With NBA free agency negotiations opening Tuesday, the most concrete scenario yet for LeBron James leaving the Los Angeles Lakers does not run through Cleveland or Miami. It runs through the Bay Area, and it comes packaged with a familiar face.
Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin O’Connor reported late Sunday that the Golden State Warriors are attempting to trade for Anthony Davis and then sign James, according to multiple league sources. It is an ambitious two-step, and one with a lot working against it, but it is the clearest blueprint anyone has floated for an actual James exit.
What the Warriors are reportedly planning
The framework, per O’Connor, is that Golden State wants to acquire Davis from the Washington Wizards and use that move to recruit James once free agency opens June 30. A Davis trade would have to be built around Jimmy Butler, who is on an expiring $57 million contract, plus draft capital. O’Connor noted the Warriors have two future first-round picks and four first-round swaps to work with.
“The pitch would be simple: reunite with AD, team up with Steph Curry and Draymond Green, play for Steve Kerr, and chase one more championship with a roster of legends,” wrote O’Connor.
James, Davis, Curry and Kerr all won Olympic gold together for Team USA in 2024, and James has spoken about how naturally his game fit with Curry’s in that setting.
There is also a sign-and-trade element to keep in mind. Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul said roughly “10 to 12 teams” have checked in about adding James this summer, which means the Warriors would not necessarily be limited to signing him outright for the mid-level exception.
Why Davis is the lure
The Davis piece is what gives this story its pull, especially for Lakers fans. Davis and James won the 2020 championship together in Los Angeles before the Lakers traded Davis to the Dallas Mavericks in the Luka Doncic blockbuster. Davis has since landed in Washington, and the idea of him reuniting with James somewhere other than Los Angeles carries an obvious sting.
That is the bet Golden State is making. The Warriors are not just selling James on Curry and a system. They are selling him on running it back with the co-star he won his most recent title alongside, with the clock ticking on both their careers. On paper, the fit and the familiarity are real.
The problem is that almost everything around the deal is harder than the pitch.
Why it’s a long shot
Start with Washington. The Wizards have signaled they want to keep Davis, not move him. They just re-signed Trae Young to a four-year, $212 million extension, and general manager Will Dawkins addressed Davis directly on ESPN’s draft broadcast.
“He wants to be here. We want him here,” Dawkins said, adding that the team plans to have extension conversations with Davis in the middle of August.
Then there is the math that complicates any Davis trade for Davis himself. He becomes eligible for a four-year, $275 million extension on Aug. 6, and O’Connor noted that a trade would reset that clock under the collective bargaining agreement, leaving him unable to sign the full max until six months after a deal became official. That is a meaningful disincentive for a player weighing a long-term payday.
The salary-matching piece is awkward, too. Butler is 36 and coming off ACL surgery, which is not an obvious fit for a Wizards team that just paid Young to win sooner rather than later. O’Connor raised the possibility that Butler would have to be rerouted to a third team, with a different All-Star caliber player heading back to Washington, which only adds complexity.
Davis’s own availability is the largest question. At 33, he remains a 10-time All-Star and one of the more talented bigs in the league when healthy, but his 2025-26 season was a near-total loss. He appeared in just 20 games, all with Dallas, before a February trade sent him to Washington, where a finger injury shut him down for the rest of the year and kept him from ever suiting up for the Wizards.
That continued a long pattern of missed time. Trading real assets for an oft-injured 33-year-old in order to then chase a 41-year-old is a steep bet stacked on top of another steep bet.
There is also the matter of Golden State’s track record. As O’Connor laid out, the Warriors have pursued and missed on Paul George, Lauri Markkanen, Pascal Siakam, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard in recent years, and only landed Butler after Durant showed no interest in a reunion. The “assemble the old legends” plan has been tried before and has mostly not materialized.
Finally, the Warriors may not even have a clear lane for Davis. O’Connor pointed to reporting from The Stein Line that the Portland Trail Blazers could pivot to Davis after missing on Antetokounmpo, which would give Washington a second win-now suitor to drive up any price.
What it means for the Lakers
For Los Angeles, the relevance is simple: This is one more pressure point on the James decision, and the Lakers have not made their own move yet. The Lakers had not made James an offer as the window approached, and the team’s cap priorities, from the center search to the recently completed Austin Reaves deal, could leave a modest number for James.
That is the opening a team like Golden State is trying to exploit. If James leaves, the most likely mechanism is a contender clearing the roughly $15 million mid-level exception or constructing a sign-and-trade, and the Warriors are attempting to make themselves that contender with the Davis carrot attached.
It still matters that James is producing at a high level. He averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game last season on 51.5 percent shooting and 31.7 percent from 3-point range across 60 games, per Basketball-Reference, and made another All-Star team at 41. A player at that level walking out the door would be a real blow, even for a team building around Doncic.
The honest read is that this is Golden State trying, not a deal in motion. Washington is not a motivated seller, the extension timing cuts against a Davis move, and James has given no public signal about his plans. But it is the most concrete exit path anyone has reported, and with negotiations opening Tuesday, it is not one the Lakers can wave away entirely.
