How much of a pay cut would LeBron James need to take with the Lakers?

LeBron James is reportedly willing open to taking a pay cut if it enables the Lakers to better build the roster around him. What would his pay cut look like?

LeBron James officially declined his $51.4 million player option for the 2024-25 season on Saturday, which means he’s technically an unrestricted free agent. However, he’s widely presumed to be re-signing with the Lakers, as evidenced by the other cap-space teams already spending their money elsewhere.

The structure of James’ new contract is still up for discussion, though. He’s eligible to sign a three-year, $162 million max deal — which could include a no-trade clause—although Klutch Sports superagent Rich Paul told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that LeBron would be amenable to taking less than his max in the right circumstances.

McMenamin mentioned James Harden, Jonas Valanciunas and Klay Thompson as examples, although Harden (Clippers) and Valanciunas (Wizards) are already off the board. Thompson appears ready to leave the Warriors, but the Mavericks are also reportedly vying for his services.

If the Lakers did manage to sign Thompson or another top free agent, how much would James need to shave off his next contract?

Not counting Max Christie, who agreed to a four-year, $32 million contract only hours before free agency began Sunday, the Lakers already have $127.3 million in guaranteed salary on their books in 2024-25. D’Angelo Russell picking up his $18.7 million player option was the big swing factor in that regard and all three of Christian Wood ($3.0 million), Jaxson Hayes ($2.5 million) and Cam Reddish ($2.5 million) following suit further clogged the Lakers’ books.

The salary cap was set at roughly $140.6 million for 2024-25, and the luxury-tax line is right around $170.8 million. More notably for the Lakers’ purposes: The first apron is roughly $178.1 million and the second apron is about $188.9 million. If the Lakers acquire a player via sign-and-trade, use the non-taxpayer mid-level exception or take back more salary in a trade than they send out, they’ll be hard-capped at the first apron.

Without counting Christie and before re-signing LeBron, the Lakers are already only $50.8 million below the first apron. Re-signing James to his max would push them dangerously close to the first apron as is. If they wanted to use the NTMLE or sign-and-trade for Thompson, they’d have to shed salary elsewhere.

To avoid getting hard-capped at the first apron, the Lakers could instead just sign James to his max and then spend the $5.2 million taxpayer MLE instead. However, the Christie extension (if it starts at $7.1 million) and James’ max salary (roughly $50 million) would put the Lakers at roughly $184.5 million with only 13 roster spots filled. Even if the Lakers filled one of those two spots by signing Bronny James to a $1.1 million rookie min deal, they’d be at $185.6 million, or roughly $3.3 million under the second apron.

LeBron might need to take a slight pay cut for the Lakers to gain access to the full taxpayer MLE, but he’d have to take $10-plus million less than his max for the Lakers to have the NTMLE instead. The exact number in either scenario depends on what else the Lakers do with their roster this offseason and how they acquire their big splash.

If the Lakers acquired a player via sign-and-trade, they could send back more salary than they take in, provided the other team isn’t over the first apron. (If both teams are over the first apron, they’d have to trade an exact dollar-for-dollar match).

That means they could package some of their middle-sized contracts — Russell, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt — with each other and/or with one of their min-deal players — Wood, Hayes, Reddish — provided the other team could take on the extra salary.

If the Lakers acquired someone via the non-taxpayer MLE, they likely wouldn’t ask James to take an eight-figure pay cut. Instead, they’d presumably aim to cut salary elsewhere. But a sign-and-trade or just a normal trade would allow the Lakers to offload some salary for whomever they’re acquiring, which could help them get closer to James’ max salary.

Either way, James is likely in no real hurry to re-sign, nor should the Lakers feel pressure to sign him immediately. It makes sense for James to allow the Lakers to explore their options in case a particularly appealing scenario presents itself. The Clippers, Warriors and Nuggets are all on the verge of losing pieces, so the Lakers could have a chance to make up ground on them with the right signing or trade.

Barring an 11th-hour surprise, James will re-sign with the Lakers at some point this offseason. The timing is just up in the air for now until the top free-agent and trade options come off the board.

If the Lakers strike out by then, Paul told McMenamin that James plans on taking his full max. But if they landed the right target — Brook Lopez? Cam Johnson or Dorian Finney-Smith? — James is reportedly willing to put their interests ahead of his own to maximize their roster-building flexibility.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. You can follow Bryan on Twitter at @btoporek.