00:00It's decision time right now for LeBron James, team presidents, GMs, they're all talking to
00:05Rich Paul here again this week. They've made all their pitches. LeBron James has listened to
00:10multiple voice notes delivered to him by Rich Paul from other owners and presidents from teams
00:15that are trying to give him their best pitch. And the feel is that those five teams remain
00:21in the mix, but a focus on Cleveland, Miami, and Philadelphia. The reason that this is taking so
00:28long and why he's able to take his time is this is not a money-driven decision. So you have
00:32teams
00:32that are offering him minimum deals, exceptions, some salary cap space as well. So he's able to
00:38take his time and sift through this decision, but this could be really any day, any week now.
00:44Shams Charania with the latest, I guess, on ESPN. A lot of the same, except at the end,
00:50he says Philly, Miami, and Cleveland are the focus, which means I guess people haven't been
00:57completely eliminated. Does that, you've been, you've been very anxious about the Golden State
01:01stuff. No, no. Shams doesn't quell my fears at all. I don't think Shams knows anything.
01:05I told it to you yesterday. I just don't think Shams, listen, that would be a good piece of audio
01:09if I was, if you're going to talk me off the ledge of like, something's just not right. I just,
01:14I can't explain it. There's obviously, there's no, there's no basis for this outside of they just
01:18let me live with my own thoughts for too long, but something isn't right. We've been the lead dog in
01:22this for too many days and everything signals Cleveland and it's just making me second guess
01:28at all. That's all. 216-474-0092. You heard what Shams is saying is the latest there. I tend to
01:36agree with you, by the way. It felt like Shams was maybe hearing what our good buddy Chris Haynes
01:45had and then paired that with three final landing spots. I don't know. I just, the fact that Cleveland's
01:52been the only consistent in this is where my confidence comes from. Like the fact that Miami
01:57has come and gone, the fact that Philly has come and gone and Golden State has come and gone. And
02:00even Denver at one point was to some people ruled out. I think the fact that Cleveland's been the
02:06consistent is where my actual, I think, calmness comes from. Yeah. And again, I mean, it's one of
02:10those things where we can look up and you could say, Cavs and LeBron, this is it. And it'd be
02:15like,
02:15of course, yes, it was always going to be this. The whole three week nonsense was exactly that.
02:21It was Rich Paul. Congratulations. All you did was get people all hot and bothered. And you,
02:25you took people on an emotional rollercoaster, but it was always going to end up being that.
02:29And I hope that ends up being the case. I really do. But it is interesting. I, I, now,
02:33honestly, I feel like it's better to be in our, our position than it is some of these other teams
02:37position where you do keep feeling like you're in and then you're out and then you're in and then
02:40you're out. And that's got to be, you want to talk about emotional rollercoaster. That's got to be
02:44the extreme. Well, I don't know, because again, I'll, I'll call back to Dan Day of WQAM in Miami last
02:49night. It was with us in Miami by last night felt like they were out again. And Dan Day's like
02:5460%.
02:55He's coming back. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, okay. All right. And again, that was because the streets
02:59were talking in Miami, although those streets are on cocaine. Yeah. So that's part of your welcome
03:05really, really fast and nonsensically. Yeah. When you show up in Miami that they give you a little
03:09baggie and they also, his palm trees, little, little, you know, tequila and a little baggie and
03:13that's true. And, and an alligator. And then Dan Webinar pops out for some reason. Yep. And then
03:18he lectures you for something, something he doesn't agree with. It didn't even have to be
03:23probably politics, probably politics, but all right. So Lima today said it would be devastating
03:30if LeBron doesn't come home. Yeah. Yeah. Am I, am I fair? No, that's accurate. That's accurate.
03:35Oh, I disagree. I think it'll be, I think it will be tough for the Cavs to get interest this
03:39year, but the Cavs are kind of right where they've been. Like they've, they're, they're,
03:44I thought you were asking if Lima's statement was, if he actually said that. Oh, okay. No,
03:48no, no. I mean, do you agree with that? No, that part is accurate. I don't think it's to
03:52the extreme of being devastating. Uh, but when I, when I think about what this Cavs team will
03:55be without LeBron James, I, yeah, uh, we, we talked earlier in the show, how do you get
04:00people interested in this upcoming season without LeBron James? What's the selling point? So
04:04from that perspective, if you want to say devastating, all right, Lima, I agree with you there.
04:07I just think a lot of people have built up the championship window existing with LeBron
04:13now. 216-474-0092. Is it devastating if LeBron doesn't come home? I just think that's interesting
04:20from the guy that's the ultimate James Harden honk from the guy that's been so pro-Cavalier.
