How contending teams setting themselves up for LeBron’s free-agent future

Behold the last stop on the LeBron James bread crumbs tour. If we’re being honest, that’s what the NBA awards show inside a Santa Monica airport was really all about. Houston’s James Harden winning MVP was a foregone conclusion. Ditto for Utah’s Rudy Gobert and Defensive Player of the Year. As for the rest of the honors? They pale in comparison to James’s uncertain future.

Everyone wants clues about what the game’s greatest player might do when July 1 rolls around – assuming James declines the player option worth $35.6 million for next season on his Cleveland Cavaliers deal by the Friday deadline and becomes an unrestricted free agent. And while there was no clarity just yet, there were plenty of insights and observations to go around. Here are a few that stood out relating to his suitors.

Lakers have learned not to tamper

Jeanie Buss knows that now is not the time for another tampering snafu.

The Lakers owner was surely displeased back in August, when improper communication between GM Rob Pelinka and the agent for Oklahoma City’s Paul George, Aaron Mintz, led to a $500,000 fine from the NBA for tampering. And when it happened again in early February – this time because of a seemingly innocuous public comment from Lakers executive Magic Johnson about Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo that cost the organization another $50,000 – the message was sent loud and clear by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver: We’re watching.

So when Buss was asked to discuss the Lakers’ looming free agency desires while sharing a red carpet with Silver himself, it came as no surprise that she wasn’t about to stumble at this crucial hour. The Lakers, of course, are widely considered to have a legitimate shot at landing James.

But when it comes to the question of whether the Lakers can land James, no one seems to be able to predict who might join him as a co-star. After all, they’re the only team in the league with enough salary cap room for two max-level players. Yet in the absence of that answer, most objective observers assume he would then either stay in Cleveland or head elsewhere.

So might James head for the Lakers even if he couldn’t secure another AllStar? Lakers’ Kyle Kuzma, who as a player is not bound by the same rules of tampering, made it seem like a grand idea.

“That man has been in the league for 15, going on 16 years, so the only person who really knows what he’ll do is him,” said Kuzma.

Rockets aren’t out of it yet

Unlike the Lakers, the Rockets have all sorts of reasons to believe they can contend for a title even if James doesn’t come. They’re still expected to re-sign Chris Paul, whose injury may have been all that kept Houston from the Finals.

As was the case with Paul last summer when he forced his way out with the Clippers, it remains possible that James could opt in to his current deal and force a trade to a team like the Rockets by making it clear that he’ll opt out and leave in free agency if the Cavs don’t comply. And while Houston is considered a longshot to land James, that isn’t about to keep the Rockets GM Daryl Morey, from trying.

What about the Sixers?

Philadelphia might be James’ best plug-and-play option. Add him to the Sixers’ core of Simmons and Joel Embiid, and the Sixers team that was already on the rise in the East would be a fascinating force. But like Kuzma, Simmons stopped short of recruiting James when asked about his future.

“What pieces do we need?” said Simmons, whose Sixers went 52-30 during the regular season and fell in five games to Boston in the Eastern Conference semifinals. “I think a little bit of time. I think that’s the main thing for us. We don’t have that much experience with Joel and I and some of th e younger people on our team and guys like that.

“Maybe... a big free agent who we can lean on and learn from, so we don’t really have that older, veteran guy who is a star like that, but we have great veterans in J.J. [Redick], Amir [Johnson], Jerryd Bayless and guys like that.”

Then again, hip-hop artist and Sixers super fan Meek Mill was seen chatting with LeBron’s agent before the show began. That must be a sign that Philly has the inside track here, right? Not at all. But that didn’t stop people from noticing – and wondering.

(USA Today/TNS)