LABron James Discussion: What Next?

my hope is a full year of luka--along with roster and system changes--will allow lebron to play fewer regular season minutes carrying a lesser offensive burden.

but yeah, i mean, he's 40. he's going to get hurt. unless you're al horford.

 

So basically we would have been screwed even if we had won game 5.

 

he can't be playing more than 35 minutes a game going forward

 

Yeah. We would have been screwed anyway

But this is another reason you don’t just sleepwalk through Game 1 to feel out the opponent or whatever.

also another reason to make subs instead of playing guys a whole half.

 

Some folks on Twitter pointed out the brutal end of the year schedule didn't help matters here

 

This is fair.

 

We will be wasting at least one whole season of Luka’s by having to pay LeBron another $50 million. We just won’t be able to build a Championship contender until LeBron is gone.
He’s far too old to rely on staying healthy at the end of each long season, but Jeanie will continue to milk her favorite cash cow.

 

He needs to take a pay cut. Period.

 

He should get what Kobe got in his last contract

 

25.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.0 steals, 1.8 blocks @... 40.8 MINUTES PER GAME. 60.1% TS%, 9.5 BPM.
He wasn't the problem.

 

With Bron, AR, and Luka's most recent injury, two of which we have DD to thank for, this ending was for the best. Just wasn't happening this year.

 

So he's going to Dallas to join Kyrie and AD?

 

irwin hearing what i suspected: lebron's paycut was never going to be the one people discussed, in any scenario. dlo opting in really threw a wrench in that particular plan (if it ever was a plan).

all that said, if he truly wants to win another ring, he should be open to taking whatever cut necessary should someone unexpected become available to us, particularly via S&T or full MLE. it wouldn't be THAT huge in these cases. you're talking in the 10 million range.

 

Going with the ever so effective, “Period” huh? LOL

Go ahead give us the boilerplate whine about his age. But you can’t use that when this was the fact on the playoff series he had and overall season with the not trivial dings and groin issue mixed in:

…. and as others have said here, and as is “true” and he does care about and the players’ union cares about …. it sets precedent for the younger Stars in the league to have to backslide on the progress players have made over the years toward more equitable splits on the overall proceeds.

 

Yeah I was no fan of DD in that series.

 

James’ situation, meanwhile, might be even more complicated.

As The Athletic reported last season, one source briefed on James’ thinking said he was expected to play up to two more NBA seasons, which would take him through the 2025-26 season. The easiest outcome, for all involved, is for him to pick up his player option for next season ($52.6 million) ahead of the June 29 deadline before heading off into retirement.
If James returns to the Lakers, though, league sources say he’s not expected to consider the kind of pay cut that was in play around this time a year ago. Last summer, James took a discount of approximately $2.7 million to help the Lakers stay under the second apron and maintain roster flexibility.

James considered taking an even steeper pay cut to help the Lakers land an impact player in free agency, with James Harden, DeMar DeRozan, Klay Thompson and Jonas Valančiūnas on his list, league sources confirmed. The Lakers didn’t land any of them, and James instead signed for closer to his max.

“I think LeBron’s going to have high expectations for the roster,” Pelinka said Thursday. “And we’re going to do everything we can to meet those.”

The Lakers’ salary-cap restrictions will make the big man pursuit difficult, as they will either have to trade for him or sign him by way of the taxpayer midlevel exception (projected to start at $5.7 million). But Pelinka’s pursuits last season gave some indication as to what he’s looking for.