Forecasting LeBron James' next contract: How much will The King make if he returns?

James used his contracts to maximize his leverage over his teams after leaving Miami. He only ever signed short-term deals in his second stint in Cleveland, forcing the Cavaliers to continue to invest in the roster. Such leverage wasn't quite needed in Los Angeles, given the influence his agency, Klutch Sports, wielded over the team through both James and fellow Rich Paul client Anthony Davis. His first deal with the Lakers was for the maximum for four years. More recently, he's moved back to short-term deals.

But his circumstances are different as he approaches free agency in 2026. After 23 years atop the league, he is no longer such an unquestionably productive player that he can demand whatever sort of contract he wants. As ESPN's Dave McMenamin noted in a recent story, Laker officials would occasionally speculate about how much James was actually worth without his famous name attached during the 2025-26 season. The number was always far below the max.

NBA insider Jake Fischer took things a bit further in a recent video. James, through statements released by Paul, has indicated that competing for championships is his primary goal at the end of his career. According to Fischer, "there is a prevailing sentiment" around the league that "LeBron would be best served to take a minimum-salary contract if he does care ultimately about winning another championship."

All of this raises some interesting questions. What is James actually worth? How much could he feasibly make if he actually plays? Is there a world in which he takes the minimum, and what would factor into that decision? Let's try to find out.

So... how much is LeBron truly worth?

There's no truly fair way to answer this. Sporting News' Stephen Noh built a tool to measure a player's fair market value, and it determined that James, who made $52.6 million this season, was actually worth $28.2 million. His projections, likely due to the effects of aging and the injury risks that come with it, have James at a $21.9 million valuation for next season.

Now, we can't take those numbers as gospel. Applying any standard aging regression to LeBron James feels ultimately foolhardy. He hasn't just beaten Father Time, he just spent the playoffs whaling on him with a folding chair. Alperen Sengun just made $33.9 million for last season. James outplayed him in basically every single way during his series against the Houston Rockets. He averaged more points and assists on better efficiency while playing superior defense and ultimately leading the shorthanded Lakers to victory. Noh's model pegged Sengun at $34.7 million in value for this season.

This is where things get tricky. Sengun probably was the better regular-season player. He's an All-Star and he's almost two decades younger. Over the 82-game grind, that's to be expected. James has to monitor his energy output carefully. He can't be a superhero on every single possession anymore. But if the goal is to win championships, and if highly paid players frequently decline in the playoffs, it absolutely matters that James remains an unquestionable playoff riser. If you can get him through the 82-game grind, he's still one of the very best players in basketball. A team with a lot of cost-controlled younger players could absolutely justify splurging on James at a salary above Sengun's if the only goal is to win a championship immediately.

The tricky thing is that winning the championship immediately is almost never the only goal, and the salary cap is enormously complicated and requires constant strategic adaptability. Let's say you have a bunch of cap space because your best players are all on the third season of a rookie-scale contract. Well, your cap space essentially expires in a year because the rookie extensions those players sign will kick in. You can use your space to add someone who will stake around for four years, or you can get James for one with no mechanism to replace him. What a player is worth in a single game and what a player is worth within the broader context of building a roster are two different numbers. That makes the answer circumstantial, so let's talk circumstances.

[What's next for LeBron James? Setting odds for his next team, plus why retirement seems like real possibility

Sam Quinn

How much can everybody pay LeBron?

Teams with cap space can simply pay James however much space they have up to James' max. If the Bulls or Nets are interested in James, they can pay him more than any-non Lakers team. If James wants to win a championship, though, he's not going to Chicago or Brooklyn.

Five teams have popped up as somewhat frequently speculated destinations, so let's look at their situations.

• The Clippers can fairly easily get to around $28 million in cap space even with Kawhi Leonard still on the team, though it would mean renouncing a number of players on non-guaranteed deals. They could go further if they really wanted to, perhaps by trading their only two veterans on fully guaranteed contracts, Derrick Jones Jr. and Isaiah Jackson. If James wants to get paid and stay in Los Angeles, the Clippers are a viable option. If Leonard is traded, as has been widely speculated, the Clippers could open up even more space. Yet they'd likely be less appealing to James without Leonard, so if they're planning a pursuit, they'd likely hold off on a trade.
• The Warriors, right now, only have around $20 million in room below the first apron. Both sign-and-trades and the non-taxpayer mid-level exception (estimated at around $15 million for next season) trigger first-apron hard caps, so this is going to be the number to watch for most teams if they want to pursue James at above a minimum salary. Most of this money for Golden State will likely go to Kristaps Porziņģis and filling out the bottom of their roster. However, the Warriors do have ways of saving money. Al Horford could retire or get traded on his $6 million player option. Draymond Green could also decline his player option, which would allow him to lower his 2026-27 salary in exchange for more years of security. It is therefore not out of the realm of possibility that Golden State could create a full mid-level exception with which to pursue James, especially if they save money trading Jimmy Butler with picks attached to get a star (like, say, Leonard). Obviously, though, the Warriors would prefer to pay James the minimum. That makes building their roster significantly easier in a number of ways.
• The Cavaliers would have a hard time creating any meaningful first-apron flexibility. They're currently $16 million above the line before accounting for their own free agents like Dean Wade and Keon Ellis. They do, however, have the benefit of James Harden's $42 million player option. If he declined it, Cleveland could substantially lower his 2026-27 salary in exchange for more years. That's a start, but shaving any more money, at least serious money, probably means attaching draft picks to a player like Max Strus or Dennis Schröder. That's doable, but the easier path here would likely be a sign-and-trade with the Lakers. Los Angeles needs a center, and the Cavaliers could send Jarrett Allen and his $28 million salary west. James could then join the Cavaliers in a sign-and-trade at a slightly lower salary, whatever amount is needed to keep them below the first apron after Harden's contract is settled. Again, though, Cleveland would likely prefer to keep Allen, so the Cavaliers may only want to bring in James on a minimum deal.
• The Knicks are more or less locked out of the sign-and-trade of non-tax mid-level exception market. They're basically at the first apron with just nine players under contract, and at the very least, they're probably going to have to pay key backup center Mitchell Robinson starter money to keep him in free agency. New York's books were designed to go well above the second apron next season. Creating sign-and-trade money for James would mean both letting Robinson go and giving away an expensive player like Mikal Bridges in the deal. That is not tenable. If James goes to the Knicks, it's probably for the minimum.
• The Nuggets are in a second apron-induced crisis right now. They're at the second-apron line before accounting for key restricted free agent Peyton Watson. If James wants to come, it will be for the minimum. If anyone wants to come, it will be for the minimum. The Nuggets are expected to look to trim salary, if anything. They're facing a gargantuan tax bill and would like to find a way to keep Watson.

