The Summer of LeBron launched quite a few weeks earlier than expected with Cleveland's elimination in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Teams 30 to nine are listed almost strictly for entertainment purposes, but here are the LeBron James Power Rankings, examining where he might end up signing this summer.

The Untouchables

30. Jazz: The Jazz are over the cap without even accounting for Carlos Boozer, plus it might be the market LeBron is likely to find least appealing.

29. Pistons: It is somewhat ironic that the Pistons were once mentioned as a possible landing spot for LeBron James or Chris Bosh, because they practically are a mathematical impossibility now. Detroit dove into a wormhole and into the future by electing to have cap space in the 'illustrious' free agent class of 2009 and scored Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, ending their playoff streak at eight.

28. Pacers: Indiana is in a similar situation as the 02-03 Cavaliers, except they're a longer shot to win the lottery to draft John Wall as their franchise savior. They also have over $60M in committed salary for the 10-11 season and no appealing sign-and-trade candidates except for Danny Granger.

27. Raptors: Not happening unless the Cavaliers are willing to take back Hedo Turkoglu and Jose Calderon.

26. Bobcats: Stephen Jackson very nearly became LeBron's teammate in Cleveland, so could it happen under Michael Jordan's ownership? The Bobcats don't have the cap space and would need to use Tyson Chandler's expiring contract.

25. Bucks: Scott Skiles and company gave the Hawks a surprisingly difficult seven-game series in the first round, but they do not have cap space and are also a small market club. The Bucks, similar to the team ranked first here, have an excellent point guard/big man core in Brandon Jennings and Andrew Bogut.

24. Grizzlies: Memphis had a surprisingly successful season, plus enough pieces to be competitive with big men like Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol, in addition to a second iso scorer in O.J. Mayo. They could potentially get a deal together given their cap situation and Rudy Gay, but it is a difficult scenario to imagine having even the slimmest possibility of actually happening.

23. Celtics: Normally, a classic franchise like Boston wouldn't be dismissed so easily in a situation this unique, similar to how they acquired Kevin Garnett, but there aren't enough young pieces beyond Rajon Rondo to be appealing at all for a player at LeBron's stage of his career to hitch to for the long haul. To be fair, the fact that they eliminated the Cavaliers from the postseason makes it even a bigger stretch.

22. Nuggets: The Nuggets are in cap hell and would need the Cavaliers to be desperate enough to take back Kenyon Martin's expiring contract, plus Ty Lawson and another asset or two to make something happen.

For the sake of dreaming, combining Carmelo Anthony and LeBron on the wings, with a big like Nene and another season or two of Chauncey Billups sounds like a team that would win immediately and win multiples.

The Impossibles

21. Hawks: I kept saying this season that if we mythically traded Joe Johnson for LeBron James, the Hawks would have an excellent chance of winning the title given the quality of bigs like Al Horford and Josh Smith, along with vets like Mike Bibby and Jamal Crawford.

Cleveland and Atlanta would actually have to do a sign-and-trade of these two players for LeBron to end up with the Hawks.

20. 76ers: The Sixers are well over the cap and would need to consolidate a few of their overlapping pieces to build a competitive team around LeBron.

19. Spurs: It would be difficult to find a coach/GM combo to trust more than Gregg Popovich and RC Buford, but the Spurs are ever the cap and realistically don't have any pieces that could be converted into a sign-and-trade unless it was Tony Parker.

18. Wizards: The Wizards will have plenty of cap space to sign LeBron and a second asset or two, plus they have cheap young bigs in Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee, along with whatever is left of Gilbert Arenas.

17. Wolves: David Kahn has the cap space to sign LeBron outright, plus he has a ton of assets in Al Jefferson, Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, Jonny Flynn, Ramon Sessions and their high lottery pick. Minnesota would have to do some rearranging of deck chairs, but it is a place where he could have a good chance of winning long-term if he didn't have any objections to the market.

16. Suns: A great NBA market, plus a few more seasons of Steve Nash and Grant Hill as elder statesmen, a scoring big in Amare Stoudemire and another athletic wing in Jason Richardson, but a frugal owner undoubtedly would scare off LeBron.