04:25Yeah. Like, I don't know anybody. Well, the Donovan Mitchell part of this change and the
04:27Evan Mobley part of this change. But not for him. I, well, maybe the Evan Mobley thing has
04:32changed. For me it did. What do you mean? But for Lima, Lima to say it's devastating. Like Lima has
04:36been, uh, you know, we only had half a season with James Harden. There's still, you're like,
04:41I feel like Lima has been more pro-Cavs and more positive with the Cavs than anyone. And
04:46the only thing that's changed to make this devastating is the idea that we started believing
04:50LeBron could come home. Oh, okay. I don't know. Maybe I was playing with the assumption
04:53that Lima had adjusted his Donovan Mitchell calculator and had figured out that the calculus
04:57and at least figured out what I figured out, which is something that obviously shaped all
05:01of this. Uh, because I mean, the idea that you're going to need some growth or something
05:06from somewhere that it doesn't exist right now on this team. There's nowhere else for
05:10Donovan to go. Mobley could take an offensive step forward and we could be speaking about
05:14this team very differently in March, even without LeBron. It would take an offensive leap
05:18from Evan Mobley to exist though. But yeah, like having LeBron here is a big part of whether
05:23or not we're talking about a deep playoff run. The other, the other part of this too,
05:25Nick, is that the Eastern conference is going to be a lot better than it was this last
05:28year. You're getting all sorts of guys back, whether that's Halliburton, for instance,
05:31obviously Kawhi's now in Toronto, if that deal ever goes through eventually. Uh, but there's
05:36so many different parts, but Giannis with Miami is going to be actually formidable. You see what's
05:39happening with Jalen Brown and the 76ers. Like this is a harder Eastern conference than what it
05:43was last year. I guess my thing is I, unless LeBron comes home, I don't see a pathway for the
05:49Cavs to win an NBA championship. I don't. I agree with you. And I think that's why the, that's
05:54why we'd call it devastating. Cause with LeBron here, you do see that path or do you, or it does
05:57not matter to you? And no, I mean, I see a path with LeBron. I still don't think it's the
06:01most
06:01likely thing. Like I'm, I'm cool to sign up with a team. That's really, really good. Wins a lot of
06:06regular season games, probably doesn't win a championship with LeBron. And if, if the Cavs
06:12are content building this about around Donovan Mitchell, all right, well that, that is to some
06:17degree a dead end road as well. Like maybe you continue to get to the Eastern conference finals.
06:22Maybe that's just the ceiling of this now. So I'm instead of getting pissed at them for not
06:26seeing what is obvious to anyone who's watched the playoffs the last four years with Donovan.
06:31I don't want to turn into looking at Donovan and thinking what a disappointment. So I'll just
06:35instead enjoy Donovan and, and hope that I'm wrong. You know, like that's where we are. And if
06:42LeBron doesn't come home, all right, then they're who I thought they were this whole time, which again
06:46is good enough to be really good, but probably, probably never good enough to be what I want, which
06:51is the second NBA champion in history. Well, it's, I won't speak for Lime on this, but I think where
06:56I'm at with this then is the idea that the difference between LeBron on this team and LeBron
07:01not on this team is that fine line. I think you can be a competitive basketball team. I think you
07:05have a real chance of making it not only to the Eastern conference finals, but sky's the limit there.
07:10If you have LeBron here, if LeBron's not here, I think I know what this team is. Sans a, a,
07:15an Evan
07:16Mobley development that all of a sudden happens in year six. I think I know what this team is.
07:20But isn't it time just to accept that? No, you should never just accept it. You should
07:24want to go down with a little bit of a fight here, right? Like the, the fight part of this
07:27is that there's still plans that exist out there in LeBron coming here that shapes that
07:32narrative that you have a chance to be something in the East. And that's why I'm excited about
07:35the idea of LeBron. That's why if he doesn't come there, that is a, that is a kick to the
07:38stones of a, I mean, there's an acceptance that would have to happen. You're going to be at
07:43worst, maybe the sixth best team in the East next year. Yeah, that's not, that's not
07:48anywhere close to Eastern Conference, a title appearance and potentially an NBA champion.
07:53You could, yeah. Top six seeds. Meaning like if you're the sixth seed, that is in a loaded
07:57East, you can make it to the Eastern Conference finals. Of course you can, but your roadmap
08:02there is a lot easier when it comes to having LeBron. And the idea that you can with Donovan
08:07and the way this team is currently constructed, I think takes a big hit after what we saw last
08:10question. I, I, listen, the Cavs and Kobe have told you, uh, for momentum or linear growth,
08:16they, they don't really factor that in much. And the second that they said they're pot committed
08:22to Donovan, unless LeBron comes back, they, they cap themselves. And, and so my options are
08:28get really pissed if they don't go ahead and blow this team up in some way that obviously makes
08:33sense to anyone that isn't in cahoots with Donovan. And they're not going to do that. So I'm not going
08:39to
08:39get upset and just hate the next three years of Cavs basketball. Like I, I, I, like if the worst
08:44thing I can say is they're consistently going to be in the mix to be in the divisional round and
08:49Eastern conference finals, they've said, that's what they care about. So I can't hold them to a
08:53championship standard. If they're not serious about winning an NBA championship, but I'm telling
08:57you is the difference is that, uh, as of right now, at least I haven't accepted that fact yet.
09:02It will become that fact. If LeBron doesn't join the Cavs and that's, that's where the devastating
09:06part of this comes in. That's where that line of thinking comes in. There's an acceptance that we
09:11have to have if they don't land LeBron, that this Donovan Mitchell team that they, they, you know,
09:15pushed all the chips in the middle with, and are really trying with, aren't going to accomplish
09:18things that we thought they would when you have two max players, the way they do, and the amount
09:22of money allocated to this team.
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