ESPN recently polled its insiders to discuss which NBA star is most likely to request a trade next, and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James ranked third on the list. Of the 25 insiders who were polled, James received six votes, placing him behind only Zion Williamson and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Earlier this summer, James and his agent, Rich Paul, put out a statement regarding the star’s future with the Lakers. It read as a bit of foreshadowing that James could want out if the Lakers don’t do everything in their power to push for a championship while he’s in town.
If the Lakers wanted to prioritize the future around Luka Doncic, perhaps it would make sense for James to want out. But would he actually request a trade out of LA?
Would LeBron James request a trade from Lakers?
It feels very unlikely that James would actually pull the trigger and request a trade away from the Lakers. He’s spent too much time and planted too many roots in LA at this point. By this time next season, James will have spent more time with the Lakers than he did with the Cleveland Cavaliers the first time around.
Plus, at this point in his career and with how much money he makes, it would be very difficult to actually facilitate a trade:
“It has been radio silent since James, via his agent Rich Paul, attempted to rattle the Lakers' cages immediately after exercising his $52.6 million player option for this season,” wrote ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “The all-time leading scorer and his camp understand just how complicated a trade involving him -- at his age, making that much money, with the contractual right to veto any deal -- would be.”
The Lakers made a huge splash last season, swapping out Anthony Davis for Doncic and setting themselves up for the future. Trading James would be (almost) just as crazy.
If the Lakers did trade James, they probably wouldn’t get the return most fans would deem acceptable. James is 40 years old, and while he’s still playing at an extremely high level, any team that traded for him would have to be set up perfectly to bring him on board without gutting their future. There just aren’t many situations like that around the league,
That said, if James were to request a trade, it would force the Lakers' hands. And it seems very likely that James would do so with a specific team (or set of teams) in mind, which would hurt the Lakers’ leverage even more.
But again, considering how often James has tried to pressure his teams into improving, an actual trade request seems unlikely.