Right now, it seems very unlikely that the Los Angeles Lakers would trade LeBron James. But if they do, one NBA executive has a team in mind.
Heavy.com’s Sean Deveney spoke with an anonymous Eastern Conference executive who thinks that if the Lakers elected to trade LeBron and he wanted to go back home to Cleveland, the Cavaliers would be able to cobble together a package to facilitate a deal.
The executive’s hypothetical return for LA is built around center Jarrett Allen and point guard Collin Sexton.
“I think you’d have Cleveland, obviously. It’s hard to see a deal that makes sense, though,” the executive said. “You could start with Jarrett Allen, especially if you think that (Evan) Mobley is your center down the line. And then Collin Sexton as a sign-and-trade piece, but that might have to be a separate deal because of the luxury tax, a third team involved. And a young piece like Isaac Okoro. It is a tough thing to take a young team and give up some pieces for a guy LeBron’s age but it would have to look like that in order to happen, I would think.”
LeBron just completed his fourth season in LA, and while he did win a championship with the Lakers in 2020, the rest of the years have ended in disappointment.
Los Angeles suffered from a rash of injuries this season, but the team’s roster construction was also poor and needs to be overhauled if the Lakers are going to make a run in 2022-23.
If we had to guess, there are better odds of that happening than the organization pulling the plug on winning with LeBron and sending the superstar forward elsewhere.