ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported earlier this week that the Los Angeles Lakers would welcome LeBron James back for another season, but the 41-year-old superstar is still noncommittal about his future and not just whether he'll stay in LA. Retirement is still an option. If he decides to continue playing, his unrestricted free agency will let him choose his next team, with speculation rising about a return to Cleveland.
As ESPN's Brian Windhorst said on Wednesday, for LeBron to join the Cavaliers for a third time, he'll have to take a pay cut, as in either signing for the veteran's minimum or the midlevel exception. If he's not willing to do that (and again, we don't know what he wants to do), that means the Lakers would have a good chance of re-signing him.
Rob Pelinka has said the organization wants LeBron to retire as a Laker, and if he wants next season to be his last, that is very much a possibility.
His family is in Los Angeles, which gives the Lakers an advantage, but then again, if he did leave for a team like Cleveland, you can assume it'd only be for a year or two. His wife and daughter could make the temporary move with him before returning to LA when all is said and done.
How much of a pay cut will LeBron be willing to take if he keeps playing?
As ESPN's Bobby Marks said, the Lakers are projected to have $51 million in cap space this upcoming summer, and that's before accounting for what LeBron's next deal could look like or an Austin Reaves extension.
Re-signing Reaves, assuming he will decline his player option (and that's all but guaranteed), will take priority over LeBron. That doesn't mean LA won't make a push to keep LeBron around, as it can offer him more than Cleveland could, but he won't be making $52.6 million again, as he is this season.
It will all come down to what LeBron values most, and if he wants what could be his last NBA contract to be more than a minimum figure (in terms of NBA salaries), then the Lakers will have an upper hand. If he wants to end his career with a feel-good story that could end with another championship, where it all began for him, then he could go to Cleveland. Or he could always end up elsewhere!
Fans hope that he'll hang around and have his retirement farewell tour in Los Angeles, and Cleveland's finances could help make that happen.