The sweepstakes for LeBron James are apparently down to six teams, per ESPN's Shams Charania.
Initially, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat were mentioned as the only three suitors for James' services. The Philadelphia 76ers, however, emerged as a potential option once they acquired Jaylen Brown in a trade with the Boston Celtics.
ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst later mentioned the Denver Nuggets as an “outlier team” to watch for James.
“I have long believed that if there was an outlier team for LeBron James, if he was willing to take sort of some exception, it was Denver,” Windhorst said. “If you noticed during this year, he was overly effusive with Jokic."
Last but not least, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic said the Minnesota Timberwolves are "ramping up" their pitch for James. It's unclear where they rank among interested teams, but they're ready to make a push to sign arguably the greatest player of all time.
© William Liang-Imagn Images.
Who'll win the sweepstakes?
Even though the Warriors were initially considered the favorites to land James, it was reported by Charania that they're not at the top of the four-time MVP's list.
"The Warriors, going into free agency, they dreamt up a grand plan of Draymond Green, Stephen Curry, LeBron James," Charania reported Friday. "But the big domino with them is trying to get a player like [Washington Wizards forward] Anthony Davis to bring LeBron and [Davis] as a package deal. Short of that, they’re not really looked at right now as the top of this list."
As of this moment, the Cavaliers are the odds-on favorites to sign James in free agency. That would be a fitting last chapter to the Akron native's career, make no mistake about it.
