LeBron James will decline to pick up the one-year option on his contract and instead become an unrestricted free agent, sources told both ESPN's Brian Windhorst and Cleveland.com's Chris Haynes.
LeBron James wants to make sure Cleveland brings everyone back before re-signing
LeBron James is almost certainly going to stay in Cleveland, but he is expected to wait to officially commit until the situations with Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson are resolved.
James is expected to re-sign with Cleveland, according to both reports. In fact, he’s not even planning on meeting with other teams, according to ESPN’s Chris Broussard.
But that doesn’t mean James will sign right away. Instead, he’s expected to wait until the Cavaliers resolve situations with Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Brendan Haywood’s non-guaranteed contract and J.R. Smith before making his new deal official. Writes Haynes:
The belief is James wants to observe how management goes about retaining and accumulating assets to keep the organization in win-now mode and improve the roster.
The chance of James bolting the city of Cleveland for a second time is slim, but his approach will allow him to assess the Cavaliers’ moves before re-signing. It also applies pressure on the organization to do whatever is necessary to strengthen the team.
James would like to see Thompson, Love and Smith re-signed this summer, according to Haynes. The Cavaliers intend to do so, but James wants to make sure. Cleveland will also quickly look to deal Haywood’s non-guaranteed contract for an additional player. Once James knows for sure that Cleveland will spend what’s necessary to keep the team together, he will make his commitment.
Haynes adds that “it is widely known that [James] will not meddle in management proceedings or give input as it pertains to head coach David Blatt and the coaching staff,” though Basketball Insiders’ Alex Kennedy says some of his sources believe James will indeed ask for a coaching change.
James is expected to once again work out a one-year contract with a player option for the 2016-17 season when he does re-sign, according to Windhorst. Doing so would allow James to again hold the leverage next summer and sign a new deal after the league’s salary cap and maximum salaries rise due to the NBA’s massive new TV contract.
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