Brian Windhorst hinted LeBron James may be open to taking a paycut

Saturday, June 29, is the deadline for NBA players with a player option for next season to decide whether to exercise that option. For the Los Angeles Lakers, it is a day that will carry significant implications.

LeBron James, as well as starting point guard D’Angelo Russell, both have player options for the 2024-25 campaign. What they decide to do with those options, not to mention whether they will stay or go, will largely color the team’s chances of success.

Many expect James to opt out and then remain with the Lakers on a new contract. That new contract could pay him somewhere in the area of $160 million over three years, but Brian Windhorst said on the “Hoop Collective” podcast that the 39-year-old might be open to taking at least a bit of a pay cut.

“If Russell opts out, the Lakers will have a window to do something. If LeBron takes less than the max… this is not my idea, I didn’t come up with this. If LeBron is willing to take less money than the max, they could open the possibility of using the full mid-level. Now it’s not gonna be $1 million, it’s quite a few million. Like around $10 or $12 million. I think he would take around $38 or $39 million instead of $50 million. It may be a non-starter. It definitely would be a non-starter if they didn’t draft Bronny… It would not surprise me if when LeBron opts out, he doesn’t sign right away. That he sees what can happen… And, look, LeBron may shut the door shut. But I do think if they had a plan of who they could sign for the full midlevel, they could take it to LeBron and he would at least listen. So that’s another thing we’re gonna watch over the weekend.”

It would greatly help the Lakers, not to mention be an unselfish move, if James were to take significantly less than $50 million a year to remain with the Purple and Gold. But superstars like him have huge egos, and James is as much a businessman as an athlete, so one shouldn’t necessarily expect him to do so.