Lakers Sign LeBron James To Contract Extension
DECEMBER 3: The Lakers have officially announced James’s contract extension in a press release.
“LeBron James is a transcendent basketball player, and human being,” GM Rob Pelinka said in a statement. “LeBron put his trust in the Lakers in 2018, and now this contract extension paves the way for LeBron to further solidify his legacy as an all-time Lakers great. We could not be more honored by this commitment.”
DECEMBER 2: The Lakers and LeBron James have agreed to terms on a two-year, maximum-salary contract extension, agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports confirms (via Twitter) that an extension agreement is in place and that it will run through 2023. That means the new deal has essentially replaced LeBron’s 2021/22 player option with a guaranteed season and tacked one extra year onto his contract.
James, who has a $39,219,566 salary for 2020/21, can receive a 5% raise on that figure for the first year of his extension, which would result in a ’21/22 salary of $41,180,544, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). He can then receive an 8% raise for year two, which means a ’22/23 salary of $44,479,988. The end result would be a two-year extension worth about $85.66MM.
Assuming James prioritized maximizing his future earnings, his extension won’t include a player option for 2022/23.
As cap expert Albert Nahmad explains (via Twitter), the extension can only have included a new player option if LeBron technically picked up his existing ’21/22 option (worth $41,002,274) as part of the deal, which would limit the amount of his raise for ’22/23. CBA rules prohibit him from declining that option and then signing an extension that includes fewer than two guaranteed seasons.
Either way, LeBron will no longer be eligible to opt out in 2021, taking one huge name off next year’s free agent market. It’s not clear whether James’ extension will influence what Anthony Davis‘s next contract looks like — ESPN’s Brian Windhorst says the Lakers’ two superstars are making their decisions independent of one another.
As Charania (Twitter link) and others have noted, LeBron’s son Bronny James is scheduled to graduate high school in 2023. If the NBA and NBPA have agreed to scrap the one-and-done rule by that point, it could open the door for Bronny to enter the 2023 draft and team up with LeBron during the ’23/24 season.
The elder James will turn 36 years old later this month, but has shown no signs of slowing down yet. In 2019/20, he averaged 25.3 PPG and 7.8 RPG to go along with a league-high 10.2 APG in 67 games (34.6 MPG). He earned First Team All-NBA honors, finished second in MVP voting, led the Lakers to a championship, and won his fourth NBA Finals MVP award.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
O’Connor’s Latest: Westbrook, Harden, Wall, Beal
Russell Westbrook made his trade request to the Rockets in large part because he and James Harden weren’t that great an on-court fit, writes Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer. As such, Houston viewed Westbrook’s desire to leave as a “blessing in disguise,” since it gave the team an opportunity to try to make Harden happy, per O’Connor.
As O’Connor explains, many members of the Rockets organization believe that Harden isn’t necessarily dead-set on leaving Houston, despite his reported preference for a trade — he simply wants to win a championship and is no longer sure whether his current team gives him a realistic chance to do so. If they want to keep him, the Rockets have to prove to Harden that they’re the team best suited to helping him realize that championship goal, O’Connor says.
Here’s more from The Ringer’s lead NBA reporter:
- The Rockets “searched far and wide” to find a Westbrook trade, says O’Connor. League sources tell The Ringer that the Hornets‘ interest in Westbrook dissipated after they drafted LaMelo Ball and that interest from the Knicks “eventually fizzled” as well, leaving the Wizards as the only viable suitor.
- The market for John Wall was even more limited than the one for Westbrook, according to O’Connor, who says that any team with even mild interest in acquiring the former No. 1 overall pick wanted multiple draft picks as a sweetener for taking on his oversized contract.
- Wall’s desire to be traded became public shortly after word of the Wizards‘ discussions with the Rockets initially broke. O’Connor suggests that wasn’t a coincidence, writing that Wall became “disgruntled” with his future in D.C. once those trade talks were reported.
- A video that surfaced in September showing Wall flashing gang signs at a party helped pave the way for his departure, since the club wasn’t pleased about that video, O’Connor confirms. Still, the Wizards‘ primary motivation for making the deal was their desire to focus on building around Bradley Beal and keeping him long-term, says O’Connor.
And-Ones: Marijuana, Team USA, K. Alexander, W. Chandler
After not testing players for marijuana during its summer restart, the NBA will continue to forgo those tests for the 2020/21 season, league sources tell NBA reporter Ben Dowsett (Twitter links).
As Dowsett explains, this decision is largely tied to COVID-19 safety protocols, since testing for marijuana only increases the amount of close contact required for players. Still, Dowsett notes that there’s no guarantee the testing program will ever return in its previous form. The expectation from many people in the league is that marijuana testing may be on the way out, per Dowsett.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Team USA head coach Gregg Popovich acknowledged this week that putting together the roster for the Tokyo Olympics may be a challenge, given how late the NBA season will run. “The timing does make everything difficult,” Popovich said, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. “And it will demand some real soul-searching and out-of-the-box type of thinking to put together the best team we possibly can.”