That leaves the Lakers, whose answer is both very simple and very complicated. They have full Bird Rights. They can pay James anything up to the max. That gives them complete control over the process, at least financially. They can outbid anyone.

But doing so would mean operating above the cap. If the Lakers want to create the $48 million or so in cap space they're capable of making, they'll have to renounce their rights to all of their own free agents. That obviously includes James. They could still re-sign him after renouncing him, but he'd be just like any other free agent. They'd have no rights. They'd just be able to offer him however much cap space they have, the cap room mid-level exception (projected a bit above $9 million for next season), or the minimum.

So what the Lakers can offer James in theory and what the Lakers can offer him in practice could vary pretty wildly based on what they intend to do with their space, if they create it at all. If they want to run this year's team back and re-sign everyone, they can operate above the cap to do so. If they want to make major changes to their roster? It's not going to involve paying James anywhere near the salary to which he has become accustomed.

So how will all of this play out?

If James leaves the Lakers, the likeliest outcome would be a minimum-salary contract on another team. James may be a frugal billionaire, but he's still a billionaire. With $581.4 million made in his career, James is the highest-earning player in NBA history by roughly $80 million. He's earned more than that off of the court, as his Nike deal alone is believed to be worth more than $1 billion. He doesn't need the money.

If he goes to Cleveland to pursue a fifth championship, he'd presumably want Jarrett Allen on the team to help him try to win. If he joins a team as old as the Warriors, he's going to know how important preserving resources to add depth will be. And if he goes to the Knicks, he understands public relations well enough to understand he'd absolutely get blamed for things going south if he cost them any key players.

Highest-earning players in NBA history

Through the 2025-26 NBA season, per Spotrac

Further, the willingness to accept a minimum contract gives him what he's always looked for in his contracts: leverage. The Knicks are more or less built at this point, but if it's the Cavaliers or Warriors, who have draft picks and youth to deal and salaries across the spectrum to work with, he can essentially say "if you want me to sign with you for the minimum, I need to see you make every reasonable investment in building a winning roster."

If it takes multiple first-round picks for the Warriors to land Kawhi Leonard, James can demand they offer the Clippers what it takes if they want his signature as well. If James wants to play with Giannis Antetokounmpo, he can nudge the Cavaliers towards offering Evan Mobley for him. James on a minimum deal offers so much surplus value between what he's worth on the court and the potential financial windfall that would come with hosting his retirement tour that teams would probably be very open-minded about his demands. He can use this leverage to ensure that whatever team he decides to join is as close to all-in on the 2026-27 season as possible.

The Lakers are not all-in on the 2026-27 season. James knew that a year ago when the statement Paul released openly expressed the team's now-known priority to operate on Luka Dončić's timeline. From that perspective, James is probably not especially eager to offer the Lakers a favor. "The Lakers can't just offer James a number. They have to offer a why behind that number," an agent who does not represent James suggested to McMenamin. "Their plan for any discount would have to be coherent."

If the Lakers plan to run back last season's roster, there's frankly no basketball reason for James to take a substantial pay cut. They have all of the Bird Rights they need to pay their players and will not be hard-capped at either apron unless they take some intentional step to trigger one. James isn't going to go out of his way to save the Lakers tax money. He'll expect a salary commensurate with his value if further investment is not made in the roster.

If the Lakers approach him about a minimum or cap room mid-level exception offer, it probably has to involve substantial upgrades. The Lakers can create that $48 million in cap space, and they have three first-round picks to trade. Winning now and winning later are not necessarily mutually exclusive goals. The Lakers can use those resources to pursue valuable players who are still in their 20s. James is enough of a basketball chameleon that he can theoretically fit with basically anyone.

If they use that flexibility on a star, or perhaps a handful of defensive-minded, dirty-work role players, they could credibly go to James and tell him they give him a realistic chance at winning a championship. At that point, given the roots he now has in Los Angeles, taking a significant pay cut actually makes some sense. That same leverage principle still applies. If the Lakers want him to do them the favor of a big pay cut, they need to reciprocate by actually using that boon to give him championship equity.

James has been a Laker for eight years. No partnership lasts that long without some turbulence. The Lakers have done nothing as egregious as the Heat waiving Miller, but there are understandable grievances here. McMenamin's reporting indicated that James feels as though the Lakers take him for granted. The money itself may not mean much to James at this point, but the commitment it represents likely does. It's a reflection of his stature within the team and the league, so if the Lakers are going to ask James to take a significant pay cut, they're going to have to make it worth his while.