While the basketball world might have been focused on the generational curse-breaking title the Knicks won over the weekend, the Warriors’ rumor mill was still churning right along with an all-too-familiar name: LeBron James.
After three weeks of calm once head coach Steve Kerr decided to re-sign with Golden State, San Francisco Standard columnist Tim Kawakami disrupted the flow with some words about how teaming up Steph Curry with James might make for “a late marriage that might never be more convenient,” as the headline reads. The June 1 column opens the door to this possibility because James might want to play for the Dubs under a mid-level exception salary (approximately $15 million), the team’s West Coast location is close to his family, and he’s shown interest in the past in playing with Curry.
The union has always been a possibility (and even was pursued at least once before), but it’s clear it is a lot more realistic this summer. ClutchPoints’ Brett Siegel reported three days after Kawakami’s column that Curry wanted to meet with James this offseason to recruit him to the Warriors and that the Warriors would also “look to pursue” the 41-year-old player. Less than a week later, Marc Stein and Jake Fischer reported that Golden State “remains legitimately interested in adding LeBron to their Stephen Curry/Jimmy Butler/Draymond Green core coached by Steve Kerr.” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst speculated the Warriors would be where James is most likely to end up if he doesn’t return to LA.
The latest report came Thursday, when an anonymous source told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole that “there is at least curiosity on both sides. … There’s enough there that we shouldn’t ignore the possibility. It’s mostly up to LeBron.”
By now, the will-they-won’t-they of it all has to be an exhausting experience for Warriors fans, regardless of whether they want to see a longtime rival in their favorite team’s colors. However, there’s more for James to consider than just if he wants to have an Olympic reunion with Curry, especially with “10 to 12” teams interested in him. The bigger question facing James, both with his current team and other potential suitors, is how much of a pay cut he’s willing to take.
In an interview on KNBR on Thursday the Athletic’s Marcus Thompson said that James might not be worth, say, the mid-level exception for the Warriors, arguing it would be better for Golden State to use it on “somebody who will be with you for the next few years.”
“I think one of their biggest, last kind of hopes is that they could find somebody to take this tax-payer mid-level who ends up being like a core player, and then you can sign him off of that,” he said. “I think they really need to kind of take advantage of that, and it’s just too risky to use that on Bron. You only exacerbate the situation because that’s another old guy you gotta figure out a way to replace him for 25-30 games. … They need some youth, they need some young players, I wouldn’t do it for that salary slot.”