Brian Windhorst reveals LeBron James’ three options for next season

LeBron James may only be able to proceed down one of three paths after this season.

The Los Angeles Lakers superstar James appears to have just three options following the 2025-26 campaign, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said Friday during an appearance on “Get Up!” Windhorst said that James can remain with the Lakers but at a pay cut, he can sign with another team as a free agent, or he can retire.

Most notably, that means one particular option is no longer on the table. James will, according to Windhorst, not be able to remain with the Lakers at a salary close to the $52.6 million that he is making this season.

Additionally, another option may be off the table according to Windhorst’s reporting — the possibility of a sign-and-trade. James could hypothetically head elsewhere as part of a sign-and-trade that would send assets back to the Lakers in return. But that would require a level of cooperation and goodwill between the two sides that may not be there right now.

Earlier this week, we saw a report alleging that Lakers governor Jeanie Buss had grown fed up with James and his behavior over the years. The Lakers also notably failed to give James a new contract extension over the offseason, leading to James’ agent Rich Paul going public with some frustrations.

As the Lakers look to fully build around Luka Doncic, it seems very unlikely that their partnership with James will extend beyond this season (unless James takes an extremely uncharacteristic paycut). Last week, Reggie Miller revealed exactly who James’ potential team after the Lakers might be.