Rumors are swirling around the NBA about whether the Los Angeles Lakers will trade LeBron James following his pointed comments about the roster. James’ agent is even fielding trade calls from other teams interested in the four-time champion.
ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania reported Sunday that despite James opting into his $52.6 million player option with LA for his 23rd NBA season, he “is uncertain about the Lakers roster moving forward.
James is 40 years old and it’s unclear how much longer he will play as the Lakers build around new franchise cornerstone Luka Doncic.
“LeBron James is clearly of the mindset that he wants to compete for a championship and he’s going to be monitoring very closely, are the Lakers going to make the moves that puts them in position to seriously compete in that vaunted Western Conference and if not, where do those conversations go,” Charania said. “That becomes a subplot of this offseason.”
Will the Lakers actually trade James? His agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, said that’s not currently the plan, but teams have reached out.
“When I talked to Rich, he told me that he has not had any discussion with the Lakers about wanting a trade on the back end of this statement,” ESPN NBA insider Dave McMenamin said about James’ future in LA. “He did say that four teams have contacted him in the last 24 hours wanting to talk trades but Rich didn’t have any substantive conversations with those teams either. Right now, LeBron is focused on playing on a championship-caliber roster.”
Paul did not disclose which teams reached out.
James averaged 24.4 points, 8.2 assists and 7.8 rebounds per game in his seventh Lakers season while shooting 51.3% from the field and 37.6% from three.