The Los Angeles Lakers are entering a defining stretch in this year’s offseason market. The rumor mill around star player LeBron James is high and teams have been put on alert due to the developing situation.<\/p>
James’ agent Rich Paul, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, did not shut down the exit rumors. This has intensified the swirl of offseason speculation surrounding the Lakers. LeBron recently exercised his $52.5 million player option.<\/p>
Dave McMenamin said, “[Rich Paul] told me that he has not had any discussion with the Lakers about wanting a trade. He did say that four teams have contacted him in the last 24 hours wanting to talk trade, but Rich didn’t have any substantiative conversations with those teams, either<\/em>.”<\/p> McMenamin added, “LeBron is focused on playing on a championship-caliber roster. We’ll see in a week from now, when Rob Pelinka is finished doing his work with this roster, if it looks like a winning, realistic situation<\/em>.”<\/p>