LeBron James saved the Cleveland Cavaliers from a dark place once. That was a different LeBron. This is a different Cavaliers team. Reuniting with the pending free agent during the 2026 offseason won't truly solve the biggest problems plaguing Cleveland.
Let's fast-forward to the summer of next year.
Assuming the Los Angeles Lakers let LeBron test the free agency waters and forego extending his time in Hollywood, James would need a new team. The Cavaliers make a ton of sense, especially if the team falls short of real contention — which they are rapidly on track for at present.
Even a 41-year-old version of James still offers any team a boost. While his presence would be welcomed, the Cavaliers would need more. The defensive issues, offensive shortcomings, and other similar faults in Cleveland are not a LeBron-sized hole to fill.
LeBron's strengths do no align with what's holding Cleveland back
Firstly, let's get the obvious out of the way. James returning to Cleveland, and ensuring the team remains largely undisrupted, would involve him doing them a massive favor with the price of his next contract. Leaving money on the table at this stage would not be the most ludicrous thought.
So, James is hypothetically rejoining the Cavaliers in the summer of 2026 following a disappointing 2025-26 campaign. Now what?
If the Cavaliers hold to form, there are a few main reasons to expect Cleveland falls short this season. The reasoning starts on defense.
The Cavaliers have fallen off to become a mediocre unit on that end. Cleveland currently boasts a defensive rating of 114.7, ranking 16th in the NBA.
Should that be expected to hold for the remainder of the season? For the Cavaliers, hopefully not. However, it has exposed to need of having a strong point-of-attack defender heavily involved in the mix. James is obviously not that.
LeBron has struggled on the defensive end this season. The Lakers have been a weak group in that regard, and James has followed suit. The future Hall of Famer is averaging a defensive rating of 119 per 100 posessions.
If not defense, then what about offense? LeBron could get the Cavaliers more buckets.
That much is true, to some degree. James' playmaking would certainly be helpful. As would his scoring punch. However, the NBA's all-time leading scorer does not quite fit the puzzle as one would hope.
James has improved as a shooter in the latter years of his career. However, the Cavaliers would need to hope this season's 3-point shooting is more of an outlier, and his campaigns from 2023-24 and 2024-25 are closer to the expectations at this age. Their perimeter shooting needs the help.
The Cavaliers could really benefit from having another player who can drive and collapse defenses often. That is what they are really missing without Ty Jerome, averaging only 44.6 drives per game.
James really isn't as active in that department anymore. The Lakers forward is only posting 6.8 drives per game in 2025-26.
This all isn't to say LeBron cannot be a part of fixing this broken contender during the summer. The real point here is that Cleveland will also need to search beyond a potential reunion with their beloved Ohio-born legend. James is not a one-stop shop to eliminate all problems anymore.