Blockbuster Trade Proposal Sends Lakers’ LeBron James To Warriors

One NBA analyst proposed that the Golden State Warriors acquire LeBron James from the Los Angeles Lakers.

Stephen Noh of The Sporting News proposed the following mock trade between the Warriors and Lakers:

Warriors receive: LeBron James

Lakers receive: Andrew Wiggins, Gary Payton II, Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Trayce Jackson-Davis, 2025 first-round pick, 2027 first-round pick

LeBron has a no-trade clause in his contract, so he would have to request a trade to the Warriors to play with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. 

The leading scorer in NBA history, LeBron is close friends with Curry and Green. LeBron and Green also have the same agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports Group. 

The Warriors tried to acquire LeBron last season. 

“This is the Warriors’ best available package,” Noh wrote. “It includes both of their tradeable first-round picks, their two best young prospects in Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski, another good prospect in Trayce Jackson-Davis, and salary filler in Andrew Wiggins and Gary Payton II. 

“This trade would make sense for the Lakers. They’re not good enough to win it all in the West and this would let them quickly retool around Davis with a ton of young players, picks and salary flexibility going forward. 

“For the Warriors, this would mortgage their future to give Curry a fighting chance to win a title over the two remaining years on his contract. James would be a massive upgrade over Wiggins and they would still retain Draymond Green to form a terrific big three. The Warriors have been reluctant to include Podziemski and Kuminga in a trade. That would be the sticking point in this type of trade.”

LeBron and Curry looked good together in the Olympics for Team USA. Curry set a lot of picks for LeBron, a play the two NBA legends called “too small.”

“I’m a good screener and can cause some confusion for a guy like (LeBron) having the ball,” Curry said, via The Athletic. “We do it a little bit in Golden State where you have somebody else having the ball and me setting it, and I have a lot of different actions you can run, but if you get (LeBron) going downhill, good luck to anybody trying to stop him and having me come off into space. Just try to make teams make decisions and the more decisions you can make a defense make the better chance you have to create confusion.”

Team USA won the gold medal at the Olympics. Now, the NBA world waits to see if LeBron and Curry will team up again.