LeBron James needs to take a deep breath before making a decision on where to play next season. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

The LeBron James free-agent watch is officially ticking.

The moment the Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated from the 2010 NBA playoffs, all eyes, ears, cameras, binoculars, video players, Twitter followers and Facebook fan pages were fixated on LeBron James and his future. Did he play his last game as a Cavalier? Is he going to New York? Will he sign with Chicago? Is Miami big enough to house LeBron and D-Wade? Can Jay-Z convince LeBron to be the centerpiece of the Brooklyn Nets?

“I have no plans at this point. I’ve made no plans,” said James, who had 27 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists and nine turnovers in Cleveland’s 94-85 loss to Boston in Game 6.

No one knows for sure where James will play next year. Even LeBron James is not sure where he’ll play next year. It’s all speculation.

“Me and my team will figure out what’s the best possibility for me,” James said. The “Team” James is referring to is his management group comprised of his longtime friends from high school.

Maverick Carter, James’ former teammate at Akron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary High School who currently is employed by Nike, acts as James’ manager. Two other friends, Randy Mims and Richard Paul, are also on James’ payroll. Mims currently serves as James’ personal assistant and road manager and Paul is a “close confidant.” According to The Associated Press, James and his three friends call themselves “The Four Horsemen.”

Sounds like LeBron and his buddies have been watching too many episodes of “Entourage.” Victory!

There Is No Place Like Home

As much as it pains Cavaliers fans their beloved team is out of the playoffs, the disappointment of how the Cavs lost in the conference semifinals could be the reason James stays in Cleveland because he doesn’t want his Cavs legacy to end on an all-too-familiar sad note.

James has lived in the state of Ohio since birth and carries Akron everywhere he goes (three of them to be specific). The man can recite Cleveland’s sad sports history in a heartbeat. He was 2 years old when the Browns allowed “The Drive” to happen and he was 5 when Michael Jordan hit “The Shot over Ehlo.” LeBron is a loyal guy by nature and it would be extremely hard for him to bail out on his people, especially at the way the season ended for the Cavs, and uproot his family to a different city.

Like a smart business man should do, James will keep his options open. He’ll fly from city to city, listen to offers and recruiting pitches from various teams before he makes a decision. He’s got an entire offseason to make up his mind.

“That fact that it’s over right now is definitely a surprise to myself. But it is what it is,” James told reporters. “A friend of mine told me after the game, ‘I guess you have to have to go through a lot of nightmares before you finally accomplish your dreams.’ And that’s what’s going on.”

Cleveland’s worst nightmare is seeing LeBron in another uniform. It would dwarf what Packers fans felt when Brett Favre ditched Green Bay for New York and then later Minnesota. Favre wasn’t the reigning league MVP when he skipped town.

The Cavaliers can offer James the most money and a hometown experience like no other. No athlete in Cleveland sports history, other than Jim Brown, has been more beloved than LeBron. Under the current salary cap restrictions, the Cavs make the most sense financially. The Cavs can offer a maximum deal of $125 million over six years, while other teams are maxed out at five years, $96 million. That’s $30 million on the table James would have to walk away from should he decide to play elsewhere.

“I love the city of Cleveland, of course,” James said. “Another disappointing season, to say the least, but at the same time we had a great time together. We’ll see what happens.”

Chi-Town, Jersey Shore, The Big Apple or South Beach

From a basketball standout, the Bulls are very attractive because they have a collection of young studs  in All-Star Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. But going to Chicago would mean playing in the shadow of Michael Jordan. If James is willing to shoulder that burden, then Chicago becomes a real viable option. Another reason to consider Chicago is if the Bulls hire John Calipari as head coach. But Calipari, who tried to recruit James to play for Memphis, has done the NBA tour once before. Remember the Nets? All you need to know about Coach Cal’s NBA track record is this: he passed on drafting Kobe Bryant and took Kerry Kittles instead. Case closed.

The Knicks have been gearing up for the Summer of LeBron for two years and have gone all in with their chips, hoping the bright lights of the self-proclaimed basketball mecca and Mike D’Antoni’s run-and-gun offense would be good enough reasons for James to move to New York. But why would James go to a place where a championship is light years away? The only way the Knicks lure James to New York is to bring in not one but TWO superstars to play with him. It’s possible, but highly unlikely because the third wheel would have to take a pay cut.

