The Decision
This was where LeBron went horribly wrong. I don’t particularly agree with the decision itself because it seems to me that it would be beneath him as one of the potentially greatest players ever to go hitch his wagon to Dwyane Wade’s.  Wade already has a ring anyway, and no matter how many they win together, Wade will always have that one more. But I can ignore all that, or at least I could if that was all there was to ignore. I get that he wanted to play with his buddies and try and win some easy rings and all that, but this was like taking your girlfriend on Jerry Springer to tell her you were sleeping with her sister, mother, and aunt and expected her to chill out and just remember the good times, even be grateful that you were with her for as long as you were. Who wants to be embarrassed and dumped in public by an attention whore? I don’t blame the people of Cleveland for hating this guy’s guts now. I won’t get into the allegations that he mailed in some playoff games over the last couple of years – at least not yet – but I find it strange that he never made it back to the NBA Finals even though his team continued to get better and better. We all knew there was no way he could leave Cleveland if they won it all, so maybe winning it all hasn’t exactly been as high a priority the last couple of seasons as getting out of Ohio and teaming up with Wade and Bosh…. or his team just choked, he had a wack coach, and his elbow was bothering him. I suppose that either is plausible.

LeBron vs. Kobe vs. Jordan
It became apparent during the NBA Finals that Kobe “6-for-24″ Bryant was nowhere near Jordan’s level. Actually, it was apparent to most of us for some time, but that pretty much sealed the deal. We always had high hopes for LeBron though. He has a tremendous skill set that has been compared to Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. However, after his flame-out in this year’s playoffs, Bill Simmons went on to write a brilliant piece on LeBron that summed up what we all had tried to ignore for too long. LeBron is not the second coming of Jordan, he is better compared to Dr J when you really look at it. As Simmons wrote:

Doc’s Philly teams kept self-combusting at the worst possible times. The ‘77 Sixers took a 2-0 lead in the Finals, then blew four straight. They lost do-or-die playoff games by two points (1978) and three points (1979). In 1980, everyone remembers Magic (only a rookie) playing five positions, notching a 42-15-7 and improbably winning Los Angeles the title; nobody ever wonders why Philly, playing at home against a team missing the 1980 MVP (Kareem), laid such an unforgivable egg. In 1981, the Sixers blew a 3-1 series lead to Boston in the Eastern Conference finals, losing the last three games by five points total. (And by the way, they led in the final minute of all three games.) By the time Philly blew the 1982 Finals, the consensus on Doc was this: phenomenal player, loved by all, an ambassador for the game, one of the best ever … doesn’t quite have it.

Then Moses showed up, Philly finally won a title, and people everywhere forgot they had felt that way.

Back to LeBron: I think we know what we have. He’s Doc 2.0 with a little Magic and a healthy dose of Bo sprinkled in.

In all honesty, this is the biggest realization we all got from this whole ordeal. LeBron is not who thought he was, what we thought he could be, or what we wanted him to be. He just isn’t. He won’t be the legend we thought he could be, the savior of Cleveland Sports that we hoped he would be, or the competitor he probably ought to be. Jordan won his first championship in his seventh season, in LeBron’s seventh season he got booted out of the playoffs even though he was on the winningest team of the past two seasons and had a better team than the one he made it to the Finals with a few years earlier. Then he said F it and bounced. When it comes to sports hate, Kobe Bryant as at the top of my list. I can’t stand the guy, but right now I like Kobe more than LeBron because at least Kobe is more of a competitor. It doesn’t matter if you want to be or not, if you are among the best in the league you are going to be in Jordan’s shadow. Kobe is trying like hell to get out from under that shadow, and I can at least respect that. LeBron seems comfortable there, as long as he is a “global icon”… whatever the #!$^ that is.

Sour Grapes
Of course, things continued to get creepier when Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cavaliers, lashed out at LeBron in an open letter that read like a bitter ex-girlfriend trying to do voodoo on her former lover. In the letter, Gilbert called LeBron the “self-declared former King” as if he had nothing to do with pushing the whole “King James”, “We are all witnesses” crap on us for the past few years. He even went on to say that LeBron tanked a few games. This is all the very definition of the phrase “Sour Grapes”. In Aesop’s fable, the Fox couldn’t reach the grapes so he convinced himself they were no good anyway, and that’s exactly what Gilbert is doing. He couldn’t keep “King” LeBron in Cleveland and so LeBron is now a cowardly, narcissistic, quitter. Of course, then for good measure he tries to throw the hex at LeBron like some kind of jilted witchdoctor by saying that LeBron will take the “curse” with him when he leaves Cleveland. Furthermore, if he was so convinced that LeBron was quitting on the team, why fire Mike Brown? The only reason that makes sense is that he was trying to appease a player he despised in order to keep him around, but it’s not like LeBron was helping find a new coach. But look, I get it. Dan Gilbert is the owner of the team and the fans who pay to see that team are pissed off and heartbroken that their guy just left. He has a responsibility to those fans to empathize with them, and a responsibility as a business owner to try to keep their business, so he is gonna say what he needs to in order to fire them up and get them to keep coming to games. I just believe he could have done it without coming off like such an idiot.

