The future of Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James remains one of the biggest stories of this offseason. There has already been plenty of discussion about if he will return for his 24th NBA season and where he will play if he does come back as he is an unrestricted free agent.
One of the teams that has long been linked with James has been the Golden State Warriors with many visualizing the ultimate team-up with James and Stephen Curry. And, according to NBA insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer, the Warriors are legitimately interested in adding James this summer:
Staying with the Lakers is widely believed to be his preferred choice because he is so entrenched in Los Angeles now after eight seasons with the purple and gold. Yet league sources maintain that Golden State remains legitimately interested in adding LeBron to their Stephen Curry/Jimmy Butler/Draymond Green core coached by Steve Kerr … with the pitch presumed to include the idea that LeBron could commute from Los Angeles to some TBD degree without having to move his family.
James joining Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green with the Warriors would be an absolute bombshell as it would represent something of a last stand of the old guard coming together for one last run at a championship. The Warriors have long had interest in acquiring James, having previously reached out to the Lakers for a potential trade so the desire is clearly there.
The question again will be a matter of financials as the Warriors don’t have salary cap space and, by multiple accounts, James doesn’t seem too keen on taking a massive pay cut to sign elsewhere. The Lakers remain one of the only teams with the cap room to sign James to a big contract, but how much they are willing to pay him is unclear with the franchise having so many other players on the open market, while also looking to upgrade the roster.
James remaining with the Lakers still seems to be the most likely outcome, but there are clearly some teams that will be looking to add him this offseason and the Warriors are definitely one of them.
Charles Barkley: LeBron James has one clear option this summer
In the eyes of Hall of Famer and NBA analyst Charles Barkley, neither the Warriors or Lakers are the ideal landing spot for James this summer and he outlined what he believes is the one clear option for the superstar in free agency.
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