2026-27 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

It sure sounds like LeBron James is headed back to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

While betting markets initially listed the Golden State Warriors, and later the Philadelphia 76ers, as the favorites to land James, the reporters with the strongest NBA sources now list Cleveland as the clear front-runner.

Over the weekend, Substack reporter Marc Stein wrote that there is a "growing belief" among teams interested in James that the Cavaliers have the "scenario to beat" for his services. While Stein no longer works for a major sports network, he remains one of the few true authorities on the sport. Notably, he was the first insider to report that Kevin Durant was leaning toward the Brooklyn Nets in 2019, while much of the media continued reporting that the Knicks were the most likely destination.

On Monday, ESPN's Brian Windhorst echoed a similar sentiment.

Everybody I talk to about LeBron is like, 'We're afraid it's Cleveland.' Nobody seems like they have optimism, to be honest," Windhorst told Barstool's Pardon My Take.

Michael Wilbon told OutKick last year that Windhorst is among the most credible reporters in sports today. It's difficult to argue otherwise. Few, if any, NBA insiders have a better track record of reporting accurate news before, not two seconds after, it happens than Windhorst.

As of Monday afternoon, Kalshi gave Cleveland a 55% chance of signing James. The Miami Heat had the second-best odds, but at just 17%.

https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/lebron-james-heading-back-cleveland-end-career-cavaliers

 

He’s 42. Who gives a flying f***?

Clearly it has nothing to do with basketball for either of the involved parties.

 

He is going to an Eastern Conference team. My bet. Wemby, Shae, Luka, Joker, Ant - all in the West. The last thing he wants is to face Luka in the playoffs and lose.

Cleveland or Heat. He went to the finals almost every year when he was in the East and stacked his teams.

Playing with Giannis, Bam and likely Derozan - better than playing with an old Steph and Dray and facing the Lakers, Spurs, OKC, Denver, and Minny 3-4x each.

Philly is intriguing - but doubt he wants to live there part time.

If your gonna face Shae or Wemby - best to do it with Giannis and Bam. Sure - Brown and Embiid - but no guaranty about the big man’s health.

And of all the teams - Spo is the best coach. Every year he was there he went to the finals. And they went to the finals after he left too. No other team came close.

 

stupid rob didn't tank for six straight years to be in position to draft peterson!! rob probably would have botched most of the lotto picks in that stretch, too! oh wait...

i like connelly a lot, but he has a couple doozies and hasn't won big despite having more injury luck than some of his competitors. stevens just made one of the worst trades we've seen in years, both from a process and outcome standpoint. just awful, start to finish. can't believe he got executive of the year last year for stripping his title team for (limited) parts under the cover of tatum's injury. presti fumbled his first title shot in spectacular fashion (traded pre-mvp harden for kevin martin!) and has been allowed to tank off and on, with a sterling draft record that somehow is characterized by the same damn hit rate as everyone else (they dumped recent lotto pick dieng last season; have you seen topic play?!). bob myers is living his whole life on a cluster of lucky/good choices made in a two-year period, and his smartest move was walking away before everyone realized he didn't have any more moves in him. myers was part of the two-timeline braintrust, lol! the hubris!

but we've been over this a zillion times. i just don't believe any of these guys are "better" than the others. there are a few that are worse, though, and if you get to take advantage of them during their brief stints, you're a winner!

presti doesn't get to tank here. he doesn't survive the loss of the first okc group (you let kevin durant just walk in free agency and got nothing in return?!). he doesn't get to eat bloated veteran contracts and call it a success when they finish 8th. he gets fired for finishing 8th.

so no, i don't love rob. what i know is the lakers job isn't the same as other jobs. whoever is the gm here is going to be under fire no matter what. the fans and media want them to fail and construct failure narratives regardless of what happens. the lakers fans demand titles every year in a league where this no longer happens. lakers fans demand zero mistakes while pining for managers that make mistakes.

does rob overcorrect? yes, sometimes comically. does he have some bizarre player option philosophy that is inscrutable to me? yes. was his strategy of getting in bed with an agency a mixed bag? yes (though, again, the knicks copied it immediately and won a ring, too).

but i'm not a huge believer in the idea that if we just had someone else in this job, things would be so different. hell, not many gms would have had the balls to let lebron walk. it's a big part of why rich paul's been salty for a full year about it.

they've been lying the whole time about all of it, imo. they're not at all interested in matching on watson; they just know he's got nobody who can make an offer, and they've largely run out of teams to dump guys to. nobody would take braun, and people were probably even playing hardball on cam johnson. they may have gotten ownership's blessing on exceeding the second apron (like apparently okc got), but even that wasn't going to save them entirely. they should be able to squeeze a first out of the clips on the watson trade, but i think they're kind of in the death throes, regardless.

they should have dumped jamal murray this summer, imo, for the same reasons people are now justifying the jaylen brown trade: two supermaxes can't work. especially if one of them isn't a jokic/luka/giannis/sga level player.

 

It's the offseason and it's basketball news

It doesn't matter to me what he does

But a few might be interested

 

Not a single team in the league would take Rob over Presti or Stevens. I think you can safely put Connelly in that bunch too.

That said I think this summer is actually going better than some think and there’s still time to address the remaining roster issues.