The Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James have agreed to just one more season of a professional relationship at this point, and the evidence that it will be the last year of the four-time MVP’s tenure in L.A. continues to stack up.
Either side could put that notion to bed, or at least turn down the volume on all of it by making just a tiny bit of noise themselves. The fact that neither the Lakers nor James or anyone in his camp has chosen to do so over the last two weeks-plus since he exercised his $52.6 million player option for 2025-26 shows how estranged the franchise and its longtime star have truly become.
“The reason people are thinking about a buyout is because trading LeBron is very challenging and it was like, ‘Well, wait a minute. If he’s not comfortable with [the Lakers’] direction, what’s his other alternative?’” Brian Windhorst of ESPN said on the Tuesday, July 15 version of his podcast. “To get off of a team there’s only two alternatives; you can be released or you can be traded. And so I think part of it is there’s a vacuum, and people are stepping into the vacuum.”
“The vacuum LeBron, via Rich Paul, has created,” Windhorst’s co-host and ESPN colleage Tim McMahon added.
“And that the Lakers have created,” added ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, the second co-host of the the “Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective” podcast. “Because again, I have been waiting for Jeannie Buss or Mark Walter or Rob Pelinka or JJ Redick or somebody, anybody to say, ‘We’re thrilled LeBron has opted in and we’ll see ya in September.’”
All Indications Are LeBron James Won’t Play for Lakers After Upcoming Season
Getty Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James.
That goes for James and Paul as well, each of whom has declined recent opportunities to clarify their collective position heading into the four-time MVP’s final contract year with the organization.
James’ situation has changed heading into his record 23rd NBA campaign, during which he will turn 41 years old and can surpass the all-time mark for most regular-season games played in a career by appearing in 50 contests. That transformation began when the Lakers shocked the entire basketball universe by sending Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks in the trade that brought back Luka Doncic, who is now the focus of the Lakers’ roster reconstruction efforts rather than James.
“LeBron, throughout the course of his career, has always been able to apply pressure on the franchises that he played for because he always had the threat of his departure,” McMahon continued. “LeBron has always had the ultimate power. He has always had all the leverage. And now, LeBron doesn’t have the power and the leverage because the threat of his departure next summer is not really a threat to the Lakers. It certainly appears that [his exit is] part of the plan.”
LeBron James, Lakers Could Split This Summer or Ahead of Trade Deadline
GettyLeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Hoop Collective podcast trio reiterated a buyout for James makes zero sense from the Lakers’ perspective, and Los Angeles isn’t going to release him either.
That leaves only the possibility of a trade.
James has a no-trade clause, so he can veto any deal he doesn’t like. That is just one complication with a potential move, as there are likely only a handful of teams that make sense as destinations for the four-time MVP at his current age and salary cap number.
The Lakers will also need to get back either longterm assets who fit what they want to build around Doncic — many of whom are liable to be younger and on less expensive deals, which means matching the salaries could prove difficult — or good players who can help L.A. this season but aren’t under contract beyond 2025-26.
Heading to the Eastern Conference makes the most sense for James, and reunions with the Cleveland Cavaliers or Miami Heat might be the most feasible. The Cavs, however, would have to give up several quality assets to make a trade work and to get under the second apron, which is a requirement for any deal involving James reuniting with his hometown team.
James and the Heat also left things somewhere far short of the best of terms when he departed following the 2013-14 season after four consecutive trips to the NBA Finals and two championship rings.
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