{"id":489463,"date":"2026-03-23T21:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=489463"},"modified":"2026-03-23T21:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:36:15","slug":"lebron-james-lakers-a-new-angle-emerges-return-may-depend-on-a-pay-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/lebron-james-lakers-a-new-angle-emerges-return-may-depend-on-a-pay-cut\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James-Lakers, a new angle emerges: return may depend on a pay cut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"2177\" data-end=\"2618\"><strong data-start=\"2177\" data-end=\"2193\">LeBron James<\/strong> remains one of the biggest talking points in the NBA, with the <strong data-start=\"2257\" data-end=\"2267\">Lakers<\/strong> still at the center of the discussion. Reports have recently fueled the idea of a possible split, but the financial picture adds another layer: James\u2019 current deal is worth more than <strong data-start=\"2451\" data-end=\"2482\">$101 million over two years<\/strong>, with the <strong data-start=\"2493\" data-end=\"2504\">2025-26<\/strong> season locked in at <strong data-start=\"2525\" data-end=\"2542\">$52.6 million<\/strong> after he exercised his player option.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2620\" data-end=\"3084\">That is where the point relayed by <strong data-start=\"2655\" data-end=\"2675\">Ramona Shelburne<\/strong> becomes important: the market, at least right now, does not appear to include teams willing to offer LeBron a fresh <strong data-start=\"2792\" data-end=\"2816\">$50 million-per-year<\/strong> contract. If that remains the case, it would leave the <strong data-start=\"2872\" data-end=\"2882\">Lakers<\/strong> with a realistic opening, but only if James were willing to consider a reduced salary. In that sense, the issue may become as much financial as basketball-related.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3086\" data-end=\"3404\">The situation still needs to be treated carefully, because there has been no official announcement about James\u2019 next move. But one thing is clear: LeBron\u2019s upcoming offseason could depend not only on the right competitive fit, but also on what teams are genuinely prepared to pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LeBron James\u2019 future remains open, but ESPN has added a key detail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":372083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"rumors":[175],"typology":[183],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-489463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","rumors-nba-rumors","typology-rumors"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/02\/Los-Angeles-Lakers.jpg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489463"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=489463"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=489463"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=489463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}