{"id":48195,"date":"2022-08-03T17:53:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T21:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=48195"},"modified":"2022-08-03T18:55:20","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T22:55:20","slug":"2023-free-agency-lebron-james-fits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/08\/03\/2023-free-agency-lebron-james-fits\/","title":{"rendered":"Top LeBron James 2023 Free Agency Fits"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may be too early for this kind of exercise, but impending free agency<\/a>, even a year down the line, for a star like\u00a0LeBron James<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>is always a major deal. He changed the scope of free agency with\u00a0The Decision\u00a0<\/em>in 2010, and 2023 could be his last big move.<\/p>\n

James will turn 38 years old during next season. With that being said, he rarely shows signs of slowing down. Last season he averaged 30 points, eight rebounds, and six assists per game. These are incredible numbers for a player of his age, and although the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> didn’t make the playoffs, James was the lone bright spot. He’s likely to remain a very impactful player for the next few seasons.<\/p>\n

The Best 2023 Free Agency Fits for LeBron James<\/h2>\n

Los Angeles Lakers<\/h3>\n

This list, of course, has to start with the Lakers. James is there now and the team remains the biggest brand in the league.<\/p>\n

They won the title in 2020, but have been full of question marks ever since. The\u00a0Russell Westbrook<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>dilemma<\/a> is still going on.\u00a0Anthony Davis<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>struggles to stay healthy. The supporting cast is bleak. It remains to be seen what the Lakers will look like next season and how they’ll perform, which of course can change a lot in James’ decision.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles isn’t expected to win the championship next year, so let’s stick with that projection. Come 2023, the roster is very clean. Davis will still be under a hefty contract, whereas\u00a0Talen Horton-Tucker<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Damian Jones<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>have player options. Outside of that, the roster is clean. This could potentially allow the Lakers to re-sign James and bring in more talent. The market will be deep with stars such as\u00a0Kyrie Irving<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Andrew Wiggins<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0D’Angelo Russell<\/a><\/strong>, and others (including several high-end role players). There will also be several players on player options, such as James Harden<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Khris Middleton<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In short, there will be plenty of potential for the Lakers to build a star-studded team.<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavaliers<\/h3>\n

This, of course, would be yet another homecoming. The Cavaliers were extremely successful throughout James’ second stint in the city, and will surely welcome him back. This time, however, James won’t have to orchestrate much change in the roster.<\/p>\n

Cleveland has built a strong team.\u00a0Darius Garland<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>is an All-Star and growing to be one of the top guards in the entire league.\u00a0Jarrett Allen<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>was also an All-Star and a defensive menace.\u00a0Evan Mobley<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>is a star-in-the-making.\u00a0Lauri Markkanen<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>is another solid player under contract, although not fully guaranteed.\u00a0Ricky Rubio<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>provides a veteran presence<\/a>, while there are other young players such as\u00a0Isaac Okoro<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and rookie\u00a0Ochai Agbaji<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Kevin Love<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Caris LeVert<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>will be off the books, but likely worth bringing back.<\/p>\n

Garland can provide James with the Irving role. This time around, however, James would have an even more talented frontcourt. He’ll also bring the best out of the young players.<\/p>\n

It would be James’ third stint with the Cavaliers, but the intrigue is definitely enticing.<\/p>\n

Dallas Mavericks<\/h3>\n

Joining the Mavericks<\/a> would place James alongside a complete superstar in\u00a0Luka Doncic<\/a><\/strong>. Of course, James has always been of high praise to the Slovenian star. Pairing them up would terrorize opposing defenses.<\/p>\n

Doncic just finished last season averaging about 28 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists per game. He took the Mavericks to the conference finals, only to fall to James’ rival in the Golden State Warriors<\/a>. In short, Doncic will be the best player James has ever played with. Yes – he’s better than Davis and\u00a0Dwyane Wade<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

A number of players come off the books for Dallas in 2023 such as\u00a0Christian Wood<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Dwight Powell<\/a><\/strong>, and\u00a0Maxi Kleber<\/a><\/strong>. Dallas will still have other impactful players under contract such as\u00a0Spencer Dinwiddie<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Reggie Bullock<\/a><\/strong>, and more. The Mavericks may also be inclined to trade the contracts of\u00a0Davis Bertans<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and\/or\u00a0Tim Hardaway Jr<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dallas can be stacked if they were to make this move. A duo of Doncic and James will also attract plenty of other players as that immediately creates a surefire contender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may be too early for this kind of exercise, but impending free agency, even a year down the line, for a star like\u00a0LeBron James\u00a0is always a major deal. He changed the scope of free agency with\u00a0The Decision\u00a0in 2010, and 2023 could be his last big move. James will turn 38 years old during next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2248,"featured_media":48197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1608,9,30,62],"tags":[240,1937,3966,1043,38,1133,53],"class_list":["post-48195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-basketball","category-cavaliers","category-mavericks","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-darius-garland","tag-evan-mobley","tag-jarrett-allen","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic","tag-russell-westbrook"],"modified_by":"Kunning Chen, Department Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}