Celtics fans shouldn’t hold their breath about signing LeBron James
By Tre LyDay
The LeBron James sweepstakes don’t officially start until July 1, but Celtics fans shouldn’t be holding their breath about bringing King James to Beantown.
LeBron James is set to become a free agent this summer should he opt out of his contract. Of course, there really isn’t a scenario where he doesn’t opt out so when free agency starts on July 1 everybody will be wondering, where will LeBron go?
There are some frontrunners as to who will sign him. The Los Angeles Lakers are currently the betting favorites to land the best player on the planet. The Houston Rockets are also rumored to be in the mix.
If you’re a fan of the Celtics then you shouldn’t get too excited about your chances. According to Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe, things may get complicated for the Celtics in their potential pursuit of James.
The Celtics don’t have a ton of cap space and would need to work out a sign-and-trade to acquire James. The chances of that happening aren’t too great considering they’ve already made one deal in the past year that didn’t work out too well for Cleveland.
If you may recall the Celtics and Cavaliers made a deal to send Kyrie Irving to the Celtics for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder and the Brooklyn Nets pick. That pick turned out to be the No. 8 pick in the draft of course, but the Cavs probably don’t want to do a deal with the Celtics that involves LeBron James.
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James is probably the most calculated person in the NBA, and any kind of sign-and-trade with the Celtics would have to be approved by him.
If you’re an optimist you might take the Kawhi Leonard news as a glimmer of hope. Playing with Leonard could convince James to agree to that sign-and-trade, but if that happens, it’s likely to be with the Lakers, not the Celtics.