LeBron James to sign two-year deal to return to Cavs ( $46.9 Million )

Betallsports · Jul 9, 2015

LeBron James has agreed to sign a two-year contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers worth the maximum of $46.9 million, sources told ESPN's Chris Broussard and Brian Windhorst.

The second year of the contract is a player option, sources said.

The deal follows James' plan to keep year-to-year flexibility to take advantage of expected increases in the salary cap.

James, who has been on vacation over the last week, didn't talk to any other teams and always intended to re-sign with the Cavs.

This is the first time since 2006 James will re-sign with a team. The last two times he was a free agent he left for another team, going to Miami in 2010 and Cleveland in 2014.

James met with Kevin Love before free agency started and they discussed plans for the upcoming season. Love signed a five-year, $113 million deal to stay with the team.

The Cavs announced Thursday that they also had re-signed guard Iman Shumpert, who said last week that he intended to re-sign with the team. Sources told ESPN.com that deal was for four years and $40 million.

TheCrow · Jul 9, 2015

i was thinking that he was waiting for the cavs to sign tristan thompson but it makes more sense that he waited till the salary cap figures came out since last i heard it was supposed to increase by at least 10 percent. There is no way that tristan thompson is worth much let alone a maximum deal.

Cavs should definitely be able to find other pieces to fit on their team for a lot less money and lebron can make them better players also.

PatsFan1283 · Jul 10, 2015

TheCrow said:
i was thinking that he was waiting for the cavs to sign tristan thompson but it makes more sense that he waited till the salary cap figures came out since last i heard it was supposed to increase by at least 10 percent. There is no way that tristan thompson is worth much let alone a maximum deal.

Cavs should definitely be able to find other pieces to fit on their team for a lot less money and lebron can make them better players also.

The Cavs are over the cap so they can't just go out and sign someone for what they would pay Thompson. Same with Shumpert. They have the bird rights of these guys which means they can pay them while going over the cap. Just a matter of paying the luxury tax but Dan Gilbert is doing pretty well these days....

Paying Thompson 15 a year is excessive but it doesn't really have any impact on their flexibility.

Vlad the Impaler · Jul 10, 2015

He and Peyton have to be the 2 richest player's in all of the major sports. I can't imagine making over 2 million per month. And to top it off, they probably get free cars. Lebron has had some mansion in Miami on the market since he moved. Maybe there are some crazy baseball contracts I don't know about but those are usually 10 with a crazy number

PatsFan1283 · Jul 10, 2015

Vlad the Impaler said:
He and Peyton have to be the 2 richest player's in all of the major sports. I can't imagine making over 2 million per month. And to top it off, they probably get free cars. Lebron has had some mansion in Miami on the market since he moved. Maybe there are some crazy baseball contracts I don't know about but those are usually 10 with a crazy number

A few of the bball players have more $ than Peyton.

It's just so easy for NBA players to monetize because of sneaker deals. Kobe/Durant, soon AD....

Then certainly the MLB guys like Stanton make a shitload too. I dunno what the hell Trout is gonna get when his time comes.

Being an NFL player sucks compared to those other sports.

As far as you being a pro athlete, I see your career probably unfolding similar to Kenny Powers in "Eastbound and Down", check it out if you haven't seen it.

MantisToboggan · Jul 10, 2015

PatsFan1283 said:
Paying Thompson 15 a year is excessive but it doesn't really have any impact on their flexibility.

It's a lot in today's NBA dollars, but when the cap jumps it's not bad. Let's say he's making 16 million in 2017, that's essentially 10.4 million in today's NBA. Really only overpaying in year 1.

PatsFan1283 · Jul 10, 2015

Mantis Toboggan said:
It's a lot in today's NBA dollars, but when the cap jumps it's not bad. Let's say he's making 16 million in 2017, that's essentially 10.4 million in today's NBA. Really only overpaying in year 1.

Yeah, him and Shumpert you're paying 25-26 million to combined but it isn't like you can just go out and get other players for that money. I know the cap is going up but I'd say that Thompson deal probably becomes untradeable the moment you sign it (the reason it hasn't been signed yet, I think Cle wised up and wants to get a little better value) Especially since every dollar they pay Thompson is getting luxury taxed. Even with cap inflation, 15mill a lot of $ for a 3rd big..

Next summer they will likely pay MozGod too.

MantisToboggan · Jul 10, 2015

PatsFan1283 said:
Yeah, him and Shumpert you're paying 25-26 million to combined but it isn't like you can just go out and get other players for that money. I know the cap is going up but I'd say that Thompson deal probably becomes untradeable the moment you sign it (the reason it hasn't been signed yet, I think Cle wised up and wants to get a little better value) Especially since every dollar they pay Thompson is getting luxury taxed. Even with cap inflation, 15mill a lot of $ for a 3rd big..

Next summer they will likely pay MozGod too.

I can understand that view. I'm probably tad biased, I think he's underrated and will only get better. He's only 24. We'll see, though. Curious to see what they do with Mozgov.

CHOPTALK · Jul 10, 2015

Vlad the Impaler said:
He and Peyton have to be the 2 richest player's in all of the major sports. I can't imagine making over 2 million per month. And to top it off, they probably get free cars. Lebron has had some mansion in Miami on the market since he moved. Maybe there are some crazy baseball contracts I don't know about but those are usually 10 with a crazy number

In addition to the names PF threw out you also got people like Mayweather and Woods how blow both Manning and even LJ out the water.

I doubt Peyton Manning makes the top 10 highest net worth athletes