What If .... Lebron Signs with the Kings?

You're almost surely correct.

However, if Lebron's #1 concern is winning a ring he seriously consider coming here. "Reke and King" (has a nice ring), would be perhaps the most formidable duo in the league for years.


Yup... And don't forget another top pick for us coming up... possibly Turner, Cousins, Favors, Wall etc... and we'll be barely at the salary cap even with Lebron. Average age of 23... it will be a team that can win for the next decade.
 
Agreed, I just can't see the Cavs agreeing to do a sign and trade because that is them agreeing to let Lebron go. You rather he leave on his own, at least you don't help the other teams to be even better. Bull or knicks, I don't see them beating Celtics or Magic even with lebron.

Certainly not the Knicks. I'm not sure what the appeal would be for Lebron to go to NY, other than just wanting to play in the big apple. The Bulls would be a good team though. Maybe not good enough to be Orlando, but you never know. As for the Celtics. Their days are numbered. Thats an old team thats already starting to show signs of its age. This year just might be their last hurrah. But knows, maybe Ainge will work some more magic. They do have Rondo.
 
How good can a team that has Evans turner and James at the 1,2,3 positions be? Would it be too guard heavy without having much of a frontcourt? I think landry is a decent PF for that lineup and Thompson would be a good hustle guy off the bench. But the center spot would need some tinkering cause you would surely just need a clean up man back there al a Camby with the lineup we'd have.

Evans/Beno
Turner/Garcia/Beno
James/Greene/Casspi?
Landry/Thompson
Hawes/somebody else?

This is all assuming we even land turner. That looks like a pretty legit team. I think the defense would be good having three full sized smart players at the 1,2,3 positions.

Come on Lebron, just come ;). It'll be worth it trust me.
 
Three reasons the Cavs aren't going to sign and trade Lebron (at least, they shouldn't. Why reward someone for walking away from you?):

1. No matter what, they end up on the short end of the stick talent-wise. Whoever they trade him for will have to be "the guys who got traded for Lebron James," can you imagine the pressure to perform well all the time for them?

2. They pretty much guarantee a championship to whoever they trade him to, and if that's an EC team then it just doesn't make any sense for the Cavs.

3. Less trauma for fans if there's a clean break.



There may be more reasons, but I gotta go write two essays.
 
Three reasons the Cavs aren't going to sign and trade Lebron (at least, they shouldn't. Why reward someone for walking away from you?):

1. No matter what, they end up on the short end of the stick talent-wise. Whoever they trade him for will have to be "the guys who got traded for Lebron James," can you imagine the pressure to perform well all the time for them?

2. They pretty much guarantee a championship to whoever they trade him to, and if that's an EC team then it just doesn't make any sense for the Cavs.

3. Less trauma for fans if there's a clean break.



There may be more reasons, but I gotta go write two essays.


Frankly I don't care where Lebron goes, or if Cleveland does a sign and trade or not. But lets be clear about one thing. If Lebron leaves Cleveland, sign and trade or not, they're suddenly a bad team, and they have a lot more to be concerned about, than whether the team Lebron goes to wins a championship or not. My preference would be he stays in Cleveland. Just for the sake of the Cleveland fans. But I think he's gone. He has issues with Brown. Who knows, maybe Cleveland can lure Phil Jackson away from La La land and that might be enough to convince Lebron to stay. Its gotta suck to be a Cleveland fan right now.
 
Frankly I don't care where Lebron goes, or if Cleveland does a sign and trade or not. But lets be clear about one thing. If Lebron leaves Cleveland, sign and trade or not, they're suddenly a bad team, and they have a lot more to be concerned about, than whether the team Lebron goes to wins a championship or not. My preference would be he stays in Cleveland. Just for the sake of the Cleveland fans. But I think he's gone. He has issues with Brown. Who knows, maybe Cleveland can lure Phil Jackson away from La La land and that might be enough to convince Lebron to stay. Its gotta suck to be a Cleveland fan right now.

I'm an admittedly terrible armchair GM, I just float them out there because I like to chew on those ideas with other people.

So, you believe that Cleveland will not care where Lebron goes when he leaves? Interesting.
 
