for which team will free agency go the worst?

can't be the mavs. They'll be good even if they stand pat.

knicks

feel like cavs have the most to lose. bron leaving takes them from perennial playoff team that flirts with contention to...i guess the 2009 wizards or something turrible like that.

i mean dont the cavs fade into obscurity once he's gone? do they even make the playoffs next year?

my friend was arguing that they would be, and they might be able to somehow scrape to #7 or #8 cuz idk who else is gonna get there. are they worse than the bobcats? i guess. but after that, assuming the bulls move into the upper half of the conference? pacers? sixers? pistons?

honestly i still think this could be the worst for the knicks. if the cavs lose lebron, it would be awful for them, clearly, but i still think that it would be seen as a betrayal by lebron as opposed to a failure by the front office. also, if they just bomb out next year, they can still rebuild through the draft, and they'd have a top pick in a draft next year that is full of, potentially, 5 or 6 john wall type players.

for the knicks, if they lose out on wade/lbj/bosh, their best case scenario is what... amare/joe j/david lee? which means that they've effectively become the hawks, which depending on how the rest of the east shakes out means they'd at best be behind a lebron/bosh/rose/noah/deng bulls, the magic, the celtics, a wade/player x heat -- and if lebron/wade/bosh actually do end up on one team, than clearly the knicks (and pretty much every other team in the east) is fucked from now until eternity.

and that means the knicks have secured their future as perpetual second round losers with no meaningful draft positions for the picks that they haven't yet traded away

way i sees it, knicks were going to be terrible anyway, their plans for lebron were built on a p shaky premise from the get-go (premise: outstanding basketball players wish to establish long-term careers with the new york knickerbocker basketball franchise). at least now, they'll be less terrible (like they can punch their way into the playoffs with joe johnson and amare or whoever, theyll just be 1st round exits). for the nets, they have nowhere to go but up, unless they sign rudy gay to a long-term contract.

cavs are just handcuffed by how badly they've run things while bron was making them look presentable. next year they have $30 mil tied up in jamison, varejao, and mo williams.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The knicks perhaps have the most potential, but the clippers have a long, proud tradition you just can't ignore. I went with the traditional powerhouse.

or, considering expectations, it could be the heat. feast or famine.

The heat may not meet the high expectations they've raised, but they'll not be the worst off, either. Their front office is too smart to come in last in this contest. Admittedly, they've pushed all their chips into the pile, so if they don't bag a Big 3 superstar, they will be scrambling to assemble a .500 team. I think they still would manage that feat, though.

i like your confidence. if lebron stays in cleveland, and if bosh and wade go whereever as a package, it should be down to chicago or miami. if bosh needs a max deal, then there's a serious possibility that chicago would trade rose to toranto for bosh. after all, rose and wade do much of the same thing, and rose isn't at wade's level (yet, at least). otoh, if i'm wade and bosh and winning is crucial to me, i'd prefer miami, where you can also bring in boozer at a hometown discount, and then fill-in the roster with solid complimentary players.

or, they'll all sign with the clippers.

coincidentally, herald beat writer's latest "tweet"

wallacesports With Amare & Johnson moving off the board, Boozer & Mike Miller move up among Heat fallback options behind Bosh & LeBron

i think mike miller would be great on a good team

mike miller is dope

What a stupid poll. How in God's name could this not be the Cavs? How many games do they win without LeBron? Twenty???

uh, there's a pretty-to-very-good possibility they'll re-sign lebron james?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

not sure why I get why the Cavs would be a 20 win team without Lebron. While Lebron was doing the majority of the work, far worse teams have managed to win 40-42 games.

i have a hard time believing that a single player can be worth more than 20 wins to a team but we shall see

they're also losing o'neal and probably z. not sure if they'll lose anyone else, but that's a lot. they're left with mo williams and antwan jamison, both pretty good players.