The Cleveland Cavaliers, while firmly in the Eastern Conference playoff race, have taken a step back this season.
The Donovan Mitchell-led squad finished the 2024-25 season with 64 wins. Although they flamed out in the second round of the postseason, the franchise appeared poised for another remarkable regular season, at the very least.
However, the Cavaliers have been mediocre at best to start the 2025-26 season, boasting a 20-17 record and failing to hit their stride.
If Cleveland elects not to make any organization-boosting moves before the trade deadline, King James Gospel’s Collin Keane identified a move it could make to help position them for a successful 2026-27 campaign.
Specifically, Keane believes that trading Darius Garland and signing an aging Los Angeles Lakers superstar may be the way to go in the offseason.
“A LeBron (James)-Cleveland reunion has been on people’s minds for months,” Keane wrote Sunday. “Before the current season, Yahoo’s Tom Haberstroh and Dan Devine speculated that Bron could get traded to the Cavs for a package featuring Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen.”
“The Cavs don’t have to trade for LeBron (time is running out to do so this season, anyway). They can simply sign him after the season, so long as they trade away two of their top-five richest contracts that aren’t Mitchell and Mobley. That would be Garland ($42.2 million cap hit in 2026-27), Allen ($28 million), and De’Andre Hunter ($24.9 million).”
“If Cleveland can send Garland and one of either Allen or Hunter to a cap-space-endowed team like the Brooklyn Nets or Utah Jazz in exchange for draft capital and far less salary in return, the Cavs can establish a pathway to sign James.”
Signing James wouldn’t make the Cavaliers title favorites next season. In fact, some may argue that it may not even catapult them into contention. James is 41 years old and is far from the unstoppable two-way contributor that helped Cleveland win their first championship in franchise history in 2016.
For nostalgia reasons, though, adding James to the fold makes sense. James began his career with the Cavaliers in 2003 and has had plenty of memorable moments in a Cavaliers uniform.
If the 2026-27 season is James’ last, it would be exhilarating to witness him end his Hall of Fame career with the organization that helped positively shape his NBA future.
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