There's no way they trade him. Can you imagine the press conference when Danny Ferry goes up there and tries to say, "We're really excited to have Luol Deng. We think he's going to bring a lot to this team..." Not gonna happen.
 
There's no way they trade him. Can you imagine the press conference when Danny Ferry goes up there and tries to say, "We're really excited to have Luol Deng. We think he's going to bring a lot to this team..." Not gonna happen.

It'd be better than him going up there and saying ... "Well ... Lebron's gone. We didn't even get a hamper of goodies. He did send his love and thanks though. And by the way, we're re-signing Mike Brown. The organization felt that LeBron, as good as he was, was simply not a good fit with the direction that the team was taking. We feel that coach Brown will lead us to many championship runs in time to come, and we will do our best to build around our young core of Shaq, Anthony Parker and Daniel Gibson, who is going to be an allstar next season. You can all go home now. Any questions?"
 
To be honest It's kind of pathetic how the knicks are so enamored and been drooling over lebron... seriously the guy will eat up a huge chunk of your capspace....

Stern would be giddy as a school girl when James goes to the knicks him being a knicks fan (if history serves me correct)

if he signs with the kings... good for him and us but i kind of feel sad for Cleveland if he leaves... seriously.

if lebron signs with the bulls however who have a load of Capspace that would be something.....
 
Did the legwork for everyone.


:cool: Kings = $33 million committed
Contract Players: Tyreke Evans, Carl Landry, Beno Udrich, Jason Thompson, Francisco Garcis, Spencer Hawes, Omri Casspi, Donte Greene, Andres Nocioni
(We have the most players on contract of any team, even compared to the teams with similar low 30s million committed. Clearly, we have the deepest roster and already a superstar on the team and a top pick comming in.)


Bulls = $32 million committed
Contract Players: Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, James Johnson, Taj Gibson
(Other than Rose, I don't see the attraction to go to Chicago other than that its a big media market. Noah and Gibson are ok pieces, but can they be better than Landry+JT+ Greene+ Hawes+ Casspi???)


Clippers = $33 million commited
Contract Players: Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan
(They don't have a proven 2nd piece like a Tyreke or Rose. Blake doesn't count because of how season ending injuries on bigs usually play out and besides, he hasn't proven anything in the NBA yet. Roster not nearly as team as the Kings.)


Heat = $31 million committed
Contract Players: Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley, James Jones, Daequan Cook, Mario Chalmers
(No way LBJ and DWade would want to share the spotlight. Their egos are way too big for 1 team. Even LBJ signs, the rest of the team sucks. You need more than 2 stars to win a ring. Also I don't see their styles working together on the court.)


Wolves = $37 million committed
Contract Players: Al Jefferson, Ramon Sessions, Kevin Love, Johnny Flynn, Corey Brewer, Wayne Ellington
(Curry didn't even want to work out for the Wolves. That shows what kind of draw this team has.)


Nets = $26 million committed
Contract Players: Devin Harris, Yi Jianlian, Brook Lopez, Terrence Williams, Courtney Lee, Kris Humphries.
(To me, the Nets are right up there with the Kings as a "win for many years" type of team. Top pick coming in just like the Kings. They don't have a Tyreke type of star, but they have nice young pieces like Lopez, Harris, and Yi. They don't have as deep a roster as the Kings, but $7 mil more cap space. I doubt they can get as deep as the Kings with $7m, but they do have the NY + JayZ factor.)


Knicks = $19 million committed
Contract Players: Eddie Curry, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Toney Douglas
(The Knicks are only being talked about as a top destination because the media wants to. Look at this roster. Sure they have the enough for 2 max players. LBJ + Bosh/Amare/Booser. They would have 6 players total after signing 2 max guys. They'll need to fill the rest of their roster with MLE, vetern's min, and min contracts. Their 1st rd pick this year belongs to the Jazz. Bad choice for LBJ.)
 
Did the legwork for everyone.

Thanks for the hard work Peter.

Looking at this, I just don't understand why we are never even mentioned as a possibility. Maybe I am just biased. Or, maybe it's the national media that's biased. I dunno.

If not Lebron, at least some of the other top FA's should be taking a serious look at we have to offer. That is, if they are truly interested in winning a ring above all else.:cool:
 
Did the legwork for everyone.

