The grass might not necessarily be greener for LeBron James if he ends up leaving the Los Angeles Lakers this summer.
The Golden State Warriors would be ready to offer James the full non-taxpayer midlevel exception of $15.1 million for next season, Anthony Slater of ESPN reported Wednesday. Slater notes that the Warriors could also theoretically tack on a second-season player option as part of the deal.
However, Golden State has reportedly received intel that suggests James will simply be returning to the Lakers instead, and thus they are plotting out their offseason under that premise. You can read Slater’s full report on the situation here.
James, now 41 years old, is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. He made $52.6 million last year and does not appear to be willing to take that drastic of a paycut, especially after averaging a 21-6-7 line for the Lakers last season.
Meanwhile, the Warriors are the outside team that have mentioned in closest connection to James if the four-time NBA MVP decides to leave Los Angeles this season. There was even a report last week claiming that James was intrigued by the possibility of teaming up with Steph Curry in Golden State.
But the Warriors, who are already just $26 million under the second apron of the luxury tax with all of their pre-existing contract commitments for next season, are limited financially in how they can entice James. As such, the most plausible outcome is still James simply deciding to run it back for one more year with the Lakers (especially given the major step that he took to that effect in recent days).