The KG Rule
There’s one real reason I partially don’t fault LeBron for leaving Cleveland, and that reason is Kevin Garnett. KG toiled away in mediocrity for years in Minnesota, only sniffing the Finals once. He was loyal to a fault and to the point that most basketball fans wanted him to get traded to a half-way decent team. We couldn’t bare to watch him wither away without a championship, or at least playing in the Finals once. Even Ewing, Barkley and Malone got to experience the NBA Finals, and KG was at least on their level. I feel like if a potentially great player has spent more than five years on a crappy team, then we should let him walk away without judgement and without branding him a cowardly, disloyal, selfish jerk. I will call this “The KG Rule”. When he was traded to Boston and won the whole thing in his first season as a Celtic, we were all happy for him and even had to wonder how many more he could have won and how much different his legacy could have been if he had played on a legit contender his whole career, or at least a few years sooner. Who can blame LeBron for not wanting to toil away in Cleveland to the point that people are begging him to request a trade? The only snag here is that LeBron’s ceiling is higher than KG’s, and he hasn’t been on mediocre teams his whole career. So while I want to apply The KG Rule to him, I can’t really do it in good conscience… the shoe just doesn’t quite fit.

Wade’s Team
Now LeBron is in Miami, teamed up with another alpha-dog who already has a championship to speak of. Who do you think is the leader here? The guy who has already been with the team for seven seasons and won a title or the new guy who is still chasing one? This is Wade’s team by all accounts, no matter how anyone sugar-coats it, and now LeBron can play second banana to Wade and not take all the criticism when they lose. The problem here is that he won’t even get half the love when they win. Bosh will get some credit as the only one of the three who plays in the paint, and Wade is undeniably the leader here, so LeBron is gonna have to get used to being Prince James.

Cleveland Now
So where does this leave Cleveland? They still have capable players in Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison. They have a potentially solid player JJ Hickson waiting in the wings for more playing time. They recently traded for point guard Ramon Sessions and dumped the problematic Delonte West in the process. Plus they received a gang of draft picks when LeBron decided to split. They have a decent future ahead of them. They are obviously not an elite team by any means, but not all is lost. They will still have to fight for a playoff spot, but I think they could still make it to the post-season. I certainly hope so, and who wouldn’t watch a Cleveland-Miami first round series and secretly(?) root for the Cavaliers?

Balance of Power
Plenty of fans, writers, and other random observers have already given Miami the trophy for the next few years. I am not one of them. The Lakers blew it against Detroit a few years back with Kobe, Shaq, Malone, and Payton after everyone handed it to them. Injuries can strike anyone at any time – just ask Dirk, Ginobili, Garnett, and a slew of others who missed crucial playoff games in the past. But more than those things, other teams are getting better as well. The Lakers signed Matt Barnes and Steve Blake, an upgrade at point guard over Jordan Farmar, and are still the reigning champs. And don’t think that Kobe isn’t working out as you are reading this so that he can erase that 6-for-24 performance as well as Miami’s title aspirations. The Mavericks have choked in the playoffs the last few years, but have also reloaded with Tyson Chandler and Dominique Jones, and it would be sweet for them to get back at Miami. The Spurs added Spanish League MVP Tiago Splitter along with draft pick James Anderson. And that’s just the West. What about Orlando who is still a threat, and Chicago who just added Boozer? Any of these teams could beat Miami next season and after, and personally, I hope they all do.

To sum things up, I don’t think LeBron was wrong to leave Cleveland. I think he was stupid to leave. Five championships in Miami won’t mean as much for his “brand” as one in Cleveland would. And there is no guarantee he will win any at this point. He jumped ship but it was the way he did it, by basically taking a crap on his former team and city on live TV, that made it so reprehensible. The sad thing is that despite his childish, selfish, easy-way-out attitude, he is likely to win a championship or two, maybe more if he’s lucky. But I won’t be rooting for him.

