Trade speculation has been swirling around LeBron James for the past two weeks since his decision to exercise a $52.6MM player option for next season was accompanied by a statement from agent Rich Paul indicating that James will be monitoring the Lakers‘ personnel moves to make sure they’re assembling a championship-level roster.
During today’s broadcast of L.A.’s Summer League game (Twitter video link), Dave McMenamin of ESPN relayed a conversation with Paul, who said James hasn’t asked him to work out a trade and he hasn’t discussed the possibility of a future trade with team officials. McMenamin adds that four teams contacted Paul directly to express interest in acquiring James.
Paul also dispelled a theory that James is upset because the Lakers didn’t offer him a contract beyond 2025/26, with McMenamin saying that Paul and James never asked the team for that.
James was at Saturday’s game to watch his son, Bronny James, and the rest of L.A.’s Summer League squad. McMenamin said he gave LeBron a chance to appear on the broadcast to discuss the situation, but he responded, “I ain’t got nothing to talk about.”
McMenamin states that it’s “business as usual” for the Lakers, who are trying to put together the best possible roster around James and Luka Doncic. He lists their assets in potential deals as their 2031 first-round pick and the expiring contracts of Rui Hachimura, Maxi Kleber and Gabe Vincent. They can open a roster spot by waiving Shake Milton before his $3MM contract for next season becomes fully guaranteed on July 20.
James raised some eyebrows around the league by visiting the Cavaliers’ practice facility last week. Although he explained it’s an annual occurrence because he lives in the area during the offseason, it’s possible that similar incidents will continue throughout the summer and maybe into the season until his future gets settled.
Monitor the situation, lols. Bron doesn’t have the powers he once had. GM James days are over.
He’s got all the power he needs. One suggestion that he’s unhappy and wants out and the Lakers season is over.
Oh L.A would love to trade him. Apart from that, what else can he pull? Lakers are done with this guy. The lakers season is over already.
Love to trade him why? So Luka who hasn’t signed an extension can watch how they treat their star players? Or so they can not capitalize on having two of the 12 best players in the league on their team? Or so Rich Paul can tell all his clients you don’t want to go to the lakers they don’t treat their stars well trust me we can find a better place for you? The Lakers pour handling of this situation is doing them no favors for the future or right now.
lol. I know those poor mistreated players. Poor fella is so hated by the Lakers they’re doling out over 50 million to him.
You can act that way all you want it’s just the facts. The days of shut up and dribble are over. These guys make too much money both on and off the court, and have too much influence. This isn’t the NFL where the league is the star how teams treat players in the NBA especially superstars is noticed by other players and agents.
On the contrary. Trade him and they’d probably have a better chance of winning. While he’s great, his opinion of himself is a bit exaggerated. He’s not Jordan, will never be, and at his point of his career is serviceable. His offense is what keeps him viable because his defense is non existent and the reason they don’t win championships as he expects them to do. I’d see if Cleveland would bite again for Mobley, could be a win-win.
He’s still got the power… he just “babysitting” his legacy. He’s not gonna ask out – he’ll let it happen organically. He’ll end up with a championship contender, so there’s no need to make it like he’s ASKING to be traded to one of those situations.
If he was traded what championship contender is a better situation than his?
Okc seems like they are fine without him
Denver seems limited after moves
Houston could possibly do something but probably won’t push all in chips for him
Golden State probably would make sense cause they are ready to go for broken for steph
Minnesota seems limited by cap situation
Cleveland could probably do something extreme but would need to clear salary to get under second apron then compensate lakers for bron i guess seems possible
New York added nice bench guys and seem like they are content where they are at.
Philly i guess could use this to shed george but not sure if that situation is better than lakers with health.
Those seem like the only teams that would make more sense than lakers. I don’t know if there is a lot of options and what teams are willing to give up.
I could definitely be wrong and a trade could happen. I have a hard time seeing anything make sense other than Cleveland going all in with whatever that trade looks like or Golden State that could trade kuminga in a sign and trade and fillers to make it happen.
