LA Lakers must face up to $50m reality over LeBron James, claims Jeff Teague

Jeff Teague suggests that the Los Angeles Lakers have to trade LeBron James if he can’t play

James opted into his $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season over the summer.

He is taking up a significant portion of the Lakers cap space, which limited what they were able to do during the offseason.

A player making that much money sitting on the bench and not expected to play until mid-November is problematic.

Jeff Teague suggested that if LeBron can’t get healthy and play, the Lakers should trade him.

“Lakers sad. I had high hopes for the Lakers. Bron can’t play, they gotta trade Bron.

“Bron is on $50M a year. Take out all that cap space, I’m pretty sure they could have a couple of good role players that will make this team a little different.

“They would probably have won this game if they didn’t have Bron and they had some more role players.

“I just don’t like that team. I said they would be a top four team because of Bron and Luka.
“When Bron gets back he gonna be motivated.

“Last night it looked a little alarming.”

A lot of uncertainty surrounds LeBron James’ future with the Los Angeles Lakers

James is in the final year of his contract with the Lakers, which means he will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

James has already revealed that he doesn’t plan on retiring, when his ‘Second Decision’ announcement ended up being a Hennessy ad.

However, it does appear that James’ head might not be with the Lakers anymore and he could be navigating his options ahead of next summer.

There is also the possibility of James being traded for the first time of his career at the trade deadline, if things go south for the Lakers.