LeBron James has seemingly made it clear he wants to be with the Los Angeles Lakers for the rest of his career. That hasn’t stopped rival teams from wondering if the Lakers down year has changed James’ mind. While speaking about the difficulty of making trades under the new CBA, ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst brought up James and the Lakers.
“I would be lying if I said that there haven’t been some conversations in the league (around), ‘Would LeBron at some point this year revisit that?'” Windhorst said. “Because you remember last year at the trade deadline, the Warriors called.”
Conversations between Los Angeles and the Golden State Warriors never got very far, because James said he didn’t want to be traded. Now, the CBA would make any kind of major deal between the Lakers and Warriors a difficult one to pull off.
“But I just want to say a couple of things. First off, any trade that the Warriors make is gonna be complicated. (The Warriors) have only $500,000 that they’re allowed to spend more in this season. It’s first, second apron stuff – I know it’s boring. Any trade that they make, they really can’t take on more money. Guess what? The Lakers are not allowed to take on any money because they’re in the first apron,” Windhorst said.
“So, it’s possible if LeBron wanted it. Also, LeBron has a no-trade clause. Also, the Lakers don’t own their first-round pick. It goes unprotected to the Atlanta Hawks.”
Windhorst continued on to explain where James mindset has been over the last two times he had the opportunity to leave Los Angeles.
“Twice in the last 10 months, LeBron has had an opportunity to leave the Lakers. One, at the trade deadline last year when the Warriors called. The Lakers went to LeBron and said, ‘Do you seriously want to get traded?’ He said, ‘No.’ Last summer he became a free agent. He re-signed with the Lakers.
“LeBron has repeatedly made it clear he wants to be a Laker. And if that’s the case, he’s got a no-trade clause. There’s nothing really to talk about.”