LeBron James will be an unrestricted free agent beginning this July.
He will have his say in where he wants to play during the 2026-27 NBA season, if he chooses to play another year, which would be his 24th, extending his NBA record.
James provided a timeline on which a decision could be made, but speculations are leaning that he’ll play another season.
ESPN senior insider Shams Charania joined the Rich Eisen Show and shared what he knew about James’ potential decision.
“Lebron is 41 years old, just finished his 23rd season, (and is) gonna take the next few weeks to figure out exactly how he wants potentially his final year to play out,” Charania said. “All the indications I’ve gotten over the course of year is that he’s going to play one more season.”
So, say James does opt for a 24th and final NBA season, or maybe beyond 24, there’s expected to be a number of teams clamoring for his services.
“The one thing I do know is that multiple contenders are already kind of sort of circling here,” Charania said. “If LeBron is really going to hit the open market and decide and have a true free agency, he’s not going to have a shortage of teams that feel like, ‘Listen, we’ll go get LeBron, we’ll plug him in as their starting power forward or small forward, and, like, “Let’s go try to win a ring.'”
Here are potential contenders and landing spots for James if he leans towards that decision in the upcoming months:
LeBron James 2026 free agency: Potential landing spots
Here are possible teams that James could land with for the 2026-27 NBA season.
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are the obvious team James signs with. He’s spent his previous seven NBA seasons with the Lakers and in that stint has won an NBA championship, Finals MVP, and helped the franchise back to being a perennial postseason contender.
Whether James feels that the team has enough to get to the mountaintop of another championship is probably what he’s waiting to see, Charania said.
“The where, the how much of it all, like that, that’s all obviously going to be a factor. Is it going to be LA? That’s got to be probably his preference if he wants to be home, and you know, as far as where his home base is now,” Charania said. “And the Lakers have made it clear that they want him back, and so we’ll see how that mutual potential interest culminates over the next month or so.”
Family has a big impact. His wife and kids will want him close. His son, Bryce, is at Arizona and James will want to be close to attend games in the winter. His eldest son and teammate, Bronny, surely has enjoyed his pops being alongside his young NBA journey.
All signs lead to the Lakers, but there are other contenders that make sense.
Los Angeles Clippers
The next-door neighbor, who happens to be “little bro,” would like a word with Mr. James. The LA Clippers would be a viable option for James; playing for the team in Inglewood means he and his family wouldn’t have to leave Southern California.
He can enjoy all the perks of SoCal, while remaining home. Legacy-wise, winning a championship for the Clippers would be unheard of.
The Clippers do have interesting pieces to combine with Darius Garland, Benedict Mathurin, Kris Dunn and maybe Bradley Beal is back healthy. Add James into the mix and they might make noise. They will need depth at the center position but Yanic Konan Niederhauser is due for a breakout year, a pick-and-roll game between him and James would accelerate his development.
Golden State Warriors
Ah, yes. The dream duo of Stephen Curry and LeBron James. We’ve seen glimpses of what that would look like throughout All-Star games but it was on its best display during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The Golden State Warriors have actually contacted the Lakers multiple times regarding James’ availability, obviously to no avail. Now that James has the power to exercise his preferred destination, if he wanted to play with Curry in the Bay Area, he could. But it might come with a drastic pay cut.
San Francisco is an hour flight away. While joining forces may draw scrutiny, the bigger issue is the Warriors being a borderline playoff team.
Hypothetically, think about whether a combination of James, Curry, with Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green would be the start of a team ready to contend with the likes of San Antonio or Oklahoma City.
Cleveland Cavaliers
This would be a nice touch to end his career, where it all began as a kid from Akron, Ohio, who lived his NBA dreams for his nearby team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. It would be a fairytale ending to get the Cavs back to another championship. James wants to be on a contender, well Cleveland is in the Eastern Conference Finals, something that hasn’t happened since James was leading them.
Now, they have Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. It seems they’re missing a small forward, power forward type of player. Plug in James, and you legitimately have an unstoppable force in the East.
The only thing is that Cleveland is not Los Angeles.
“I’m 41 years old. It’s two cities I do not like playing in right now. That’s Milwaukee and that’s Memphis. What is the problem?” James said. “I don’t like going home either. […] And I’m from there…people are ridiculous.”
Safe to say that Cleveland is off the table, but 2016 will always serve a special place in James’ heart.
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