It’s official: LeBron James is going to become a free agent this summer. For the next 36 hours or so, James is a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, but after word dropped on Friday morning that he would not opt into the final year of his contract, it became clear that the Cavs may be on borrowed time.
Cleveland still should not fret, though, as the franchise is still in a position to bring James back this summer. Sure, there will be some competition from the Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers, but on the whole, there’s no reason (at least for now) for the Cavs to believe they’ve lost James again.
In the least surprising news that has ever been reported, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin let it be known that Cleveland’s offseason, at least for now, revolves around trying to bring James back.
Had LeBron opted in, that would have been a bad sign for Cleveland — it would basically have meant that his camp had a trade partner lined up. As it stands now, CLE is still in the mix. According to a Cavs source, the team's "Plan A, B & C in free agency is to keep LeBron"
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) June 29, 2018
Again, this is about as obvious of a piece of news as you can read. There was no way on earth the Cavaliers were going to punt on trying to bring James back because he decided against opting into his deal, and like McMenamin said, it’s better for the team that he opts out as that eliminated some other teams from contention.
It’s unclear how Cleveland is going to convince James to come back — will their pitch revolve around running it back with largely the same team from last year plus incoming rookie Collin Sexton, or do Koby Altman and co. plan on trying to shake up the roster? At the very least, watching how the Cavaliers handle the next few days to make sure they achieve their clear-cut top priority this offseason.
