Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James exercised his $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 NBA season.

Bypassing the ability to enter free agency, James instead chose to remain under contract with the Lakers.

That said, his future is anything but certain.

Following James’ decision to opt-in, his longtime agent Rich Paul released a statement to ESPN that seemingly placed the possibility of a trade on the table.

“LeBron wants to compete for a championship,” Paul said to ESPN. “He knows the Lakers are building for the future. … We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career.”

Following this statement, trade buzz unsurprisingly picked up. Several teams were floated as potential James suitors, including the Dallas Mavericks.

In addition to No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, Dallas has two star players James won a championship alongside: Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis.

During an episode of The Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported Dallas had come up in speculation as a potential James trade destination.

Just days after this report, the James to Dallas rumors received a new wrinkle from one of his former teammates.

In the latest episode of his Pat Bev Podcast, former Lakers guard Patrick Beverley urged his co-host Adam “Rone” Ferrone to tell the audience something pertaining to the James-Mavericks rumors.

“We got a text from Pat. He said, ‘I might have big news.’ … several days ago,” Rone said.