- Free agent big man Kyle Alexander, who finished the 2019/20 season on a two-way contract with Miami, has reached an agreement to sign with Baloncesto Fuenlabrada in Spain for the 2020/21 season, the team announced (Spanish link). Alexander made his NBA debut in the Orlando bubble, appearing in two of the Heat’s eight seeding games.
- ESPN.com has provided a primer on how the 2020/21 NBA season will work, including details on the league’s COVID-19 protocols, the new postseason play-in format, and more.
- Wilson Chandler, who joined the Zhejiang Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association after finishing last season with the Nets, spoke on an episode of The Realm podcast about why he decided to continue his career in China. Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News shares some of the highlights from the discussion.
Rockets Notes: Harden, Wall, Westbrook, Roster
Shortly after Houston traded Russell Westbrook to Washington on Wednesday night, Tim MacMahon of ESPN reported that the Rockets‘ stance on James Harden hadn’t changed and that they didn’t envision a scenario where he’d be traded before opening night.
Following up on that report, Jordan Schultz of ESPN (Twitter link) asked a Rockets source if the club is done making offseason moves.
“Yes, we are done!” that source replied. “Can’t always say for sure but that’s the plan.”
While the Rockets are seemingly intent on keeping Harden for the time being, John Hollinger of The Athletic believes it’s just a matter of time before they’ll have to make a deal. Hollinger believes the Rockets will likely attempt to duck the luxury tax again this season, further weakening the roster in the process, and says teams around the league are waiting to see if Houston gets serious about moving Harden during the season or in the 2021 offseason.
Here’s more out of Houston:
- Appearing on ESPN’s Get Up (video link) this morning, Adrian Wojnarowski said that Harden “had a preference of John Wall over Westbrook.” While that may be the case, it’s worth noting that a year ago we heard that Harden’s preference was Westbrook over Chris Paul, and that didn’t work out great.
- In the wake of the Westbrook trade, Zach Lowe of ESPN explained on his Lowe Post podcast that the market for the former MVP was virtually nonexistent outside of Washington’s offer. “The Clippers were not interested,” Lowe said, per RealGM. “The Knicks were not interested unless they were incentivized. I don’t know where the Hornets noise came from — maybe it was credible. All I can say is, from the people I know there, I never heard they were interested. There was, to my knowledge, nothing.”
- The Rockets’ decision-makers don’t believe that the trade for Wall alters the “suddenly strained dynamic” between Harden and the team, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Insider link).
- New Rockets head coach Stephen Silas said today that he expects to have his full roster available when practices begin on Sunday, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. If Silas is right, that suggests that no Rockets were among the 48 players who recently tested positive for COVID-19.
NBA Targeting March 25 For 2021 Trade Deadline
The NBA has its eye on Thursday, March 25 for this season’s trade deadline, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). While that’s the tentative plan, the date will still need to be approved by the league’s Board of Governors, Charania notes.
In recent years, the trade deadline has landed in early February. However, in those instances, the season was tipping off in mid-October and ending in early- to mid-April. In 2020/21, the regular season will run from December 22 to May 16.
A March 25 is still a little later in the season than usual, coming well after the league-wide salary guarantee date (February 27) and after the dates when recently-signed players will be trade-eligible (February 6 and March 3).
[RELATED: Details on new dates, deadlines for 2020/21]
It would fall a couple weeks before the April 9 deadline for players to be waived by one team and retain playoff eligibility for a new club.
Northwest Notes: McLaughlin, Nuggets, Diallo, Clarkson
While there are still a handful of interesting names on the list of available free agents, only one of those players is a restricted free agent. Jordan McLaughlin, who finished the 2019/20 season on a two-way deal with the Timberwolves, is the lone player left on the market of the 31 who initially received qualifying offers in November.
It seems likely that McLaughlin will still end up with the Timberwolves, since most teams are prepared to start training camp and aren’t looking to sign an RFA to an offer sheet. However, Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News tweets that the team and McLaughlin still seem to be “a bit apart” on a new deal. As a result, the 24-year-old guard has yet to report to the team’s facility for camp.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- When Jerami Grant left Denver for Detroit last month, reports indicated that the Nuggets had expected to re-sign the forward and were caught off guard when he chose the Pistons. The Nuggets’ president of basketball operations, Tim Connelly, confirmed as much this week, telling reporters that “it was a bit surprising and disappointing” that the team couldn’t get a deal done with Grant (Twitter link via Kendra Andrews of The Athletic).
