Getty Image
The Cleveland Cavaliers were able to escape Indiana with a split in Games 3 and 4 on the road to regain homecourt advantage in their first round series and avoid the prospects of facing their final game of the second LeBron James era in Cleveland. Every playoff loss inches them closer to a summer that will be filled with stress as their franchise cornerstone enters unrestricted free agency with zero promises that he’ll stay. There are varied opinions about what teams have the advantage in recruiting James this summer, but there is a relative consensus that four teams lead the pack in terms of getting genuine interest from The King.
The Cavs, Lakers, Rockets, and Sixers are the four squads expected to have a legitimate shot at landing LeBron this summer, as there are only a few other teams with the cap space to give him the max and none of those have much in the way to offer as far as a roster capable of competing for championships. Depending on how things go over the next few weeks, those questions will persist for the Cavs as well, as this roster appears fairly tapped out and capped out for the foreseeable future, which isn’t ideal.
The Lakers also have questions about their readiness to compete for titles, while the Rockets biggest issue in landing LeBron is the incredible cap gymnastics it would take to fit him in (and even so, it would be for well under the max). The Sixers, however, have the cap space and the apparent foundation to compete in the immediate as they are close to dispatching the Heat in the first round and could very well land in the conference finals after a second round series with Boston or Milwaukee.