Lost in the hubris of LeBron James’ week in Northeast Ohio was the subtle, delicate hint why he might be so eager to return to the Cavaliers in 2014. James gushed over Kyrie Irving for two days, calling him the Cavs’ best point guard since the days of Andre Miller, Terrell Brandon and Mark Price and making it clear how he thinks Irving is well on his way to becoming an elite point guard in what is fast becoming a point-guard driven league.
So what if Irving is the bait that lures James back to Cleveland?
For as well as James has played throughout his career, he has done it without the help of an elite point guard. He has been forced to make it work with a list of guys like Jeff McInnis, Eric Snow, Damon Jones, Mo Williams, Mario Chalmers, Carlos Arroyo and a broken down Mike Bibby. Most of the guys on that list, when they played with James, were below average by NBA standards. It has forced James into assuming a point-guard role many times in his career, perhaps more than he would like.
James is 27 and enjoying the prime of his career, but he’d be nearing 30 when free agency will be an option again. His game is evolving. He’s playing in the post more now than ever before, a natural transition that will only increase the older he gets.
Playing with an elite point guard when he hits 30 might be just what he needs. Unless the Heat target one in a trade, it will be difficult for them to find one at the bottom of the draft. They certainly could coax a guy like Steve Nash to join them, but Nash is well on the downside of a remarkable career. Cap restrictions mean that’s the best the Heat will be able to do in free agency.
“This is transforming into a point-guard league,” James said, rattling off the names of Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, John Wall and, yes, Irving.
“If you have a really, really good point guard, you have a chance to win,” he added. “It’s like having a really good quarterback in the NFL.”
Plenty of coaches and front office executives around the league are convinced Irving is headed for stardom. By the time James can become a free agent again, Irving will have completed three full seasons. There is a strong chance he’ll be an All-Star by then, perhaps even a two-time All-Star, and he’ll likely be on Team USA’s radar for the 2016 Olympics.
All of that will certainly be appealing to James, who is fairly calculated and savvy with the media — except for that whole ‘‘Decision’’ debacle. James takes conversations with reporters where he wants them to go when he’s ready to do it.
If he didn’t want to answer questions about one day returning to play for the Cavs, he could’ve swatted the first question away with “I haven’t thought much about it. I’m happy here with the Heat.”
Instead, he answered with how he thought it would be “great” to return to Cleveland and he’s not dismissing the idea at all, capping it off with “If I decide to come back, hopefully the fans will accept me.”
That kicked open the door for more questions about a return and eventually led to questions about repairing his relationship with Cavs owner Dan Gilbert.
I believe James when he says he’s open to the idea of returning. I believe he’d like it to happen sooner rather than later. But the way he did it was a great disservice to both his current and former teams.
Heat President Pat Riley might have been waiting on the tarmac when the plane landed to grab James by the ear and deliver a verbal thrashing. The Heat are playing their best basketball of the season, could well be on their way to that coveted championship and James still has three postseasons remaining in Miami before free agency is even an option, yet he’s already flirting with the idea of leaving.
What he said wasn’t fair, either, to the Cavs, who have done their best to move on and distance themselves from him. Now they’re Michael Corleone: Just when they thought they were out, he has pulled them back in.
But they won’t be fazed by this weekend. Cavs General Manager Chris Grant believes strongly in rebuilding through the draft and with well-timed trades. That isn’t going to change because LeBron started winking and showing some leg this week.
LeBron came home with four goals — complete a successful road trip, smash his old team, begin thawing that frigid relationship with his former fans in Northeast Ohio and get the entire NBA universe talking about him again.
Done, done, done and done.
There was a smattering of cheers for him at Quicken Loans Arena on Friday night, a shocking turn given the vitriol with which he was booed last season. There were still plenty of boos, but the needle is already moving, the battleship is already turning starboard. It’s why James began this campaign when he did, because he knows he’ll need the next two years to convince fans here to forgive him.
Not all of them will, but enough of them just might to make this whole thing possible.
And if it does happen, if this strangest of stories takes the wildest swing imaginable, there is this: If James returns to the Cavs as a free agent in the summer of 2014, the trade that initially sent him to Miami won’t even be complete. The Cavs are scheduled to receive the Heat’s draft pick in 2015 as the final piece of compensation for him leaving in the first place.
Any and all of this is a long, long way from reality. But James has struck the match, got people talking again and started the needle moving in his direction as the Heat’s charter flight lifted off the runway and again took his talents from Cleveland to South Beach.
For now.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at http://cavs.ohio.com Follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