15. Warriors: Even though Golden State did win a title in 74-75, they have been one of the most tortured franchises in the NBA ever since. Everyone knows how much a title would mean to this fan base by witnessing the Dallas upset in the first round of the 2007 Playoffs, plus the Warriors could have a billionaire owner in Larry Ellison within a few months and enough leftover assets to put together an attractive sign-and-trade for Cleveland to find acceptable. A nucleus of LeBron, Stephen Curry and Anthony Randolph has clear question marks, but could be a perfect enough blend of talent to be devastating.

14. Blazers: You have the Nike factor, the motivated billionaire factor, plus enough leftover assets to make a sign-and-trade a feasible scenario. If Greg Oden had just played a completely healthy and dominant season, this could have been a possibility worth contemplating, but not at this stage.

13. Hornets: New Orleans got a taste of winning this year with the Saints' Super Bowl, but they certainly still deserve a whole lot more. Plus, Chris Paul is one of the best five or six players in the game and would be a scary player to combine with LeBron and is one of the few players that could enhance him on the offensive end of the floor. The Hornets are over the cap, so they would have to send back the expiring contract of Peja Stojakovic and probably Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton to make it happen.

12. Kings: Sacramento has the cap space, an iso stud in Tyreke Evans, plus several effective bigs in Carl Landry, Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes. If they played somewhere else it would be more plausible, but if the market was too small for Chris Webber..

11. Rockets: Similar to the Blazers with Oden, if Yao Ming was coming off a healthy and productive season, then the Rockets would be in the conversation. They have a really nice collection of role players that have higher upsides than he's had with Cleveland, plus it's a great market and has no state income tax. The Rockets have a great winning tradition, but it isn't an overwhelming one like the Lakers, Celtics or Bulls.

The Improbables

10. Magic: Teaming two physical freaks like LeBron and Dwight Howard would almost surely result in titles in each of the next five or six seasons. The formula of a dominant big and the game's best wing is one that simply works every single time throughout NBA history. The Magic are so devoid of assets that the Cavaliers would realistically accept in return, however, that it is almost completely implausible.

9. Clippers: I considered the Clippers were a semi-legitimate candidate for LeBron until this season when I finally covered one of their home games. A proven Blake Griffin to go with Chris Kaman, Eric Gordon and Baron Davis would have caused LeBron to give it more than just a quick dismissal, but if you've ever been to a Clippers a game, you would know why they are deservingly in The Improbables section,

The Not Beyond The Realm Of Possibilites

8. Mavericks: The shrewdness of Mark Cuban's foresight to have that incredibly valuable Erick Dampier non-guaranteed contract should be taught in every class of NBA GM 101, but I don't think playing with his buddy Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzki, Caron Butler, a re-signed Brendan Haywood will be enough. The lure of playing half a dozen games per season in Cowboys Stadium will be enticing, but it is difficult to realistically see it happen.

7. Thunder: Joining Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka and a whole host of other quality role players would be a no brainer for the under the cap Thunder if they played in just about any other city in the NBA. For the sake of argument, if the Thunder were still the Sonics and still playing in Seattle with this situation, don't you think they would be a legitimate LeBron contender?

If LeBron cared about only winning titles, wouldn't he have to go to the Thunder? I think the only thing that would give him pause (under the assumption he doesn't care about the market) is the unproven history of their ownership. But realistically, I think having LeBron, Durant and Westbrook falls under the special circumstances of spending every dime it takes.

6. Heat: The culture would change if LeBron was suddenly inserted there, but Miami's inability to sell out every night with a player of Dwyane Wade's caliber speaks volumes about Miami as a sports town. He can join Wade, however, free and clear, but there isn't a whole lot else there, as Michael Beasley hasn't come close to meeting his second overall pick expectations. Pat Riley is one of two or three coaches in the NBA who has proven championship success in multiple locales and you know he'd come down from the front office if LeBron comes down from Akron.