- Newly-signed Nuggets big man Isaiah Hartenstein said he chose to join Denver because he’ll get an opportunity to have an immediate role on a contending team, tweets Mike Singer of The Denver Post.
- After a whirlwind offseason of roster moves in Oklahoma City, 2018 second-round pick Hamidou Diallo suddenly finds himself as the Thunder‘s longest-tenured player, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman.
- Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson spent less than a full season in Utah before committing to a four-year contract with the team this fall. As Aaron Falk of UtahJazz.com writes, Clarkson’s brief stay in Utah convinced him a long-term deal was the right move. “It’s crazy how fast I connected with these guys and this group,” Clarkson said. “… The guys have been great. The relationship with Coach (Quin Snyder). Overall, just the fit. The city has been great to me as well. I’m just feeling comfortable, peace of mind.”
Lakers Notes: LeBron, Future, Kuzma, Howard
It has been an eventful week for the Lakers, who have agreed to new deals with both of their two superstars — LeBron James is signing through 2023, while Anthony Davis will be under contract through at least 2024.
In an Insider-only article for ESPN.com, Kevin Pelton explores what those two new contracts mean for the Lakers’ long-term future, observing that Rob Pelinka and the front office can now focus on how to fill out the roster around the team’s two stars in the coming years. While the Lakers’ 2020/21 roster is set, only two players besides James and Davis (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Marc Gasol) have guaranteed contracts beyond this season.
With little to no projected cap room for 2021 and beyond, the Lakers will likely prioritize re-signing their own free agents next year rather than shaking up the roster too significantly, Pelton writes. Dennis Schröder, Alex Caruso, and Kyle Kuzma are among the younger players who will be up for new deals in 2021.
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- In his look at LeBron’s extension, Bill Oram of The Athletic suggests that comparisons to the two-year, $48MM deal Kobe Bryant signed with the Lakers at age 35 are misplaced. Oram says Kobe’s extension was a “gift” to Bryant, who was coming off a torn Achilles at the time. James’ extension comes after he finished second in MVP voting and was named Finals MVP in 2020.
- Kyle Kuzma said today that his agent and the Lakers have talked about a contract extension, but he declined to offer any additional specifics (Twitter link via Dave McMenamin of ESPN). “We’ll see,” Kuzma said. As Bobby Marks of ESPN points out (via Twitter), L.A. could be more open to a rookie scale extension for Kuzma now that the team isn’t as concerned about retaining cap flexibility for 2021.
- Asked about the message he tweeted – and then deleted – on the first night of free agency about returning to the Lakers, new Sixers center Dwight Howard essentially confirmed the explanation reported at the time by Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. “At one point, I thought I (had an offer from the Lakers),” Howard said, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. “And so that’s when you saw the infamous tweet because I really thought I was going back, but there was no offer.”
New York Notes: Rivers, Burks, Chiozza, Allen, Johnson
New Knicks guard Austin Rivers drew interest from multiple suitors in free agency, including many who are closer to championship contention than New York. However, Rivers said this week that he jumped at the opportunity to play in the “mecca of basketball” and to try to build “something special” with his new club.
“It’s easy to go somewhere where everything already is set up and they’ve been to the playoffs four, five years in a row,” Rivers said, per Marc Berman of The New York Post. “I’ve been on those teams. Those are great experiences. But I want to take those experiences and lessons and help this team and this organization as many ways as possible. That era of people not wanting to come here, our job is to change that. We have to make that attractive. And we will.”
Here’s more on the NBA’s two teams based in New York:
- The presence of former Jazz executive Walt Perrin and former Jazz assistant Johnnie Bryant in New York helped convince Alec Burks to sign with the Knicks in free agency, as Berman details in a separate New York Post story.
- Chris Chiozza‘s new one-year contract with the Nets is a non-guaranteed training camp contract, tweets Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports. Brooklyn has 14 players on guaranteed contracts and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot on a partially guaranteed deal, so Chiozza will have an uphill battle to earn a regular season roster spot.
- Jarrett Allen is entering a contract year and has been mentioned in trade rumors throughout the year, creating some uncertainty about his future with the Nets. The fourth-year center is trying to shut out that speculation and focus on what he can control, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “At the end of the day, I just try to put it aside,” Allen said. “I know it’s big decisions, deciding where I’m playing or deciding whatever happens at the end of the day. It’s all basketball at the end of the day, whether I’m happy about what happens or not happy. It’s all basketball and I’m here to play it.”
- Newly re-signed Nets guard Tyler Johnson said there were “definitely other teams and other opportunities” for him in free agency, but that he has appreciated GM Sean Marks‘ transparency and wants to compete for a title in Brooklyn. Chris Milholen of NetsDaily has the story.
