LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

I appreciate the 1 championship he got us, but his salary is too much to make a actual good improvements instead of marginal to the team plus he's 41 I don't care how good he plays at that age. the past few seasons he's shown he's breaking down and can barely last into the playoffs, if he can't bow out gracefully that's on him, but you can't justify paying a 41vr old 55mil+

 

You might make your money back on tickets and merchandise, but you aren’t serious about winning it all if you are relying heavily on a 41-42 yr old star with the highest mileage in his sports history. Not for max dollars and up to 35% of your cap. You’re better off with 5 solid players giving you amazing depth.

 

Interesting.the new CBA almost has killed even the possibility of LeBron trade

Previously, teams could receive 125% of the outgoing salary + $100,000.

Now:

The Knicks and Mavericks are up against the second tax apron and can’t take back more salary than they send out.

Cleveland is $20 million over the second apron. To trade for LeBron, they’d have to give up Darius Garland and two key players: Jarrett Allen and Max Strus. No one is doing that for a 40-year-old, even a legendary one.Only trade candidate for LeBron is Mitchell or Mobley ,but they are definitely not going to ..

The Lakers are above the first apron, so salaries must almost match exactly.

For example, before:

Cleveland could’ve traded Allen and Hunter ($43.3M outgoing, could take in $54.1M).

Now they'd need to send Garland, Allen, and Strus ($20M + $23M + $16M).

New York previously could’ve sent Bridges and Hart ($44.4M outgoing, could receive $55.5M).
Now they’d need to include Mitchell Robinson too — too much for a team already lacking depth.

Dallas could’ve offered Thompson, Washington, and Gafford ($45.1M).
Now they'd have to add Naji Marshall or Caleb Martin.

No matter how you look at it: any trade would almost destroy team that LeBron is going to end up in trade

But we’ve only considered teams that interest LeBron. What about others?

Third, there are practically none. No one wants to sacrifice their future for a guy approaching retirement.

Scoop B Robinson reported that four teams reached out to Rich Paul for information.

Two of them were, in fact, Dallas and Cleveland.

The third was Golden State. The Warriors could offer Jimmy Butler, but the Lakers don’t want another veteran — even a younger one.

There are rumors of interest from the Clippers, but they'd have to give up half their rotation (with Leonard and Harden being untouchable).

If a team like Charlotte, Chicago, or Brooklyn decided to give up half its roster for a 40-year-old LeBron, he’d end up in a worse situation than with the Lakers — having to carry a G-League-level team to the playoffs.
That would be extremely difficult, even in the relatively “open” Eastern Conference.

 

plus if he can veto a trade, he doesn't have to go somewhere he doesn't want.

So he'll probably have to get over himself, and understand that teams are hamstrung in their desire to fulfill his every desire.

 

Whelp, there goes that pipe dream.
Guess we’ll have to settle for old man again on one leg come playoffs.

 

Good. This trade LeBron stuff is out of control.

 

Do you guys think we should buy his a** out and waive him???

 

NO!!!!!!

 

it's of no benefit to us, and if he chooses to be disruptive or not fulfill his contract, we can suspend him and fine him so we save tons of money.



that'll never happen, but Kang is mulling over all his options to express his butthurtedness

 

Not sure if this is real… or previously posted. Or if it’s about rn rn or next offseason - sharing anyways FYI:

 

He’s not getting traded! This year anyway. But LOL we can ADD LeBron to the “career contract year” incentive to play extremely well THIS year … can’t we? To go with 5 other guys.

Ayton, Reaves, Hachimura, Goodwin, Kleber. And Luka on a mission to destroy if you need him.

 

1. He's not getting traded.

2. Gafford/Washington/Klay/Christie for LeBron/Bronny works in the trade machine lol.

 

again, it would make no sense for any contender to blow up their team and trade for him. why would the mavs gut their depth to bring in 40 year old lebron?

 

well, if he signed somewhere next year, he could take a huge pay cut for one last shot at a ring. It would suck for our FO if he went somewhere else and won a ring. It would make them look very bad. Then he could just say how unhappy he had been since 2020 because our FO was not trying to win. He could go out a winner and we would be the loser. Not likely how it will play out, but it is a possibility.

 

how much of a paycut could he take realistically? lebron's not signing a min level contract when he's still a top 10-15 player in the league

and i really don't think he cares about winning another ring either. his recent comments about "ring culture" hinted at that

 

Because they actually want to win a championship? If Kyrie came back looking like himself (big if), a Kyrie/Flagg/LeBron/AD/Lively team could do a lot of damage. It's not happening with the current version of their team, Kyrie, Klay and AD are going to age out before Flagg is ready. I understand why a team like Cleveland wouldn't do it, but the Mavs are stuck between two timelines so I actually think it would make sense to really go for it with their old guys. If it doesn't work out, no worries they have Flagg and didn't expend draft capital to bring in LeBron.

It's not happening, though. Just kind of fun to think about. I think LeBron is going to be here next season and maybe even the one after that. I'm highly skeptical of this whole Giannis/Jokic "plan", but if Giannis does force his way here next summer I bet LeBron tries to stick around as well.

 

you can't win a title without depth, and the mavs would have none of it if they traded for lebron. on top of that, you're relying on AD to stay healthy for an entire playoff run, kyrie to come back looking like his old self, and flagg to live up to the hype. i could see why the mavs would try, but it would be nothing more than a hail mary attempt by nico to save his a**

and i can't see either of those guys coming here. the bucks have shown they're willing to do whatever it takes to keep the team competitive and jokic comes off as someone who couldn't care less about LA and is content with staying where he's at

 

I don’t buy that at all.

 

I think LeBron definitely cares about winning another ring, but also cares about the optics. He’s not just going to sign for the minimum with a team already near the top of its conference like the Cavs. He knows everyone would discount that ring.