Very nice.

I was looking at the same thing earlier in the season when trying to reason out where I thought that Bosh might go.

My feeling at the time was that LBJ would be staying in Cleveland, but after this last series I have more doubts than I did before.

If LBJ doesn't go to Chicago, then I think that Bosh might end up there. Chicago already has the 1, 3, & 5 spots covered, so Bosh would fit perfectly up there as the star PF.


If LBJ does leave Cleveland, and if he doesn't want to play with Wade, then I do think that Bulls, Nets, and Kings have the best pieces to win. The Nets are going to be a hard sell, due to the utterly horrific season they just put together, but the talent should be there after they get their next draft pick.
The Kings may be a hard sell just because they are in the Western Conference, where you just have to win more games to even make the playoffs.
The reason the Bulls are so popular is because they've made the playoffs and been competitive for the past couple of seasons, and they are in a huge market, with a lot of young talent.

I think the Kings definitely can make a good pitch to pick up a star FA, but we'll have to see what happens.

All in all, you have to be pleased with where we are at. We're clearly one of the best teams in the league when you look at capspace and potential pieces.
Even if we don't land a major FA this year, if we save our money, draft another star player this year, watch Tyreke cement himself as a superstar, and actually make a run for the playoffs next year, we'll have a ton of clout in the 2011 FA landscape to land a star player.
 
I'm an admittedly terrible armchair GM, I just float them out there because I like to chew on those ideas with other people.

So, you believe that Cleveland will not care where Lebron goes when he leaves? Interesting.

Well, they might care, but its out of their hands. If Lebron sits down with Ferry in a couple of weeks and looks him in the eye and says," Its been a great run. I appreciate everything the orginization has done for me. The fans have been terrific. But its time for me to move on."

Now at that point, Ferry can continue to live in the land of OZ and hope that eventually Lebron changes his mind, or he can try to get something back in return that would help the team. But even in that scenario, Lebron is still picking the team he's going to.

I'm not saying that they can't lure him back. Anything is possible. But if Lebron really felt passionate about staying in Cleveland, he would have already signed an extension. Its obvious that he's waiting to see what his best option is going to be. And I don't necessarily think that means New York. And I don't think the memory of Michael Jordan would deter him from playing in Chicago. Remember, Lebron is the one that thinks Jordan's number should be retired in the entire NBA. Thats how highly he thinks of Jordan. So I doubt the idea of playing in Jordans shadow would discourage him one bit.

I also know that its easy to live within our own little prism and question why on earth would he choose the Bulls over the Kings. Surely he can see that were the better team. Well folks, they won 41 games last year and we won 25. They made the playoffs and we didn't. They play in one of the top media centers in the US and we don't. Chicago can offer millions of dollars in indorsements and Sacramento can't. Now you can try and sugarcoat it anyway you want, but those are the facts. The only thing that the Kings can offer thats greater than Chicago is a bigger challenge, and a nice old arena to play in.
 
Did the legwork for everyone.


:cool: Kings = $33 million committed
Contract Players: Tyreke Evans, Carl Landry, Beno Udrich, Jason Thompson, Francisco Garcis, Spencer Hawes, Omri Casspi, Donte Greene, Andres Nocioni
(We have the most players on contract of any team, even compared to the teams with similar low 30s million committed. Clearly, we have the deepest roster and already a superstar on the team and a top pick comming in.)


Bulls = $32 million committed
Contract Players: Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, James Johnson, Taj Gibson
(Other than Rose, I don't see the attraction to go to Chicago other than that its a big media market. Noah and Gibson are ok pieces, but can they be better than Landry+JT+ Greene+ Hawes+ Casspi???)


Clippers = $33 million commited
Contract Players: Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan
(They don't have a proven 2nd piece like a Tyreke or Rose. Blake doesn't count because of how season ending injuries on bigs usually play out and besides, he hasn't proven anything in the NBA yet. Roster not nearly as team as the Kings.)


Heat = $31 million committed
Contract Players: Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley, James Jones, Daequan Cook, Mario Chalmers
(No way LBJ and DWade would want to share the spotlight. Their egos are way too big for 1 team. Even LBJ signs, the rest of the team sucks. You need more than 2 stars to win a ring. Also I don't see their styles working together on the court.)


