According to an NBA insider, star forward LeBron James was interested in joining the Dallas Mavericks to team up with former teammates Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis.
James opted into the final year of his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers during the NBA offseason, but his agent, Rich Paul, released a statement that muddled his future on the team.
Paul made it clear that James wants to win a title before he retires and acknowledged that Los Angeles is building around Luka Doncic.
Since the team is on a different timeline than James, Paul said that the 40-year-old star is considering his options.
The NBA rumor mill went to work after the statement came out. James was linked to all of the contending playoff teams in the league, though one of the names persisted throughout the wave of rumors.
The Dallas Mavericks became an obvious connection since his former teammates Irving and Davis are on the roster, and once Irving gets healthy, they should be contenders.
In a story on The Athletic, writer John Hollinger reported that Dallas was a team frequently discussed among NBA personnel at the Las Vegas Summer League.
“In particular, the whispers about him having eyes for Dallas — a place where he could have teamed up with former teammates Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving and young phenom Cooper Flagg — before opting into his deal were hard to ignore,” Hollinger wrote.
“Obviously, James wasn’t willing to leave $52 million on the table to take a nontaxpayer MLE or something similar from the Mavericks or another team. A buyout seems similarly unlikely. Additionally, the tax aprons on both sides will make any in-season transaction with a contender-class team challenging.
“The Lakers set themselves up to have max cap room next summer once James’ salary comes off their books, taking advantage of an artificially low cap hold for Austin Reaves.
“If that’s their angle, wouldn’t it make sense to cash in their James stock if they aren’t challenging at the top of the West? Meanwhile, James has some power to choose his next destination via a no-trade clause, but free agency isn’t what it used to be.”
His high salary makes it difficult for another contending team to pull off a trade.
The modern Collective Bargaining Agreement limits a team’s ability to get a transaction done if they have a salary sheet that is too high.
The Mavs face those restrictions which make salary matching in a trade difficult.
In all likelihood, James is staying in Los Angeles for at least the beginning of the season, but the NBA trade deadline might present another opportunity for him to get out of the city.
