{"id":665418,"date":"2026-05-12T23:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665418\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:09:09","slug":"hall-of-fame-guard-fuels-speculation-on-lebron-james-next-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665418\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame guard fuels speculation on LeBron James’ next team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hall of Fame guard fuels speculation on LeBron James’ next team<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NBA Hall of Fame guard Gary Payton provided his take on where he believes Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> superstar forward LeBron James<\/a> will be playing next season.<\/p>\n

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In his recent appearance on the Night Cap show with Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson, Payton says he believes James will play for the Golden State Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a good shot if he leaves, he\u2019s going to Golden State. I\u2019m telling you he\u2019s coming to Golden State if he leaves,” Payton said.<\/p>\n

LeBron-to-Warriors talk resurfaces<\/p>\n

James has been linked to the Warriors in the past, most notably during the 2024 NBA trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, the Warriors are potential suitors for the four-time NBA champion. For starters, the friendship of Draymond Green<\/a> and admiration for Stephen Curry<\/a> could certainly play a role.<\/p>\n

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However, one hurdle Golden State might face is its inability to offer James a max contract. It is unlikely the 41-year-old takes a pay cut, especially if he wants to leave Los Angeles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If James is looking for max money, the Warriors are not the team for him. Nonetheless, there are a few options. One: James accepts a taxpayer mid-level exception, estimated at around $6.1 million. Or two: he is involved in what would be a complex sign-and-trade with the Lakers.<\/p>\n

If James truly desires to be in the Bay Area, then a sign-and-trade may be the likely scenario.<\/p>\n

James just completed his eighth season in Los Angeles. He missed the playoffs all but twice and led the Lakers to their 17th title in franchise history in 2020. The four-time NBA champion has played in 479 games in the purple and gold, averaging 25.9 points per game.<\/p>\n

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While Payton would love to see James in Golden State, the Lakers have expressed their desire to retain him for potentially his 24th season in the league.<\/p>\n

“Of course, any team, including ours, would love to have LeBron James on their roster,” Lakers general manager and president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said<\/a>. “That’s a blessing in itself just with what he does.”<\/p>\n

If James decides to return, he will enter his age-42 season.<\/p>\n

More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame guard fuels speculation on LeBron James’ next team originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,14722,48765,8217,2327,1522,8231,459,80535,25583,82,13596],"class_list":["post-665418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-draymond-green","tag-gary-payton","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-nba-hall-of-fame","tag-nba-trade-deadline","tag-sports","tag-stephen-curry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665418","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=665418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}