Throughout the entire LeBron James sweepstakes this summer, it felt like the Cleveland Cavaliers were at or near the forefront. Even as other teams emerged as the new weekly favorite, the Cavs always seemed to be in the background.
Instead, James shocked the NBA world and chose the Philadelphia 76ers as his next team and likely his final one as well. Since the news broke on Friday, there have been many reports on why James didn’t choose a storybook ending with Cleveland. But trying to make sense of it at every turn is exhausting.
LeBron James and his camp keep finding ways to convince themselves that the Cavs aren’t good enough
When all of this started, Rich Paul got on his whiteboard and had all of the main teams for James on it. When he got to the Cavs, he brought up Brandon Weems being James’ best friend and how they are basically brothers. He then brought up James Harden as a potential negative and how the Darius Garland trade also hurts their case.
Then last week it was reported that James was holding out on his decision to see if one team could acquire either Anthony Davis or Kyrie Irving. Now, it was reported that James’ inner circle was surprised that the team traded Garland away, instead of Donovan Mitchell, and that if the Cavs traded him away for Jaylen Brown, then James would have likely come to Cleveland.
As great as James is, he is going to be 42 years old. It makes almost zero sense to completely uproot a team that is coming off a conference finals appearance for a guy you’re only going to have for two years anyway. It would have made a lot of sense to add James to this group, but not at the cost of moving Mitchell or even Evan Mobley. And moving Mitchell for Brown is very much a lateral move at best.
As for the Garland-Harden trade hurting the Cavs’ case, Harden was part of the reason why the team was able to break through this playoffs. He definitely had his bad games, but the team could not function offensively with him off the court. So his impact is there.
Additionally, for all the talk about James loving Garland, he was on his podcast months ago talking with Kevin Durant and Steve Nash about how hard it is to have a guard like Garland on your team in the playoffs because of the defensive issues. James didn't say much about Garland specifically, but he agreed with them, saying that you need guards with bigger frames in the playoffs and that if you are small, you are going to get picked on. But then he and his inner circle would have traded Mitchell away? That doesn’t make much sense.
James doesn't owe Cleveland anything. He won a championship and is going to have a statue outside Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse as soon as he’s done playing. That is not what this is about.
But there is no need to come up with excuses about not choosing the Cavs. The roster may not be perfect, but to act like they needed significant upheaval for him to come is disingenuous. He liked the star power the Sixers had to offer and that is okay.
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