{"id":770099,"date":"2026-06-30T01:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T01:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/770099\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T01:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T01:57:09","slug":"nba-free-agency-starts-tuesday-and-once-again-all-eyes-are-on-lebron-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/770099\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA free agency starts Tuesday and once again, all eyes are on LeBron James"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James salutes public address announcer Lawrence Tanter prior to a 2024 game against the Denver Nuggets.Mark J. Terrill\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

NBA free agency in 2010: Everyone waited for LeBron James to make a decision.<\/p>\n

NBA free agency in 2026: Everyone is waiting again for James to make a decision.<\/p>\n

James was the biggest domino to fall in the NBA\u2019s off-season player movement period 16 years ago when he decided to join Miami, and he may be the biggest domino to fall \u2013 at least in free agency \u2013 this summer as well. <\/p>\n

The market opens in the NBA on Tuesday evening, with James\u2019s future atop the list of the most intriguing storylines that will be solved over the coming days and weeks.<\/p>\n

It seems like retirement isn\u2019t happening yet, which would mean the NBA\u2019s all-time leader in points scored, minutes played and games played coming back for a record-extending 24th season and potentially \u2013 when including playoff contests \u2013 appearing in the 2,000th game of his career.<\/p>\n

His options would figure to include staying with the Los Angeles Lakers, returning to Miami or Cleveland (both would have interest for obvious reasons) or even thinking about moving elsewhere like Golden State and teaming up with longtime friends Stephen Curry and Draymond Green to chase one more title.<\/p>\n

Green \u2013 who is not expected to leave Golden State \u2013 on Monday declined his US$27.6-million option for next season, doing so to give the Warriors more maneuverability to add players in the coming days, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because that detail was not revealed publicly by the team, and it raises the possibility that the Warriors might now have more of a selling point to pitch to James.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the time comes, you guys will know what I decide to do,\u201d James said when the Lakers were eliminated this spring by Oklahoma City in a 4-0 sweep.<\/p>\n

The time is coming.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Chatter persists that former Toronto Raptor Kawhi Leonard (right) has interest in returning to the team he helped lead to the 2019 NBA title.Frank Gunn\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The window when teams can begin officially talking with free agents \u2013 other than the ones on their own team, those talks could begin when the NBA finals ended \u2013 opens at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and deals could be flying not long afterward.<\/p>\n

In most cases, any new deals cannot be executed until at least the end of the NBA\u2019s off-season moratorium on July 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis period we\u2019re in right now, kind of from mid-May to mid-July, it\u2019s a two-month sprint through the draft, combine, free agency, Summer League, all that,\u201d Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said earlier this month. \u201cWe\u2019re super busy right now. But it\u2019s a fun time of year. This is where we get to make decisions, shape the roster, do all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBA finalists \u2013 champion New York and runner-up San Antonio \u2013 both will have moves to make in the coming days, though they are expected to keep their cores largely intact.<\/p>\n

Plenty of decisions and roster-shaping already has happened around the league, either by trades (such as the Giannis Antetokounmpo blockbuster) or teams re-signing or extending their own players (such as Trae Young\u2019s US$212-million deal with Washington and Austin Reaves\u2019s US$185-million deal with the Lakers).<\/p>\n

Miami will land Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis in a trade that sends Tyler Herro, other players and draft capital to Milwaukee, but that won\u2019t be finalized until that moratorium date passes. But in the interim, the Heat will be looking to add shooters \u2013 Tim Hardaway Jr., whose father\u2019s number is retired in Miami, and longtime Antetokounmpo favourite Khris Middleton make a lot of sense.<\/p>\n

The Heat will be keeping Andrew Wiggins, who on Monday exercised his US$30-million option for this coming season and, according to a person familiar with the talks between the sides, has agreed in principle on a US$34-million deal for the following two seasons \u2013 with 2028-29 at his option.<\/p>\n

More trades could be coming, with a person familiar with the negotiations confirming to the AP that Toronto has spoken with the Los Angeles Clippers on the possibility of Kawhi Leonard \u2013 who led the Raptors to the 2019 NBA title \u2013 returning to Canada next season. And Boston is still believed to be holding talks about the possibility of trading 2024 NBA finals MVP Jaylen Brown, who was the centrepiece of the Celtics\u2019 ultimately futile offer to land Antetokounmpo in trade discussions with Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody has won more combined regular-season and playoff games since I entered the league 10 years ago,\u201d Brown posted on social media over the weekend. He\u2019s right: The Celtics have won 523 games with Brown in the lineup, including playoff contests, which is six more than Denver has won with Nikola Jokic over that span.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James salutes public address announcer Lawrence Tanter prior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,459,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-770099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-nba","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770099","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=770099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}