Cavs among top 4 in betting odds for LeBron James trade destinations

There was tons of drama surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2018-19 season and it’s continued into the offseason, as reportedly owner Jeanie Buss is being advised to trade LeBron James. Factoring that into the equation, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been listed among the top four in betting odds for where James would play the first game of next season.

Saying the Los Angeles Lakers are a mess would be an understatement, and apparently some close to team owner Jeanie Buss are telling her to trade LeBron James, per ESPN’s Stephen A Smith, just further detailing the organization’s lack of direction.

The Lakers have been a mess filled with drama from trade rumors revolving around their young players (which combined with James’ reported groin injury), derailed their season, according to Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times.

Additionally, Magic Johnson abruptly stepped down as the team’s president of basketball operations recently, h/t The Athletic’s Bill Oram.

Saying that things have been less then ideal for the Lakers so far since they’ve added LeBron would be an understatement. If the Lakers were to actually trade James, they would be back-peddling to a youth movement once again; who would have envisioned that last summer?

For now, the Cleveland Cavaliers are tied with the Miami Heat for having the fourth-highest betting odds revealed by basketball insider Adam Zagoria of where James will play the first game of next season (the Lakers still have the highest odds).

While it may seem unlikely a trade would happen with the Lakers just signing him last offseason, when you consider everything currently going on, it probably can’t be ruled out.

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As far as the Cavaliers, it’s probably the longest of long-shots this would happen in the offseason for a number of reasons.

LeBron, while he’s still great, probably wouldn’t warrant a boatload for a trade return for L.A., according to FS1’s Chris Broussard in an appearance on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd,” because many believe James is not nearly what he once was, which was clearly the NBA’s best player.

From the Cleveland Cavaliers’ and general manager Koby Altman‘s perspective, it doesn’t make sense to give up any significant assets, because James will be 35 next season and in his 17th season (per Basketball Reference), and for as great as James is, it’s fair to wonder how much he has left.

If the Cavs win the lottery, I can’t see them under any circumstance entertaining any trade including a young Zion Williamson for an aging James.

Would they even want to give up Collin Sexton, who had a great rookie season from a scoring standpoint (16.7 points per game on 48.0% effective field goal shooting, per NBA.com) and seems to be a nice building block for Cleveland, among several other key young pieces, such as Cedi Osman and/or their first (if it’s not Zion) lottery pick?

That’s unclear, and even if the pick isn’t first overall, it’s hard to see the Cavs giving that up for an aging James.

It would be cool to have LeBron back, because he means so much to the city, region, and was the key reason the Cleveland Cavaliers won their only championship in franchise history in 2016. From an organizational standpoint, though, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to give up significant young pieces for an aging superstar, if the Lakers did decide to trade him.