LeBron James has earned more money playing in the NBA than anyone else in league history. According to Spotrac, his career on-court earnings top $528 million, but at select points in his career, he has been willing to leave money on the table in order to help his team compete for championships.
Most notably, James took less than the max to join the Miami Heat in 2010. That allowed them to not only sign Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, but also retain key reserve Udonis Haslem and use the mid-level exception to bring in Mike Miller. He began taking the max again when he returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014, in part to support other players around the league. James taking less gave owners leverage to ask other stars to do the same, so for the next 10 seasons, he made max money.
Last offseason, however, he was reportedly open to taking a meaningful pay cut in the neighborhood of $15 million in order to help the Lakers sign one of a handful of free agents. Those players were, reportedly, Jonas Valančiūnas, Klay Thompson, James Harden and DeMar DeRozan. The Lakers pursued Thompson and came up short. James wound up taking a smaller pay cut, around $2.7 million, to help the Lakers stay under the second apron.
This summer, the Lakers are theoretically operating under far more favorable basketball circumstances thanks to their midseason acquisition of Luka Dončić. They just lost in the first round to the Minnesota Timberwolves due in large part to their limited depth and versatility. If they get this offseason right, they could factor seriously into the championship picture. They will not, however, expect to receive a similar offer of financial help from James this offseason. According to The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Jovan Buha, James is not expected to consider a similar pay cut to the one offered last year.
The choice is largely in his hands. He has a player option for roughly $52.6 million next season, so if he wants to pull in max money, he has the ability to do so unilaterally. In terms of pure merit, James is probably still worth a max salary as well. He’s expected to make an All-NBA team when they are announced later this postseason, and has never missed an All-Star Game as a Laker.
But keeping James at this price point severely restricts the Lakers when it comes to player acquisition. With him earning this much, they are all but assured to be operating above the first apron. That means they can’t access the full mid-level exception of around $14.1 million to use in free agency and trades this summer. Instead, they would be limited to the taxpayer mid-level exception of around $5.7 million. Teams above the first apron also cannot acquire players via sign-and-trade, nor can they absorb more money in a trade than they send out.
In other words, a number of possible moves would likely be off of the table if James does not take a pay cut.
Now, it’s only May 2. James has until June 29 to make up his mind. It is possible that some move the Lakers engineer compels him to reconsider. This offseason just isn’t full of the sort of big-name veterans James aimed for last summer. Thompson, Harden and DeRozan are former All-Stars. Those just aren’t the sort of players that the Lakers need right now. Between himself, Dončić and Austin Reaves, the Lakers have more than enough shot-creation at the moment.
What they need are players to do the dirty work. They need a starting center and probably a backup as well, and if Anthony Edwards showed them anything in the first round, it’s how badly they need a defensive-minded guard.
James might have been willing to leave money on the table for the sake of acquiring someone like Thompson because he views him as a contemporary, someone worthy of sacrificing for. The kinds of players the Lakers would target this year just don’t come with quite as lofty a reputation. Nickeil Alexander-Walker is nowhere near as accomplished as Thompson, but he makes much more sense within the context of this current Laker roster.
Without that extra spending room, Rob Pelinka will have to get creative in reshaping the Laker roster to make a run at the 2026 championship. He will either have to find the sort of role players the Lakers need with one hand tied behind his back from a team-building perspective, or he will need to somehow convince James to reconsider a pay cut before the end of June.
Either way, the Lakers have their work cut out for them this offseason. The Timberwolves showed them how far away they are from true championship contention, and they are going to need every possible tool at their disposal if they are going to bridge that gap.