The Heat and Nets are in the same predicament. Both franchises are tied in to what other free agents would do before James even begin to consider them. The Nets are a lottery team and their best selling point is LeBron’s good friend Jay-Z. Miami is attractive in many ways for James, but Pat Riley’s No. 1 priority is to re-sign Wade and rebuild the Heat roster. It would be nice if can get Wade and James to play in South Beach, but I’m not sure if both men are willing to share the spotlight at this stage of their young careers.

And Back to Cleveland

There are a ton of questions the Cavs need to address this offseason. Is this team, the way it is currently constructed, good enough to make a championship run? Will the Cavs bring back Shaquille O’Neal? Is this the end of the line for Zydrunas Ilgauskas? Can Mo Williams handle playoff pressure? Will the team retain Mike Brown as coach?

Expect sweeping changes in Cleveland. Shaq turns 39 next season and the Cavs are not likely to keep two aging centers on their roster. Ilgauskas could return, but he is also considering retirement. And despite two 60-win seasons, Brown is probably out as Cavs coach.

“I really don’t know everyone’s contract situation as far as years and things like that, but we had a great team. We had a really good team and we played hard all year. We just didn’t play consistent basketball, and that’ s why Boston is moving on. For the most part, as a team, we all get along and we had a great year,” James said. “As an individual, I’m gonna continue to get better throughout the offseason like I always do. And I’ll come back a better player next season.”

At the end of a very long offseason, when it is all said and done and “The Four Horsemen” have exhausted all of the party invitations and red-carpet treatment, James will probably stay with the Cavaliers. He’ll probably sign a shorter deal to keep the Cavaliers on championship alert.

What Happens Next?

Here are a few scenarios that could play out:

1) James stays in Cleveland but signs a 3-year deal; 2) Wade stays in Miami but signs a 3-year deal; 3) James convinces Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire to come to Cleveland; 4) Wade takes Bosh or Stoudemire (or Carlos Boozer) with him to Miami; 6) James forces Cleveland to hire Calipari, but GM Danny Ferry resigns; 7) Cavs are bounced again in the playoffs and James tells Cavs management to bring back Mike Brown and sign his St. Vincent-St. Mary’s teammates to NBA contracts.

The first domino could fall before July 1 so things could change. But after three years and LeBron is still without a ring, then we’re headed for a summer sequel in 2014. By that time, LeBron and D-Wade could be ready to share the spotlight and play on the same team. Which team? Stay tuned.

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Mike Brown has won more than 60 games the past two seasons, but could lose his job. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

In case you haven’t heard, LeBron James can opt out of his Cleveland Cavaliers contract on July 1 and become an unrestricted free agent. James holds the future of several people in the Cavaliers organization, including head coach Mike Brown. But after the 94-85 loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 6 that knocked Cleveland out of the 2010 playoffs, James didn’t exactly give Brown a ringing endorsement.

James did not mention Brown’s name once during his postgame news conference but, if you read between the lines, he hinted to Cavs management that he needs a better bench jockey to help him win an NBA title.

“It’s all about winning for me, and I think the Cavs are committed to doing that. But, at the same, I have to give myself options to this point,” James said. “I think Boston, first of all, had a great game plan. Their coaching staff gave them a great game plan. They tried to keep us on the perimeter as much as possible. They have a lot of veteran players who’ve been in a lot of postseason games and they all just bought into their system, and it worked for them.

“We had opportunities to win the game, to win the series, but we didn’t execute for 48 minutes. You don’t do that against a very experienced team.”

When Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer asked LeBron about the Cavs’ game plan and how Brown handled the defensive matchups and the rotation, he made Windhorst repeat the question as if he wanted to gather his thoughts and carefully choose his words. Once the question was re-asked, James said: “Well, I think we had good game plans going into the game. I think sometimes we could have made some better adjustments throughout the course of the game. But for the most part, we had a game plan we try to go out and execute it. Did it always work? No. Did it work sometimes? Yes.”

“Tonight was a game where we fought hard. But when you turn the ball over as much as we did and give up 27 points off our turnovers, it is very difficult. I think tonight we left it on the court and we have nothing to hang our heads.”

The key statement that stood out was “we could have made some better adjustments throughout the course of the game.” That is a direct shot at Brown and his inability to make the proper adjustments during a game.

Eric Snow, James’ former teammate and current NBATV studio analyst, said he noticed a different LeBron James in the last three games of the series. “It looked like something was bothering him,” Snow said.

