It’s become increasingly clear over the past couple of weeks that the only thing that truly matters for the Golden State Warriors this offseason is signing 41-year-old superstar LeBron James. But as things currently stand, that master plan has the Dubs in no-man’s-land.
For as many rumors that have circulated regarding where James — who told the Lakers last week that he’d continue his career elsewhere — will ultimately play next season, the fact of the matter is that nobody really seems to know anything. At least, that’s the takeaway from ESPN reporters Brian Windhorst and Tim MacMahon.
On an episode of “The Hoop Collective” podcast published Monday, the two, alongside ESPN analyst Bobby Marks, discussed how in the dark they, and many others, are regarding what James is thinking. Windhorst first brought this up when he shared that teams that reached out to James and his camp “had not heard anything” in the time since. Then, when MacMahon shared an anecdote from an NBA Summer League game in Salt Lake City that many scouts and executives believed James would go back to Cleveland for a third stint, Windhorst stepped in to reiterate the industrywide lack of knowledge, which MacMahon ultimately co-signed.
“But no one is operating with knowledge, like this is the thing —” Windhorst began.
“Exactly, I was going to say, everybody is guessing,” MacMahon quickly replied.
“I wish I could tell you, ‘My sources are saying X,’” Windhorst continued. “But the sources I talk to aren’t speaking with knowledge, and the people who have knowledge are not speaking. Look, I’m not saying that Shams doesn’t have a good idea, I’m just saying I don’t. I wish I could tell you for sure. I don’t.”
Windhorst later added that reporters reached out to everyone who’s met with James over the past couple of weeks to see if they knew anything but that path also came up empty.
This is where the Warriors’ apparent offseason plan gets a little concerning. While the stars previously seemed to be aligning for this Warriors lineup, the James signing has started to look a lot less certain. Teams are scooping up free agents left and right, and seemingly every time that Golden State was linked to that player, a report comes out that the chase for James kept the organization from making the move. It’s certainly understandable — even if it’s something not everyone agrees on — to swing big for a superstar, but it’s considerably less so to take that swing when a team has virtually zero knowledge on what that superstar will do. Keep in mind that this is also in the wake of recent reports that the Warriors’ chances were slipping in the James sweepstakes.
The Dubs are reportedly content to run it back with most of the same roster as last season, even though things ended with another play-in elimination. But if that’s the end result of this offseason, how content will the fans be knowing one of Steph Curry’s final years was wasted on a dream that the Warriors were never certain of?