Basketball world continues to wait on The Decision II.
It seems just two sets of NBA fans are awaiting news if LeBron James will sign for their team for next season – Miami or Cleveland.
But according to stats genius Nate Silver the best basketball player in the world should not sign for either if he wants to win more NBA titles and confirm his legacy.
Using Statistical Plus/Minus, Silver beleives James’ best chance of winning NBA championship number three and maybe more lies with signing with almost any other team, other than the Heat or the Cavs.
Of the other teams that could possibly sign James, the Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns or Los Angles Clippers.
According to Silver through the worst choice James could make is join Kobe Bryant at the Los Angeles Lakers.
“The conventional wisdom is that LeBron James will remain in Miami or return home to Cleveland,”Silver wrote on his website fivethirtyeight.com .
“Neither would maximise his chances of winning a championship — but Cleveland, at least, is on an upward trajectory.
“In Miami, James runs the risk of staying too long with a team in decline. The Heat won 54 games last year in a historically soft Eastern Conference and were dismantled by San Antonio in the NBA Finals.
“As if the Spurs left any doubt, a team with 54-win talent is rarely good enough to win a championship. Since the introduction of the three-point shot in 1979-80, just one of 22 teams to finish with 54 regular-season wins has won the championship that season.”
Silver says a team need to have at least 55 wins in the regular season if they are to have any chance of winning the title in any given year.
James is tipped to win just 51.6 games with the Heat in 2014-15 if he re-signs with the Heat and only 52.4 if he heads home to Akron and plays with the Cavs.
The worst statistical team are the Lakers would only win 42.4 games even with the Best player in the NBA in James and healthy Kobe Bryant.
Houston was deemed as the place place for James to land, where if he was paired up with James Harden and Dwight Howard, the Rockets own Big Three would win 65.8 games.
If James wore a Clipper uniform and paired himself with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, they’d win 65.8 games, with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah in Chicago 59.7 games, at the Atlanta Hawks with the likes of Paul Millsap, 58.7 wins; at the Phoenix Suns with Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe, 58.6 wins; at the New York Knicks with fellow superstar free agent Carmelo Anthony, 55.9 wins; and at the Dallas Mavericks with Monta Ellis and Dirk Nowitzki, 55 wins.
Despite his evidence, Silver admitted only two cities will end up possibly with the all-time great saying intangible things such as legacy and his home town team will have possibly more say about where he signs.
“Incumbency is a powerful advantage,” Silver wrote.
“James may stay in Miami or go back to Cleveland – even if some alternatives might give him a better chance of keeping up with (six-time championship winner) Michael Jordan.”
The world has been waiting with baited breath about where James will sign, with the decision expected to come this weekend before the two-time champ flies to Brazil for the World Cup final between Argentina and Germany.
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