Thanks to a series of unfortunate events, as well as the NBA’s new first and second “apron” payroll restrictions, the Eastern Conference appears more wide open than any time in recent years, heading into the 2025-2026 season. As the post-draft offseason gets underway, there remains no clear favorite to emerge from the East.
Three superstar players in the Eastern playoffs suffered devastating Achilles tendon tears within the space of a few weeks. It started with Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks, going down on April 27 in a first-round game against the Indiana Pacers.
Lillard was 34 years old, however. That age is considered prime time for Achilles injuries in NBA players. The next Achilles tear was more shocking. Jayson Tatum, the Boston Celtics’ four-time All-NBA first teamer, is only 27. He tore his Achilles in Game Four of Boston’s second-round series against the New York Knicks on May 12.
And then on June 22, in Game Seven of the NBA Finals, the Pacers 25-year-old, two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton collapsed to the floor, his Achilles also suffering a severe rupture.
New Trade Idea Creates Dominant East Team
The Pacers and the Celtics followed by trading away, or losing to free agency, some of their top players. To make a long story short, the strongest teams in the East very quickly got a lot weaker.
Despite the loss of Lillard, whom they then waived, the Bucks may at least be hanging in there, adding former Pacers center Myles Turner as a free agent.
But a new trade idea involving Los Angeles Lakers superstar â and, in fact, the NBA’s most iconic and perhaps all-time greatest player â LeBron James would make the Bucks even stronger.
By pairing James â a four-time NBA MVP â with two-time NBA MVP and seven-time All-NBA first-teamer Giannis Antetokounmpo, as well as Turner, the trade would create a potentially unstoppable super team that could dominate the otherwise weakened Eastern Conference.
The trade proposed by Arhaan Raje, senior writer for SportsKeeda.com, would also involve the Brooklyn Nets, and would look like this:
Bucks receive:
Lakers receive:
Nic Claxton
Bobby Portis (via sign-and-trade)
Nets receive:
Kyle Kuzma
Pat Connaughton
2031 first-round pick (via Bucks)
2031 first-round pick (via Lakers)
Trade Makes Sense in Terms of Dollars
Financially, the trade works, according to calculations by the site FanSpo which automatically analyses trade proposals for their salary cap impact. By unloading James while adding Claxton and Portis, the Lakers actually gain $13.8 million in cap space, leaving them with $10 million to spend before they even hit the luxury tax limit â and more than $29 million before the Lakers would have to worry about the second apron.
The Bucks and Nets sacrifice cap space, but still remain well under the first tax threshold.
“Teaming up with Giannis would significantly take pressure off LeBron, especially during the regular season. He will have a pick-and-pop threat like Myles Turner and a vertical spacer in Giannis,” wrote Raje, explaining his trade proposal.
“When LeBron played with Anthony Davis, everyone wondered how that duo could have looked at their best had the latter consistently played with Giannis’ intensity,” the SportsKeeda scribe continued. “The LeBron-Giannis pairing at its peak could reach the chemistry LeBron had with Davis during the 2019-20 NBA season, when they led LA to a championship.”
The only remaining question about the blockbuster trade idea has to be â why would the Lakers do it? Unless James demands a trade, and a trade to the Bucks specifically, to pair with Antetokounmpo, the answer to that question remains unclear.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post New Lakers Trade Idea Teams LeBron James, 2-Time MVP to Blow Out East Conference appeared first on Heavy Sports.