A Nuggets LeBron James Trade Paradigm

It won't happen, but if it WERE to...

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Look, this is not clickbait.¹

Stop laughing, I’m serious.

Seriously, stop it! It’s not nice!

THE LEBRON SITUATION

So on Sunday, LeBron James opted into his $52.6 million player option with the Lakers. This is one of those great examples of why these things are more complicated than they need to be.

“Oh, so he decided to stay with the Lakers.”

“Correct.”

“So he’s not going anywhere.”

“Well…”

“What do you mean, ‘Well…’?”

“Well, he opted in because it gives him the best chance to go somewhere else.”

“But he could have opted out and not been with them.”

“Right.”

“But he opted in to stay with them, so that he could leave?”

“That’s maybe, possibly correct.”

“My head hurts.”

See, in a statement to ESPN, Klutch Sports mastermind Rich Paul put LeBron’s situation in, um, tenuous terms.

"LeBron wants to compete for a championship," Paul told ESPN. "He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we've had for eight years with Jeanie [Buss] and Rob [Pelinka] and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.

"We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what's best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what's best for him."

Note that none of those sentences are in the past tense.

And yet it FEELS like they’re all in the past tense.

Which is why everyone’s ears are up. This is not the statement you put out to say “Yup, one more season for the ol’ King and then we’re done, just glad to stay with this franchise I have consistently given more leeway and benefit of the doubt to than any other franchise I have ever played for despite them squandering most of the last chapter of my career!”

That’s the statement you put out if you want to say “Congrats on trading for Luka and getting yourselves out from under the Klutch-Sports-brand knife at your throat², but also, you made it pretty clear I’m no longer the priority, so… what are you doing for me, now?”

The most likely scenario is that James just stays and keeps making film, media, and podcasts and whatever else while playing basketball at an unreasonably high level for someone his age for a year or two. Maybe they get the right pieces traded to them because they’re the Lakers, and they win him a fifth title.

But if that’s not what happens, if James were to actually relocate… what about Denver?

FRIENDSHIP, FUN, FAMILY, AND FOCUS

LeBron is actually friends with Josh Kroenke. Not just casual “We both are billionaires” friends.

They are “let’s go hang out on my super-yacht” friends. This opens the door. Everything in the NBA is secondary to relationships. It’s the first and foremost thing in any and all transaction structures. You need a relationship.

There is one.

OK, but LeBron is a father of three, his wife enjoys the LA lifestyle, and his middle kiddo is headed to the University of Arizona.

Sure, he could just join the Suns. But you can’t do that and hope to win a championship.

You can join Denver, though, which is a two-hour flight to LA, a two-hour flight to Tucson, AZ, and an hour flight to Vegas, where James still has both business interests and some long-term hopes at owning a franchise.

Denver is one of the few teams that has all of the following for James:

• a championship-ready team that took the champs to seven games

• a true superstar to take the burden of being the best player so he doesn’t have to, which he hasn’t had outside of the Luka minutes in his entire career

• a West Coast adjacent city with a short travel time to the nexus of his empire

• a team that actually needs his skills, where he is both on their timeline and competitive level

• an ownership group willing to accommodate the needs of Klutch Sports

The argument here is not that Denver is big enough for LeBron James. Realistically, nowhere is, not even New York. But it’s adjacent to the place he prefers to be. If he can’t be in LA, again, the easiest and simplest option, this is his next best choice if he wants to a. compete and b. be comparably close to his lifestyle.

Even the Cavaliers, his home-state team, would have to move heaven and earth just to get under the second apron to make the next move —the actual trade for him —possible.

The Nuggets, however? The Nuggets can offer him a serious opportunity to win a title and keep him close enough to see his family and home. It would take the usual shattering of team standards for superstars. It’s not good for culture, to be clear.