The New York Knicks will enter the 2025-26 season hungrier than ever after reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years this past postseason.
Despite their lack of bench depth and other notable imperfections, New York will challenge the Cleveland Cavaliers for the top spot in the conference. With that being said, their front office could decide to pursue a league-altering opportunity to elevate the group to status as unquestioned favorites to come out of the East.
New reports have indicated that the Los Angeles Lakers’ 21-time All-Star and future Hall of Fame inductee LeBron James will be closely monitoring the team’s decisions as free agency rolls along.
Though James recently accepted a $52.6 million player option for 2025-26, the 40-year-old has not ruled out the possibility of competing for a title elsewhere, giving the Knicks a chance to potentially jump in and poach one of the greatest talents to ever play the game this offseason.
“James has been circling the Knicks for practically his entire career,” CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn wrote Monday.
“He met with them directly in 2010. He’s used them as leverage in the past. But they’ve never made more sense for him than they do right now.”
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“The trio of Mikal Bridges, Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart all make some measure of sense as longer-term (Luka) Dončić teammates, and they make more than enough to serve as matching salary here.”
“Getting James would give them their best chance at a championship in more than 50 years.”
If James were to find himself upset with the Lakers’ roster construction, the Knicks have the necessary salaries to offer a gargantuan haul for the aging legend.
At 28 years old, Mikal Bridges is a former runner-up in 2022 Defensive Player of the Year voting that would likely mesh well with Luka Dončić and the Lakers if a deal of this nature were to be agreed upon.
Same goes for Josh Hart, as his jack-of-all-trades approach and relentless hustle could fit nicely alongside Los Angeles’ 26-year-old mega-star.
For New York, the trio of James, 2-time All-Star Jalen Brunson and 5-time All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns would become one of the most feared in the entire NBA.
James has continued to age gracefully prior to his 23rd NBA season, as he contributed 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists in 70 appearances for Los Angeles in 2024-25, earning an All-NBA Second Team selection in the process.
Unfortunately for the Knicks, most of their skilled defensive core would depart in this hypothetical scenario. As a result, it remains highly unlikely that James would land in New York upon requesting a trade.
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