LeBron James opting into $52.6M player option with Los Angeles Lakers

LeBron James opting into $52.6M player option with Los Angeles Lakers

breaking news from the NBA lebron James has picked up his player option that will pay him 52.6 million next season that’s according to ESPN it’s widely expected move for the Lakers superstar who will receive just below the maximum salary and retain the no trade clause he negotiated last summer this fall LeBron is set to play his eighth season in LA and 23rd in the NBA which would surpass Vince Carter for most all time nba host and analyst for CBS Sports John Gonzalez is joining us now talk about a good day to beat LeBron these are the types of problems and decisions I want to be making in my life but we’ll leave that alone right now john what does this decision mean for not only LeBron but for the near future for the Lakers
yeah it makes a lot of sense i think we are always barreling towards this conclusion here Mike because as you mentioned LeBron’s going to be 41 in December he has has that $52.6 million player option it allows him to retain his no trade clause the other option was he could opt out and then uh they could sign him maybe to another one and one but from the Lakers perspective that made less sense i mean I’m sure LeBron probably wanted that but from the Lakers perspective if you wait LeBron’s money comes off the books next off season and all of a sudden that’s a nice chunk of change that you could allocate to more and younger resources as you try to build around Luca long term because Luca is also extension eligible and then if you also wait then you open up that 2033 first round draft pick that you could package along with your 2031 now they could still trade the 2031 before then but as you’re looking at this whole thing taking a step back seeing the 30,000 foot view it just makes a lot of sense for the team to go okay we were the third seed last year in the Western Conference if we just keep our powder dry a little bit here we bring LeBron back obviously he opts in but we don’t do much else aside from like on the margins and we wait to make 2026 our big off season well now you can make wholesale changes and really potentially uh rebuild this thing on the fly around Luca as LeBron ages out
now you mentioned the 30,000 foot view as a fan if I’m sitting here I’m looking at LeBron James 22 23 years going into the league you’re you’re talking about company with Vince Carter good company to keep obviously but it’s a longevity thing how many more years do you think LeBron has left i know it’s a tough question because you still see him at this age perform at a high level
yeah i mean like think about last year he won a gold medal in the summer where he I mean Steph Curry had the most memorable shot of that tournament but if we’re talking about who was the best player on that team in its entirety it was probably LeBron and then he goes into the Lakers season where the Lakers got off to kind of like a little bit of a rocky start and then all of a sudden Anthony Davis went down and the Lakers got better just with LeBron James out there and then they traded for Luke and then end up as the third seed so how many more games or how many more seasons does he have left in him i think more than just one actually i mean I know he’s going to be 41 in December and as you mentioned he’s it’s he’s going to break a tie with Vince Carter for the most seasons ever he’s also 50 games away from playing in the most games ever that that record is held by Robert Parish the former Celtics great lebron’s going to take that over too it wouldn’t surprise me at all if LeBron plays another year after this now whether or not it’s with the Lakers that’s to be determined i suspect if he stays with the Lakers he’s going to have to take a pretty significant pay cut but the guy’s done everything you could possibly ask and to be 41 in December and to be playing at this level is just so remarkable he’s done so many things in his career that defy belief so it would not surprise me at all if he had another year beyond this he’s made more than 500 million in his career already on the court but I imagine he wouldn’t mind another ring i is are they are the Lakers going to be competit enough to compete with OKC now in the West uh with this move
yeah I mean potentially they were the three seed last year oklahoma City no doubt about it is the heavy favorite in the Western Conference but if you Mike if you look up and down the Western Conference standings there are at a minimum possibly more 13 teams that have designs on just making the playoffs and then of those how many could potentially be contenders well okay we saw Oklahoma City win in seven games in the finals but hey they had to go to seven games against the Denver Nuggets now that has a lot to do with Nicola Joic being the best player in the world apologies to SGA is the MVP but he took them to the brink so Oklahoma City is not completely unbeatable the Pacers took them to seven games the Pacers had an incredible season and who knows what happens if Tyrese Hallebertton doesn’t go down so to answer your question in a long way yes the Lakers could potentially be contenders in the Western Conference again LeBron is playing at a really high level you got a full season of him and Luca now they have a lot of moves to make still dorian Finny Smith he could potentially opt out there’s been some rumblings about whether or not he was going to stick around kind of surprising to be honest with you because I’m not sure that there’s uh money for uh Dorian Finny Smith to get a raise a bump in salary uh also they need a center as everybody knows right they were running Jackson Hayes out there they were starting him and then once they got into the actual games they’d yank him out and they’d go small ball center with LeBron and Dorian Finny Smith and of course everybody can use shooters including the Lakers so still some moves to be made on the margins but yeah the Lakers are in the mix along with six eight 10 other teams to potentially win the Western Conference all right John Gonzalez is a big domino to fall but as we mentioned an expected one so we’ll see what it means in fact for the Lakers moving forward but thanks for your help here okay let’s take a look at some of the contract stuff for both LeBron James and Luca Donic lebron opting in that 52.6 million player option as ESPN reported for next season would be an NBA record 23rd NBA season next year luca meanwhile 46 million coming his way 49 million player option in 2026 2027 he’s eligible to sign up for a 4-year extension for an estimated 229 million on August 2nd all right let’s go ahead and bring in NBA reporter for CBS Sports Sam Quinn now to get reaction to LeBron opting in to his player contract here of course player option I should say $52.6 million sam what’s your initial reaction for what this means for LeBron and the Lakers
