Getty LeBron James holds the cards for the Los Angeles Lakers future.
The Los Angeles Lakers have a chance to truly optimize their front court next to Anthony Davis for the first time in his five-year tenure with the team.
LeBron James opted out of the final year of his contract on Saturday, June 29, and will now seek a three-year deal that could pay him a maximum total north of $160 million. James said following his mid-2010s run with the Miami Heat, where he took less than the max to create one of the NBA’s first super teams, that he would never give back a dollar again to any team for the remainder of his career.
However, time and competition can change things, and now on the doorstep of 40 years old James has apparently reconsidered that position. James’ agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports gave voice to his client’s current thinking on Saturday.
“He is prioritizing a roster improvement,” Paul said, per Dave MecMenamin of ESPN. “He’s been adamant about exuding all efforts to improve the roster.”
But James isn’t going to give up millions for just anyone.
“The type of player that James would be willing to make a financial sacrifice for would be an established veteran playmaker such as James Harden or Klay Thompson, or an established big man to play alongside Anthony Davis — such as Jonas Valanciunas,” McMenamin wrote.
Lakers May Be Able to Add 2 Starters to Lineup Via Free Agency, Trade Markets
GettyLos Angeles Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell.
The Lakers are big-game hunting this summer now that D’Angelo Russell has opted into his contract and the team has his nearly $19 million salary in 2024-25 to use as the basis for any number of trades for first- or second-tier stars across the league.
Russell, along with a couple of first-round picks in 2029 and 2031 and a few pick swaps in the coming years, should allow the Lakers to be competitive on the trade market either this summer or ahead of next season’s trade deadline. That move, however, could be entirely separate from the signing of a quality starter via the league’s standard mid-level exception (MLE), which the Lakers could utilize depending on how James agrees to build his next (and likely last) professional contract.
Hoops Hype projected that the MLE will calculate to a figure just shy of $13 million for the upcoming season. That number wouldn’t even be a considerable step down for Valanciunas, who is an unrestricted free agent after playing out a two-year, $30.1 million deal with the New Orleans Pelicans last year.
Jonas Valanciunas Can Make Life Easier for Lakers Big Man Anthony Davis
GettyJonas Valanciunas of the New Orleans Pelicans.
Valanciunas stands at 6-foot-11, weighs 265 pounds and will play the 2024-25 campaign at 32 years old. He averaged 12.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 0.8 blocks in 23.5 minutes per night for the Pels last season, according to Basketball Reference.
Although the big man played just under half of each game on average, he didn’t miss a single start in 82 contests. In fact, Valanciunas has appeared in at least 70 games in eight of his 12 professional seasons, notching at least 80 appearances on four occasions.
That type of durability at the center position could be huge for the Lakers next season given the injury issues Davis has dealt with over his half-decade in Los Angeles. Perhaps even more importantly, the presence of Valanciunas in the lineup would allow Davis to move to power forward for long stretches, which has always been his preferred position in the league.
“[Davis has] played center primarily the past few seasons, but the Lakers won a championship with him at power forward, and adding a burlier big man would help protect him from some of the more physically taxing center matchups of the regular season,” Sam Quinn of CBS Sports wrote on June 29. “Playing two big men together would compromise the team’s spacing to an extent, but Valanciunas is a career 34.8% 3-point shooter and has averaged 1.6 attempts per game as a Pelican. That number needs to go up a tick, but he’s at least willing to fire when open. That’s a start.”