OH10;1494582; said:
Strip Lebron from the Cavs and how much talent is on that roster? That is not a 20-win ballclub without the King and Shaq, the latter of which will definately be gone come 2010.
The thing is if they win it all next year they
will bring Shaq back. They will have a two headed monster at center for the next 2-3 years. This 20-win claim is BS. Mo is a top 10 PG in the league, Z is a top 10 center, Shaq is still on this team so I don't know how you can just dismiss this for the sake of your argument and he is the best center in the legue with Yao out. If someone wants to argue that Howard is a better center than Shaq, bring it. :box:
Danny Green was possibly the steal of the 2nd round and would likely be a 6th man on most other teams however it's possible he won't crack the rotation. Now I'm not arguing that we have the same top tier talent of the elite teams in the league, because they simply don't (hence looking to add 2 FAs through the BAE and MLE or make another trade this offseason), but they have depth. This is clearly shown by their regular season success of 66 wins. However, in the playoffs when depth becomes largely a non-factor as benches are shortened to 8-9 players, the Cavs top 8-9 did not match up with the elite teams last year.
Starter w/o LeBron 2009-10 season:
Williams
West
Szczerbiak
Varejao
Shaq
Bench:
Z
Green
Smith
Darnell
JJ
While this lineup could stuggle just to make the playoffs it's nowhere near a 20 win team. Probably more of a 35-40 win team. With this team although you have no superstar I think Shaq could be an alright option.

The rest of the rotation is solid until you get down to JJ.
jlb1705;1494533; said:
The Kobe comparison isn't exactly fair. LeBron hasn't been charged with rape. Regardless of the outcome or location, that cost Kobe a lot of money - and not just what he spent on his wife after it came out.
I think the larger point about LeBron's earning power stands though.
You could point to Dwayne's earnings of $12 million in 2007, and this is a better example than Kobe's because they are around the same age and came into the league the same year. The thing with Wade is that ESPiN doesn't push him as much as they do LeBron and Kobe even though he is closer to being 1c than being #3 in the league.