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LeBron James is leaving us all hanging in suspense while his agent, Rich Paul, adds fuel to the fire. Paul (via his podcast Game Over) recently shared a behind-the-scenes look at their process in finding a new home for James. This includes a whiteboard with the Cleveland Cavaliers listed as one of the strongest landing spots.
There’s a lot to unpack here.
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First, we can see that the Cavs are not alone on this list. Other teams in the inner circle include the Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers, and Denver Nuggets. The Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics, and New York Knicks are either directly listed or referenced on the outer edges of the board.
Paul says that the board wouldn’t even exist if New York hadn’t won the title this summer. James would be a member of the Knicks. Looks like we dodged a bullet in that regard.
Let’s go over the main takeaways for Cleveland.
Rich Paul on LeBron’s interest in the Cavs:
Brandon Weems (current assistant GM) is a ‘brother’ to James
Dan Gilbert, Grant Gilbert and Koby Altman listed as positives
Paul says Evan Mobley was never going to be traded to Boston
Notably, the Cavs are the only team that has multiple pros and cons written on the board.
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“Big, big x-factor, Brandon Weems is basically LeBron’s brother,” said Paul. “That is a big feather in the cap [for Cleveland].”
The connection to Weems is one of the strongest aspects of this. Weems is reportedly seen as the favorite to replace former Cleveland GM Mike Gansey (now the 76ers GM) as the Cavs’ newest general manager. That’s something that sweetens the deal for James to return to Cleveland.
James apparently having a positive relationship with Gilbert and Altman is also a good sign.
The final two bullet points are where things get interesting.
“The negative is, no knock to James Harden, but no Darius Garland,” said Paul. “LeBron loves Darius Garland so much just like LeBron loves Tyrese Maxey.”
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Paul famously told Garland, whom he represents, that last year would be his final season with the Cavaliers. However, this can be interpreted as Paul reading the writing…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/cavs-look-frontrunners-land-lebron-190114049.html
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Publish date : 2026-07-03 19:01:00
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