The Benchwarmer Report: The Return of the King; The End of an Era

LeBron James is officially going home. The King recently signed a two-year, $42.1 million contract with the Cleveland Caveliers, where he spent the first seven seasons of his NBA career. With this surprise came the end of the “Big Three” era.

The Cavs have a solid young core in point guard Kyrie Irving and rookie Andrew Wiggins along with some other respectable role players. Regardless, the current Cleveland Cavaliers do not have anywhere near the talent potency of the Heat. James will need to be patient; but over the next couple of years and with him leading the way, the Cavs could become serious playoff contenders.  

With the King out of town, what happens to the Heat and the Big Three? Soon after the King’s announcement of his departure, the third amigo, Chris Bosh, signed a 5-year, $118 million contract. The Heat are now looking to re-sign mainstay and fellow amigo Dwayne Wade. Even in the likely event that Miami does re-sign Wade, the “Big Three” era is officially over.

What does this mean for the rest of the Eastern Conference? We all know that the conference was extremely weak this past year. Few teams were above 0.500. Miami and Indiana were dominant, but less face it, Miami is not going to be the force that they were with the King. Cleveland will likely make the playoffs, but they will not dominate the way Miami did for a long time. There have not been any other substantial trade moves across the Conference. This likely means another weak year across the East.

According to Cavs trade rumours, the team may be looking to trade prize rookie Andrew Wiggins for some key experienced role players or another strong starter (Kevin Love, potentially). LeBron suspiciously mentioned being excited to work with Kyrie Irving and a few other up-and-comers, but there was no mention of Andrew Wiggins.

What ever happens to this season, it will be interesting to see who comes out on top. Indiana will be strong as ever, but the rest of the Conference is pretty much up for grabs. Expect the Western Conference to be significantly stronger than the East again. The end of the “Big Three” means the Eastern Conference has a long way to go to meet the West.