By Luke Adams | at July 23, 2026 11:50 am
Reports during the past week or two have indicated that LeBron James has all the information he needs to choose his next team and isn’t waiting on any of the suitors in the running to make another roster move, but some of the sources who have spoken to Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports have questioned whether that’s true. According to O’Connor, those sources suspect that if a team were able to trade for Anthony Davis or Kyrie Irving, it might convince James to pick that club.
The problem, O’Connor notes, is that the Mavericks have no interest in trading Irving and the Wizards have likewise been unwilling to consider moving Davis. As O’Connor writes, Davis will become extension-eligible on August 6 and there have been whispers that he’ll seek a larger contract from Washington than he would from a team closer to contention, which make some sources think the Wizards might revisit their stance sooner or later.
Still, the Warriors are the only team in the mix for LeBron that has been reported this offseason to have interest in trading for Davis, and Joe Vardon of The Athletic has heard from numerous team sources that taking on Jimmy Butler in an AD trade isn’t a scenario that would be of any interest to Washington.
Within his check-in on where things stand with James, Vardon also pushes back on a claim that LeBron made up his mind, had a change of heart, and went back to square one. Sources close to James have told The Athletic that’s “a lie,” per Vardon.
Here are a few more updates on free agents around the NBA:
A report out of Spain on Wednesday suggested that Mario Hezonja’s potential move to the NBA might hit a snag due to language in his opt-out clause with Real Madrid, but Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews says Hezonja and his camp believe he filled all the necessary conditions to activate that exit clause and that his next contract will be with an NBA team. There’s also confidence that he won’t just get a non-guaranteed deal and then be waived before the season begins — according to Urbonas, Hezonja turned down conditional offers from three EuroLeague clubs that would be dependent on his time in the NBA ending quickly.
Having previously reported that some of the same teams pursuing LeBron have interest in Hezonja, Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link) specifically identify the Cavaliers as one of the clubs eyeing the former fifth overall pick. The expectation is that Hezonja is among the free agents whose situation will be resolved after James makes his decision. “I think that we’re going to see eight or nine players sign right after LeBron makes his choice,” a source told The Stein Line. “Maybe more.”
Jonathan Kuminga is regarded as another player whose free agency won’t wrap up until after LeBron makes a choice. For what it’s worth, Stein and Fischer have heard that the Hawks are expected to be “pretty choosy” in terms of what sort of sign-and-trade return they’re willing to accept. If they don’t re-sign Kuminga themselves, the Hawks would obviously prefer not to lose him for nothing, but that could be preferable to taking on unwanted salary to land an asset that’s not worth the cost.
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