in the league wants to trade for and the Cavs have been scrambling to find a wing player like the guy they gave up in Wiggins.

At the end of the day I just don't think you can argue with three finals appearances in three years and one win. And they played shorthanded against GS the first year. Yeah some of these moves were made to appease James, but they're working. You'd get no argument from me if they didn't have the success they're having.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

It just seems pretty convenient to me to gloss over any responsibility on the part of James for the current situation given both his own role in the uncertainty about the Cavs' future and the fact that so many front office moves were made precisely to accommodate him.

What's the "current situation" though? I think we're looking at it very differently. I'm looking at a team coming off its third straight finals appearance and is the unanimous favorite to return next year. The lack of flexibility they have, to me, is unremarkable: any veteran team led by three highly paid stars in their prime is going to have cap issues. I think your criticism is more appropriate for a high spending team like the KG/Pierce Nets who get basically zero return on their massive investments. Cleveland also made massive investments but it's clearly paying off.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

The current situation is one where Lebron has been complaining about a lack of playmakers for over 6 months, has been teasing whether he's actually committed to the team past next season, no one in the league is particularly interested in any trades involving their third best player, and now the second best player on the team wants to jump ship before the best one. The Cavs could bring back the same team, remain favorites to win the East, but will most assuredly be significantly bigger dogs to win the title.

LeBron joining the Big Three gave the star players more power than the general managers. I doubt he regrets that, but basketball players are prima donna's and they have huge egos. The difference between Kyrie and LeBron was that LeBron switched teams because he couldn't get it done by himself and Kyrie has decided that he would rather have his own team that join a super team with LeBron. The superstar teaming up thing has worked great for LeBron in the East, but Durant joining the Warriors took away the Cavs chance to repeat as champions.

If Irving is off the team they may not get back to the Finals. If the Celtics improve next season they might beat the Cavs.

_________________
God is the uncaused cause of the universe. He had no beginning and has no end. He is not bound by the laws of the universe he created.

Good post though, Bob.

"Nobody Bothers Anymore" would have worked but also would have invited "no ACTUALLY the ratings have NEVER been higher, look at the ratings for the Spurs, everyone's making so much money"

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I'm just going to say that you would never see this shit happening in the NHL.

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

No, you would see guys demanding trades because their teammates fucked their wives.

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or wives demanding trades because the husband fucked the local weather girl

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Who gives a shit. Loyalty isn't rewarded. Not in the NBA, not in capitalist America. He can do whatever the fuck he wants because nobody can do what he does.

_________________
the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Gilbert has spent the money for players. They have by far the highest payroll in the league. He has paid the luxury tax the past couple of years too. He is not going to let LeBron James hold them hostage anymore it appears.

_________________

I think there are a ton of teams that would love to be "held hostage" in this case. Sounds like you're Gilbert is trying to go back to the good old days of being the armpit of the NBA in the days before James and his losing ways came aboard.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Gilbert is certainly spending his $ like they were yen, but if this fella over at https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/6olkrv/is_having_lebron_really_worth_the_trouble/ is even remotely accurate, Dan's doing awfully well and that luxury tax is a pleasure to pay. Long read but, if the topic interests you, worth it. Still, I'll be a pal and post the guy's own tl;dr:

TL;DR: Dan Gilbert suffered a $40m loss, $27m of that coming from luxury taxes last season. Lebron increased team revenue by $88M from the highest grossing year without him to today. Outside of the stadium Lebron is responsible for $18,265,500 in spending during the season in downtown Cleveland, and $113,400,000 during playoffs. Dan Gilbert owns the Cavaliers and is the largest investor into downtown Cleveland to the tune of over $1B and 12 businesses.

Lebron has brought in about $219,665,500 a year just by coming back home.

Why would Dan Gilbert and the organization hop, jump, and skip to please Lebron, even to the point of paying exorbitant luxury taxes to sign his friends? Well, the proof is in the numbers. No king has been this profitable since Midas.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George