There’s Already Rumors That LeBron Will ‘Likely Head Out West’ To Clippers Or Lakers

The Cleveland Cavaliers were destroyed in the NBA Finals by the runaway train that was the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors won in five games, and some believe that Golden State would have swept the Cavs had it not been for the refs in Game 4. The massively disappointing Finals had nothing to do with the performances by LeBron James since he averaged an astounding 33.6 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists during the Finals. LeBron became the first player to average a triple-double in the Finals. There hasn’t even a full week has passed since the Cavs got steamrolled by the Warriors and there is already rumors that LeBron is ditching Cleveland for a possibly the Clippers or Lakers.

Despite the fact that James isn’t a free agent until 2018, where he will likely exercise his player option to opt out of his current contract, there are already rumors of him bolting Cleveland. Again. These rumors are not speculation from giddy fans in Los Angeles, they come from expert NBA newsbreaker Adrian Wojnarowski. During a recent episode of Woj’s podcast “The Vertical,” Adrian presented this spicy rumor:

Not only is there no guarantee he’s coming back, I’m not sure there’s an expectation he’s re-signing there. I think they feel, I think within Cleveland and around the league, they feel that he’s very much in play to leave again and likely head out west to one of the two LA teams. The Lakers could very well be a target.

The Los Angeles Clippers already have a stacked team, plus they have Chris Paul, one of James’ closest friends in the league. As far as the Los Angeles Lakers, they have a surfeit of young talent and are said to be serious contenders to sign Paul George in 2018. That’s still a year away, and both teams could change for better or worse such as the Clippers could lose Paul and/or Blake Griffin in free agency.

LeBron may not feel confident in his teammates in Cleveland to take down the seemingly indestructible Warriors. The King can’t really expect the Cavaliers, who are almost $27 million over the cap heading into next year, to make major improvements. With LeBron getting a year older he may want to build a new superteam to challenge the Warriors’ superteam.

Woj even presented a scenario where LeBron could be taking his talents back to South Beach with the Miami Heat.

The possibility of Miami again, based on how they, what that team looks like and where they are. Would Dwyane Wade go back there? But I think the focus, a lot of LeBron’s — his business interests, his Hollywood aspirations, his media ventures are based out there.

Wojnarowski pointed out that 32-year-old LeBron coming home and bringing a championship to Cleveland has given him the chance to leave the Cavaliers.

And I wrote this last year and said it and believed it. The minute he won that championship in Cleveland he was liberated to leave again. Now, if he had not won a title in Cleveland and then left again, I think there would be tremendous backlash again. But the fact that he came back and did what he set out to do, which was to bring a title to Cleveland.

I’m sure ESPN would gladly welcome another “The Decision.”

[BleacherReport]