Lebron James collects his option, Rich Paul’s declaration, does it mean that Lebron is mistaken? Don’t be so sure.

On Sunday Lebron James broke with his tradition and this raised some eyebrows. First of all, he collected his option from $ 52.6 million to return to the Lakers, a departure from his previous approach, which was to give up the contract, then renegotiate a two -year agreement with the team (with a player option for the second year). So his longtime friend and agent Rich Paul released this statement to Espn:

“Lebron wants to compete for a championship. He knows that the Lakers are building for the future. He understands it, but appreciates a realistic possibility of winning everything. We are very grateful for the partnership that we have had for eight years with Jeanie [Buss] and Rob [Pelinka] And consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.

“We understand the difficulty in winning now while we prepare for the future. We want to evaluate what is best for Lebron at this stage of his life and career. He wants to do every season that has left the count and Lakers understand him, are supported and want what is best for him.”

All this combined brought some fans of Lakers and NBA Twitter to manage things with their usual calm rationality. That is to say, they went crazy and started finding false operators of Lebron (the Clickbait sites jumped in all hypothetical operations). There have been a good 24 hours of people who went crazy. In the championship clubs, people noticed them and became a point of discussion. However, most wondered if this was the first step towards him in search of an exchange, but moRef Probably in a year.

Today’s reality: Lebron James is a Laker, has not requested a trade and will almost certainly be a Laker this season. Here are some things to consider when you think about Lebron’s next move.

• Lebron James has a long and historical story of passive-aggressive statements to try to convince his teams to spend big or trade in offseason. He pushes them to contend now (and often don’t care about the future). This is a well consumed path with him dating back to Miami and even his first period in Cleveland. It is understandable from Lebron’s point of view, he wants to play significant games and be on a contender who enters one of his last seasons, and despite the 50 wins and seed n. 3 One season ago, the playoffs showed Lebron and all the Lakers are not yet there. They need a circle center and other 3 & d-as Dorian Finney-Smith players, who has just given up on his contract and the Lakers want to sign again-and Lebron is pushing them along that road.

• Lebron understands that the Lakers are in transition. Lebron turns 41 in the middle of the next season, Luka Doncic is 26 years old and enters his peak. Lebron understands it, Doncic is the future of the Lakers and the roster will be modified to adapt to his game. However, Lebron wants to deal with Doncic in Los Angeles this season, not playing during a sabbatical year while Los Angeles moves to a list built to maximize Doncic’s skills. To be clear, neither the Lakers nor Doncic want even that Sabbatic year, everyone expects to contend for next season.

• It is highly unlikely that Lebron will be mistaken because he wants to contend and the Lakers are closer to that of any destination that would be passed out by the talent that tries to exchange for him. Espn’s votes put him in this way on Monday morning: there is no Lebron commercial market.

Hy hypothetically, if he had pushed for a trade, Lebron would have found himself in the same situation in which Giannis Antetokounmpo finds himself now: he can go to a team in the west of an exceptional or, he could try to return to the east, but to combine his huge salary and give the Lakers what they want, the new team of Lebron would have been gutted and would be less contending.

Let’s take fans of trade gravitated on Sunday: postponing Lebron to Cleveland. It can be done with a combination of Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen and De’andre Hunter or Max Strus. Cleveland worsens in that trade. Fans seem to underestimate both the value of the garland for the knights and seem to ignore the depth lessons from the finalists of this year. People want to serve the season of 64 cavaliers victories because they lost against the pars in the second round, a series in which Darius Garland tried to play through the Turf Toe, but it was a shell of himself on both the ends of the field, and that was only the beginning of a long list of accidents that afflicted the cavalators (in addition, it proved to be a lot for the end of the season).

The longtime journalist of the Lakers Jovan Buha said he had heard Dallas “Buzz” as a potential commercial partner, bringing together Lebron with guys with whom he won the rings at Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis. Good luck to do that job. First of all, Dallas didn’t have large enough with Davis for Luka Swap? This would be a three -team trade (at least) that involves Dallas who gives up Daniel Gafford, PJ Washington, Klay Thompson (if the Lakers want it, not to be so safe) and another player such as Dwight Powell. So the Mavs and Lebron must wait for Irving to recover from his torn ACL and hope that Davis will remain healthy. Is this that Lebron means for the contender?

All this to say, do not expect a trade in Lebron James soon. Look for the Lakers to receive the message and try to spend to contend for this season by acquiring a center – hello, Deandre Ayton – and adding deeper depth.