@Nrg
beyond the leverage he had to get his son drafted, which was an ask the Lakers were likely more than willing to acquiesce to since it only cost their 55th overall pick, what did he “force” them to do that they likely did for their own best interest? The idea that he has to “force” them to be “all-in” to win and max out the cap should be an embarrassment to the front office, if it were true. Why wouldn’t any team with a “LBJ, Luka, Giannis or Joker” NOT be all- in to surround their star with the best talent? If they weren’t them it would be negligence. I’m not saying trade away every single draft asset but if used wisely the value of a “missing piece” trumps that of a pick likely in the 20’s. You don’t think MJ or Kobe had those same expectations of their own organizations??? The Lakers are in-step with everything LBJ wants. Buss saw her teams valuation jump from $3.3 billion as the team averaged 25 wins over a 5 year span to 43 wins per season over a 7 year span which included a chip and 5 playoff runs culminating in a $10 billion sale of the team. LBJ helped increase the team value by nearly $7 billion and you guys want to believe the media that there’s an adversarial relationship between the two? Did you not see him sitting courtside with Jeannie and Ms. Rambis? And do you REALLY think the sand ownership that bought the Dodgers, a team loaded with stars, wants to push one of the nba’s biggest if not still THEE BIGGEST, face out of LA while simultaneously trying to extend Luka bevy they want to throw say a season to rebuild the team? Even if LBJ played for a dollar they wouldn’t be all he to free up more than $10 mil in salary so why would they want him to walk if they can’t replace his talent and they can’t trade him because of his no-trade? This team made it to the playoffs without a center and with little time to gel. That’s no reason to think that a healthy LBJ, Luka and Reeves with Ayton and a full camp can’tbe serious contenders for at least a WCF. And let’s be honest, if they can accomplish that in LBJ’s walk year that going to be considered a win financially for me ownership and allows a more positive transition to the LBJ era to the Luka era.
@Nrg – one day you will forgive this man for what he did to the C’s
The King is dead … Almost … Long live the Luka …
Luka is a top 4 player. LeBron is a top 15 player. Lakers will be a top 4 team in the West again if healthy. Everyone just needs to lock in and this could be a very successful season.
You think a guy who’s out of shape and doesn’t play defense is a top 4 guy? He’s a 1-way player.
You also described LeBron, who is in shape.
Luka is easily top 4
RavensNBA on YouTube:
Those are very good players, but that team is not winning anything of significance as they’re currently constructed.
As I mentioned below, I think the Lakers are getting Beal (it’s the only team that makes sense for Beal for this year, explained why in the other comment). With Ayton (who I think will be very good next year), Luka, LeBron, Beal, Reaves, Rui and some bench, the Lakers are going to be a real threat next year.
Hopefully, they can trade Knech, Vincent and Vando ($27M total) and open up room for some decent bench players to come in.
Beal to the lakers makes zero sense. They already have Luka and Reaves in the backcourt who want touches and shots and don’t play defence. On top of that you have LeBron who ticks all those boxes too.
Beal would be a sixth man on that roster and even then he’d be limited in the amount of touches etc cause of the other stars.
Clippers are the favourite cause it’s LA, they have a better roster and better coach. There is an opening in the starting line up and he’d have the opportunity to take a lot of shots.
Milwaukee makes more sense cause their need for a star in the backcourt and because the east is way easier than the west but he doesn’t want that it seems
If the Clippers get him they cannot give him any contract beyond $15M next year AND they cannot sign and trade him next year. If Beaks wants to get paid he isn’t going to the Clippers.
The Lakers can offer to give Beale to start and bring Reaves off the bench. That can always change during the season, but they can put that carrot in front of him to sign with them.
Johnnybgood:
I don’t know if they’re getting Beal or not, but I don’t think he’s that good at this point. Ayton is always hurt too. And I don’t think that roster is all that good. I think they’re OK.
Beal shot 41% from 3 last two years, and 58% from 2, averaging 17 points. He is still a very efficient scorer.
Blazers were like the Jazz last few years. They weren’t going anywhere. If their players had paper cuts they didn’t play. Markkanen played 55 games last year and Kessler 58. Same with other chitty teams. I think Ayton will surprise on the upside next year if he ever wants to get a big contract ($20-25M range ever again).
Johnnybgood:
Who knows how much Beal will play. He barely plays 50 games a season now. Besides, he’s not even on the Lakers at this point, this is more of an assumption you’re making, so this could all be moot. I don’t have any confidence in Ayton’s health.
