Well, it seems the current recession may have affected the Cavaliers in a positive way, as it would appear to make it more likely that they will be able to sign LeBron James next offseason. The NBA just sent out a memo to teams, warning them that the salary cap will likely drop to somewhere in the range of $50 to $54 million for the 2010-11 season, down from last season's $58.7 million cap and the upcoming season's $57.7 million cap.
That means that a team like the Knicks, who were clearing cap space to take a run at LeBron next year, will not have nearly the money available to sign free agents that they'd been expecting to have. This story on ESPN.com says teams were counting on a roughly $63 million cap to work with next offseason, so it looks like they'll have at least $10 million less to spend than they expected. And because the NBA has a "soft" cap, that means the Cavs can go over the limit to sign LeBron, and no other team in the league can do that. The Knicks' plans to take a run at LeBron apparently included signing at least one other big-name free agent, and they're not going to have the money to do anything of the kind.
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