A recent slip-up by LeBron James‘ agent, Rich Paul, suggested that the Los Angeles Lakers superstar is going to be a free agent in the coming offseason. That must have New York Knicks fans interested because that theoretically increases NY’s chance of landing The King in the summer. James has time to decide on his player option for the 2024-25 NBA season worth over $51 million which has a deadline of June 29.
LeBron James to the New York Knicks?
Granted that everything involving LeBron James and the Knicks at the moment is nothing but speculation, it doesn’t hurt to think of a way New York could get The King. Jeremy Brener of All Knicks floated up the idea of LeBron signing a new deal with the Lakers before getting traded to the Knicks, with New York giving up star power forward Julius Randle in such a transaction.
The good thing about signing LeBron instead of trading for a player like Donovan Mitchell or Kevin Durant is that it wouldn’t cost as much. As a free agent, the Knicks could simply bring him on board, though it’s more likely that the team would use the sign-and-trade method.
The Knicks could trade for LeBron after he signs a new deal with the Lakers and trade Julius Randle back to the team that drafted him to open up his spot in the starting lineup. This would also give the team more flexibility to sign OG Anunoby and/or Isaiah Hartenstein, both of whom are free agents.
Even though he is about to turn 40 in December, James still keeps on proving that he remains among the best players in the league. In the 2023-24 NBA season, he was arguably, at the very least, the best Lakers player, having averaged 25.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 8.3 assists through 71 games.
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