Could LeBron James End Up In Los Angeles When His Contract Expires?

LeBron James, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony are still talking about teaming up. Will James leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for warmer weather when his contract expires?

Could LeBron James end up in Los Angeles when his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers expires?

While everybody focuses on an article by Marc Berman of the New York Post in which Carmelo Anthony alludes to leaving the New York Knicks, nobody noticed that at the end of the article there was a little power-packed quote.

"Anthony said Paul’s Clippers “have the pieces to make a little run,’’ but he’s not envious of his friend. LeBron James is also in town, facing the Lakers, but the trio didn’t “meet up and talk like we wanted to talk — about the weather.’’"

A simple, seemingly innocuous statement. Right?

No. Not if you remember this article from ESPN’s Dave McMenamin in which the quartet of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Anthony share their thoughts on playing on the same team one day.

At the time, Anthony had this to say (a weather-related statement):

"“I think by that time [in your career], you want to go somewhere warm,” Anthony said. “By that time. That’s later. That would be later — retirement.”"

James had this to say:

"“I mean, we’ve had plenty of conversations,” James said. “We’ve been together for almost 15 years, so we’ve had plenty of conversations.”"

In a feature story for Bleacher Report that was written by Howard Beck, James even went as far as to say that the four had attempted to team up in their prime.

"“Listen,” James told his buddies on the conference call, “I think I’m going to do a three-year extension, because in 2010 we can become free agents at the peak, right there in the prime of our career.”"

However, while James, Paul and Wade took three-year deals, Anthony took the five-year extension with the Denver Nuggets because he felt like the Nuggets could win it all.

"“And, uh, Melo,” James said, smiling and chuckling softly, “Melo took the five-year.”"

James never gave up on the thought of being on the same team with his friends though.  In the same story from Howard Beck,

"“I really hope that, before our career is over, we can all play together,” James said. “At least one, maybe one or two seasons—me, Melo, D-Wade, CP—we can get a year in. I would actually take a pay cut to do that.”“It would be pretty cool,” James said. “I’ve definitely had thoughts about it.”"

So now that we know that James wants to form a superteam with three friends that could be in the Hall of Fame, and we know that when the group is talking about the weather that they’re alluding to where they would want to play, we can talk about if it’s feasible for them to be on the same team.

In an ever-changing NBA landscape, anything could derail the potential that we see the quartet at the same time. It’s like the butterfly effect. Say that the Los Angeles Lakers acquire Paul George in a trade and want to give out a max-extension to one of their players still on their rookie contract. That could leave the Lakers without enough money to sign the four in free agency, even if they all take a paycut.

However, with the way things are now, when James current contract expires before the 2019-2020 season the Los Angeles Lakers will have $38 million ($52 million if they don’t re-sign D’Angelo Russell) in cap space. $34 million worth of money will go to the duo of Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov, a pair of contracts the Lakers will look to move.

The Los Angeles Clippers will have $84 million in cap space ($106 million if they renounce the rights to Jamal Crawford, who will be 40-years-old). It’s also worth noting that Paul would have entered free agency the year before and would have to re-sign with the Clippers in 2018-2019 for the four to be on the same team. It’s possible that Paul signs a one-year deal though.

While James’ favorite team to watch may have been Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers (the Lakers just made Magic the President of Basketball Operations), and that will hold a certain allure for James at the end of his career, James will have a perfect opportunity to build his superteam with the Los Angeles Clippers.

If they want to go the most storied franchise in the NBA, they’ll try to make it work with the Lakers. However, if that doesn’t work, the Clippers will be in the fold. Though the Clippers history isn’t nearly as illustrious, the team that started off as the Buffalo Braves is one of three teams that joined the NBA in 1970-1971 as an expansion team. The other two were the Portland Trail Blazers and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The connection to the Cavaliers and the opportunity to be a trail blazer in the NBA by bringing a championship to the Clippers could appeal to James in particular.

Now, the superteam could still end up in Sacramento (they’ll have between $75 million and $93 million in cap space) if they want to be in California but things don’t work out with the Lakers or Clippers. However, the San Antonio Spurs also will have a certain appeal for the group.

Not only will they have $85 million in cap space and be coached by a future Hall of Famer in Gregg Popovich, current MVP candidate and perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate Kawhi Leonard will still be on the roster. Another draw, financially, is that there are no state taxes and so the team will have more money, a better coach and a superstar in their prime on their team. That’s a combination no other team could offer.

It’s no certainty that James will leave. The Cleveland Cavaliers will still have Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love under contract when James’ contract expires and James qualifies for a $53 million contract in the offseason.

However, if James wants to leave, he’ll have plenty of teams to pick from. It’ll likely be his most important free agency decision since “The Decision”.

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Do you think LeBron James will leave the Cleveland Cavaliers when his contract expires? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.