ESPN insider Shams Charania reported on Tuesday that the Warriors are not among the top three teams in the race to land the 41-year-old superstar. The current top contenders, according to the top insider, are the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers and the Philadelphia 76ers. Charania went on fellow ESPN star Stephen A. Smith’s eponymous podcast, which was published Wednesday morning, and had a further breakdown of the current sweepstakes for James.
Charania said he believes 10 teams have a “standing offer” for James. The Warriors’ pitch, as many have reported, is to get James together with his longtime combatants turned friends Steph Curry, Draymond Green and coach Steve Kerr. (Charania even said Green and James are golfing together this week.) But according to Charania, the Warriors are now among the teams “on the periphery” of the James pursuit, in part because they aren’t acquiring former James co-star Anthony Davis.
“The Warriors’ whole plan going into free agency was, ‘OK, let’s see if we can get Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, LeBron James and Anthony Davis,’” Charania said. “And I think the big draw for LeBron James with the Warriors would be, ‘Let’s see if there’s an avenue to be a package deal to the Warriors.’ And so short of that, I don’t think the Warriors are up on that list. I think the Warriors believe they’re not up on that list unless they’re able to go package for an Anthony Davis.”
As the NBA offseason has proceeded and free agents have flown off the board, the team that’s made the biggest push into the running is the Sixers, thanks to their blockbuster trade for Celtics star Jaylen Brown. Bob Myers, the ex-Warriors general manager who is in a prominent multi-sport role with the Sixers’ ownership group, even appeared on Rich Paul’s podcast on Wednesday to sell Philadelphia as the best place for James.
Meanwhile, the Warriors have mostly stayed pat while waiting for James — despite no one really knowing what, exactly, James is looking for out of this free agency or how long he will take to decide. Green may be golfing with James and pitching the Dubs, but it sure doesn’t seem like this Golden State roster is built to be a title contender even with James, let alone without him.
It’s not a great negotiation strategy to go into trade talks with the other team knowing you must have their player to complete your plans. (Just ask the Clippers about that with the Paul George trade.) But that sure looks like the corner the Warriors have backed themselves into here, if you trust Charania’s reporting.
So either the Warriors repeat the Clippers’ horrible trade to make a one-year run for a title with an aging and oft-injured quartet of Curry, Davis, Green and James. Or the Warriors once again didn’t make any moves while pursuing a fantastical idea of pairing up superstars, only to end up nowhere close to actually landing said superstar. Either move is history repeating itself in a way that doesn’t reflect kindly on Joe Lacob, Mike Dunleavy or the Warriors brass.