The summer of LeBron James

The day that Cavaliers fans have been dreading has finally come. The "Summer of LeBron" has begun.

Following a terrible showing in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, including the worst playoff loss in franchise history, Cleveland's best hope for breaking a 46-year drought without any major championship may soon be gone as two-time MVP LeBron James enters Free Agency.

The 25 year old from Akron, Ohio has lived up to the lofty hype and expectations since being drafted with the first overall pick by Cleveland six years ago, but now must decide whether to stay with the Cavs, who finished with the league's best record the last two seasons, or leave for another team.

If James has an idea of what he plans to do, he's kept those plans under wraps. Following Thursday's loss, James said that he hadn't "really thought about [free agency]," but later on he claimed that he and his management team "have a game plan that we're going to execute, and we'll see where we'll be at." So the question remains, what is his game plan?

There has been a lot of talk about James joining either Miami guard Dwyane Wade or Toronto forward Chris Bosh as teammates in another city. Wade seems very likely to stay in South Beach, and I'm not sure LeBron could handle playing on a team where he isn't clearly the best player. Bosh seems a much more likely candidate, and many have talked about both he and James joining the Knicks next year. To an extent, it makes some sense. James has said publicly that New York is his favorite city and Madison Square Garden is his favorite arena. If James could bring a championship to the lowly Knicks, there's no doubt how big of an impact on his legacy it would have.

With that being said, LeBron to New York seems unlikely. As far as the Knicks returning roster goes, only forwards Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari are quality players, and they play the same position as James. New York's only other returning players are guards Toney Douglas and Bill Walker, as well as center Eddy Curry, who likely will exercise his $10 million player option. Signing both James and Bosh would drain almost every bit of their available cap room, leaving almost no money left to sign any other players. James can't honestly believe adding Bosh with the worst supporting cast in the NBA would be a good idea.

Another sign pointing against James signing with the Knicks, which hasn't been talked about nearly as much as it should, is their NBA Draft situation. New York sold out to get cap available to sign James and Bosh this summer, but in doing so severely hampered their draft position in the next few years. The Knicks 1st round pick this year belongs to Utah. The Rockets also own New York's 2012 1st round pick and the ability to swap 1st round draft positions with New York in 2011, as part of the Tracy McGrady trade. The Knicks also traded their 2nd round pick in 2011 to the Lakers for Douglas. LeBron has to see it will be nearly impossible for the Knicks to be able to surround him with a quality supporting cast, at least in the foreseeable future.

The ongoing rumor of James to Chicago has gained a lot of steam since the Cavaliers were eliminated, but I'm not sure it's realistically much of an upgrade. The main draw for James to Chicago would obviously be to play with former top pick Derrick Rose from the 2008 Draft. Rose is a very good potential player in the NBA, but the Bulls don't have much more talent beyond him. Joakim Noah is a small improvement over Cleveland's backup center Anderson Varajao. Luol Deng would have to be traded if the Bulls brought in James to take his position, but I don't exactly believe all of the rumors that Chicago could trade him for a starting big man because of his excessive contract. Unless Chicago could con Cleveland into taking on the four years and more than $51.3 million remaining on Deng's contract in a sign-and-trade (which they won't, especially to a division rival) for James to keep their cap space, it would be hard to see Chicago being better with LeBron next season than Cleveland would be.

In my mind, the darkhorse for James has to be the Clippers. Los Angeles' other team has a young superstar in last year's top pick Blake Griffin. At the guards they have veteran Baron Davis alongside the young, talented Eric Gordon. This combined with Chris Kaman at center along with a lottery pick in 2010 makes the Clippers a very intriguing option for James' services.

With all this being said, I would still say that the most likely scenario for James is a return to Cleveland. I've spoken to James on many occasions about this very topic, and although he continues to maintain he is undecided, he never forgets to add how much he loves playing in Cleveland. Although many players speak in a "routine," mentioning his city to avoid controversy, he has always come off as genuine as he mentions his home state.

Looking at the Cavaliers in the 2010 playoffs, three things stood out to me. The first was James' elbow was not healthy. James seemed unwilling to take the ball to the hoop, instead avoiding contact by taking even more jump shots than he usually does. His overall play pointed to him favoring the elbow. Second, James and his team are not mentally tough, and they do not understand how to turn off their laid back nature and go out and play angry. Michael Jordan would have never let his team go out and quit like they did on their home floor in game five against Boston, and James needs to take on that part of his idol's game. The third is an overall lack of creativity and ability to adjust to changing game situations by head coach Mike Brown, who I believe will be fired in the coming weeks. Brown is unable to take advantage of mismatches he has on the court and for being a defensive-minded coach, the Cavs defense hasn't been particularly impressive in the last two postseasons.

Cleveland still has a lot of talent on their roster and the ability to move a few pieces if they wanted to. They also can offer James a six year, $125.5 million contract, compared to a five year, $96.1 million deal that any other team can give James. If you feel your chances of winning is fairly close to the situation you're already in, then why give up nearly $30 million?