Carmelo Anthony opened up on the possibility of close friend and former Los Angeles Lakers teammate LeBron James potentially leaving the purple and gold franchise this season.
Anthony spoke on his '7 PM In Brooklyn' podcast where he made it clear that James would leave the Lakers based on his own decision, and that the window for James wanting out has likely closed.
“LeBron makes the trade so, if he wanna get traded, he’ll get traded... I think that window closed. Maybe last year or before that, there was a thought that 'Damn, this could be a possibility...' Kuminga being a part of the trade is a major headline."
This is a very interesting conversation, as most people wrote off LeBron's switch to Los Angeles in 2018 as being a retirement plan. Seven seasons later, his time with the Lakers has tied his longest consecutive stint with any team in the NBA as he solidified himself as a franchise legend, winning a championship in 2020.
Now that James is actually on the brink of retirement within the next season or two, making a switch to a new franchise seems less appealing. He has everything he needs in LA set up for post-retirement and is currently on the Lakers roster alongside his son, Bronny. He seems personally fulfilled, although their on-court success is lacking.
The Lakers are 15-12 this season, fighting to climb out of the Play-In Tournament in the West. While they've been on a nice 3-1 run in their last four games, there are still major concerns about the overall roster's viability as a Playoff threat. Given it's mostly the same roster from last season which lost in the first round, this perception of the current Lakers is fair.
The Golden State Warriors were rebuffed in their attempts to discuss a potential LeBron trade last winter and have been repeatedly linked as potentially the only franchise that has shown an active interest in acquiring LeBron.
The Warriors are 14-12 right now, and it's hard to say that teaming up with a 36-year-old Stephen Curry will make him a more viable title contender compared to staying in LA with Anthony Davis and his son in an organization he wields a lot of power in.
Any trade including LeBron has to be signed off on by him as he has a no-trade clause in his contract, so like Anthony said, LeBron will make the call if he ever wants to leave the Lakers while being able to also choose the destination.
The Warriors are plausible because of James respect for Curry and desire to play alongside him, an itch he scratched at the 2024 Olympics.
The only other potential destination for James would be the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are the No. 1 seed in the East right now and could become favorites over the Boston Celtics for the title if they added LeBron to the roster. The trade would wreck the Cavaliers' depth but would be an opportunity for a marketable homecoming retirement story with an actual chance to compete for a title.
