2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Why not? 24 million would put about 80-90 players paid more than him. At worst he is a top 30 player... from my point of view, that's one of the best value contracts in the NBA at that point.

 

His play on the court is worth $25-30m, just no one on the open market can pay that from a team he'd think twice about. Ticket sales, merch and interest he's a supermax until he retires.

I'm hoping we can get him at the $15-20m range though and that's a cut he's willing to take to allow us to upgrade the roster and give him one last legit shot at a chip. But if he does, that's even more pressure on Rob to actually go for it and stop dangling the carrot for summer x.

 

If he went to the Lakers and said sign and trade me to NY for Bridges they wouldn’t do it? NY would do it in a heartbeat.He still has some leverage because you don’t want him leaving for nothing and the Lakers reputation for taking care of superstar players means something

 

He'll never play there as long as Dolan is in the building and he's said as much.

That aside, the issue with a S&T is he'd be going to a place because he thinks he can win there. By us getting something back from that team, you're weakening the team and their title odds

 

People change their minds all the time and who you give up matters.LeBron for Bridges strengthens NY. That’s just an example anyways to show LeBron isn’t a lame duck in this situation

 

I think there is two sides to Lebron signing somewhere. Does he want to be there and do they have the means to get him.

Brooklyn and Chicago will have cap space, but Lebron won't want to go there.

So if we assume he is open to going to the Warriors, Cleveland, Us or a contender potentially like the Knicks or Clippers?

Warriors:

• Old team that maybe has one last run in them
• Curry, Butler, Green, KP, Horford, Melton, Moody, BP, Gui & GP
• They can offer Lebron TP-MLE or MLE if they cut some people?
  
• Salary: 15m
• Possible but unlikely

Cleveland:

• Good team that's missing a few parts and has some questions like will Harden opt out and resign
• Mitchell, Harden, Mobley, Allen, Strus, Schroeder
• They're at 210m without resigning Ellis, Dean Wade, Nance & Bryant
• This would have to be a sign and trade for Jarrett Allen - do we even want Allen?
• Salary: 28m
• Possible and more likely than GSW but does he have a better chance of winning here or there?

Knicks

• Good team that might go big fish chasing after Giannis
• Brunson, OG, Bridges, KAT, Hart, McBride,
• They're at 205m without resigning Robinson
• This would most likely be a sign & trade for Bridges or Hart
• Salary: 21-33m
• Possible but I think very unlikely as they'll go after Giannis

Clippers

• Stay in LA scenario if we aren't interested - ok team
• Leonard, Garland, DJJ, Lopez
• They're at 135m without resigning Mathurin, who should ask for 25m, so call it 160m
• They could bring back their guys and offer Lebron the full MLE
• Salary: 15m
• Least likely, more of a last chance resort if we don't offer him anything

If you take the average of those 4 teams, it's a salary around 20-24m. Which I think is fair value for Lebron at 42 years old.

 

The suns could offer Allen and O’Neal and keep Booker,Green and Brooks.If he asks for something like this I’m confident the Lakers will accommodate because Luka is watching.

 

I don't see the Suns as a realistic spot he wants to play at. He'd go to Cleveland, to Warriors for Steph & Dray, to New York - Knicks only since Brooklyn suck or stay in LA. We can probably get rid of Knicks. But who's going to give him the best shot at winning and pretty much the most money? Us... and he's worth it both economically and on the floor.

 

I’m just making the case that this isn’t a take it or leave it situation

 

Tough to overcome an 8 on 5 advantage.

They have a great defensive plan against Suns as well. It's called, let Brooks cook. If he's taking a game high FGA, that's a loss.

NSFW: LANGUAGE (it's like a vulgar screaming Seinfeld)

 

I think 15-20m is reasonable for him. A few years ago, he offered to take a significant pay cut to sign very specific players with the full MLE. This time, his leverage is significantly less, so he would likely be less picky about the player acquisitions, and the amount of the pay-cut. He may particularly be interested in taking a pay-cut for Klutch clients, like Dort and/or Watson. Although we have a lot more leverage this time around, we still owe the man a ton of respect and we really should get his input on the situation, and determine what a respectable contract will be for him.

I think if we give him fair amount of control in this situation, it would help make a great narrative for him. He could be like I didn't want to leave them hanging, we still had a lot to accomplish, I took less money to win, and help the franchise after I retire. Also, I still took a respectable amount, and I had reasonable control of my destiny, and to help the franchise, and continue to help nature my son professionally. This is an awesome narratuve for ending your nba career, protecting your dignity, and help continue to shift the narrative on your reputation.

 

Have a hard time thinking NYK would give up Bridges after they dropped 5 FRP for him unless if it was for Giannis. I also think his play is regressing, paying mid 30 million for a role player kinda hurts, but isn't the worst.

 

God I can't stand OKC and that b******* officiating. Just a terrible product.

 

Does this fool fall down on every other shot? Pathetic.

 

It’s amazing how they say our trade with Dallas for Luka was lopsided but San Antonio got away with trading for Dearen Fox and got to keep Stephen Castle and Vassell and their first round pick that ended up being Harper. Just comedy.

 

so no credit for the win. That’s rich.

 

some good back and forth on the lebron FA situation, but i still haven't seen an answer i like to my primary issue:

lebron WILL expire. soon. we really only got half a season this year (he missed a quarter and was bad for another quarter). this ratio is unlikely to improve. and again, at some point soon, it just ends. his space on the roster goes poof. no trading his expiring, the slot and money are gone.

svtzr's answer is that you have another one in knecht/vando. i say...you need both. this was the reason for my earlier posts today that i feel must have gone unread. this is our only year to be under the cap unless people want to advocate just rolling over a bunch of one-year contracts for the duration of luka's prime. this is it. you can't spend half your cap space on lebron. you'll end up losing players from the current team AND losing future trade possibilities.

i'll be very surprised if we come to an agreement with lebron early in FA for the 25 million figure being thrown around by many in this thread. at the end, if we don't hit on several other targets? sure. i can totally see it. but as plan A...hell no.

 

100% with you on this. luka was the bigger steal, but SA gave up freaking nothing. quick, don't google, name what they gave up for fox. the point is proven.

if we got fox for that outgoing package, the league would have been in an uproar similar to the luka fallout.

if we had hit the lotto in the wemby year after hitting the lotto in the duncan year two decades prior, there might be an FBI investigation.