{"id":589119,"date":"2026-02-14T09:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T09:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/589119\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T09:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T09:32:18","slug":"theres-rampant-speculation-that-lebron-james-could-return-to-cavs-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/589119\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s \u2018rampant speculation\u2019 that LeBron James could return to Cavs this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rumors about LeBron James returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> after this season have been somewhat non-stop since he played against his former team last month. Since then, there was a report that the Cavs would welcome James back<\/a>, The Athletic said a return to Cleveland would be the \u201cobvious destination<\/a>,\u201d veteran reporter Jason Lloyd said LeBron will be playing in Cleveland next season if anywhere<\/a>, and Donovan Mitchell and James Harden are rumored to be recruiting him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We have one more rumor to add to that list.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

On Friday, ESPN\u2019s Tim McMahon<\/a> said on NBA Today that there\u2019s \u201crampant speculation\u201d around the league that James will sign with Cleveland for a potential retirement tour this summer.<\/p>\n

Support us and Let \u2018Em Know with Homage!<\/a><\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

Anything bought from the links helps support Fear the Sword. You can also shop all of Homage\u2019s Cavs gear HERE<\/a>. The link to the 2016 championship shirt HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At this point, it feels like LeBron will be returning home to Cleveland unless he retires after this season. What that would look like from a salary perspective remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

The Cavs are currently over the second apron. They would not have access to the full mid-level exception unless they got under both aprons and then cut additional salary to carve out a spot for that exception. There\u2019s also the possibility of a sign-and-trade if the Cavs get below the first apron. Or, James could opt to sign for a minimum contract.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pointless to speculate too much on the finances at this point. There\u2019s numerous scenarios for making this work from a cap perspective. If both sides want James to play in Cleveland, they\u2019ll find a way to make it happen as they did back in 2014.<\/p>\n

Even though LeBron is 41 years old, he\u2019s still playing at an exceptionally high level. He recorded a triple-double<\/a> in his last outing in the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>\u2018 win over the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> on Thursday. On the season, James is averaging 22 points, 7.1 assists, and 5.8 rebounds on .502\/.305\/.746 shooting splits in a mostly supporting role alongside Luka Doncic.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see how this plays out. In the meantime, we can rest assured that there\u2019s going to be plenty more rumors about James returning to Cleveland between now and July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rumors about LeBron James returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers after this season have been somewhat non-stop since…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":589120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[3128,3139,39463,18169,173818,22805,3363,3141,52368,1260,243873,254830,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-589119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-james-harden","tag-jaylon-tyson","tag-la-clippers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka","tag-nba","tag-nbae","tag-rampant-speculation","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116068295975289525","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}