I really think that Ray's options to leave are going to be limited. Here's a few reasons why:
1) Ray is really only useful to a team looking to contend immediately. Thus if NY and NJ miss out on LeBron, what's really the point of dropping big money on Ray? At most, I see one of those teams offering him big money, but for only 1 year. They're not going to want to take themselves out of the running for next year's FA crop.
2) Given that case, we can really limit things to just Miami and maybe Chicago. In the case of Chicago, I'm not sure there's anything they can do on the FA market to make adding Ray really worth their while. Miami may be a different story. However, as some of you have already pointed out, Ray's not the greatest fit for them and they'd probably be better going after a Boozer or even a Mike Miller.
3) The Celtics need Ray. With Pierce re-signed for 4-years, there no longer is an option to blow it up. And the Celtics need to be upgrading their roster with the MLE and Sheed's contract, not looking to replace Ray with it. If anything, I think the C's are more willing to splurge on Ray now than they would've been had Paul not opted out of his deal. I mean at this point, is the third year really a deal breaker when PP is on the books for four?
4) A sign and trade isn't going to be easy. The David Lee thing is absurd, since NY has no motivation to give us a player we can't sign for a player they can. It doesn't clear them or save them any space. And most other deals won't work either. Teams with space will just sign him. Teams with young talent likely won't want Ray. And most importantly, if Ray's asking for too much (say 12 million a year), we're going to likely have to take that much salary back ourselves (or darn close to it).
So for a sign and trade to work, we're either going to have to trade for someone with a shorter deal than Ray's getting, with a team slightly below the cap (so we can take back less salary), or for a player(s) that we'll be happy to be paying 12 million dollars a year 3 years from now.
Outside of maybe Miami getting silly or New York or New Jersey throwing big money his way for one year, I don't see it happening. And even the Miami thing doesn't seem likely to me. I don't see them being able to put together a contender for next year. They're going to need at least two years of using the MLE (maybe 3) to surround Bosh and Wade with enough talent. And what's the point of paying a soon-to-be 35-year-old a big deal on the hope he can win you a title in 2011-2012?
Topic: Think about it....Ray really may leave (Read 20656 times)