Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James salutes public address announcer Lawrence Tanter prior to a 2024 game against the Denver Nuggets.Mark J. Terrill/The Associated Press
NBA free agency in 2010: Everyone waited for LeBron James to make a decision.
NBA free agency in 2026: Everyone is waiting again for James to make a decision.
James was the biggest domino to fall in the NBA’s off-season player movement period 16 years ago when he decided to join Miami, and he may be the biggest domino to fall – at least in free agency – this summer as well.
The market opens in the NBA on Tuesday evening, with James’s future atop the list of the most intriguing storylines that will be solved over the coming days and weeks.
It seems like retirement isn’t happening yet, which would mean the NBA’s all-time leader in points scored, minutes played and games played coming back for a record-extending 24th season and potentially – when including playoff contests – appearing in the 2,000th game of his career.
His options would figure to include staying with the Los Angeles Lakers, returning to Miami or Cleveland (both would have interest for obvious reasons) or even thinking about moving elsewhere like Golden State and teaming up with longtime friends Stephen Curry and Draymond Green to chase one more title.
Green – who is not expected to leave Golden State – on Monday declined his US$27.6-million option for next season, doing so to give the Warriors more maneuverability to add players in the coming days, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because that detail was not revealed publicly by the team, and it raises the possibility that the Warriors might now have more of a selling point to pitch to James.
“When the time comes, you guys will know what I decide to do,” James said when the Lakers were eliminated this spring by Oklahoma City in a 4-0 sweep.
The time is coming.
Chatter persists that former Toronto Raptor Kawhi Leonard (right) has interest in returning to the team he helped lead to the 2019 NBA title.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
The window when teams can begin officially talking with free agents – other than the ones on their own team, those talks could begin when the NBA finals ended – opens at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and deals could be flying not long afterward.
In most cases, any new deals cannot be executed until at least the end of the NBA’s off-season moratorium on July 6.
“This period we’re in right now, kind of from mid-May to mid-July, it’s a two-month sprint through the draft, combine, free agency, Summer League, all that,” Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said earlier this month. “We’re super busy right now. But it’s a fun time of year. This is where we get to make decisions, shape the roster, do all that stuff.”
The NBA finalists – champion New York and runner-up San Antonio – both will have moves to make in the coming days, though they are expected to keep their cores largely intact.
Plenty of decisions and roster-shaping already has happened around the league, either by trades (such as the Giannis Antetokounmpo blockbuster) or teams re-signing or extending their own players (such as Trae Young’s US$212-million deal with Washington and Austin Reaves’s US$185-million deal with the Lakers).
Miami will land Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis in a trade that sends Tyler Herro, other players and draft capital to Milwaukee, but that won’t be finalized until that moratorium date passes. But in the interim, the Heat will be looking to add shooters – Tim Hardaway Jr., whose father’s number is retired in Miami, and longtime Antetokounmpo favourite Khris Middleton make a lot of sense.
The Heat will be keeping Andrew Wiggins, who on Monday exercised his US$30-million option for this coming season and, according to a person familiar with the talks between the sides, has agreed in principle on a US$34-million deal for the following two seasons – with 2028-29 at his option.
More trades could be coming, with a person familiar with the negotiations confirming to the AP that Toronto has spoken with the Los Angeles Clippers on the possibility of Kawhi Leonard – who led the Raptors to the 2019 NBA title – returning to Canada next season. And Boston is still believed to be holding talks about the possibility of trading 2024 NBA finals MVP Jaylen Brown, who was the centrepiece of the Celtics’ ultimately futile offer to land Antetokounmpo in trade discussions with Milwaukee.
“Nobody has won more combined regular-season and playoff games since I entered the league 10 years ago,” Brown posted on social media over the weekend. He’s right: The Celtics have won 523 games with Brown in the lineup, including playoff contests, which is six more than Denver has won with Nikola Jokic over that span.