{"id":65326,"date":"2025-08-13T01:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T01:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/65326\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T01:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T01:08:08","slug":"lakers-warriors-blockbuster-trade-idea-sends-jimmy-butler-to-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/65326\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers-Warriors blockbuster trade idea sends Jimmy Butler to Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers appear open to moving on from LeBron James and giving the keys to Luka Doncic.<\/p>\n

In a recent hypothetical trade idea, the organization would not only make that a reality, but also receive a standout forward<\/a> in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lakers really don’t love the idea of taking on Jimmy Butler’s contract, especially with LeBron’s contract due to expire at the end of the 2025-26 season,\u201d Sports Illustrated\u2019s Dan Angell wrote Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to be free of LeBron’s contract, but there’s no way to do that before the end of 2026 without taking equal value back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they’d demand something to sweeten the deal, which the first-round selection in 2028 provides. Los Angeles wants to start building around Luka Doncic, and stockpiling draft picks makes that more feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cButler also keeps the Lakers competitive. He’s a defensive whiz and remains a strong shooter, even at age 36.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp<\/a><\/p>\n

For clarity, Angell\u2019s trade concept sends James and his son Bronny to the Golden State Warriors for Butler and a 2028 first-round pick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Warriors acquired Butler from the Miami Heat in early February, hoping the six-time All-Star could give the sluggish organization a boost on both ends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Butler did just that, helping the Dubs secure 48 regular-season victories and win their first Play-In contest to earn the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the Marquette product was unassertive at times during Golden State\u2019s second-round matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves, he played well under the circumstances (Curry was sidelined due to a Grade 1 calf strain).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The aging two-way stud contributed 20.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game in the franchise\u2019 Western Conference Semifinals loss.<\/p>\n

James is unquestionably on a different stratosphere despite being five years older, but the Lakers would still be in championship contention with Butler as their third star.<\/p>\n

More NBA:\u00a0Celtics officially sign two-time NBA champion ex-Warriors forward to assist Jaylen Brown<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers appear open to moving on from LeBron James and giving the keys to Luka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-65326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}