What will lebron do in 2019

Frank Vogel gave an injury update on LeBron James before the Lakers took on the Thunder, providing details on when it happened, how the team will monitor the star and more. See our ethics statement. Multiple reports have indicated that LeBron James will miss at least a week, and potentially even two , with an abdominal strain that he sustained earlier this week.

James has already missed two games this season with ankle soreness, and is now set to miss several more, but when he does return, Vogel says that the team is not monitoring their star — who will turn 37 next month — any more closely than they have in prior years. Might Klay Thompson make the Warriors' untenable tax bill lighter by deciding to test the merits of his stardom as the alpha on an East Coast squad?

Is Leonard more likely to stay in the East, even if he doesn't stick with the Raptors? People close to Durant have, when prompted, predicted " that he will one day leave Golden State for a team that can be truly his," per Lowe. Can that same train of thought be applied to an entire conference that can be truly his? If we operate under the assumption the Eastern Conference is more inviting to free agents, a few teams will enter next summer sitting pretty.

Throw the Cavaliers into this mix as an honorable mention. Brooklyn looms large here. Butler and Irving are serious about playing together, according to Lowe. The Nets have the available workarounds to afford them both. Durant has an admirer in every team, but the Knicks are "absolutely planning their offseason around him," once again per Lowe. They'll jump through the hoops necessary to bankroll his max if he gets the itch to spurn the Warriors and their new arena for a crack at the kind of immortality only ending a four-decades-and-counting title drought can bring.

Philly has deliberately maintained its flexibility after failing to land George, James or Leonard. The opportunity to join a more seasoned Joel Embiid, Markelle Fultz, Dario Saric and Ben Simmons should call to someone—especially when the Sixers retain the trade assets to acquire another star.

Atlanta is Atlanta. Chicago is a wild card. Indiana is the hipster basketball-fit sleeper in everything. Looking at you, Klay Thompson. James is playing the long game by joining the Lakers. He might turn into a trendsetter, just like he did by leaving Cleveland for Miami in Nodding to the Warriors' continued existence, other prime-time names could seek out teams built to outlast their dynastic chokehold. The Clippers can technically be here, too. But they may not be rebuilding after distancing themselves from the Lob City era.

Except they could also be rebuilding. Yet they might not be rebuilding. Unless they are, in fact, rebuilding. The reverse of what James did could also take center stage. With him playing on a squad that, for now, doesn't forecast as one of the league's five best, stars and impact players may rush to find the best cap-rich basketball fits—market be damned.

KingJames with the one-handed hammer!! LakeShow : TNT pic. In fact, the last game James played was on March 29, which gives him a full six months until the likely start of training camp at the very end of September. Last season, James played Imagine what LeBron, already notorious for doing everything possible to keep his body in elite condition, can do with all the extra time?

ESPN 0 0 0. So where will the King find his throne? We look at the most likely options. By Adam Reisinger. While James has left Cleveland behind before, he came back and brought the city its first title in more than 52 years. Depending on how the postseason goes, he might decide his best chance at another ring is right at home. How the Cavaliers could make it work This doesn't take too much thinking. The NBA has never seen anything like that. Steve Kerr would probably be able to hand the clipboard to any of the three on a given night and still watch the Warriors roll to the title.

The question remains, though, if James would be willing to make a move that would likely cast him as the NBA's biggest villain again.