Brown’s decision to keep Antawn Jamison on Kevin Garnett is what ultimately killed the Cavaliers in the series. Doc Rivers pointed out that that was the matchup the Celtics focused on when the series began, and Brown wasn’t able to take away Boston’s No. 1 option. Garnett clearly had a huge advantage over Jamison, but for some reason Brown stayed with Jamison way too long and didn’t use Anderson Varejao and J.J. Hickson enough to combat Garnett in the post.

And to start Game 6, Brown’s big move was to put Shaquille O’Neal on Garnett, which totally backfired. The Celtics immediately put O’Neal in pick-and-pop situations and Garnett got open looks and hit his five first shots.

Brown also mishandled his rotations and changed his substitution pattern midway through the series. Windhorst wrote on his blog after Game 4 that the Cavalier players were unhappy with the way Brown has changed some of their roles and O’Neal was frustrated over not playing in the fourth quarter.

In Brown’s defense, he had the difficult task of reorganizing his roster for the playoffs with the return of O’Neal and expanding Jamison’s role, which meant someone was going to be left out. Zydrunas Ilgauskas barely played in the first round and got spot duty in the conference semifinals. Hickson, who started 73 games during the regular season, played a total of nine minutes in games 4, 5 and 6. Varejao was the backup power forward all season, but was moved to backup center for the playoffs because Brown felt compelled to keep Jamison on the court.

It’s tough to fire a head coach who has won 127 games the past two seasons, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. The Cavaliers had the best record in the NBA the past two years, but failed to make The Finals twice. The players, including James, appear to have lost faith in Brown, whose inability to lead a very headstrong squad will ultimately cost him his job.

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Sound the alarm in Cleveland because there is a full-court panic in the city. The Cavaliers lost Game 2, lost home-court advantage and now their head coach has lost his cool.

The usually calm and collected Mike Brown signaled Def-Con 3 after his postgame news conference Monday night and sent a fiery message to his ballclub.

“We gotta decide that we’re gonna take the fight to them and take these games,” Brown told reporters after the Celtics dusted off his Cavaliers, 104-86, in Game 2 on a night when LeBron James accepted his second consecutive MVP award.

“Nothing is going to be given to us at all. Ain’t a goddamn thing going to be given to us at all in this series. We’ve gotta fight better than what we did tonight,” Brown continued. “Coming from behind in the first game, coming from behind in the second game. That’s not good enough. That’s not good enough for me or anybody in that locker room. If we expect to win this series, we’ve gotta bring more of a sense of urgency than what we brought tonight.

“Plain and simple, they kicked our behinds. Series is 1-1, we’re gonna see what we’re made of in Game 3.”

But Brown didn’t stop there.

He was unhappy with the lackadaisical start for the second game in a row, he didn’t like how his team got manhandled on the boards and he was extremely unhappy with the performance of Mo Williams.

“We got all our behinds kicked,” Brown said. “Every single one of us, starting with myself, did not fight tonight and it showed on the court. You gotta give the Celtics credit. They were a lot more physical than us. They got every single loose ball, every single 50-50 ball. They beat us to the punch. We gotta bring more fight to the table. We got to be tougher than what we were tonight.”

As for Williams, who finished with only four points on 1-for-9 shooting, Brown called out his starting point guard and said, “He’s gotta step up. It’s simple as that. It’s playoff time and he’s got to make the right plays for us and he’s gotta knock down shots. It’s gonna be tough for us to win this series if Mo plays the way he played tonight. Whether it’s defensively or offensively, he’s got to bring it.”

The Celtics took command of the game with a forceful third quarter that saw them outscore the Cavs, 31-12. The Cavaliers showed some life in the fourth quarter, but the lead – which reached as high as 24 – was too large to overcome.

“The thing I’m disappointed in is the way we let them manhandled us in that third quarter,” Brown said. “We can’t allow that to happen. If that’s gonna happen, everybody might as well foul out.”

When asked what contributed most to Cleveland’s lackluster performance, Brown said: “You have to give Boston credit. They came out and they took the game. They had 31 fouls and they said we’re not getting anything easy. KG had three fouls and Bron had a breakaway. He didn’t care if he picked up his fourth. He’s not giving up a layup.

“Tony Allen gets a steal, he dribbles the length of the floor but we have three defenders back and goes to the rim and lays it up. Stuff like that can’t happen.”

Though his head coach had smoke coming out his ears, James didn’t see a need to start pressing all the red buttons just because the Cavs lost one game in a best-of-seven series. “There’s no panic for me,” James said. “I may handle it differently than Mike.”

James added: “He must have given you a different look when he came up here and saw you guys. He doesn’t love you like he loves us, I guess.”

