If There is a Time For Lebron To Demand a Trade, It Would be NOW

[Wingy]

All joking aside, he isn't leaving Bronny even if Bronny doses't crack the roster next season. He is set in LA. Bronny has 2 more years on his contract as does LeBron. Everyone is staying put. No team is trading for him right now because of the CBA. Any team that could potentially put something together cannot compete. It is a moot point.

KAT for Lebron is the exception. Would be an entertaining media circus…I’m all for it. I don’t think it moves the needle much either way for NY, but I don’t think they’d step backward if Lebron stays healthy-ish. Just with his b-ball IQ being about a zillion points higher than KAT’s…that lifts the team as a unit on the floor.

[JHFVF07]

If Lebron ask to be traded...Gafford/PJ Washington/Klay for Lebron. We become the Los Angeles Mavericks (Doncic/Reaves/Rui/PJ/Gafford). Dallas will try to win it all Kyrie(Dlo)/Max/Flagg/Lebron/AD(Lively).

[RoyceDa59]

He could have opted out and signed a VET min.

[Kobeskillz]

He got stuck with the Lakers the minute he opted back in. No one is going to give up so much for a 40 year old and the Lakers aren't going to take bad contracts. Hes not going anywhere.

[gottamakeit]

He could have opted out and signed a VET min.

There's no universe where any professional athlete is giving up $50 million.

"He could have opted to burn his house down and all his worldly possessions..."

Just absurd, rising to the level of psychotic

[bisme37]

Some fella named John Gambadoro said things...

LeBron James And Austin Reaves Reportedly Don't Like Playing With Luka Doncic

Luka Doncic has gelled well on the court with LeBron James and Austin Reaves during their short time as teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers, but NBA insider John Gambadoro claims all is not well. On the latest episode of the Burns and Gambo Show, Gambadoro stated that James and Reaves do not like playing with Doncic.

"LeBron does not like playing with Luka," Gambadoro said. "Reaves does not like playing with Luka. Reaves does not like getting the ball with two seconds left on the shot clock. LeBron is not fond of playing with Luka. The Lakers are going to turn their attention to build around Luka, not LeBron.

"So, this is Luka's team now," Gambadoro added. "... He'll probably come back, but I wouldn't say it's a guaranteed no-brainer LeBron comes back to the Lakers because there are guys that don't like playing with Luka."

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/lebron-james-austin-reaves-reportedly-121300373.html

[gottamakeit]

He got stuck with the Lakers the minute he opted back in. No one is going to give up so much for a 40 year old and the Lakers aren't going to take bad contracts. Hes not going anywhere.

He opted in, as is his contractual right. Lakers and the League as a whole is indebted to him.
He's not worth $50million for the oncourt production he will likely bring this season; But why look at it only thru that narrow prism

He could negotiate a buyout if he/Lakers deem it is best for both parties

[JB2]

Some fella named John Gambadoro said things...

LeBron James And Austin Reaves Reportedly Don't Like Playing With Luka Doncic

Luka Doncic has gelled well on the court with LeBron James and Austin Reaves during their short time as teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers, but NBA insider John Gambadoro claims all is not well. On the latest episode of the Burns and Gambo Show, Gambadoro stated that James and Reaves do not like playing with Doncic.

"LeBron does not like playing with Luka," Gambadoro said. "Reaves does not like playing with Luka. Reaves does not like getting the ball with two seconds left on the shot clock. LeBron is not fond of playing with Luka. The Lakers are going to turn their attention to build around Luka, not LeBron.

"So, this is Luka's team now," Gambadoro added. "... He'll probably come back, but I wouldn't say it's a guaranteed no-brainer LeBron comes back to the Lakers because there are guys that don't like playing with Luka."

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/lebron-james-austin-reaves-reportedly-121300373.html

This is one way to get your name out there

[PistolPeteJR]

No need to wait
I said jump ship, which he’s done three times.

I wouldn’t put requesting a trade beyond him, and if you don’t understand why, I have another post stating why.

Hm, I'm not sure when he jumped ship?

Are you referring to the summer of 2010 after 7 years of all-time-low FO handling in Cleveland when he decided to leave after having played out his contract?

Perhaps you're referring to 2014 post-contract when he decided he wanted to go home and try and win there again, his broken relationship with Pat Riley simply being the final straw?

2018 post-contract? After having been very clear with the FO that they shouldn't trade Irving the summer prior and to let him have a chat with him first, but they decided not to wait? Or after having made it clear to them that he would wait and see what they do to continue building a championship cast, but they wouldn't budge unless he signed an extension, the exact same situation Giannis is in right now for which he has received no backlash?

