Veteran forward LeBron James opted into his $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season, but his future with the Lakers is far from certain.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, James is determined to pursue a fifth championship and could look elsewhere if the Lakers are unable to compete.
“He wants to compete for a championship,” Charania said of James. “He’s going to be monitoring very closely, ‘Are the Lakers going to make the moves that puts them in position to seriously compete?’ If not, where do those conversations go?”
“That becomes the subplot of this offseason,” he added.
LeBron James Trade: Possible Destinations
In light of the reports, The Athletic’s Jovan Buha, a beat writer for the Lakers, listed four teams who could potentially engage as trade suitors for James.
“In terms of teams that would make sense, I came up with four — Dallas, Cleveland, New York and Golden State,” Buha said on his podcast, via NBA Central.
Buha added that there has been “some buzz” around the league about James potentially joining the Mavericks due to his close ties with head coach Jason Kidd, star forward Anthony Davis and star guard Kyrie Irving.
“There has been some LeBron and Dallas buzz going on for couple of years now,” he said. “In 2023, right after Dallas traded for Kyrie, there was a rumor that LeBron was possibly going to Dallas on a veteran minimum contract.”
Set for Record-Breaking 23rd Season
Buha said he “expects” James to stay in Los Angeles and retire as a Laker, but if he does ask out, Dallas will be a team to watch.
Besides the Mavericks, the Cavaliers and Warriors also make a lot of sense for James for various reasons. James could achieve a storybook ending to his career by returning to Cleveland, his hometown team that drafted him No. 1 overall in 2003.
The Warriors had previously attempted to pull off a LeBron James trade at the 2024 deadline, but were reportedly rebuffed by James’ agent, Rich Paul.
Golden State again had interest in James before the 2025 deadline, but those rumors evaporated quickly after the Lakers acquired Luka Doncic and the Warriors landed Jimmy Butler III. For the Warriors to revisit those talks, they’d have to part with Butler, an unlikely scenario given the Lakers entering a new era under Doncic.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst previously explained why James was unlikely to ever suit up for the Warriors.
“Twice in the last ten months, LeBron has had an opportunity to leave the Lakers,” Windhorst told ESPN’s “NBA Today” in December 2024.
Once last year at the trade deadline when the Warriors called. The Lakers came to LeBron, he did not go forward with that. This summer, he was an unrestricted free agent. He told the Lakers, ‘I will take less money if you can go build this roster up.’”
In 2025-26, James will officially become the longest-tenured player in NBA history, surpassing the previous record set by Vince Carter, who played 22 seasons. The 40-year-old averaged 24.4 points, 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds, becoming the first player ever to make an All-NBA team in their 22nd season.
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