Apparently there are just too many shooting guards to wade through for some quality playing time now that Gary Neal and James Anderson are in the picture. I can’t say I blame him for going somewhere else to get paid and build his skills against some new competition.

Goodbye, Malik. It’s been real.

Speaking of which, the home pre-season schedule was announced and the first game will be against the Miami Dwyane Wade and Friends on Saturday, Oct. 9. Tickets go on sale tomorrow. I really don’t know what else to call that team anymore. It’s clearly the Dwyane Wade show featuring LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Wade is the only true alpha-dog on that squad because it’s painfully obvious now that LeBron doesn’t have the requisite testicular fortitude and Bosh has always been a second banana playing first banana for a wack team.

There’s also a good read on Spurs.com about the impact of the Tiago Splitter signing. For all the scheming and salary dumping and shenanigans going on in the league, the Spurs are quietly putting together the pieces of a legit contender for 2011.

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Neal led the Spurs’ summer league team in scoring with 16 points in 25.8 minutes per game in five games. He was 30 of 60 from the field and 17 of 34 from beyond the 3-point line in Las Vegas.

He went undrafted in the 2007 NBA draft after playing college ball at La Salle and Towson. Since then, he has played one season of pro basketball in Spain and two in Italy.

I think Neal has a solid chance to stick and make the active roster to start the season. Keith Bogans and Roger Mason are still unsigned right now, so it remains to be seen just how this will play out, but I am all for the new blood after the way those two played last year.

The sentiment from RC Buford, Coach Popovich, and Spurs fans who were a little too quick to dismiss RJ (myself included) is that RJ should be improved this season and the Spurs are lucky to keep him around with fewer similarly talented small forwards on the market each day.

“I think he’ll have a better year next year,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “He’ll be a lot more ready to understand whatever we might do.”

The Spurs believe Jefferson’s value wasn’t accurately projected in his statistics — “I think he played more efficiently than his numbers might have shown,” Buford said — and remain hopeful that he might become more comfortable in his second go-round in the system.

Let’s hope so, because by all accounts a starting five of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, Tim Duncan, and Tiago Splitter – plus the likes of DeJuan Blair and George Hill off the bench – should be a 50-win team capable of going all the way.

On a side note, the Hornets hired Dale Demps as their new GM. Demps was the Spurs’ vice president of basketball operations.

This is the week, by all accounts, that San Antonio and Richard Jefferson will complete the restructured deal that we’ve all assumed had to be forthcoming since Jefferson stunningly opted out of a $15 million salary for next season on the eve of free agency. The specifics in terms of years and dollars remain unknown, but I’ve been assured that Jefferson will officially be back with the Spurs quite soon.

While I was initially glad to see him opt-out since he was underperforming last season and had a ridiculous salary, it seems that the Spurs ultimately had little chance of landing another player with his talent, so all in all this is not a bad thing. Besides, with one season under his belt as a Spur, perhaps he can improve this year. I think that with the Tiago Splitter signing, and some of the prospects from the Summer league (Gary Neal especially) some of the pressure will be off of RJ to score. He just needs to step up as a defender.

Here are the averages of the best performers for the Spurs in this year’s Summer League:
Tyler Wilkerson: 12 ppg, 6.5 rpg – Best game: 20 points, 9 rebounds, one assist.
Alonzo Gee: 14.2 ppg – Best Game: 24 points, four rebounds, four steals, one assist.
Gary Neal: 16 ppg – Best Game: 25 points, two rebounds, two assists, two steals
Curtis Jerrells had a 20 point game, but not much else of note, and we saw him last season so we kind of know what he can do.

I like Gary Neal so far, and he has made a strong case for himself with his three-point shooting, and Wilkerson has some potential as well since he can grab some boards. I like Gee’s scoring, but his turnovers (3.8 per game) are terrible.
James Gist sprained his wrist and missed the second half of Summer League play. The injury may have hurt his chances of moving on with the Spurs this season, and it’s a shame he couldn’t compete a little longer. We’ll have to wait and see I guess.
Neal, Wilkerson, Gee, and Jerrells will probably all be at the Spurs training camp.

First and foremost, Tiago Splitter could be a Spur today. He is supposed to take a physical and then the buyout will commence. I, for one, am excited. This is the exact type of player that the Spurs have been desperate for over the past couple of years. We’ve had to endure several players from Antonio McDyess and Kurt Thomas to Fabricio Oberto and Matt Bonner trying to man the middle for the Spurs, and none of them were quite the answer. I think we have reason to be optimistic on this one.