5. Nets: New Jersey has been taken off the board by a lot of smart, connected people, but I don't see how they aren't in the picture if they win the lottery and therefore have John Wall? He will be in Brooklyn within a couple of years and the combination of Wall and Brook Lopez arguably has as much upside as the point guard/big man from the top ranked team.

The presence of a GM like Rod Thorn should also be very attractive.

4. Lakers: The Lakers have all the necessary ingredients to be a legitimate contender for LeBron; immediate success assured, a youngish second star to grow old with in Pau Gasol, a Hall of Fame coach, a huge market, the best stage in the NBA right now, a proven championship pedigree over several generations. Andrew Bynum undoubtedly would be the return for Cleveland, an excellent bailout plan for the Cavaliers to build around.

The Genuine Candidates

3. Cavaliers: The Cavaliers have the inertia and home state factor, which absolutely counts for a lot in this decision. LeBron must also surely trust Dan Gilbert's unwavering dedication to spending money by the truckload to bring in any player that could conceivably help their chances (1), but their core has proven to be underwhelming and is also aging.

Cleveland had a chance to have cap room for this coming summer, but went all in with the double-down strategy and it is difficult to see how they can get more than just incrementally better from year to year.

We all know it doesn't work this way, but if LeBron could be simply handed titles over the next half decade and he was also given his choice of where he would do it, I sincerely believe it would be in Cleveland.

2. Knicks: Answering the same question, I believe New York would be LeBron's first preference after Cleveland; his obsession with the energy and culture of New York is palpable and is unlike anything we've witnessed from a star of his magnitude.

He knows the Knicks will spend as much as possible and give him every accommodation in the world, plus he will conceivably bring along Bosh or Wade, but how much trust does he have in Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Toney Douglas and whatever they can get back for Eddy Curry's expiring contract? Conceivably, that would eventually be enough for the Knicks to win a title(s), but LeBron fully knows now that there are no guarantees. The second superstar makes all the world of difference compared to the last two seasons with the Cavaliers, but it could still not be enough firepower, depending on how other teams evolve.

1. Bulls: The nucleus of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah seems tailor-made for a superstar wing and Chicago also has Luol Deng as a fourth option, or even Bosh or Wade if they do a sign-and-trade using Deng. Add in Kirk Hinrich and Taj Gibson and the spectra of MJ's statue becomes less of an issue than it seemed a few months ago because LeBron would have the cleanest path to a title in Chicago.

If John Calipari is hired, LeBron and Rose will be able to run Vance Walberg's dribble-drive offense like it is on steroids and you won't see the kind of offensive inconsistency we saw against Boston. It will be an endless loop of dribble penetration of two unstoppable athletes and an endless loop of championships.

The Conclusion

Not to take away from the incredible upset of the Celtics, but I do wish the 09-10 season would have ended in a different was for the Cavaliers.

LeBron should have two primary takeaways from what ended up happening.

1. For how excellent of a ballplayer he unimpeachably is, he is also an incomplete ballpalyer. He needs to develop a post game and he also must improve his mid-range jumper. If he had even one of those capacities, he would be nearly unstoppable offensively and wouldn't be prone to the inconsistencies we saw against Boston.

2. He can't get too cute with his decision this summer. If I were him, or simply advising him, I'd be very selfish with this decision in terms of being in the absolute best possible situation to win championships. LeBron might be the best player of his generation, but he isn't good enough to win a title without a supporting cast that is just marginally above average-- that has now been proven.

If the sting of the second round elimination doesn't make him intimately feel those two things, I'm not sure what will.

Chris Reina is the executive editor of RealGM. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cr_reina.

Note

1.) If we were to do a ranking of the true contenders based on trust of ownership, Dan Gilbert undoubtedly would rank first on that list. We all know the Dolans will spend wildly just as Gilbert has, but MSG has not been a house of order and reason for quite a long time.

As far as the Bulls, they have had their own share of turmoil. Furthermore, the Bulls have historically been much more frugal than their New York and Los Angeles, big market counterparts.

Mikhail Prokhorov is an unknown, but he is widely expected to behave similarly to the 2002 or 2003 version of Mark Cuban.