What I don't get from LBJ's point of view is this: If he leaves in free agency, he looks like a bad guy again. He *chose* to leave. If he gets traded, then it wasn't his choice to leave, it was the team's choice and he saves some face. And behind closed doors, he got to choose his location by having the NTC. It would look really bad on Cleveland to publicly trade him somewhere he doesn't wanna go and then have him use his NTC, so the discussion is had privately where LBJ says what teams he'll accept a trade to.