LeBron 3 years 100 million

[Moranis]

LeBron mixing it up with a 3 year contraCT

3rd year is player option

[celticsclay]

smaller contract than mike conley . I am wondering at what point Lebron will just want to take a longer contract. I also highly doubt he will be the best player in the game in two years (if he even is now).

[KG Living Legend]

 He is definitely the best player in the game right now. If you watched the playoff's it was self evident.

[jpotter33]

Huh? So he's locked in next year no matter what? I thought it would make the most sense for him to do one more 1 + 1 and go the full five year max next summer when its projected to be the highest cap. So apparently he thinks the cap will go up once again in 2018, so he'll finish off his career with a full five year max then?

Also, what does this mean for their cap space next year and the whole JR situation?

[timpiker]

I was wondering the same.  Why not sign 1+1 ?  Hmmmm.

[alley oop]

 He is definitely the best player in the game right now. If you watched the playoff's it was self evident.

When Adam Silver bails his begging a#$ out by suspending likely MVP Green before close out game, and Curry is playing injured; and Iggy hurts his back due to having to play Green's minutes.

[chiken Green]

End of 2017 might be a lock out year right.. Wonder if that has anything to do with it.

[loco_91]

 He is definitely the best player in the game right now. If you watched the playoff's it was self evident.

When Adam Silver bails his begging a#$ out by suspending likely MVP Green before close out game, and Curry is playing injured; and Iggy hurts his back due to having to play Green's minutes.

Healthy GS > healthy CLE, but healthy Lebron > healthy Curry.

Ponder this: Lebron led all Finals players in every single counting statistic: points, rebs, assists, steals, and blocks. That has never been done in any playoff series; it was the greatest finals performance of all time. Maybe if Curry was healthy, he would have led in points--and Lebron still would have led in everything else.

[alley oop]

 He is definitely the best player in the game right now. If you watched the playoff's it was self evident.

When Adam Silver bails his begging a#$ out by suspending likely MVP Green before close out game, and Curry is playing injured; and Iggy hurts his back due to having to play Green's minutes.

Healthy GS > healthy CLE, but healthy Lebron > healthy Curry.

Ponder this: Lebron led all Finals players in every single counting statistic: points, rebs, assists, steals, and blocks. That has never been done in any playoff series; it was the greatest finals performance of all time. Maybe if Curry was healthy, he would have led in points--and Lebron still would have led in everything else.

Not in the first 4 games. Ponder his performance not existing in a vacuum, and defense mattering. They lose game 5, the series is over.

Begging for an opposing playing to be suspended is cowardly, and he did that.

[ederson]

Well the fact is that they didn't lose game 5 and  Lebron's stats line in the series is unique

Had Green been suspended earlier against the Thunder no finals for the Warriors. He wasn't , he did it again and got what he deserved 

[Moranis]

I was wondering the same.  Why not sign 1+1 ?  Hmmmm.

There is an insider article on ESPN which explains it.  http://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/17277278/why-did-lebron-james-sign-longer-deal-cleveland-cavaliers-nba

The basic gist is, he gets significantly more money this year and the money next year is about the same, so he would lose out on some potential long term signing.  He gets more money this year because he was signed using Early Bird Rights, which allow him a much larger raise on his current contract.  To do a 1 and 1 the Cavs would have to waive the Early Bird Rights and thus signed James using cap space which would have eliminated the larger raise he was allowed.  When the NBA lowed the cap projection next year, it basically made his 33.3 million salary under this contract about what he would have made as a free agent next year, so over the next two years by doing it this way, he basically gets about 3.5 million more dollars.  There is also some concern that the Owners will opt out of the current CBA which will affect things going forward (though that could allow for a larger max, which might have cost him some money), so James locking in that potential 3 year contract now actually makes some sense.

And for the record, James is now the highest paid player in the NBA for the first time in his career and his salary next year will pass Michael Jordan as the largest single season in NBA history.

[Moranis]

 He is definitely the best player in the game right now. If you watched the playoff's it was self evident.

When Adam Silver bails his begging a#$ out by suspending likely MVP Green before close out game, and Curry is playing injured; and Iggy hurts his back due to having to play Green's minutes.

Healthy GS > healthy CLE, but healthy Lebron > healthy Curry.

Ponder this: Lebron led all Finals players in every single counting statistic: points, rebs, assists, steals, and blocks. That has never been done in any playoff series; it was the greatest finals performance of all time. Maybe if Curry was healthy, he would have led in points--and Lebron still would have led in everything else.

Not in the first 4 games. Ponder his performance not existing in a vacuum, and defense mattering. They lose game 5, the series is over.

Begging for an opposing playing to be suspended is cowardly, and he did that.

Um, through the first 4 games, James led the series in all 5 of those stats. Well he was tied with Bogut for 7 blocks through 4 games.

[bdm860]

And for the record, James is now the highest paid player in the NBA for the first time in his career and his salary next year will pass Michael Jordan as the largest single season in NBA history.

This is the crazy part, especially with the rise in cap, it still took 20 years for somebody to surpass Jordan's '98 salary.  Think about this:

NBA salary cap in '98:  $26.9m
Jordan's '98 salary: $33.14m (123% of cap)
Next highest paid player:  Ewing at $20.5m (nobody else over $15m, strangely Horace Grant was the 3rd highest paid player in the league at $14m).

If anybody deserved that crazy payday it's Jordan, but so does LeBron.  Now if LeBron had a similar % of the cap, he'd be making $115.98m in '17 or $125.67m in '18 (assuming a $102m cap).

[Ogaju]

 He is definitely the best player in the game right now. If you watched the playoff's it was self evident.

When Adam Silver bails his begging a#$ out by suspending likely MVP Green before close out game, and Curry is playing injured; and Iggy hurts his back due to having to play Green's minutes.

Healthy GS > healthy CLE, but healthy Lebron > healthy Curry.

Ponder this: Lebron led all Finals players in every single counting statistic: points, rebs, assists, steals, and blocks. That has never been done in any playoff series; it was the greatest finals performance of all time. Maybe if Curry was healthy, he would have led in points--and Lebron still would have led in everything else.

Not in the first 4 games. Ponder his performance not existing in a vacuum, and defense mattering. They lose game 5, the series is over.

Begging for an opposing playing to be suspended is cowardly, and he did that.

You guys need to stop the spin spin spin James > Curry and it is not even close.

[Snakehead]

 He is definitely the best player in the game right now. If you watched the playoff's it was self evident.

When Adam Silver bails his begging a#$ out by suspending likely MVP Green before close out game, and Curry is playing injured; and Iggy hurts his back due to having to play Green's minutes.

Healthy GS > healthy CLE, but healthy Lebron > healthy Curry.

Ponder this: Lebron led all Finals players in every single counting statistic: points, rebs, assists, steals, and blocks. That has never been done in any playoff series; it was the greatest finals performance of all time. Maybe if Curry was healthy, he would have led in points--and Lebron still would have led in everything else.

Not in the first 4 games. Ponder his performance not existing in a vacuum, and defense mattering. They lose game 5, the series is over.

Begging for an opposing playing to be suspended is cowardly, and he did that.

Oh stop it.  Green had been acting like an idiot and he brought it on himself.    And he played the next game and LeBron finished with 41 points again.

LeBron has been the best player in the last two Finals hands down.  Not even close really.