The Elephant in the Room: LeBron Picking Up His Player Option for 2010-11

One year before the overhyped free agency summer of 2010, and we already have a party pooper. It's called "the salary cap."If you are a New York Knicks fan, then it should have you give up hopes of landing LeBron James. If you are a Cavaliers fan, the news couldn't be more welcome as the Cavs continue to have their own success inversely related to the success of the economy.When the league announced the salary cap for 2009-10 at $57.7 million, it also told teams to prepare for an even lower salary cap for 2010-11. According to cap projections, the exact figure for 2010 is calculated at $53.6 million, which could be a massive blow to teams that are banking on that summer to rebuild their teams from the ground up.Why? Well, here's the deal: Under the league's collective bargaining agreement, which expires in 2011, a seven-year veteran can have a maximum salary of 30 percent of the salary cap. So for this summer, a guy who has been in the league for seven years can have 30 percent of 57.7 million, or $17.3 million. This is an extremely important figure, because LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade all hold player options for the 2010-11 season for $17.15 million. So if they were free agents this summer, then opting out for a new, long-term contract might make sense.But if the cap is $53.6 million next season, then 30 percent of that is $16.1 million. Do more math and you'll find that that's asking these guys to take a $1 million paycut from their current contracts. And if these guys plan to stay with their original teams in the first place, then it makes no sense to opt out.In addition, if they decide to switch teams, then their annual raises would not be as large compared to what they would be if they stay with their home teams. On top of that, if they pick up their options and decide to extend their contracts off of the $17.1 million they are owed in 2010-11, they can sign an even bigger contract by extending off of that than they would if they became free agents in 2010.Make sense?The New York/endorsement factor is as overrated as you can get. Players are not beating down the door to play in New York just so they can get endorsements to make up for lost money in contracts. Jason Kidd just turned down the Knicks last week to stay in Dallas. On top of that, in ESPN's annual franchise rankings, the Knicks were near the bottom of the list for all American sports franchises in the four major North American sports. The Cavs? Well, they were fifth. Pair all this with the fact that LeBron is from Northeast Ohio and the Knicks and Nets are major rebuilding projects, and the extremely smart money is on him staying. Never before him has any superstar been so heavily rumored to go to the New York Knicks, of all teams. New York needs LeBron badly, but LeBron doesn't need New York. At all.So it's one thing to keep a close eye on as the offseason progresses. The 2009-10 Cavaliers could out-do last year's team as the most stacked club in franchise history, so we are entering unchartered waters here for the franchise. Many will have them as the odds-on favorites to at least win the East and maybe even the NBA championship when the season rolls around in November, something that hasn't happened to this organization before.The Cavs already took advantage of a weak economy once by fleecing Shaq off the Suns for nothing more than peanuts and a Sasha Pavlovic. Now, in the wake of the salary cap news, they're on the verge of cashing in big. Again.