Michael Redd and LeBron James would’ve been a heck of a one-two punch on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
LeBron James never quite got that elusive second star paired up with him on the Cleveland Cavaliers in his first go-round with them.
But back in the 2005 free agency period, the Wine and Gold almost made that happen, with them appearing to be closing in on signing Michael Redd at that time. Redd, who was a sharpshooter on Cleveland’s division rival, the Milwaukee Bucks, was that player we’re referring to.
Albeit he didn’t end up signing with Cleveland, as Redd ended up re-signing with Milwaukee via six-year deal for between $90 and $96 million at the time.
That said, the Cavs at the time offered the most they could then, via the five-year, $70 million variety.
And to clarify, Redd was indeed “close,” to signing with the Cavs, as he discussed in a recent episode of the “Heavy Live With Scoop B Show,” with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson and Sean Deveney of Heavy.com.
Redd hit on that near-signing with the Cavs/almost joining LeBron with Robinson and Deveney.
A key sound bite from Redd was him touching on his visit to Cleveland during that free agency period, as was noted. Here was more on that here, as transcribed by Robinson.
"“I took a visit to Cleveland and met with the organization. My heart was in Milwaukee because that was the team that kind of, groomed me and you know, there was a loyalty that we as players had to our organizations back then. Different than now; they groomed me, they believed in me and that meant a lot to me throughout my career and so the decision to sign back with Milwaukee to me at the end of the day, it made sense because of my loyalty factor; and back then, if you didn’t win a championship you still weren’t – it didn’t affect your legacy as far as how good you were. So if we didn’t win a championship…I’d rather go down with the ship rather than join Kobe, join LeBron, Tracy McGrady or Vince Carter.”"
Redd stressed how to Robinson and Deveney how back in that time/that era, he went back to Milwaukee because he and other guys had a “different mindset.” Redd wanted to lead the Bucks, which was understandable.
As far as the natural What if? scenario, though, Redd did mention how him and James “had that conversation over the years,” and emphasized how they “probably would’ve won a championship,” in that appearance.
Redd detailed how while LeBron was clearly a terrific all-around player, even that early on in his career, as James had 27.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 2.2 steals per game in 2004-05, he could take pressure off of him. Furthermore, Redd added that he could “close” back then for James/the Cavs.
In particular, Redd demonstrated how he believes he could’ve really aided LeBron and the Wine and Gold in their 2007 NBA Finals series versus the San Antonio Spurs, who would sweep Cleveland then.
Cleveland did have players such as Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and rotational guard Daniel Gibson, but the Cavs in that series were overmatched and James could’ve used another bonafide #2 option. And Redd highlighted how he/the Bucks, for whatever reason, did have success against the Spurs when they went against them in those days, as he told Robinson and Deveney.
"“They would put Bruce Bowen on me, or whatever which we had great success against San Antonio for whatever reason in Milwaukee. It was certain teams that we had success against and San Antonio was on our radar which was a team that we could be for whatever reason. So LeBron who he was back then, being just a machine that he was and then the scoring ability with myself – that’s a hard combination to tackle so, obviously no doubt San Antonio had the savvy; they won championships. Coach Pop…it would’ve been a heck of a series for sure.”"
From there, Redd alluded to how although the two didn’t end up teaming up in the NBA, they did talk about that, again, in experiences with USA basketball, and in “2008, really,” he stated, via Robinson. The former Bucks sniper would then get into it more from there, again, via Robinson.
"“During the Olympic run in ’06, ’07 and ’08, there was a swirl like ‘Like, man…what if we played together? Like, hmmmm? because we all enjoyed playing together at that time frame; you know Kobe, LeBron, Carmelo, Chris Paul, and all of us were playing together and it was like, ‘What if we played together on the NBA teams?’ and that conversation started then and then it manifested itself in 2010.”"
Redd was referring to James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh teaming up that summer of 2010 on the Miami Heat (James formerly via sign-and-trade eventually), and that Heat team would go to four straight NBA Finals, winning back-to-back ones in 2012 and 2013. You can check out that conversation between Redd, Robinson and Deveney at this link, for reference.
In any case, I’m so grateful that LeBron James would end up returning to the Cavaliers in the summer of 2014 via free agency, and during his return to the Cavs, they’d make four straight trips to the NBA Finals.
James, Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and company would finish off a historic 3-1 comeback in the 2016 Finals over Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and the Golden State Warriors of course, and that championship was truly something out of Hollywood. Well, at least for us fans of the Wine and Gold I’d say.
But had Redd decided to join James and the Cavaliers back in that 2005 free agency period, man, what a duo him and James would be, with how Redd was such an outstanding perimeter shooter, and off of movement, especially. His presence woud’ve been so crucial for opening up the floor more for James.
The Cavs would eventually sign Larry Hughes that offseason, but he unfortunately couldn’t stay healthy consistently enough to have nearly the impact I thought he could’ve.
Anyhow, Redd had a great career, and had averages 19.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per contest in 12 seasons, mostly with Milwaukee, before playing his last season with the Phoenix Suns in 2011-12. Redd hit 38.0 percent of his 4.4 three-point attempts per game lifetime, and was an All-Star/made All-NBA in 2003-04.
Redd, as Robinson and Deveney discussed in the episode, was also quite the Ohio State star in college, too, and grew up in the Columbus area, which would’ve been a cool dynamic had he played for the Cavaliers.
Meanwhile, LeBron still looks to have plenty of gas left in the tank, as KJG’s Robbie DiPaola alluded to last month, when James won his fourth NBA title, with his now-Los Angeles Lakers.
What a one-two punch that James-Redd duo would’ve been in Cleveland, though. Oh well.