LeBron James‘ decision on his $52.6 million player option is the first domino the Los Angeles Lakers are waiting for to fall this offseason.
Two weeks ago, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that James is “likely to opt in” to return to the Lakers for one more season. However, Clutchpoint’s Anthony Irwin believes James would ultimately give the Lakers a hometown discount like he did last year.
“The majority of the noise is that he is going to opt in,” Irwin said on the “Buha’s Block” podcast by The Athletic’s Lakers beat reporter Jovan Buha. “But in the back of my mind, I do think there’s a real possibility here that he opts out and signs a one-and-one deal and also talks to the Lakers about if they need a little bit of help getting a slightly further below the first apron to have more flexibility on a trade or something like that. We’re talking about a very small haircut, not the eight-figure discount that some people had lined up for him.”
According to ESPN’s front office insider Bobby Marks, James will be eligible to sign up to a three-year, $175.3 million contract with the Lakers if he opts out.
Last year, James was open to taking a significant paycut for the Lakers to pursue top free agents on his list, such as Klay Thompson, James Harden, DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas.
But when nothing materialized, James ultimately took nearly $3 million paycut to help the Lakers avoid the second apron. He signed a one-plus-one deal for $101.4 million instead of his max $104 million.
No Marquee Free Agents Available
This offseason, there will be no Thompson or Harden to chase in an underwhelming free agent class unless Harden or Irving opts out of their player options and decides to go elsewhere, which is unlikely to happen.
If James picks up his player option, the Lakers will go $1.3 million over the luxury tax. They will still have access to their $5.7 million taxpayer midlevel exception (MLE) and have flexibility to aggregate contracts in a trade.
But if he opts out and takes more than $1.3 million paycut, that would allow the Lakers to go below the luxury threshold and would give them access to the non-taxpayer $14.1 million MLE.
LeBron Paycut Can Lead to Solid Upgrades
GettyFree agent big man Brook Lopez.
Such sacrifice move from James will increase the Lakers’ chances to sign some of the headliners in the free agent market such as starting-caliber centers Naz Reid, Brook Lopez or ascending wing Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
They could also spread the money to sign multiple free agents if they missed out on their top targets. Splitting that $14.1 million MLE on a Clint Capela plus another wing such as Gary Trent Jr. or another ball handler like former Laker Dennis Schroder could shore up their depth, which was greatly exposed in their first-round series loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
James still deserves the max, but if he wants to have a shot at adding another championship before his career ends, sacrifices are to be made not just on the basketball court but also financially.