James is certainly using a patient approach to this playoff series, which is fine when your team can draw from past experience. But for these current Cavaliers, the only experience they can draw from is last year’s bitter disappointment.

LeBron may be the reigning MVP in the league, but Kobe Bryant is still the best closer. When the Jazz pushed the Lakers in the fourth quarter of Game 1 in L.A., Bryant pushed back and didn’t allow the Lakers to lose. When the Celtics pushed the Cavs in the third quarter of Game 2 in Cleveland, James decided to stay back and waited too long to take over.

Maybe LeBron should start listening to his head coach and have more of a sense of urgency. Otherwise, it could be another long and bitter offseason for the Cavaliers and the entire city of Cleveland.

Video courtesy of NBA.com

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The Cleveland Cavaliers will not win an NBA championship this season.

Sorry, Cavs fans. You’re all going to have to wait a little bit longer to taste the champagne because this Cavaliers team, the way it is currently constructed, is not good enough to win in June.

Here are four reasons why the Cavaliers won’t win an NBA title:

1) MIKE BROWN CAN’T COACH OFFENSE
The Cavaliers head coach came from the Gregg Popovich school of defense, but that seems to be the only thing he took with him to Cleveland. Brown can preach and teach defense, but he is an awful offensive coach. His set plays are so basic you might think the Cavs are running an offense from the 1960s. LeBron James is the most explosive, athletic and dynamic offensive player in the league but yet Brown has not been able to get him enough easy shots to help ease the gigantic burden placed on James’ shoulders to win games by himself. All too often, James is at the top of the circle running Brown’s 1-4 set. TNT”s Charles Barkley has said, in more than one occasion, that LeBron needs to play in a system that will take advantage of his speed and athleticism. Going one-on-three 80% of the time can be a bit taxing. Night after night, LeBron has had to work extremely hard for his baskets, and Brown has not done a thing to help his superstar. This kind of vanilla offense may work during the regular season, but it’s not going to get it done in the postseason. Brown’s latest concoction is this ridiculous experiment that has centers Shaquille O’Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas on the court at the same time. This makes the Cavs extremely slow on offense and defense, and it curtails James’ urge to push the ball and create fastbreak opportunities. As long as Mike Brown is the coach, the Cavaliers are not a championship team.

Coach Mike Brown and point guard Mo Williams don't seem to have that championship quality.

2) MO WILLIAMS IS NOT A STAR
To win an NBA title, you have to have a great 1-2 punch. I’ve always believed that if you give LeBron James an All-Star player to play with, the Cavaliers will be a powerhouse. I think it’s safe to say that the Cavaliers should keep looking for that All-Star player because it is certainly not Mo Williams. The much-celebrated offseason acquisition in 2008 has been somewhat of a disappointment. Sure he made the All-Star team last season, but that was only because LeBron begged the league to select him. Williams is not a clutch player, and it clearly showed during the playoffs. Though he finished with decent statistics, when it mattered most, Williams was MIA. He was outplayed by Rafer Alston in the series against Orlando and his decision-making got progressively worse as the games got close. The biggest play he made during the 2008-09 playoffs was his inbounds pass to James that resulted him LeBron’s game-winning shot in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. If Mo Williams wants to be the Scottie Pippen and be the No. 2 guy behind LeBron, he has to step it up big time. He has a career average of 17 PPG, but those numbers were built on against inferior opponents. Williams has to realize he’s no longer in Milwaukee where games don’t matter. He’s playing with The King in Cleveland. If Williams wants to be considered an All-Star, he needs to play like one.

3) TOO MANY OF THE SAME SLOW PIECES
The addition of Shaq made the Cavs bigger up front but it didn’t fix the Cavaliers’ vulnerability against quicker and more athletic big men. Matter of fact, Cleveland became more rigid and are now even more susceptible to quicker and more athletic frontcourts. At this stage of his career, O’Neal is a liability on defense and struggles against the pick-and-roll offense. The same can be said about Ilgauskas. Big Z got exposed big time in last year’s conference finals when the bigger and quicker Dwight Howard ran circles around him. The third part of Cleveland’s three-headed frontcourt problem is Anderson Varejao. Now, Varejao is a unique player who brings boundless energy to the court. However, he’s very limited offensively and lacks a consistent jump shot to space the court when he plays with Big Z or Shaq. In an ideal situation, Varejao is a backup at best. He’s great when he plays just 20 minutes, but when you stretch him to 30 minutes his effectiveness is compromised. He is much more effective in spurts where he can change the tempo with his hustle and can frustrate opponents with his nonstop action. When the Cavs got Shaq, they should have signed a big man who can shoot.

