![\"lebron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1817524530.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James.<\/p>\n
For the first time in several years, this Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> offseason hasn\u2019t revolved around LeBron James<\/a>. The team is building around Luka Doncic<\/a>, and he\u2019s clearly their priority going forward.<\/p>\n James could\u2019ve left in free agency, but decided to pick up the player option on his contract. Despite being contractually tied to the Lakers, James\u2019 camp put out a statement after he picked up his option, suggesting that he could still want to play elsewhere.<\/p>\n However, a trade hasn\u2019t materialized, and it looks like he\u2019s going to play in Los Angeles this season. For his part, James has been very quiet about basketball matters involving his team this offseason. He hasn\u2019t requested a trade, nor has he directly put out any statements suggesting that he wants out.<\/p>\n That said, ESPN\u2019s Tim MacMahon<\/a> recently reported some interesting info from James\u2019 camp.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been radio silent since James, via his agent Rich Paul, attempted to rattle the Lakers\u2019 cages immediately after exercising his $52.6 million player option for this season,\u201d MacMahon wrote. \u201cThe all-time leading scorer and his camp understand just how complicated a trade involving him \u2014 at his age, making that much money, with the contractual right to veto any deal \u2014 would be.\u201d<\/p>\n Does James Want a Trade?<\/p>\n MacMahon\u2019s report seems mostly innocuous, but it does make it seem like James\u2019 camp would prefer a trade to another team. Why else would they need to \u201cunderstand\u201d how complicated the process is if he\u2019s where he wants to be?<\/p>\n Based on MacMahon\u2019s comments, James may be fine playing the 2025-26 season with the Lakers, but he\u2019d also welcome a possible trade. If that\u2019s the case, there\u2019s a very good chance he has no plans to stay in Los Angeles past this season. In fact, it\u2019s still possible that he gets traded away during the year.<\/p>\n Lakers Among Teams Most Likely to Make Trade Deadline Move<\/p>\n The Lakers should be a playoff team with their current roster, but it\u2019s difficult to see them as true contenders. There have only been marginal improvements to the roster, and James is another year older.<\/p>\n ESPN believes that the Lakers are the second-most likely team to swing a trade before the trade deadline during the season.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Warriors lead this list because they\u2019ve essentially spent the offseason signaling a desire for deadline movement,\u201d Anthony Slater wrote. \u201cTheir two-year, $45 million contract offer to restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga was designed to get him on a salary number they can flip come January. The Lakers, who are transitioning into the Luka Doncic era, have maintained a few first-round sweeteners that can be used to get a deal done as LeBron James\u2019 expiring contract looms. For the Cavaliers\u2019 situation, disappointment and desperation can breed movement. If they fear their high-value core four won\u2019t get it done in the playoffs again, they may decide to flip one and change up the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n It remains to be seen what big trade the Lakers could make, but it\u2019s on the table that James gets moved by the deadline.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAustin Boyd<\/a> has covered the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Lakers for Heavy.com since 2019. A Los Angeles native now based in Las Vegas, his featured work at Heavy includes interviews with NFL stars Darren Waller and Joe Montana, and a behind-the-scenes look at “The Shop.” More about Austin Boyd<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James. For the first time in several years, this Los Angeles Lakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-96249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}