Knecht, Vincent and Vando are decent bench players so why would they want to trade them?
They didn’t play any of them in the playoffs. For every positive thing Vando does on defense he makes a stupid foul or a bad turnover. And he is worthless on offense so teams layoff of him.
They will play them some during the season, but not the playoffs. They need 3 and D wings they can trust in the playoffs. These 3 aren’t it. Heck Swider wayyyyyy outplayed Knecht in the summer league.
Vando didn’t even average 10 mins in the playoffs, Vincent even less, and Knecht didn’t play at all. This with the lakers desperately needing bench players.
Jimmy Butler for Lebron James, 1-for-1, just get it over with already, we know it is going to happen
The looming threat of an LBJ trade request definitely doesn’t hold the weight that it used to. In fact, considering the return they would get, the Lakers might find a trade desirable. They aren’t going to win with the roster they have, and they’ve already started the Luka era.
Lebron’s never asked for a trade, so the threat of him asking for a trade hasn’t ever had any weight. He just plays out his contract. He doesn’t want the team whom he’s gonna play for to be depleted the trade assets needed to construct a winning team around him.
If healthy this Lakers team can hang with anybody except the Thunder and maybe Cleveland. Houston? Old man KD and no offense if he goes down. Denver? Still a one man show. The Lakers have 2 top 15 players and Reeves is somewhere in the top 50. They’ve also got the role players around them to compliment them.
Okc,Houston,Nuggets,Wolves,Clippers,Warriors and Memphis( with a healty Ja Morant) are all better than the Lakers.And that One men show Denver time swept the Lakers just two years ago when the Lakers still have AD who is One of the best defenders in the league.Against Ayton Jokic can Score every time he wants. And if Reeves is top 50 Murray, Johnson and Gordon are at least top 40.And Next year the Nuggets Will have a better bench than they have this year.
Lakers x Nuggets in the playoffs ? Denver in 4 ( again ).
How are the Clippers , now without arguably their best player in Powell, Wariors, who likely will be built around 3 guys in their mid to late 30s, Grizzlies, without Bane,better next year when they weren’t better than the Lakers who had an injured LBJ and Luka, Luka still stunned over the trade, only had 26 games of Luka and James gelling together, no center other than Jaxson Hayes, and JJ going thru his freshman season last year? Keep in mind that they forced LBJ to play center for 40 minutes a game in the playoffs vs Wolves. JJ will have had plenty of time to formalize the best way to strategically use Luka, LBJ, Reeves, Ayton and Hachi. There’s no train why this team can’t be a 4th place team at minimum. It seems that basic logic and allowance fits out the window when it pertains to the Lakers or LBJ.
You are talking about regular season, i was talking about the teams that have more chance of making deep playoffs runs. Lakers may finish the regular season in the top 4 but in the playoffs defense matters alot, as we see this year. And that’s what we see when the 6th seed Wolves beat the 3rd seed Lakers 4 x 1. Luka, LBJ, Reeves and Ayton are bad or even very bad defenders. Luka is in fact One of the worst defenders of all time. In the playoffs i favor a team like the Warriors with Championship pedigree,arguably the best PG of all time who still plays great basketball and great defenders like Draymond and Butler Over the Lakers who don’t even have finney-Smith anymore. All the Times than i listed have way better defenses than the Lakers and the majority of them also have better benches and in a playoff series i would favor any of them against the Lakers because of that two things, after all that’s because of that two things ( defense and bench) that teams like Okc, Pacers and Wolves have the seasons that they have. A team that have 3 very bad defenders like LeBron, Luka and Reaves as their best 3 players as no chance of going very far in the playoffs in a really strong Western conference. But that’s just my opinion.
“He doesn’t want the team whom he’s gonna play for to be depleted of assets”.
Uh, Miami sent out two firsts, two seconds, a pick swap and a trade exception to bring LeBron in.
They underpaid, but that was also 15 years ago lol
Future Milwaukee Buck Lebron James. Who’d have thought?
