James headed to Miami; Bulls miss out on superstars

If LeBron James wasn't going to become a Chicago Bull, I hoped he'd return to his hometown Cleveland. This wasn't exactly the best-case scenario for Midwesterners.

James went on national television tonight to announce to the world that he was ripping the hearts out of an entire city and jumping ship from the Cavaliers to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh with the Miami Heat. He's entitled to play basketball wherever he wants next year. Going on a nationally-televised program to annouce he's leaving a fan base that adores (or, rather, adored) him is totally classless but hardly surprising. It would have been ridiculous regardless of where he opted to go.

From a basketball standpoint, the decision certainly alters the balance of power in the NBA. Many pundits are saying the Heat are no lock to challenge for a title because of the lack of role players — or players of any type — on the roster surrounding the Big 3. I disagree. In my mind, the Heat are immediately the favorites to win the Eastern Conference. It's a stars' league, and the Heat have two true superstars in James and Wade and a top young talent in the post in Bosh. Maybe their egos will clash and maybe they don't have a Derek Fisher or a Robert Horry to do the little things, but talent wins out in professional basketball, and Miami now has more of it than anyone else.

The decision makes the Bulls' offseason a failure. They're much better with Carlos Boozer than they were without him, and they're probably one of the better teams in the East. They might well win the Central Division — I'd call them the favorites. But they didn't clear the cap space they did — especially the last bit that they cleared by trading Kirk Hinrich and their first-round draft pick for nothing — with the hopes of landing Carlos Boozer. They wanted a superstar in free agency, and they once again failed to get one.

Chicago can certainly improve its 41-41 showing from last season with its current roster, assuming it adds a decent shooting guard like Mike Miller. I'd say 50 wins is a realistic goal, and so is a top-4 regular-season finish in the Eastern Conference. Without James — or without Wade and Bosh — championships are going to continue to elude the Bulls like they have since Michael Jordan left them. You're not winning titles with Derrick Rose as your best player and Boozer and Joakim Noah as his second and third fiddles. Sorry.