“There was a check-in call made, to my understanding, early in free agency, once teams were able to start negotiating with their own free agents after the NBA Finals,” Charania said during Thursday’s episode of NBA Today (YouTube link). “Since then though, there hasn’t been much communication, from my understanding, between the Lakers and LeBron James’ side. And certainly not an offer yet.”
The Lakers were able to work out an early deal with Austin Reaves because it won’t affect their potential cap room during free agency — they’ll keep Reaves’ more favorable cap hold on their books until after they’ve made their moves, then cap use his Bird rights to go over the cap to re-sign him. However, since a deal for James could have a more significant ripple effect on the rest of the Lakers’ offseason moves, they’re considering what else they could do before circling back to LeBron with a more concrete proposal, Charania explains.
“They’re trying to see what can we do with this $50MM of (cap) space, potentially, and then where does that leave LeBron,” Charania said.
Here are a few more notes and rumors on free agents from around the NBA:
- Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link) continue to hear that the Cavaliers and guard James Harden are on track to reach a verbal agreement in the coming days on a new contract for the former MVP. Harden’s decision on a $42.3MM player option is due on Monday, but the expectation has long been that he’ll decline that option to sign a new multiyear deal with Cleveland.
- The Raptors have budgeted internally for an offer of about $10MM per year for free agent center Sandro Mamukelashvili, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. That would likely be contingent on trading Gradey Dick‘s expiring salary, Grange notes. It would also presumably require the Raptors to use a portion of the mid-level exception on the big man, since they only hold his Non-Bird rights. However, multiple league sources who spoke to Sportsnet expect Toronto to face plenty of competition for Mamukelashvili. “I think he’s getting multiple years guaranteed at more than $10 million a year,” one of those sources told Grange.
- After issuing a two-way qualifying offer to Alijah Martin, the Raptors are attempting to work out a multiyear standard contract with their 2025 second-round pick, Grange reports (via Twitter). Martin played sparingly in the NBA as a rookie, but had an excellent season in the G League, averaging 18.5 points per game on .485/.392/.720 shooting in 39 outings for the Raptors 905.
