The Cleveland Cavaliers are apparently willing to make big moves in free agency and on the trade market to convince LeBron James to remain with the franchise, but LeBron is making life difficult for them by not discussing what would make him happy.
ESPN reports that the Cavs have been working on several scenarios for trades and clearing salary cap space to sign free agents, but LeBron has turned down their requests to meet or have a conversation about the plans. While LeBron has operated that way in the past and it’s nothing new for Cleveland, you can understand how it would make navigating the offseason difficult.
According to ESPN, the Cavs are willing to work on finding ways to acquire players like Chris Paul, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard either via trade or free agency, but their chances of doing that become slimmer the longer LeBron keeps the lines of communication closed.
One of the reasons the Cavs chose not to trade the Brooklyn Nets’ first-round pick that they acquired from the Boston Celtics in the Kyrie Irving trade is that they have no idea what LeBron is planning to do this summer. They could have conceivably tried to trade that pick as part of a package for a star veteran, but they did not want to risk going that route and having James leave anyway. Because of the uncertainty, they kept the pick and drafted former Alabama star Collin Sexton at No. 8 overall.
There have been a lot of indications that LeBron has already made up his mind about signing with one specific team, and the Cavs may be the only other franchise in the running. Without LeBron telling them what moves he wants to see them make, anything they do this offseason has risk attached.
