Cleveland Cavaliers clearing cap space to offer LeBron James max contract

The Miami Heat are starting to get desperate in their attempts to make their roster attractive enough that LeBron James wants to come back and it’s something that is starting to show around the league. Other teams are smelling the blood in the water and are swarming to try and snatch LeBron away from the Heat.

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In a fit of revenge, the Cleveland Cavaliers are starting to make a hard run at LeBron and according to Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo! Sports, the team is starting to line up trades that would clear salary cap space in order to sign LeBron to a max contract when he becomes fully available to do so.

This is a tactic we saw the Houston Rockets employ for Carmelo Anthony as the Rockets lined up trades for Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin to make cap space. Houston is still going to try and see their plan through and add a max contract — likely Chris Bosh — even after Carmelo Anthony has nixed them from consideration.

It’s a move that is not at all secretive and it’s something that can backfire bad if things don’t work out for the Cavaliers. Still, teams around the NBA will be pivoting hard to the left if LeBron opens himself up as a true free agent ready to sign elsewhere this offseason.