Wolves = $37 million committed
Contract Players: Al Jefferson, Ramon Sessions, Kevin Love, Johnny Flynn, Corey Brewer, Wayne Ellington
(Curry didn't even want to work out for the Wolves. That shows what kind of draw this team has.)


Nets = $26 million committed
Contract Players: Devin Harris, Yi Jianlian, Brook Lopez, Terrence Williams, Courtney Lee, Kris Humphries.
(To me, the Nets are right up there with the Kings as a "win for many years" type of team. Top pick coming in just like the Kings. They don't have a Tyreke type of star, but they have nice young pieces like Lopez, Harris, and Yi. They don't have as deep a roster as the Kings, but $7 mil more cap space. I doubt they can get as deep as the Kings with $7m, but they do have the NY + JayZ factor.)


Knicks = $19 million committed
Contract Players: Eddie Curry, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Toney Douglas
(The Knicks are only being talked about as a top destination because the media wants to. Look at this roster. Sure they have the enough for 2 max players. LBJ + Bosh/Amare/Booser. They would have 6 players total after signing 2 max guys. They'll need to fill the rest of their roster with MLE, vetern's min, and min contracts. Their 1st rd pick this year belongs to the Jazz. Bad choice for LBJ.)

Lest you forget. Wade is a player option, and if he decides to opt out, which is more than likely, then he's not part of the Heats commited salaries. After he opt's out their commited salaries would total $13,537,656.00. Obviously they plan on resigning him, but thats not a given. In any event, the Heat will have more capspace than anyone else.

One other thing. As much as I think that Tyreke will eventually be a superstar, he's not one yet. So I'd just as soon wait a while before bestowing that title.
 
Well, they might care, but its out of their hands. If Lebron sits down with Ferry in a couple of weeks and looks him in the eye and says," Its been a great run. I appreciate everything the orginization has done for me. The fans have been terrific. But its time for me to move on."

Now at that point, Ferry can continue to live in the land of OZ and hope that eventually Lebron changes his mind, or he can try to get something back in return that would help the team. But even in that scenario, Lebron is still picking the team he's going to.

I'm not saying that they can't lure him back. Anything is possible. But if Lebron really felt passionate about staying in Cleveland, he would have already signed an extension. Its obvious that he's waiting to see what his best option is going to be. And I don't necessarily think that means New York. And I don't think the memory of Michael Jordan would deter him from playing in Chicago. Remember, Lebron is the one that thinks Jordan's number should be retired in the entire NBA. Thats how highly he thinks of Jordan. So I doubt the idea of playing in Jordans shadow would discourage him one bit.

I also know that its easy to live within our own little prism nd question why on earth would he choose the Bulls over the Kings. Surely he can see that were the better team. Well folks, they won 41 games last year and we won 25. They made the playoffs and we didn't. They play in one of the top media centers in the US and we don't. Chicago can offer millions of dollars in indorsements and Sacramento can't. Now you can try and sugarcoat it anyway you want, but those are the facts. The only thing that the Kings can offer thats greater than Chicago is a bigger challenge, and a nice old arena to play in.

Just a difference of opinion here. Its kind of funny how we are all trying to convince each other what Lebron will do, haha. :D But for the sake of discussion...

I don't think Deng is good enough of a player for the Cavs to help the Bulls get LBJ and have a lot of cap space to get even better. Remember they are in the same conference & in the same division. Without LBJ, the Cavs are not very good at all and having Deng isn't going to make any difference. I would assume they rather rebuild then commit over $10 mil a yr right away to a guy that you know won't win anything for you.

The bulls made a late playoff push to barely make it with the Raptors losing Bosh for the season right in the middle of the playoff fight. These are the same Bulls that gave up a 35 pt lead to our very own Kings. Not saying we are a better team because of that, but they really aren't that good. The key also is not what happen last season, but the roster that each team has going into next yr. I think we cleary have a better roster going into next yr.
 
Lest you forget. Wade is a player option, and if he decides to opt out, which is more than likely, then he's not part of the Heats commited salaries. After he opt's out their commited salaries would total $13,537,656.00. Obviously they plan on resigning him, but thats not a given. In any event, the Heat will have more capspace than anyone else.