The Lakers are the team most likely to get Bradley Beal. No NBA team will have Beal’s bird rights in 2026. So, if Beal wants to get a new contract in 2026 that will pay him more than the non-tax MLE of $15M, he will have to sign a deal with a team that is going to have cap room in 2026. The Lakers in 2026 will be able to a) sign Beal if they want to keep him for $20-25M, or sign and trade him to another team for much needed assets (first round draft picks, etc).
You wont even find a Team now to sign Beal for the full MLE. He is injured or ineffective for Almost three years
@Andreas
I hate to be that guy but are you mad? can you not chug on the narratives and think for yourself? Has he been injured? Yes. Missed, on average, 29 games each of the last two seasons? Ineffective? He’ll no! He’s shot 50/40/80 on 13 shots and 17 points per game as the 3rd option with the Suns. It’s not good fault the owner signed off on bad roster formation and it’s not his fault a GM offered him a big bag with a no-trade. He’s not going to give you much on defense but you can day that about a ton of offensive fist guards in the nba. But he can flat out score and be a great weapon for teams that can mitigate his deficiencies. Health is his biggest issue tho not performance.
As I said before the Lakers are very likely to get Beal. They already got Ayton, who I think is going to be better than people are expecting. On top of that they need to trade Knecht, Vincent and Vando (total salaries of $27M) to the Nets (they need high expiring salaries to make minimum NBA salary this year, and Knecht should be a nice carrot for them).
Then use those trade exceptions to get additional good players. They should also sign Swider for minimum contract. The kid is probably the best, most consistent player in the whole summer league this year.
Luka, LeBron, Beal, Ayton, Reaves, Rui and some decent bench they should be a real contenders next year and beyond.
I’ve always liked Bazley , I think if any player is nba worthy from Lakers Vegas squad it’s him
I’d take him over Ben Simmons in a heartbeat , think he might land a spot somewhere in the league – He might be better than Vanderbelt today
I watched only one game and looked at the stats for each game. Swider was consistently very good on all the games. They can sign Swider to two way one more year. They should at least do that.
I know Bazley got a lot of attention for his defense, but get Durant show up on the stats, and like I said I only watched one game.
Lakers need to trade Vando, but I’m not sure anyone will taste him without incentives (maybe if they send cash with him!?). For every positive thing he dues on defense he makes at least one dumb foul and a dumb turnover. On top of that he isn’t an offensive threat so teams lay off of him. He is like an overactive kid running around out there without any control or thought.
Luka, LeBron, Beal, Ayton, Reaves ? Real contenders ? With no defense at all ? You are funny (or clueless).
Contending for the play-in if they’re lucky.
Funny how all the analysts were giving the Lakers second odds to come out of the West, but now that they got a legit center, Luka playing with the team all year and healthy, Rui healthy (had leg injury that he needed to be out for weeks if it wasn’t for the playoffs), Bron coming back from groin injury, Luka food poisoning, Reaves playing with broken toe, don’t have a chance this year with legit center and Beal.
That will possibly be the worst defensive starting 5 in history
Cam they’ll run into the Thunder and get cooked by 35ppg lol
What even is the going rate on LeBron?
Bron is old and playing on the last year of his contract. KD just got traded in the last year of his deal but he’s better than LeBron right now and there isn’t the worry of retirement with him either.
He cost the Suns Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the 10th overall pick, and 5 second round picks.
So what a decent young player, a role player a first and then a bunch of seconds.
LeBron and Knetch for Wiggins, Rozier, Jovic, Jacquez and a first ???
LeBron for Zion and Bey??
LeBron and Knetch for Franz and Issac???
LeBron for Allen and Hunter??
Lebron for Jimmy Butler, 1-for-1
Luka and Zion would be must see TV!
He opted into his 2026 contract. Future settled.
He will never play for the Lakers again… signed 100% of all Cavs and Heat fans
As a Lakers fan I’d be willing to trade him for a good return, but not to take less to make him happy to Golden State, we don’t owe Bron anything, he has gotten everything. If we can get younger to build around Luka and drop that $60 million off that’s solid! Lakers just need to get right & ready for the 2027 free agency
Jimmy Butler and Luka are a better on-court duo than Luka+Bron. Jimmy is pass-first.
Don’t be surprised if he gets a buyout. No team will trade for him because of what hes being paid and how many players it will take to get him to match salaries