[O’Connor] Sources believe LeBron James is slow-playing his decision to see if any of his suitors can find a way to land Anthony Davis or Kyrie Irving. The problem is that AD and Kyrie don’t seem available for trade.
Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/the-indecision-whats-lebron-james-waiting-for-221704877.html
Most teams on LeBron’s list already have a point guard. There’s Tyrese Maxey in Philadelphia and some guy named Stephen Curry in Golden State. Even teams that have seemingly fallen out of the LeBron running, like Minnesota (LaMelo Ball) and New York (Jalen Brunson), have point guards in place.
Miami could use an upgrade, but there’s no theoretical salary match for Irving’s $39.5 million deal without gutting wing depth. Andrew Wiggins would have to go for any deal to work, and the Heat aren’t trading their best wing defender to add a 34-year-old point guard coming off a torn ACL.
That leaves Cleveland, where James Harden is sitting in free agency waiting for clarity on what the Cavaliers are doing.
“We’re just waiting on big fella,” Harden said, according to LeBron’s ex-teammate Channing Frye on Yahoo Sports Daily. That’s true. Harden opted out of his $42.3 million player option to negotiate a long-term extension with Cleveland at a lower annual value, and he’s willing to wait to give the team flexibility to pursue LeBron.
The belief around the league is that LeBron would be more likely to choose the Cavaliers if the front office could replace Harden with Irving. The 2016 reunion would be a lovely story. But it has two problems.
Problem No. 1: The Mavericks don’t want to trade Irving.
That’s per sources, but it’s also fairly obvious. New head coach Dusty May recently compared witnessing an Irving workout to “watching Picasso paint a picture.” There’s a genuine excitement in the organization about pairing Irving with Cooper Flaggand this refurbished Dallas roster.
Problem No. 2: The Cavaliers are happy with Harden.
Swapping Harden for Irving would be asking Cleveland to trade a durable point guard for a fragile one. Irving just lost an entire season, and even before tearing his ACL, he played an average of 45 games in his previous six seasons. The last time Kyrie played 70 games, he was still a Cavalier. That was a decade ago. Harden, meanwhile, remains one of the most reliable stars in the sport, logging 70-plus games played for three seasons running. Ripping up a conference finals roster and attaching draft capital to a complex sign-and-trade with Dallas may not be the most sensible thing to do. All just to convince a 41-year-old to sign with you.
I first reported three Sundays ago that the Warriors pursued trading Jimmy Butler for AD to lure James to the Bay Area. Thus far, the Warriors have been unable to reach a deal with the Wizards, who are signaling that they are more than happy to keep Davis. So the dream of running back the bubble title has problems too.
Problem No. 1: The Wizards don’t want to trade Davis.
“AD’s in D.C., wants to be in D.C., and we’re gonna keep him there,” Wizards general manager Will Dawkins said on SiriusXM NBA Radio during NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. “He was out here with all our guys. We had all 17 guys here, and he was a big part of what we had going on, leading our group workouts.”
The Wizards bought low on Davis with just two firsts and three seconds. Now Davis is talking like he plans to stick around. He has already teased playing 82 games next season in Washington with AJ Dybantsa winning Rookie of the Year and the team winning 40-plus games.
If LeBron waits until August to make his choice, it could be that he wants to fully see exactly how the Davis situation plays out. And he’d have a decent read on it, considering they share an agent.
Problem No. 2: The Warriors are happy with Butler.
Dating back to the trade deadline, Golden State’s front office has told Butler it has no plans of trading him, according to ESPN’s Anthony Slater. That’s true. The Warriors didn’t offer Butler for Giannis in trade talks in February. Instead, they offered Draymond Green, who they were upfront with about it.
But now the Warriors are in a position where Draymond is an unrestricted free agent and could always jump ship to join LeBron wherever he signs. So if Davis is acquirable, trading Butler for him means bringing in Davis and re-signing Draymond and signing LeBron. Not doing so could mean entering next season with Steph alone.
Until Davis signs an extension in Washington, the possibility remains though. It’s certainly curious that no deal has been signed when AD is already eligible to sign a three-year, $198 million deal today. Is AD just waiting until August for that fourth year of the deal? Maybe. Or maybe these forces are all negotiating with each other: The Wizards are maintaining the appearance that they want to keep Davis to increase a potential trade return, the Warriors are signaling they will keep Butler to hold their ground in negotiations, and Klutch is biding its time to either steer Davis to a contender or increase the value of his extension if he stays put.