[Amick] League executives do not believe LeBron James will return to the Los Angeles Lakers after this season. The Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers are viewed as his top landing spots.
As recently as late January, not long after an ESPN report detailed so much of the dysfunction in James’ relationship with the Lakers organization, the widely-held consensus around the league was that there’s no way he’d be back in a Lakers jersey. The Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors were, and are, often mentioned by league executives as his most likely destinations. But it was the lack of synergy and consistent success with James on the court, above all else, that drove this idea of an unavoidable exit. Not to mention the Father Time component, with sciatica issues costing him the first month of the regular season (when the Lakers started 10-4 without him) and questions rising about whether he could still be an impact player.