The Cavaliers are down 3-0 to the Warriors and it looks pretty bleak. Even bleaker for Cleveland’s fans is a story by the Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, who has multiple league sources telling him that LeBron James could very well leave the Cavaliers – again – to join either the Lakers or Clippers after the 2017-18 season.
It seems a little far-fetched at this early date, but let’s try to put the pieces together:
James can opt out of his Cavaliers contract after next season and would be giving up money if he didn’t.
He turns 33 in December.
Including the playoffs, he’s played 50,312 minutes in his career. That’s more than all but a handful of all-time players, with only Dirk Nowitzki (54,568) ahead of him among active players (assuming Nowitzki will be back for the 2017-18 season, as planned). Nowitzki has played five more seasons than James, however. In any case, it’s a lot of minutes and his career clearly is in its second half (though he’s said nothing about calling it quits anytime soon).
As evidenced by the Finals this year, the Cavs are kind of a mess when you get past James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.
The Cavs aren’t in a great position to improve their roster after those three, something that’ll be needed to compete with a two-way behemoth like the Warriors. Owner Dan Gilbert promised James that spending wouldn’t be an issue when James returned to Cleveland in 2014, and over the past two seasons the team has paid out $81 million in luxury taxes for exceeding the salary cap. James has obliquely reiterated that he hopes ownership keeps spending, with comments in January about the team’s direction that reportedly angered Gilbert. But will Gilbert continue to open up his wallet? On Thursday, James seemed to suggest that was a good plan.
Because of various trades, the Cavs won’t be getting much help from the first round of the draft anytime soon.
James owns a house in Los Angeles and has started a production company.
And so you get reports like O’Connor’s, which posits that James might jilt Cleveland again to either the Lakers (assuming Southern California native Paul George signs as a free agent after next season to complement the team’s younger base) or the Clippers (possibly to join forces with Chris Paul and fellow veterans Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony, who both could be free agents along with James after 2017-18; James himself has pitched this idea in the past).
Of course, all of this is a long ways off and a number of things could happen that would keep James in Cleveland to close out his career. The Cavs could try to preempt the Lakers, as suggested by the Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre, by somehow pulling off a long-shot trade for George next season and then hope he signs a long-term deal to stay in Cleveland, giving the Cavs the two-way standout they lack. Or George could sign with, say, the Celtics in free agency and various other obstacles prevent the old-man Clippers super-team from ever forming.
Or James could come to the realization that leaving Cleveland a second time would simply be one heel turn too many.