One other thing. As much as I think that Tyreke will eventually be a superstar, he's not one yet. So I'd just as soon wait a while before bestowing that title.


All these guys opting out are player options. And obviously the Heat are trying to resign him as they already launched a "We Want Wade" campaign.

This actually makes it worse for the Heat because resigning Wade will take up more of their cap space as he will receive a big pay raise from the new contract. This gives them less cap room to sign role players if they can actually sign LBJ also.

Tyreke not being an actual superstar right now can be said about Rose as well. But looking at the best players from each of the teams with cap room, Tyreke is best player other than Wade. But he also doesn't have a max contract that will clog up the cap space. The Heat also needs to somehow sign min 6 other players just to fill a 12 man roster after signing Wade & LBJ.

Thats what makes our situation so great. All 9 of our contract players are the same ones that played the the main roles, not the scrubs. And.... we have a high draft pick coming in!
 
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but wont any team who lands LeBron instantly get the attention of the national media? Perhaps a few places would be exempt, but him coming to Sac instantly puts us back on the national stage, with Tyreke already starting to do so.
 
All these guys opting out are player options. And obviously the Heat are trying to resign him as they already launched a "We Want Wade" campaign.

This actually makes it worse for the Heat because resigning Wade will take up more of their cap space as he will receive a big pay raise from the new contract. This gives them less cap room to sign role players if they can actually sign LBJ also.

Tyreke not being an actual superstar right now can be said about Rose as well. But looking at the best players from each of the teams with cap room, Tyreke is best player other than Wade. But he also doesn't have a max contract that will clog up the cap space. The Heat also needs to somehow sign min 6 other players just to fill a 12 man roster after signing Wade & LBJ.

Thats what makes our situation so great. All 9 of our contract players are the same ones that played the the main roles, not the scrubs. And.... we have a high draft pick coming in!

Its kind of funny, but the Heat would have more money to work with if they were able to resign Wade and then try and sign another freeagent. They will retain his Bird rights unless they renounce them. If they don't renounce his rights, then there is a cap hold against them that actually exceeds what they would sign him for.

I read this morning in the Miami papers that the Heat may be willing to part with this years 1st round draft pick and Beasley in return for nothing except maybe a future 1st round pick. Of the course the recieving team would have to have enough cap space to absorb Beasleys salary. It said they would like to throw Cook into the deal as well. That could free them up another 6 mil.

Man, I hope they're able to sign some players or that team is going to suck next year.

Anyway, to finish. I agree that the Kings have a nice young core of players to work with. And from our point of view, its seems like we would be a good choice for Lebron. But having lived back in that area, there's an east coast mentality that anything west of the mississippi river is lacking. Sort of the same way San Francisco looks at Sacramento. And the only appeal is on the west coast is the L. A. area. I'm not saying its right, or that convincing him to come here is impossible. But I think it would take Jesus himself to make it happen. I suspose that would be a miracle. But hey man, make it happen!!:D
 
Did the legwork for everyone.


Knicks = $19 million committed
Contract Players: Eddie Curry, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Toney Douglas
(The Knicks are only being talked about as a top destination because the media wants to. Look at this roster. Sure they have the enough for 2 max players. LBJ + Bosh/Amare/Booser. They would have 6 players total after signing 2 max guys. They'll need to fill the rest of their roster with MLE, vetern's min, and min contracts. Their 1st rd pick this year belongs to the Jazz. Bad choice for LBJ.)

First of all, great post and very much appreciated.

But building a championship contender doesn't happen overnight. Obviously the draft is a big part, but let's ignore that for now and take the Celtics for example. They had a deep team with Pierce and a bunch of young guys with potential. They held onto them and then GUTTED their team to team Pierce up with Allen and, more specifically, Garnett. They had a very short rotation that first year since they traded like 5 players just to get Garnett alone. Now look at them. They've won a championship already and are looking good this year, and not only that, but they have great depth. If having a very short rotation for a season or 2 is what it takes for the Knicks (or whoever) to acquire LeBron and Bosh/Amare/Boozer, then I'm sure they'll live with that while they dominate the East the next several years following that.
 


