Cav-a-linkage: Where Will LBJ Land

The only topic that irritates me more than this one is the Brady Quinn v. Derek Anderson debate - which consumes every second of local sports talk radio in this town - but nevertheless, here is more pure speculation on the LBJ Summer of 2010:

Where Will LBJ Land - Royce Webb, ESPN:

"Clevelanders can't exhale yet, but perhaps they can take some comfort in our forecast, as 73.1 percent of our panel members now see LeBron staying in Ohio. That's a switch from last year, when less than half the panel saw King James wearing the wine and gold past 2010... "

Now I am not really sure what it means if 73% of this panel thinks LeBron will re-up with the Cavaliers, but I hope it means ESPNwill talk about this topic at least 73% less than they did a year ago.  I mean after-all, Brett Farve did re-sign with the Vikings.  Further down in the piece though, Webb does lay out a critical aspect of this equation that is worth noting.  

"But the Cavs caught a break, it appears, at least in terms of their LeBron retention plan, when the league crunched the numbers and projected a drop in revenues and the salary cap for the coming year. That means, as things currently stand, the Knicks could not sign both LBJ and a friend like Chris Bosh or Dwyane Wade to max contracts. Presumably that would dampen LeBron's interest in making the leap to the Big Apple."

The recent restructuring of the salary cap certainly does benefit the Cavaliers.  And for a NY to lure LBJ, you have to think that he's right, its gonna take signing 'LBJ and a friend,' something the Knicks frankly can't do.  That is, unless James and Chris Duhon become facebook pals in the coming months.