As the NBA postseason gets down to four teams, we’ve gained some clarity on what the offseason will look like in the basketball world. Some teams have found new coaches while others are still looking. Once the front office and bench retooling ends, though, the attention will come back to the players.
LeBron James is definitely one of those players, and his destination — either Cleveland or elsewhere — is still yet to be determined. But one ESPN reporter who follows James closely thinks there might be reason to think James stays in Cleveland no matter what happens in the postseason this year.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst appeared on the Woj Podcast with Adrian Wojnarowski and made a simple case for James staying put in Cleveland. Wojnarowski asked Windhorst about the future in Cleveland and how they will compare to Philadelphia and Boston in the East moving forward. Windhorst said their argument is simple: There aren’t many other landing spots that can compete with the Cavaliers.
“This draft pick they are about to make is enormous,” Windhorst said around the 39 minute mark of the podcast, pointing out that the Cavaliers have a history of winning Draft Lotteries even with low odds. Still, wherever they draft this summer, that pick will have a big impact on their ability to stay young and give James a core of players to work with, and Windhorst added that he knows Cavs owner Dan Gilbert “experts” to move into the top three.
Windhorst called it a “vitally important draft pick” and said James won’t have any input on what the Cavaliers do, whether it’s draft someone they think is best for the future of the franchise, a player most likely to get along with James, or trade the pick for a current player. But even with all of that uncertainty, Windhorst argues that the Cavaliers might still be the best place for James to end up.
“The Cavs greatest situation is that there is no other great situation,” Windhorst said. “And that might end up keeping LeBron put.”
It’s actually not a bad point, as the Cavaliers have made the NBA Finals every year since James has returned to Cleveland. Even the conventional wisdom picks, like James heading to Los Angeles to play for the Lakers, doesn’t really add up right now.
So maybe Windhorst is right and the Cavs are the true favorite to keep James in Cleveland, but we won’t really know until other teams make their best shot to land him, too.
