Could LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki join forces in 2014-15?
As Carmelo Anthony’s tour concludes Thursday with a meeting in Los Angeles with the Lakers completed and a meeting with the New York Knicks underway.
Wednesday night, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban met with Anthony to make a pitch for his services. A day later, he and Dirk Nowitzki made a statement for the younger star free agents to take notice. They want a championship contending team.
In addition to having acquired Tyson Chandler from New York, star forward and free agent Nowitzki came to a three-year agreement worth about $30 million.
ESPN has learmed that Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks have agreed to terms on three-year deal
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 3, 2014
Dirk always likely to be first major free agent to decide. Sources say sides agreed today to three-year pact believed to be in $30M ballpark
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 3, 2014
A salary of $10 million per year should keep the Mavericks salary still well below the cap threshold, around $45M in committed team salary, leaving roughly $18 million to work with. That is enough space to consider signing a marquee free agent — like Anthony or, perhaps, even LeBron James. As ESPN continued to break news.
Story going online now from @Chris_Broussard, @WindhorstESPN & I that LeBron James’ agent Rich Paul met with at least four teams this week — Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 4, 2014
Sources: LeBron’s agent, Rich Paul, met with Suns, Rockets, Mavericks, Cavaliers this week. http://t.co/Aw7xgRHbvT pic.twitter.com/EEmJyHZG5s — NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) July 4, 2014
MFFL
— Dirk Nowitzki (@swish41) July 3, 2014
Interesting that Dallas was among the four teams mentioned to have met with James’ agent Rich Paul. Though, a core of James, Chandler, Nowitzki and Monta Ellis is nothing to sneeze at, it is not the strongest pitch out there for James’ services.
The Phoenix Suns, who have only $29.4 million committed in salary right now, are making a strong case to recruit the league’s best player away from South Beach.
Sources: Suns owner Robert Sarver was n Cleveland yesterday & met with LeBron’s agent, Rich Paul. Teaming LJ/Melo or LJ/Bosh n Phx discussed — Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) July 4, 2014
A core unit that could include either Anthony or Chris Bosh, James, Eric Bledsoe, Goran Dragic, Gerald Green and the Morris twins could be quite enticing. Their core roster is young and talented. Should it be necessary, they could even (potentially) package some of those young players together along with some draft picks—they have three first round picks in 2015—to acquire another player like Kevin Love, who they were reportedly interested in back in June.
There are so many tantalizing possibilities now with James suddenly being discussed as a legitimate option for teams outside of Miami. It is almost a shame that Philadelphia 76ers rookie Joel Embiid, the only player to openly recruit LeBron on Twitter this week, will likely not get any consideration. At least he won’t need to worry about any accusations of tampering.
I hope i’m not gonna get fined already with those Lebron’s tweets is it legal to recruit over twitter @NBA ?
— Joel-Hans Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) July 3, 2014
It will be quite interesting to see what happens with James, whether he’ll consider relocating or remain in Miami, even though they have yet to make any roster moves.
Unless Pat Riley lines up talent appealing to James within cap structure soon, one LBJ suitor says: “LeBron seems ready to explore market.”
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 4, 2014
Will he really consider joining Nowitzki in Dallas? Or could a pairing with Anthony or Bosh in Phoenix with their young roster carry enough enticement? Perhaps he’d rather join Dwight Howard, James Harden and Chandler Parsons, who they intend to retain, in Houston? Maybe he’ll go back to Ohio and rejoin the Cavaliers.
Time will tell.
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Michael Brumagin writes the Tweet of the Day for SheridanHoops.com and is also a correspondent for BleacherReport.com. Follow @mbrumagin