Cavs Final Loss = LeBron Panic

LeBron James will either depart Cleveland or orchestrate major personnel changes to adjust to Warriors and leagues changes.

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A Cavs Finals Loss = LeBron Panic?

LeBron contemplating his future before a USA basketball vs. DR matchup.

If the Warriors win the 2016 NBA Finals, handing another finals loss to LeBron, it will push the world’s self proclaimed “most valuable” player to reconstruct his supporting cast, either by decision 3.0 or major personnel moves. The stakes are high.

This shouldn’t be controversial, it shouldn’t even be much of a debate. Not after LeBron shocked the world with decision 1.0 in the summer of 2010, or decision 2.0 in the summer of 2014. History’s shown the “king” wants to be the center of attention, he wants to win and a desire to achieve those two goals knows no bounds.

LeBron loves Cleveland, or more accurately “Northern Ohio” and Akron in particular. He left in the decision 2010 because his primary goal was to “win championships” and he’d lost confidence in the Cavs supporting cast. Then at the public showing of the “big three” he stated he didn’t just want to win one, he wanted “five, six, seven…”. He spoke in a permanence and committment that made the announcement in the summer of ’14 surprising. But evidently after four finals appearances and two title years in Miami, he no longer liked the long in the toothe Heat core. So he shocked the world by penning “I’m coming back home” and leading an entire PR/Nike ad campaign around the event.

So why would James leave Cleveland? LeBron cares most about his legacy, he wants many “rings”, he wants to have a legitimate argument as the greatest player ever. If he doesn’t feel like Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving and the “others” are the right mix he may go back to Miami or pick an entirely new team (New York?). LeBron has done a lot for Cleveland. Fans will feel betrayed if he were to leave but it’s different this time. There will be no burning of jerseys, rather a majority of fans will simply root for LeBron in his new city and cherish the great memories of back to back finals and him giving his all. They also will find solace in the reality of a Cavs team with plenty of talent to compete in a weaker eastern conference.

Admittedly James leaving Cleveland would be the biggest shock of all. Which is why the alternative is a higher probability. That would be trading Kyrie Irving for Chris Paul, and/or moving Kevin Love to Boston for Jae Crowder and the #3 overall pick. The Cavs will certainly look to dump Tim Mosgov (2 years & $28M contract) and tweak the roster. A major move though has been buried in LeBron’s subtweet story this entire season. James is losing confidence in his teammates to develop into “professionals” or really what he means is “winners”. While Love & Irving are tremendous offensive players, neither has shown the desire and ability to excel on the defensive end.

Thus if the Cavs lose, the one certainty is there will be major changes. James will want to play with new two way stars to maximize his title chances the next three or four years. For the sake of Cleveland, they can only hope that’s moving Love and/or Irving, not decision 3.0.