How LeBron James responds to the Warriors’ NBA title could upend the NBA

LeBron James is not a free agent, so in the immediate aftermath of the Warriors’ decisive victory over the Cavaliers in the 2017 NBA Finals, don’t think that the four-time MVP is preparing to decamp for a new city with the star power to rival Golden State. He can’t.

Furthermore, based on a close reading of what he wrote in announcing his return to Cleveland in 2014, he’s not going anywhere. This is bigger than basketball: He wants to create a legacy in northeast Ohio that extends far beyond the NBA.

The question is whether LeBron will be content to tinker around the edges and bring the same core back for another dance in 2018, or whether he will push the Cavaliers’ front office to leverage assets to bring in another star (if that’s even possible) or swap out either Kyrie Irving or Kevin Love for a new piece. Wrapped up in that question is the problem of the Cavaliers’ front office, as general manager David Griffin is not signed beyond this season and has been targeted by teams looking for an executive.

One surmises that if LeBron wants Griffin back, and if Griffin is willing to continue to deal with the particular difficulties of Cleveland, Griffin would be re-signed. But if James and Griffin disagree on how the Cavaliers should respond to the Warriors, there will likely be changes in the front office. (Never underestimate the potential too for Cavaliers franchise owner Dan Gilbert to muck things up. Rumors suggest the hang-up with Griffin has been money, and Gilbert’s reluctance to cough more of it up.)

These are the two paths for LeBron this summer, given his lack of free agency: Run it back with some sort of strategic adjustment, or push for Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, or some All-Star who isn’t in the Banana Boat Crew.

Let’s deal with Door No. 2 first. CP3 and Wade can become free agents, but the former is still in prime money-making mode. Landing the Point God would likely require moving Irving or Love in a sign-and-trade just to make some space. One can imagine Wade taking less given his elevated age (35). Anthony is under contract with the Knicks. New York would like to move him, but he has thus far refused to relent when asked to waive his no-trade clause. Would LeBron want to see a Love for Melo trade, and would Melo agree to it if it meant making the NBA Finals?

More likely is that LeBron recognizes that everything went just about perfectly for the Warriors, and that Golden State could potentially lose two key bench pieces: Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston. The Warriors could lose JaVale McGee and/or Zaza Pachulia, too: Both big men are free agents who played on discounts. David West may retire a champ. Ian Clark is almost assuredly going to be too expensive for the Warriors to keep.

We’ll assume Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry sign new contracts, and that neither Klay Thompson nor Draymond Green are going anywhere. That core four is enough to win any given championship. But if one star is injured or otherwise limited and these Cavaliers — or a Cavaliers team in a similar or even slightly improved state — come back, we have a competitive series.

The Iguodala piece is key: He came up huge in two Finals games, including the clincher on Monday. He’s a charter member of the vaunted Death Lineup. Against the Cavaliers, you need as many long, crafty defenders as possible to throw at LeBron. There are few better equipped for that role than Iguodala. The Warriors could re-sign him — rumors have suggested he’ll ink a new deal to keep the run going — but he’s by far the eldest of the core members of the team and Golden State’s payroll is going to soon get mighty brutal. You can see a break-up happening.

Perhaps LeBron’s best angle to fight the Warriors is for the Cavaliers to attempt to land Iguodala, to set him out against Kevin Durant, who Cleveland could not handle at all in the Finals.

This is what’s really lost in our dreams of Banana Boats in Cleveland: The Cavaliers don’t really need more scorers. They need a better backup point guard than Deron Williams. They need another long, strong wing defender who can at least make life somewhat difficult for Durant. They need a bucket of good fortune. (Maybe two buckets.)

But the allure of creating something new is strong. Will it sway LeBron? If it does, can he sway his friends and Cleveland’s decision-makers? Will the heretofore inevitable fourth round between the Cavaliers and Warriors look much like the 2017 edition, or will LeBron’s crew switch it up? That’s what we wait to find out now.

The Warriors responded to LeBron by landing Kevin Durant. What now?