{"id":741359,"date":"2026-07-03T18:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T18:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741359\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T18:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T18:32:18","slug":"lebron-james-considering-nuggets-as-free-agency-destination-rich-paul-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/741359\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James considering Nuggets as free agency destination, Rich Paul says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The chase is on for LeBron James<\/a>, and Denver appears to be in the inner circle.<\/p>\n

At least, that\u2019s what Rich Paul\u2019s visual aid suggests.<\/p>\n

James is indeed considering the Nuggets as a potential free agency destination, his longtime friend and agent said on \u201cGame Over<\/a>,\u201d a podcast that Paul hosts with Max Kellerman.<\/p>\n

As a discussion guide for the show\u2019s LeBron segment Friday, Paul revealed a whiteboard<\/a> with James\u2019 name at the center and 10 teams orbiting it. Five of those teams were scribbled on the outer edges of the board: New York, San Antonio, Dallas, Boston and Golden State, the last of which caused Kellerman to wonder aloud if Paul was trying to throw people off the scent. The Warriors have been widely considered one of the favorites to land James for his 24th season.<\/p>\n

Then there were the five teams closest to James\u2019 name, expressed as quartets \u2014 the projected starting lineups that LeBron would hypothetically be joining.<\/p>\n

Cleveland, Philadelphia, Miami, Minnesota, Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Denver actually a legitimate destination?\u201d Kellerman asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be on the board (if it wasn\u2019t),\u201d Paul replied.<\/p>\n

The four players listed to represent Denver were Jamal Murray, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic \u2014 a decision almost as curious as the one to relegate Golden State to the exterior. Notably absent was Peyton Watson, a restricted free agent who is also Paul\u2019s client. The Nuggets entered this offseason prepared to trade at least one starter (with Johnson seen as the most likely candidate) to help them re-sign Watson, wanting to signal that he was their top priority.<\/p>\n

No such trade has materialized two days into free agency, and no contract agreement has been reached with Watson yet.<\/p>\n

That Denver has seemingly taken a step back on the trade front, at least for the moment, can ironically be interpreted as an aggressive stance. The Nuggets aren\u2019t required by rule to clear out any salary to make room for a new Watson contract<\/a>. They have Watson\u2019s full Bird rights, having drafted and developed him over the last four years. They can spend as lavishly as they want to keep him \u2014 even into the second apron<\/a>. It\u2019s just that NBA owners, including the Kroenkes, have shown a tendency to treat the second apron as a self-imposed hard cap<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets are projected to be a second apron team if they re-sign Watson and don\u2019t cut any other salary. They would also be paying repeater tax penalties<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in a crowded field of LeBron suitors, perhaps that\u2019s the best way to stand out as a committed championship contender. For now, Paul\u2019s omission of Watson on the whiteboard reads as a leverage play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got one big hurdle,\u201d he said of the Nuggets\u2019 offseason, referring to Watson.<\/p>\n

The Denver Post first reported on Wednesday that the Nuggets had contacted James to show interest in the 41-year-old forward, who\u2019s nearing the end of a legendary career. Paul\u2019s whiteboard confirms that the interest is mutual, even if Denver isn\u2019t the frontrunner. He has said that James is willing to sign a low-cost deal and that his decision will be based on \u201chappiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The superagent also wrote the name \u201cKroenke\u201d on the board, referencing James\u2019 friendship with Nuggets president Josh Kroenke, then taking note of owner Stan Kroenke\u2019s recent track record of winning championships in various sports leagues.<\/p>\n

The four players listed for Cleveland were Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.<\/p>\n

For Miami: Davion Mitchell, Andrew Wiggins, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo.<\/p>\n

For Philadelphia: Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, newly acquired Jaylen Brown and Joel Embiid.<\/p>\n

For Minnesota: Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert.<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The chase is on for LeBron James, and Denver appears to be in the inner circle. At least,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[1750,31513,6430,852,3832,4133,1840,1753,13054,4142,359,1754,6418,5555,19682,25179,2558,3013,4139,355,2005,1756,4140,11055,92429,99,6749,19508],"class_list":["post-741359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-cam-johnson","tag-cleveland","tag-colorado","tag-contract","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-front-range","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-jamal-murray","tag-james-harden","tag-joel-embiid","tag-josh-kroenke","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-latest-headlines","tag-lebron-james","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-peyton-watson","tag-rudy-gobert","tag-sports","tag-stan-kroenke","tag-the-denver-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}