No idea what you mean.

1. Quitting literally on court against Boston and then teaming up with two MVP candidates in his own conference and proclaiming championships before winning one (bogus/uncompetitive move)

2. Quitting and leaving Miami to go to Cleveland

3. Leaving Cleveland to form a team in LAL.

You know this and let’s not pretend or downplay the obvious. Sure, forcing a trade is not beyond the realm of possibility and it’s ridiculous to act like you’d know if he would or not. That’s the beauty of having opinions on this forum.

1. Everyone knows what happened in 2010 when he seemingly, “quit on court”, so let’s not pretend it’s something else because we’re biased. If you want to die on that hill, provide cold, hard evidence, nothing speculative. Else, move on.

2. I addressed this, you clearly have your own, again, biased, not-built-off-of-concrete-evidence view.

3. See above.

All you’ve presented is unfounded opinion and extreme bias.

Won’t be responding further until concrete evidence surfaces, which I know it won’t, so toodles.

[PistolPeteJR]

No need to wait
I said jump ship, which he’s done three times.

I wouldn’t put requesting a trade beyond him, and if you don’t understand why, I have another post stating why.

Or after having made it clear to them that he would wait and see what they do to continue building a championship cast, but they wouldn't budge unless he signed an extension, the exact same situation Giannis is in right now for which he has received no backlash?

No idea what you mean.

Giannis is dealing with the worst supporting cast out of any star in the league, a worse supporting cast than Lebron had in Cleveland in 2018, and yet he has still never once publicly called out the Bucks front office. Meanwhile Lebron is already publicly calling out the Lakers front office less than five months after stealing Luka from Dallas in one of the most lopsided trades in nba history. Comparing Lebron to Giannis here is laughable.

2025 Lillard was by far better than anyone LeBron had in 2018, let alone his first Cavs stint. Let’s not do this. It’ll end laughably for you.

[Michael Jackson]

All joking aside, he isn't leaving Bronny even if Bronny doses't crack the roster next season. He is set in LA. Bronny has 2 more years on his contract as does LeBron. Everyone is staying put. No team is trading for him right now because of the CBA. Any team that could potentially put something together cannot compete. It is a moot point.

KAT for Lebron is the exception. Would be an entertaining media circus…I’m all for it. I don’t think it moves the needle much either way for NY, but I don’t think they’d step backward if Lebron stays healthy-ish. Just with his b-ball IQ being about a zillion points higher than KAT’s…that lifts the team as a unit on the floor.

New York is the only destination that maybe it would happen but still low on the odds. It is a contract that I think could work with apron teams and if NYK were all in for a one year run I could potentially see it. LAL I doubt does it though simply because they want LeBron's marketing mroe than his play at this point.

[Tottery]

The Eastern Conference could not be ANYMORE WIDE OPEN. Celtics are punting for the year, Pacers won't have Haliburton, and Bucks are...weird.

Lebron demanding to go to a team like the Knicks or Cavs would give him a free ride to the Finals again like he always had with the Cavs/Heat, and the Lakers can finally get value with a position of need and build around Luka without the Lebron drama.

Knicks locker room and FO probably wants to get rid of KAT, and they have Mitchell Robinson, so they can easily just do a straight up Lebron for Kat trade. Not sure what the Cavs would do if they would entertain it, but I imagine those would be the two teams Lebron would want to go to.

he had a free ride to the Finals with the Cavs?

I hope you don’t actually believe otherwise? Because yes, it’s not even close.

His best competition was a Paul George led Pacers team.

Eh. Beat the Pistons in 2006, MVP Rose in 2011, Celtics in 2012, Pacers in 2013, Celtics in 2018. All those teams were very good. The path to the ECF was easier.

[ball_takes23]

Or after having made it clear to them that he would wait and see what they do to continue building a championship cast, but they wouldn't budge unless he signed an extension, the exact same situation Giannis is in right now for which he has received no backlash?

No idea what you mean.

Giannis is dealing with the worst supporting cast out of any star in the league, a worse supporting cast than Lebron had in Cleveland in 2018, and yet he has still never once publicly called out the Bucks front office. Meanwhile Lebron is already publicly calling out the Lakers front office less than five months after stealing Luka from Dallas in one of the most lopsided trades in nba history. Comparing Lebron to Giannis here is laughable.

2025 Lillard was by far better than anyone LeBron had in 2018, let alone his first Cavs stint. Let’s not do this. It’ll end laughably for you.

and 2025 Luka is better than anyone Giannis ever has or will ever dream of playing with outside of the all-star game. But we all know a top 5 superstar in their prime is not enough for Lebron, he also needs the front office to trade every single asset they own to make another win-now move, so then when he bails in two years we can all talk about how bad they are without him.

