Subscribe
Follow Us
It's been a busy offseason so far in the NBA, with notable moves including the Boston Celtics' trade firesale, the Blazers reuniting with Damian Lillard, and Kevin Durant's trade to the Houston Rockets. Two names that have been mentioned in the rumor mill relentlessly are LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Antetokounmpo murmurs began immediately after the Bucks' season came to an end against the Indiana Pacers this spring, but Milwaukee's subsequent signing of Myles Turner in free agency seemed to have quieted those talks.
Meanwhile, James' agent Rich Paul put out a carefully worded statement hinting at a possible Lakers exit, a statement which his client directly contradicted by taking his player option with the team.
All of the hoopla has NBA front office executives wary about taking any vacation time in case something were to unfold.
“Do I think the star guys like Giannis (Antetokounmpo) or LeBron (James) are going to go anywhere? Nope. Is it possible? Sure is,” said one Western Conference general manager, per Keith Smith of Spotrac. “That’s why I can’t go to the beach and shut my phone off. You never know when a call could come. And imagine telling your owner that you missed out on a trading for one of those guys because you were asleep on the beach? I’d lose my job!”
Being an NBA exec certainly can be a sleepless job, especially when players the caliber of James and Antetokounmpo are being mentioned in trade discussions.
As the anonymous general manager mentioned, it would appear highly unlikely that either the Lakers or Bucks star is going anywhere, at least not anytime soon.
However, the league knows that nothing is off the table in the aftermath of the shocking Luka Doncic trade in early February.
In any case, the NBA schedule is set to be released in mid-August.