That reminds me, the Spurs also re-signed Matt Bonner. I know it will be hard to contain the joy you are feeling at that statement, but please try to settle down.

On another note, the Dallas Mavericks are accepting some of the scraps off the Spurs table and are close to signing Ian Mahinmi. Good luck with that. We shall dub him Erick Dampier 2.0

“I probably wouldn’t make 15 (million dollars) some place, but you could somehow recoup some of that over a multi-year deal and get some guaranteed money for the next few years.

“So you figure it out. If you’re able to get four years and 40 (million dollars by opting out) from someone, it’s like, ‘OK, I did lose out on 15 (million dollars). But I’m going to get basically a $25 million extension.’ Those are things that you think of at the end of the season.”

Wait, what? He thinks he is getting a four year 40 mil deal? From who? Is Isaiah Thomas a GM again? Ok, fine – so it’s entirely possible that he will get such a deal when the dust settles and either the Knicks, Nets, Bulls, Clips, or Heat  are clamouring to fill the rosters that they gutted in vain after no one signs there – after all, Drew Gooden is getting a 5-year $32 mil deal, and that was from the Bucks who no one is thinking about. (And quiet as kept, they are building a nice squad over there.) At any rate, the Spurs now have some wiggle room to sign someone more useful this summer, and for that we can thank Dick Jefferson.

Oh, and by the way, it’s not that I forgot about the draft, but after the Spurs picked James Anderson… well, I haven’t really known what to think of that – let alone what to say about it. My first thought was something along the lines of, “huh?” Then I figured he was meant to be RJ’s eventual replacement, but still, no one I know of had him pegged as a potential Spur, and even Bill Simmons said he figured Anderson for a bust. I guess the Spurs saw something there that the rest of us didn’t see. I’ll take another look at him later and post some thoughts.

Solomon Alabi 7-1 C Floirda St.
Alibi is already a controversial pick as the debate about whether he is a potential steal or potential bust rages on. He certainly has the height and raw talent to lure any scouts in with his upside, but will he be able to cultivate his game and thrive in the NBA? Air Alamo weighed in on the debate and had this to say:

In our opinion, whoever the Spurs select with the 20th pick will serve as an early indicator of how negotiations with Tiago Splitter are faring this off season. In our latest Mock Draft we have the Spurs taking Solomon Alabi from Florida State. Given Pop’s recent non-committal statements on that topic we’ve gone with what we think is a very intriguing prospect at this stage in the draft.  Alabi has only been playing organized basketball for about 7 years now, but has been pretty fully immersed in the world of USA-style hoops for that entire period of time (unlike say Ian Mahinmi).  Alabi is listed at 7’1” tall. He has been measured with a wingspan of 7’3” and a standing reach of 9’1”.  This length has served him well at the collegiate level but he relies a bit too much on that alone for his success.  He won’t have quite the same advantage at the pro level and his relative light weight (241 lbs) could be a problem.

Larry Sanders 6-10 PF/C VCU
Sanders is widely considered an “athletic freak” – and yes, that’s a compliment. He also is drawing comparisons to Theo Ratliff – the All-Star version, not the one the Spurs traded last season. Courtside with the Spurs chimed in about Larry Sanders and had this to say:

Sanders — a 6-foot-10 power forward/center not to be confused with a character Garry Shandling played on HBO — improved in each of his three college seasons, cresting at 14.1 points and 9.1 rebounds as a junior. His long arms and athleticism make him a natural rebounder, and he can finish around the rim with authority. Sanders has the ability to run the floor and finish breaks, fitting a role the Spurs have been looking to fill (mostly unsuccessfully) essentially since David Robinson retired.

Sanders is still raw as an offensive player — he lacks even the semblance of a post move — but scouts are optimistic he can polish his game given NBA experience.

The website NBAdraft.net projects Sanders as a Theo Ratliff type, which is a compliment. At his peak, Ratliff was an All-Star.

Daniel Orton 6-10 C Kentucky
Daniel Orton was a trendy pick in recent months, but he may be someone that the Spurs ultimately decide to pass on. His stock is dropping according to Yahoo Sports’s Adrian Wojnarowski:

There’s a great deal of uncertainty and caution surrounding Kentucky center Daniel Orton, who has cancelled several workouts in the final days before the draft, but has tentatively planned a visit with Indiana on Tuesday.

