Everyone is watching LeBron James right now to see if he’s going to head into another year with the Los Angeles Lakers. While it would come as a surprise to see him leave the Lakers, this is the NBA, and stranger things have happened. Of course, James adds star power to the team, but it’s a short-term star power, because there’s no doubt that he’ll retire soon.
The Lakers are heading into year two with head coach JJ Redick, and Redick is already feeling the pressure of a season that could have gone better. Los Angeles has both James and Luka Doncic in their squad, so there’s no reason the team shouldn’t be one to head to the championship game.
So, it might makes sense to both the Lakers and James to have him end his NBA career elsewhere. For the Lakers, it could mean a nice deal to snag some players for the future, and for James, it may mean closing out his career with a team that’s more in line to win a championship right now. Plus, James’ agent Rich Paul told ESPN’s Shams Charania that “LeBron wants to compete for a championship,” so he may very well be open to leaving the Lakers.
Hold Your Horses on LeBron James Trade Pitch
One of the most popular and heartwarming James trade ideas out there is sending him to the Cleveland Cavaliers to see him end his career back where it all began. Sure, that would make for a great storyline, but is it realistic?
Fred Katz of The Athletic doesn’t seem to think so. In a Wednesday, July 2, feature for The Athletic, Fred Katz makes the case that James getting traded to the Cavs is nearly impossible.
“There is no team more obvious to throw on this list — from both James’ perspective and that of the Cavaliers,” he says in the piece, but that’s pretty much where the sweet talk ends.
“A hypothetical James-to-Cleveland trade is impractical, if not impossible,” he says. So, yes, he is not hot on the idea.
The Math Doesn’t Add Up
Katz also says that even if James and the Cavs want to see this happen, “the math it would take to get James traded back to Ohio would leave Pelinka writing on windows. The Cavaliers, as currently constructed, are the one organization certain to be above the dreaded second apron, a payroll threshold that limits a team’s resources, hinders the types of transactions it can pull off and forces significant luxury-tax payments.”
With that in mind, “there is no way for the Cavs to trade for James without losing two of their top players: starting center Jarrett Allen and All-Star point guard Darius Garland,” he says, which would be really tough for them.
Looking at some of the other trade options, Katz concludes that “the only way a James acquisition could make sense for Cleveland would be if he somehow became a free agent and could sign there for cheap.”
Genesis says not to look back, and that might end up being the best thing for James and the Cavs, anyway. It seems like a lifetime ago James was with the team, and they’ve certainly moved on, as has James.
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