so last off season LeBron offered to take a pretty significant pay cut he was going to go down around $15 million the idea was to help the Lakers build their team they were going to use that flexibility to chase Klay Thompson there were a couple of other players on his list that he was interested in playing with they ultimately didn’t get Clay but that offer was pretty significant it was a sign that he was willing to do what it took to help the Lakers compete for a championship he didn’t make that offer this off season and it’s interesting to consider why well the Lakers are set up for 2026 cap space they’re they’re going to have the space to completely remake the team around Luca Donic if that’s what they want to do but for that to happen they’re probably going to have to have LeBron either off of the team or at the very least at a significantly lower number so what do we what do we make from that right well if LeBron had opted out and given up some money this year he probably would have wanted a player option for next season similar to the one that he just exercised a chance to make sure that he could have stayed on the team at a pretty significant salary either the Lakers didn’t offer him such a player option or he didn’t take it it has to be one of the two right so what do we make from that well I think the easiest takeaway here is that we might be headed towards the end of the partnership between LeBron James and the Lakers he wants to compete for championships in the present but they have to think about building a team around Luca Donuch long term that can compete for championships for five maybe 10 years those are incompatible timelines right if the Lakers want to go allin on winning right now that means throwing their draft picks into trades that means giving out long-term contracts it doesn’t seem as though the Lakers are especially eager to do that based on the market that exists right now dorian Finny Smith an impending free agent with a player option for $15 million there’s some rumblings that he might opt out because he wants a long-term deal well if the Lakers were fully committed to winning this year and only this year they give him that long-term deal but they’re not they have to think about the timeline of their now 26-year-old superstar so what this suggests to me above all else is that the Lakers are being cautious in the way that they’re building their team they want to have the flexibility to have that max cap space next off season they want to preserve their draft picks they don’t want to give out long-term money so what does that mean for this year it probably means that they’re not pushing all their chips into the center of the table
sam I I understand what you’re saying there in the short term but LeBron it’s he’s on the back nine of of his career here obviously so what is their next move if they want to actually try to win a title with LeBron and Luca on the roster together well the first order of business here is going to be getting a center right they tried to get Mark Williams at the deadline they couldn’t complete the deal because of a physical they go through the end of the season into the playoffs with no center and they get killed inside by the Minnesota Timberwolves they have to find a serviceable center somewhere so how are they going to do that they have this $5.7 million taxpayer mid-level exception they’re going to use that in free agency probably get the best center that they can find the names they’ve been linked to Brook Lopez Clint Capella guys who are older probably not long-term options these are stop gaps right and they can be helpful for a year but they’re probably not guys that are going to be long-term Lakers just given their age given where they are in their careers so if you add one of those guys does that you know get you into the mix with Oklahoma City with Houston i’m going to go ahead and say probably not now it could at least get you to a point where you’re good enough inside that like you can take advantage of all that ball handling you have you can you know hang there with Minnesota in the first round but if they want to genuinely compete for a championship I don’t see a way that they can do that without making a significant trade involving that 2031 first round pick without adding you know an onball defender which they are really lacking right now they have a lot of holes that they need to fill and if all they’re doing is using that taxpayer mid-level exception I’m very skeptical that they’re actually going to be able to fill them
all right a lot of decisions need to be made there in LA now let’s stay in the same city why don’t we uh James Harden he’s got a player option as well a little less expensive than LeBron sitting at 36 million what do you expect to happen there with Harden and the Clippers
yeah I expect James Harden to opt out but that doesn’t mean I think he’s going to leave right i think what’s going to happen is he’s going to opt out he’s going to tell the Clippers “Take care of your business.” Whatever it is you’re going to do they’ve been talked about as a team that could use the full mid-level exception and around $14 million maybe they want to make a trade basically go take care of your business i’ll resign i’ll take what’s left what I can legally take which is roughly going to be around where he is now in the mid30s but I want a player option for the 26 27 season which ironically LeBron does not have now and I suspect the Clippers are going to give it to him right that partnership’s been very productive for both sides harden was an all-star last year playoffs didn’t go as planned but I think as far as their roster building dynamic goes they’re taking this on a year-to-year basis having Harden on a onepus one makes sense but if you could improve the team around him first of course you’re going to try to do that sam Quinn thanks for hopping on with us with this breaking news of LeBron opting into that player option now of course today was deadline day for these player options uh tomorrow free agency begins in the NBA june 30th 600 p.m eastern that’s when it that’s when all the fun starts and summer league’s going to get started towards the end of the week july 5th through the 8th free agent signing periods July 6th at 12:01 p.m eastern and then Las Vegas summer league July 10th through the 20th

John Gonzalez and Sam Quinn join CBS Sports HQ to discuss the breaking news regarding Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James.

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