LeBron James recently exercised the $52M player option on his contract. He will return to the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2025-26 season. Yet, for the first time in his illustrious career, James is going into a season where he’s not the marquee name on the roster.
The Lakers are firmly in the Luka Doncic era. GM Rob Pelinka has started the summer by cutting the average age of the roster. Allowing Dorian Finney-Smith to leave the franchise and replacing him with Jake LaRavia is the perfect example. Therefore, James, who turns 41 in December, doesn’t fit with what the franchise is trying to do.
For the first time in history, James could find himself being dangled in trade talks.
“First off, LeBron wants to be a Laker. If he didn’t want to be a Laker, he opted out. He has a no-trade clause,” Brian Windhorst said on a July 2 episode of ESPN’s “NBA Today”. “… My conversations over the last three days have crystallized that the Lakers are essentially viewing LeBron as an expiring contract. … Never in his 23-year career, over the nine contracts he’s signed, over all the different teams he’s been on, he’s never been on the last year of his contract. He’s never been 40 years old. He’s never not been the franchise player on his team. … And what happens to expiring contracts in the NBA? They’re viewed as trade pieces.”
