The Sixers are among the teams pursuing LeBron James, ESPN’s Shams Charania confirmed during a TV appearance on Thursday (YouTube link). Tony Jones of The Athletic first reported that Philadelphia had registered interest in the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in the wake of the trade to acquire Jaylen Brown from Boston. The 76ers also reached a contract agreement with free agent guard Anfernee Simons.
“We know the face of this team, Tyrese Maxey, he has a relationship with LeBron James,” Charania said. “But listen, the Sixers are a late inclusion in this process. Over the last 24-48 hours, teams around the league that I speak to, this has been Cleveland, Golden State, Miami as far as the teams that make the most logical sense for LeBron James.
“There’s always going to be one or two others, right? A team like the Sixers. … But we’ll see what happens with LeBron over the coming days and weeks, potentially.”
As Charania’s colleague Anthony Slater reports for ESPN, while the Warriors have been “given indications” that they’re still on James’ “short list” of preferred destinations, they’re also under the impression that may not necessarily be atop said list. Golden State has long been linked to the 41-year-old, who informed the Lakers on Tuesday morning that he wouldn’t be returning for a ninth season in Los Angeles.
Here are a few more rumors and notes from around the NBA:
- Bill Simmons of The Ringer reported on his podcast on Thursday morning that part of the reason the Bucks agreed to trade Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Heat instead of the Celtics is that Boston was only willing to offer the two-time MVP a two-year extension worth 30% of the salary cap, rather than a three-year, 35% max deal. A source who spoke to Noa Dalzell of CelticsBlog refuted that claim though, as Dalzell hears Boston was willing to offer Antetokounmpo the maximum contract he was seeking.
- Rockets forward Tari Eason suggested he wasn’t exactly thrilled with the five-year, $81.5MM contract agreement he reached as a restricted free agent. About an hour before the news broke, he sent out a tweet that said, “I guess bruh” followed by a shrugging emoji. For what it’s worth, Eason and Houston were said to be far apart in rookie scale extension talks before the season began. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported at the time that the Rockets made a “strong” final offer in October worth $100M+, but he wasn’t sure how much of that total was guaranteed. Notably, Charania reported on Thursday that the new deal Eason agreed to features more guaranteed money than he was offered in the fall, but that doesn’t mean it was what he was hoping for.
- The Timberwolves were among the teams who unsuccessfully tried to sign Kenrich Williams away from Oklahoma City, according to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News and Skor North (Twitter link). Williams, who became an unrestricted free agent when he had his $7.2MM team option declined, agreed to re-sign with the Thunder on a one-year, $5MM deal. Minnesota has a hole at power forward after agreeing to trade Julius Randle and Naz Reid.
