The Cleveland Cavaliers will forever be linked to LeBron James. The King hasn’t played for his hometown team since 2018, but could return for the final chapter of his career if the Los Angeles Lakers agree to facilitate a trade.
The asking price? Jarrett Allen.
“I think if the Cavs were willing to do that, they’d have LeBron,” said Brian Windhorst on ESPN Cleveland. “The Lakers would kill for Jarrett Allen; they would do that deal in seventeen-tenths of a second.”
This makes sense. James is the oldest
player in the NBA and will turn 42 later this year. Wherever he plays next season, there’s a good chance that it won’t be for long. If the Lakers were able to flip him for a 28-year-old center who fits like a glove next to Luka Doncic — they’d do it yesterday.
The question is, why would the Cavs even consider this?
It would take some real desperation to part ways with Allen for the final year(s) of LeBron’s career. As much as we all love James, there is no winning against Father Time. He can’t have much more gas left in the tank. This would be the definition of a short-sighted move. Especially, after Allen came up huge in consecutive Game 7’s in his most recent playoff run. This isn’t someone you want to kick to the curb for a 42-year-old.
James is still an elite player. He averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists, and 6.1 rebounds last season. But, as a general rule of thumb, you shouldn’t make a deal with someone who would kill to shake your hand and put ink to paper. That indicates that you’re giving up way more than you should. The Lakers would jump to make this deal for a reason.
Unfortunately, the Cavs don’t have many other options for bringing back James. He has a $52 million dollar player option this summer. It’s hard to see him declining that in favor of a much, much smaller deal in Cleveland. He’d have to be desperate to join the Cavs in that scenario. Just as desperate as they’d have to be to trade Allen for him. And if that were true, we wouldn’t be having this discussion, to begin with.
