Rakesh Kilaru of the blog From A.C. Green to Wilt saw Chris Paul and LeBron James play against each other last night, and got some ideas:
So I got to thinking.
1.) LeBron has always wanted a sick PG.
2.) Chris Paul and LeBron James are "like brothers" -- quote from LeBron. Also, CP3 was apparently there for the birth of LeBron's kid.
3.) New Orleans is in the West, which is by far the more difficult conference.
4.) The Cavs are in the East, which is by far the easier conference.
5.) New Orleans is having trouble filling seats in its arena.
6.) CP3 is a free agent in 2009.
7.) The Cavs have 30M coming off the cap in 2009.
What does this add up to? It's time for us to talk about stealing someone else's best player. CP3 in Cleveland in 2009!
This is one of those things that you kind of picture and smile. It would be good to see Chris Paul and LeBron James together.
You'd have to root for that, at least a little, as they dismantled the team you love.
So, is there any chance of that happening?
If nothing else changes, by 2009 the Cavaliers will have obligations to Zydrunas Ilgauskas, LeBron James, Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic, and first-round picks from 2008 and 2009. Assuming the cap will be $61.5 million, they will have about $16 million in cap room.
However, the CBA prohibits having so few players. So, assuming they don't add any payroll, before they could sign free agents, that would be charged for seven empty roster spots, which would reduce that cap room by $3.2 million, which would leave $12.8 to sign Chris Paul, who in 2009 will be a restricted free agent.
No way the Hornets don't match a sub-max offer like that. In fact, all that math above may be moot, because surely the Hornets would match any offer, right?
(By the way, this is the kind of thing Danny Ferry has no doubt been thinking about when he has been busily not hot handing out contracts to those who would help LeBron James in the short term.)
However, assuming Paul doesn't sign an extension in the interim, he will be unrestricted in the summer of 2010, when the Cavaliers, as of this moment, are scheduled to have cap room galore. (Other teams are planning to have room, too.) And that's just a little more than two years away.
So, dare to dream, Cavaliers fans.