Knicks = $19 million committed
Contract Players: Eddie Curry, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Toney Douglas
(The Knicks are only being talked about as a top destination because the media wants to. Look at this roster. Sure they have the enough for 2 max players. LBJ + Bosh/Amare/Booser. They would have 6 players total after signing 2 max guys. They'll need to fill the rest of their roster with MLE, vetern's min, and min contracts. Their 1st rd pick this year belongs to the Jazz. Bad choice for LBJ.)

The Knicks are pathetic:

http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archi...give_lebrons_hs_teammate_chance_to_make_team/
 
As an aside, from that same site:

"The LeBron james Sweepstakes Power Rankings"
http://realgm.com/src_feature_pieces/904/20100514/the_lebron_james_power_rankings/

We are ranked #12, with the big drawback being that we are located in Sacramento rather than a bigger market. Should be noted that I have read enough of Reina's stuff to know that he would not be among the 20 most knowledgible basketball posters on this site, so take it for entertainment value, nothing more.
 
As an aside, from that same site:

"The LeBron james Sweepstakes Power Rankings"
http://realgm.com/src_feature_pieces/904/20100514/the_lebron_james_power_rankings/

We are ranked #12, with the big drawback being that we are located in Sacramento rather than a bigger market. Should be noted that I have read enough of Reina's stuff to know that he would not be among the 20 most knowledgible basketball posters on this site, so take it for entertainment value, nothing more.

The market was too small for Chris Webber? Was I living in an alternate universe when Webber spurned New York to re-sign here?
 
As an aside, from that same site:

"The LeBron james Sweepstakes Power Rankings"
http://realgm.com/src_feature_pieces/904/20100514/the_lebron_james_power_rankings/

We are ranked #12, with the big drawback being that we are located in Sacramento rather than a bigger market. Should be noted that I have read enough of Reina's stuff to know that he would not be among the 20 most knowledgible basketball posters on this site, so take it for entertainment value, nothing more.

Yeah I saw that article the other day and found it to be a good read. Like you, I've read some of Reina's work and that's all most of his work is, a good read, which is why I decided not to post it
 
As an aside, from that same site:

"The LeBron james Sweepstakes Power Rankings"
http://realgm.com/src_feature_pieces/904/20100514/the_lebron_james_power_rankings/

We are ranked #12, with the big drawback being that we are located in Sacramento rather than a bigger market. Should be noted that I have read enough of Reina's stuff to know that he would not be among the 20 most knowledgible basketball posters on this site, so take it for entertainment value, nothing more.


Yeah I saw this one... I mean isn't Sac's media market is #7 in the nation? I remember someone mentioned it a while back. With Lebron & Tyreke + possibily a top 3 pick... I don't see why the media wouldn't be talking about the Kings everyday.

If the Knicks sign Dru Joyce III just to lure Lebron, they are building a very bad team hahaha.
 
Thanks for the hard work Peter.

Looking at this, I just don't understand why we are never even mentioned as a possibility. Maybe I am just biased. Or, maybe it's the national media that's biased. I dunno.

If not Lebron, at least some of the other top FA's should be taking a serious look at we have to offer. That is, if they are truly interested in winning a ring above all else.:cool:


You guys are very welcome. :)

We really should be one of the top talked about destinations for top free agents if its based on winning. But obviously the media doesn't find that to be a good story. And I agree that if not Lebron, we should have a good chance at other FAs if they really want to win.

But if we can't get a top FA, we are still in good shape to either save the money for next yr or pick up some good but not too expensive guys that can make a difference such as Brendan Haywood etc.
 
BTW... did anyone see this


Delonte West Allegedly Sleeping With Lebron James' Mom

http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978237421

Different websites say that Lebron found out the day before game 4 and the team was divided after that. Most likely BS if you ask me... but damn if it was real then I feel bad for Lebron.


And I have mentioend before that there is nothing remotely credible about a bunch of bloggers spreading this sort of slimy rumor. Alas, with the slow death of the legit media I fear there will be a whole generation growing up fed info by bloggers and not being able to clearly distinguish what is news and what is gossip of the sort the National Enquirer once ran.
 
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