Do You Want LeBron James To Join Your Team? Apparently All You Have To Do Is Draft Bronny James
Kevork Djansezian. Getty Images.
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Let me start off by saying it would be very cool and pretty insane for a father and son to be on the same NBA roster at the same time. That has happened a total of zero (0) times in NBA history. If anyone was going to be the first to do it, LeBron makes the most sense. The dude is a basketball cyborg (current knee injury excluded) who is showing no signs of being ready to hang em up. Bronny is currently a junior in high school, so you're looking at the summer of 2024. I'm pretty sure he'll still be playing at that point. This is how his current contract situation looks
This would mean after 2022-23, chances are LeBron is going to be looking for a 1 year deal, or maybe a 1+1 with a player option for the second year so he can control his own destiny. That's not exactly news, he's done shit like that his whole career. So let's say that happens, it brings up an interesting question.
Would you maybe reach and draft Bronny if it got you at least 1 year of LeBron? This is assuming he doesn't drop off production wise because why the hell would he (see: basketball cyborg). What if you're a contending team? Is that worth the risk? Maybe someone follows the path suggested by Kyle Kuzma
Imagine a world where LeBron plays for OKC? I don't care what version of him they are getting, that would be wild. Part of me would sort of feel bad for Bronny that he would have to deal with all the noise surrounding that, but whatever you're in the NBA. Who cares how or why you got there. Here's the bad news for Lakers fans. They don't own any of their first round picks until 2025. You can thank the AD trade for that. Making things even more complicated, they can't trade a first round pick other than their first in 2027. You can thank the Stepien Rule for that. So, technically they could trade that 2027 1st in an attempt to get into the 2024 draft to take Bronny, but that's probably not the smartest idea for a team that will then have to navigate in a post LeBron world.
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That brings up another interesting question. If you're the Lakers, do you get ahead of this? That would mean trading LeBron in either 2022-23 or 2023-24 (if his next deal is in LA). I'd imagine LeBron would bring back a pretty hefty return, especially for a team that could use some first round picks. LeBron does not own a no trade clause on his current deal, and I'd be interested to see if he tries to get one in his next deal to prevent this sort of thing. That seems crazy since the Lakers are currently trying to win a title and are locked into the Westbrook/AD/LeBron trio for a little while, but if LeBron is making it clear that he's going to dip to wherever his son gets drafted to, can they afford to let him walk for nothing? It is the Lakers, they will always be a top free agent destination, so maybe they don't give a shit. The entire scenario is fascinating.
So I'll now ask you as a fan. Would you want your favorite team to potentially use a valuable first round pick on Bronny if it guaranteed LeBron would be coming with it?