Could the Lakers trade LeBron James?
Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O'Connor is joined by Lakers reporter Jovan Buha to discuss the likelihood of Los Angeles dealing away the superstar - after he opted into his player option for the upcoming season - and which team would be potential candidates to land the four-time Most Valuable Player. Hear the full conversation on 'The Kevin O'Connor Show' and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
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The the only trades that make complete sense on paper are Denver, Michael Porter Jr. Zeke Naji, Dario Sari, and Julian Strather.
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That would assume LeBron wants to team up with Jokic, cause for Denver, they give up a bunch of replaceable pieces, the pieces they don't need.
LeBron's an upgrade from Michael Porter Jr. and then Golden State, because Jimmy Butler for LeBron James works straight up, one for one.
It's an easy deal to make.
That is very easy to make.
So I think Golden State.
And Denver are the two teams I look at where it's like, OK, trades make sense, but other than that, Jovan, I, I, I understand why things are pointing towards, it's hard to make a LeBron James trade because teams wouldn't want to gut their own rosters in order to get a 40 year old guy entering year 23, possibly in his retirement tour season at this point.
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But what are you hearing about the situation and what are your general thoughts on the, the potential trade marker for LeBron?
I'm with you.
I think that, you know, looking at it, I came up with 4 teams, uh, which were similar to, you know, it was Cleveland, Golden State, Dallas, and New York.
Uh, I have a hard time seeing him going to Denver.
To me, LeBron is a big market guy, uh, you know, no offense to mid and small size markets, I just don't see him, like outside of Cleveland, of course, which is home for him.
I think if he's leaving, it's going to be, you know, Golden State or, or New York or or Dallas and you know, that type of like top 7 or 8 market probably.
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Uh, so, but to your point, like playing with the trade machine, it was hard to come up with something that made sense.
I think the Jimmy trade is interesting because it allows the Lakers to remain competitive and still have a top 30, top 25 guy replacing LeBron.
So you are taking a step back, uh, just from sheer talent.
LeBron was just the all NBA second team guy, finished 6th in MVP voting, but like, Jimmy Butler is still at that all-star, uh, level where you're not necessarily missing that much or taking that big of a step back, uh, and still putting a star around Luca.
I think that the question for the Lakers, if they potentially trade LeBron is, how does that affect their cap sheet moving forward and do they want to maintain that flexibility in 2026?
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Because realistically, if you are trading LeBron, you're probably not contending next season, I guess again, Jimmy Butler might be the lone exception, but if it is a Gafford, PJ Washington, Klay Thompson type package from Dallas, like, Those guys fit well next to Luca.
We've already seen that movie before and uh we know like those two way guys and then, uh, Washington and Gafford were starters on the finals team.
They basically swapping rosters.
You'll find over the course of 6 months.
I mean, think about like LeBron AD Kyrie, Cooper flag, Derek Lively like that, that's an incredible 5 man, uh, you know, top of the rotation, but it's just tough to make, it's tough to make the math work.
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