[Yank3525]

Some fella named John Gambadoro said things...

LeBron James And Austin Reaves Reportedly Don't Like Playing With Luka Doncic

Luka Doncic has gelled well on the court with LeBron James and Austin Reaves during their short time as teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers, but NBA insider John Gambadoro claims all is not well. On the latest episode of the Burns and Gambo Show, Gambadoro stated that James and Reaves do not like playing with Doncic.

"LeBron does not like playing with Luka," Gambadoro said. "Reaves does not like playing with Luka. Reaves does not like getting the ball with two seconds left on the shot clock. LeBron is not fond of playing with Luka. The Lakers are going to turn their attention to build around Luka, not LeBron.

"So, this is Luka's team now," Gambadoro added. "... He'll probably come back, but I wouldn't say it's a guaranteed no-brainer LeBron comes back to the Lakers because there are guys that don't like playing with Luka."

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/lebron-james-austin-reaves-reportedly-121300373.html

LeBron I understand, but Austin isn't good enough to think like this.

[Lunartic]

"Nooooooo guys dont mention lebron has left 3 different teams! thats not his character stop mentioning it - it was freee agency!!!!! !"

Dude has been on more teams than most star players save for worst offender in Kevin Durant.

Jokic - 1 Team
Embiid - 1 Team
Duncan - 1 Team
Kobe - 1 Team
Booker - 1 Team
Curry - 1 Team
Giannis - 1 Team
Lillard - 2 Teams
Wade - 2 Teams
Brunson - 2 Teams
Kawhi - 3 Teams

Bron - 4 teams so far

Dude is a team hopper, jumping from team to team looking for opportunities to win more rings. Being pedantic and insisting that leaving a team once his contract is up when he intentionally signs for PO contracts is silly. He's a team hopper.

None of this changes the fact that him demanding a trade is something he's never done in his career. Not our fault if you guys can't differentiate between the two.

I don't think anyone said he has a history of demanding trades.

It was an over-sensitive reaction from the LeBron fanbase that took the term 'jump ship" and immediately flew to defend Brons reputation.

Any time a player leaves their team, it's pretty common and fair to say they "jumped ship" regardless of how they did it save for the actual team trading them against their will.

KD jumped ship when he left OKC.
LeBron jumped ship when he left CLE and MIA and CLE again

Jumping ship is leaving the team you're currently on.

Again, only deeply overly-sensitive analysis would be so pendantic.

[GiannisAnte34]

Or after having made it clear to them that he would wait and see what they do to continue building a championship cast, but they wouldn't budge unless he signed an extension, the exact same situation Giannis is in right now for which he has received no backlash?

No idea what you mean.

Giannis is dealing with the worst supporting cast out of any star in the league, a worse supporting cast than Lebron had in Cleveland in 2018, and yet he has still never once publicly called out the Bucks front office. Meanwhile Lebron is already publicly calling out the Lakers front office less than five months after stealing Luka from Dallas in one of the most lopsided trades in nba history. Comparing Lebron to Giannis here is laughable.

2025 Lillard was by far better than anyone LeBron had in 2018, let alone his first Cavs stint. Let’s not do this. It’ll end laughably for you.

the LeBron stans truly live in their own world of delusions

[jbk1234]

LBJ isn't going to publicly demand a trade. He'll have Klutch call around and test his market first. There may not be a trade that would be acceptable to both the Lakers and LBJ, in which case, he'll keep cashing checks well into the season, and revisit the market around the deadline.

[HMFFL]

No contender Lebron would play for is going to give up 50M in salary for Lebron maybe the LAC would but that trade would never happen

That's why I mentioned Lebron for Kat since they pretty much make the same money.

If only Lebron had that type of value to a team. Financially, he does, but KAT is a bigger need for the Knicks.

[gottamakeit]

LBJ isn't going to publicly demand a trade. He'll have Klutch call around and test his market first. There may not be a trade that would be acceptable to both the Lakers and LBJ, in which case, he'll keep cashing checks well into the season, and revisit the market around the deadline.

Mid-season buyout, book it

[jbk1234]

LBJ isn't going to publicly demand a trade. He'll have Klutch call around and test his market first. There may not be a trade that would be acceptable to both the Lakers and LBJ, in which case, he'll keep cashing checks well into the season, and revisit the market around the deadline.

Mid-season buyout, book it

I'm not sure LBJ takes a buyout. He might, but he's really not built that way.