Before Cleveland loses its collective mind, Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group, noted the odds of James leaving the city again are “slim,” but he’s using this opportunity to make sure Cavaliers general manager David Griffin is able to put a championship-caliber roster around him. Even though LeBron James likely isn’t going anywhere this summer, according to Bleacherreport.com, the former NBA MVP is going to see how things play out for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ other free agents before making a commitment.
According to Chris Haynes, James is expected to decline his player option for next season and will sit back to see how the Cleveland front office works with the roster before committing to the team:
The four-time MVP has a player option deadline of Monday, and he will decline to pick up that deal for next season.
The belief is James wants to observe how management goes about retaining and accumulating assets keep the organization in win-now mode and improve the roster.
Cleveland’s front office has a lot of decisions to make with Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Tristan Thompson all set to become free agents when the negotiating window opens July 1.
James saw what happened to Cleveland’s roster in the NBA Finals without Love and Kyrie Irving, so it’s just smart business sense for him to let other things fall into place before he signs another deal with the Cavaliers.
James is 30 years old and already has a lot of miles on his legs. He only has a finite amount of time left playing at an MVP level, so the roster around him will be important to ensuring he and the team are able to compete for titles well into the future.
Source: Bleacherreport.com
