{"id":175798,"date":"2025-07-17T01:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T01:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/175798\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T01:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T01:13:11","slug":"potential-lebron-james-to-warriors-jimmy-butler-to-lakers-trade-has-57-million-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/175798\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential LeBron James to Warriors, Jimmy Butler to Lakers Trade Has $57 Million Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Potential LeBron James to Warriors, Jimmy Butler to Lakers Trade Has $57 Million Issue<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since arriving in Los Angeles back in 2018, LeBron James has helped redefine the Lakers\u2019 identity, guiding the franchise to its 17th NBA championship in 2020 and adding another Finals MVP to his decorated resume. Even in his 22nd NBA season, the 40-year-old superstar showed little sign of slowing down, averaging 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 8.2 assists, while shooting 51.3% field goal in 70 games last season, proving that he is still one of the most efficient and durable players in the league.<\/p>\n

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Still, there has been talks all summer about James\u2019 future and whether his run in purple and gold might be nearing an unexpected end after His agent, Rich Paul, said<\/a> that James wants to \u201ccompete for a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23)Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Later, it was reported by ESPN\u2019s Dave McMenamin<\/a> that four teams had already reached out to gauge what it might take to pry James away from Los Angeles. A follow-up report<\/a> from Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson revealed the Golden State Warriors were one of those teams.<\/p>\n

That said, McMenamin also noted that there has been no trade discussions between James and the Lakers yet. This stance was confirmed on Wednesday when Dan Woike and Joe Vardon of The Athletic <\/a>released an article reinforcing McMenamin\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLeBron James hasn\u2019t had buyout, trade discussions with Lakers,\u201d they wrote. \u201cBoth sides expect that he will be with team for training camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it pertains to a potential James to Warriors trade, there is one reason it will not work
\u2014 the Lakers do not want to take back Jimmy Butler\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n

“The team has been resistant to taking on longer-term contracts in an effort to maintain flexibility,” The Athletic wrote. “… if the Lakers were to, hypothetically, trade James to the Golden State Warriors for Jimmy Butler, who is nearly 36, they would have Butler under contract for the 2026-27 season at nearly $57 million.”<\/p>\n

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Of course, while all signs point to James remaining on the team next season, there\u2019s still the possibility that he could walk in free agency next summer or that the Lakers could look to move him midseason\u2014though being traded is something that\u2019s never happened in his legendary career.<\/p>\n

Related: Mavericks Named Favorites to Land LeBron James After Coaching News<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Lakers’ Austin Reaves Makes Personal Announcement<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jul 17, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Potential LeBron James to Warriors, Jimmy Butler to Lakers Trade Has $57 Million Issue originally appeared on Athlon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,8095,479,164,4025,4024,313,300,185,251,6,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-175798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dave-mcmenamin","10":"tag-golden-state","11":"tag-golden-state-warriors","12":"tag-goldenstate","13":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","14":"tag-jimmy-butler","15":"tag-lakers","16":"tag-lebron-james","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114865924307345195","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}