In today's look into Clippers rumors surrounding the beginning of the 2014 NBA free agency period, two ESPN analysts believe that the Clippers represent the best title opportunity for LeBron James in free agency.
Steve Ilardi and Jeremais Engelmann of ESPN (via ABC News) crunched a ton of statistics and potential regression scenarios for every potential suitor for James - including the Miami Heat.
The results? Per Ilardi and Engelmann, the Clippers stand as the #1 team for LeBron in free agency if he's looking to win for a long period of time:
No other option comes close to the Clippers.
And, remarkably, there are two completely different ways the Clips could land LeBron and still be historically great: (a) by clearing cap space by offloading several tradable players; or (b) by working with the Heat on a sign-and-trade of LeBron for Griffin.
Naturally, the team would strongly prefer to keep Griffin. No doubt LeBron would also find it much more enticing to join the Clippers with Griffin still on the roster. So, we'll focus our analysis on that scenario -- but while noting that swapping Blake for LeBron also yields a Clippers roster that can be historically good.
To free up enough cap space to sign LeBron as a max-level free agent, the Clippers would need to find a taker for the following players among teams with the cap room to absorb their contracts: DeAndre Jordan (owed $11.4 million next year), J.J. Redick ($6.8 million), Jamal Crawford ($5.4 million) and Jared Dudley ($4.2 million)
With the Clippers' ownership situation still in limbo due to recent news of exiled owner Donald Sterling's seemed mental competence - a diagnosis he is looking to utilize in a probate case against his wife, Shelly - this could be a long shot scenario.
However, if things clear up at the top of the organization and the Clippers express the willingness to cater to a LeBron signing, this at least provides a very interesting talking point for the next couple of weeks.
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