4) LEBRON’S LONG-TERM COMMITMENT
It would help the franchise if LeBron just said “Yes” to a contract extension and put all the rumors to bed. But his continued posturing and constant hints about playing elsewhere doesn’t exactly put the Cavaliers management, coaches, players and fans at ease. LeBron holds all the cards and he’s playing them like he has all the chips on the table – which he does. I find it amusing that he’s even considering playing in New York. The Knicks are a mess. Why would LeBron sign with a team that is about to unload half of its roster just to accommodate him? The allure of playing in Madison Square Garden and being in the center of the media storm can’t be that attractive when you’re playing for a lottery team. If LeBron James is serious about making Cleveland a champion, he needs to commit to the franchise long term.

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Despite a record-setting performance during the Eastern Conference finals, LeBron James is out of the playoffs. (GETTY IMAGES)

LeBron James was so disappointed his Cleveland Cavaliers are out of the NBA playoffs, he immediately left the Amway Arena floor as soon as the final buzzer sounded, skipped the postgame news conference and rushed to the team bus without speaking to reporters.

It was an indication James feels that his Cavaliers, as they are currently constructed, do not have the right pieces to contend for a championship. Cleveland won 66 games during the regular season and James won MVP, but that is all for nothing because the Magic bounced the Cavs in six games and, at the end of the conference finals, The James Gang is still a one-man team.

Eric Snow, who now works for NBA TV, was disappointed his former teammate bypassed the mandatory media session. “He has to come out and talk. Enough said, Bron. You gotta come out and talk. You’re the leader of this team. You come out, you lead, you answer questions, represent your team like you’ve done all season long and you go back on the bus.”

Snow continued, “I know you’re upset; everyone is upset for you. But that’s what you have to do. That’s what leaders do. Leaders go out there and they do the things that are hard. The things that you don’t want to do. That’s what you come out there and get that done. You move on, set the example and the tone for your team to get by this and move on for next season.”

Cleveland coach Mike Brown blamed the loss to poor execution in crucial times. How about lack of talent? It’s the 800-pound elephant in the room that everyone, including Brown, seem to be ignoring.

“We had one goal in mind and we came up short. We came up short because we didn’t execute early on – on both ends of the floor,” Brown said. “It wasn’t about a lack of effort, it wasn’t about a lack of passion, it wasn’t about a lack of heart. Our guys have that. They displayed that the entire year.”

No one is questioning Cleveland’s effort. It’s amazing this team got this far for having so many flaws. They don’t have a consistent second scorer, they’re bench is very average at best and if Anderson Varejao gets in foul trouble, they don’t have a reliable power forward off the bench. Ben Wallace was nonexistent throughout the series and made a crucial mistake by getting picked off by Dwight Howard late in Game 4 that allowed Rashard Lewis an open look at a 3-point shot.

Though James – who averaged nearly 40 points per game, eight rebounds and eight assists during the series – will not publicly call anyone out, much of the blame points to Mo Williams. The Cavaliers point guard had a forgettable series and his unreliable jump shot kept a second and sometimes a third defender in James’ path. When Williams was asked if there was anything more he could have done in the series, he replied, “No.”

Even though Williams averaged a decent 18 points in the series, his 35% 3-point shooting was far below his playoff average. Williams also added extra pressure on himself by guaranteeing that the Cavaliers would advance to the NBA Finals. Big words for someone who has never done anything in the playoffs. We ain’t in Milwaukee anymore, Mo!

ESPN’s Chris Broussard brought up LeBron’s quick exit from the locker room to the bus, to which Williams responded by saying: “Obviously, you’re gonna be disappointed, obviously you’re gonna be hurting inside because you know that you had a team to get it done. And I can understand that disappointment because I’m feeling that same disappointment. At the end of the day, LeBron is a great professional. He’s a very intelligent basketball player. This is motivation and drive for him. I’m 110 percent sure that he’ll be alright.”

Williams continued, “Basically, it’s like you’re at Christmas time and you want that remote control car you’ve been beggin’ you’re mom the whole time. Christmas comes and you open up a present, you open up another present, another present and you never see that remote control car. You could have 10 presents, you don’t have that remote control car you’re gonna be sad and disappointed. But you’ll get over it.”

Funny how Williams would use the Christmas toy analogy because guess what LeBron will be wishing for during the offseason? A player who can help him win a championship.

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