Southwest Notes: Burke, Terry, Martin, Spurs, Konchar
The Mavericks used a portion of their mid-level exception to sign both free agent guard Trey Burke and No. 31 pick Tyrell Terry, as Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports details (Twitter links).
Burke’s three-year contract with the Mavericks, initially reported as a $10MM deal, actually has a total value of $9.45MM, starting at $3MM in 2020/21, per Smith. However, it does include a third-year player option and a 7.5% trade kicker, which would provide Burke with a modest bonus if he’s dealt before the contract expires.
Terry, meanwhile, will get a first-year salary of about $1.29MM, well above the rookie minimum. The final three years will be all be worth the minimum, with a team option on the final season, according to Smith. In total, Terry’s four-year contract with the Mavericks is worth $6.52MM, with $4.59MM in guaranteed money.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- The Rockets‘ four-year deal with KJ Martin (aka Kenyon Martin Jr.) is worth the minimum and is fully guaranteed in 2020/21 only, tweets Smith. His salaries for the three subsequent seasons will become guaranteed two days before the start of the offseason moratorium of each new league year.
- Derrick White (recovering from toe surgery), Quinndary Weatherspoon (knee surgery), and Keldon Johnson (foot ailment) won’t be available when the Spurs begin practicing in the coming days, head coach Gregg Popovich said this week (link via Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News). “I’m not sure exactly when they are coming back, but they won’t be there in the beginning,” Popovich said.
- After signing a two-way contract as an undrafted rookie last season, Grizzlies guard John Konchar parlayed a strong first-year audition into a four-year deal with the team this fall. As Evan Barnes of The Memphis Commercial Appeal writes, Konchar got on FaceTime with his mother immediately after agreeing to terms with the club. “It seemed like she was about to cry. I mean, the feeling was just amazing,” Konchar said.
Reactions To John Wall, Russell Westbrook Trade
Just when it seemed like the NBA offseason was winding down, the Rockets and Wizards made a big splash on Wednesday night, swapping star point guards. Russell Westbrook headed to Washington in the blockbuster deal in exchange for John Wall and a lottery-protected 2023 first-round pick.
While word of the trade agreement came as something of a surprise when it broke last night, it makes perfect sense in at least one respect: Westbrook’s and Wall’s oversized contracts didn’t appeal to most teams around the NBA, so trading them for one another was the logical move.
“The trade seemed inevitable,” one Eastern Conference executive told Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. “Two players at similar stages of their careers and both having demanded a change of scenery. Brooks gets a force of nature with whom he is well versed. Houston gets a much needed first-round pick as they inch toward a rebuild.”
Another Eastern exec who spoke to Scotto suggested that the Wizards are “for sure” a playoff team after adding Westbrook, while a scout told HoopsHype that he’s bullish on Westbrook in D.C. since head coach Scott Brooks “knows how to use him.” However, not everyone who spoke to Scotto loved the trade for the Wizards.
“Two of the worst contracts flipped for each other should tell you something,” a Western Conference GM told HoopsHype. “Did you see Russ play last year? He slowed down (James) Harden. I feel bad for Beal.”
Here are more reactions to – and analyses of – one of the biggest trades of the 2020 offseason:
- Michael Lee of The Washington Post (Twitter link) hears that D.C. was Westbrook’s preferred destination, and that the former MVP is intrigued by the opportunity to team up with Bradley Beal and to play again for Brooks, his former coach in Oklahoma City.
- The Rockets remain in win-now mode and “wouldn’t accept” trading Westbrook away for a package that signaled a full-scale rebuild, writes Kelly Iko of The Athletic. Iko adds that initial talks between the two teams stalled because they were haggling over draft capital and the possible inclusion of another young player – such as Thomas Bryant – in a deal. Houston and Washington ultimately kept it simple, just adding a single first-round pick to the Westbrook/Wall swap.
- Kurt Helin of NBC Sports poses five big questions related to the trade, including how much Wall has left in the tank after missing nearly two full years due to injury.
- The trade is the right move for the Wizards, but it’s packed with risk, Ben Golliver writes for The Washington Post. Elsewhere at The Washington Post, Jerry Brewer bids farewell to Wall, writing that the former No. 1 pick’s exit “seems both premature and overdue.”
- Wizards owner Ted Leonsis had to make a choice between Wall and Beal and ultimately decided to stick with Beal, says David Aldridge of The Athletic. “At the end of the day, this is a Ted call,” a source told Aldridge.
- The Westbrook/Wall swap is a sign of how the two point guards are valued in today’s NBA, according to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports, who says “the teams that matter aren’t the least bit concerned by this move.”
- Having covered Westbrook in Oklahoma City, Fred Katz of The Athletic tells Wizards fans what they can expect from their new point guard.