League executives say Orton has been out of shape and struggling with knee issues during the predraft process. Orton, a 6-foot-10 freshman, had planned to hire agent Raymond Brothers, but sources said an internal family struggle over control has kept him without formal representation. With so much uncertainty surrounding Orton, he could face a steep drop Thursday night.

Orton has been working out with former NBA coach Bob Hill. As one Eastern Conference executive said Monday, “There are too many red flags right now.”

Hassan Whiteside 6-11 PF/C Marshall
Hassan Whiteside is high on a lot of peoples’ lists largely due to his defensive prowess. I’ve seen folks predicting everything between Theo Ratliff in his prime to Marcus Camby, which are both intriguing possibilities. Pounding the Rock mock drafted Whiteside and had this to say:

Whiteside is arguably the ‘Best Player Available’.  He is a shot blocker, leading the NCAA last year in blocks per game, per 40 possessions, and per 40 minutes.  All Spurs fans agree that a shot-blocking big is something we want.  He’s a good rebounder and efficient scorer as well.  His defense isn’t great, but this draft pick is for depth, potential, athleticism, and the future.  I guess the other two serious contenders for C are Daniel Orton and Larry Sanders.  Most of our bigs are currently on the shorter side of 6′10″ so I’d prefer 7′0″ Whiteside to 6′9″ Sanders.  I’m picking Whiteside over Orton for his shot blocking.  By the way, I would have taken Alabi over Whiteside.

Jordan Crawford, 6-4 SG, Xavier
Crawford is the only Guard on this list. The main reason is that the Spurs let Michael Finley go, and should be considering letting Roger Mason go, and need someone besides George Hill to pick up the slack in the backcourt for Ginobili and Parker. Crawford could very easily be the perimeter scorer that the Spurs wanted Mason to be last season. Bill Simmons evaulated him after the NCAA tournament, and he puts it all in perspective better than I ever could.

On the flip side, Xavier’s Jordan Crawford didn’t just score 55 points in the first two rounds or make a variety of clutch plays. He got to his spots. Those were 55 relatively easy points. Crawford had been pigeonholed as a “talented with a crummy attitude” second-round prospect, but those two games changed everything. He certainly didn’t hurt his cause Thursday night, pouring in 32 points and making a game-saving 3 in the first overtime. I guarantee every Kansas State fan was petrified of him. So why couldn’t he sneak into the top 20 of this year’s draft? How many NBA 2-guards make 40 percent of their 3s AND get to their spots? Trust me, it’s not a long list. Of course …

 …

Back to Crawford. By all accounts, it sounds like he had trouble suppressing his inner a-hole this season. Maybe dunking on LeBron last summer (and the subsequent Internet firestorm) was detrimental to him. But that’s a defensible character flaw. And a fixable one. These are young kids. They are easily influenced. They have no experience handling adversity or prosperity. Heck, on my podcast this week, Ohio State’s Mark Titus discussed how much Evan Turner changed since his freshman year, when he played with a chip on his shoulder and clashed with teammates and coaches. Now he doesn’t. What happened? He got older. He matured. He learned how to deal with other people.

What’s the difference between being a fixable head case and an unfixable head case? It’s simple, actually. You can’t become un-lazy. You can’t go from being clueless to having a clue. You can’t go from crazy to sane. You can’t go from selfish to selfless. You can’t go from soft to tough. You can’t go from being a knucklehead to being savvy. You can’t go from ADD to totally zoned in. You can’t go from being a DEFCON 1 hothead to a soothing presence. But you can absolutely mature from “being an a-hole” to “not being an a-hole.” Crawford may have had issues earlier in the season, but all we saw in the tournament was heart and swagger. That has to count for something.

Damion James 6-7 SF Texas
Last but not least, is Damion James. James is the player that 48MinutesofHell selected in their mock draft:

So we can see that the Spurs’ wing situation is thin. Jefferson will either be traded or wished-well when his contract expires. Gee and Hairston are interesting, but uncertain. And the Spurs need to upgrade their collective skill set at the 3.

What does Damion James does well is enough to justify the 20th pick. He can guard three positions, is a passable spot-up shooter, and can supply a brand of low-minute, high-energy hoops that necessarily enamores players to coaches. Beyond this, James receive high praise for his work ethic and professionalism, two things the Spurs value as basketball skills and not merely character traits.

So there you have it, the players I think are the most likely candidates to be Spurs in the next few days, and the case for each of them. We’ll see how it all plays out and in the meantime keep our fingers crossed for Tiago Splitter’s arrival in San Antonio.