Minnesota Sports Forum

I’m obviously among those who want LeBron to sign with the Wolves. I think that puts me among the vast majority of Wolves fans. But I couldn’t help thinking this morning about how much LeBron would help us and whether signing him would be worth giving away TSJ, Green and Donte to clear space to give LeBron the nontaxpayer MLE if that’s what it would take. So I looked at some of his key stats for last season compared to our former starting PF, Julius Randle, the League’s best PF, Giannis, and some other good or potentially very good PFs around the League including a couple of potential trade targets - PJ Washington and Jalen Duren. Here’s what I found.

DEFENSIVE PLUS/MINUS
- Giannis: +2.3
- Jalen Duren: +1.4
- James: +0.9
- PJ Washington +0.4
- Randle: -0.2
- John Collins: -0.5
- Kuminga: -0.5
- Grant Williams: -0.8

DEFENSIVE RATING
- Wemby: 101.5
- Giannis: 110.2
- Jalen Duren: 111.0
- Randle: 113.5
- Washington: 113.8
- James: 114.3
- Collins: 114.5
- Kuminga: 115.0

PER
- Giannis: 32.74
- James: 20.80
- Duren: 20.50
- Randle: 18.40
- Kuminga 14.2
- Washington: 13.5
- Collins: 12.8
- Yabusele: 11.2
- Grant Williams: 19.6

WIN SHARES
- Giannis: 9.5
- Duren 8.4
- Randle: 7.4
- James: 5.4
- Washington: 4.9
- Kuminga: 3.8
- Collins: 3.2
- Yabusele: 1.8
- Williams: 1.1

TS%
- Giannis: 65.8%
- Collins: 61.2%
- James: 59.4%
- Randle: 58.5%
- Washington: 55.6%
- Yano: 54.2%
- Kuminga: 53.8%
- Williams: 52.4%

PLAYMAKING
- James: 7.2a, 34.0% AST%
- Giannis: 5.4a, 26.3%
- Randle: 5.0a, 23.4%
- Kuminga: 2.3, 14.7%
- Duren: 2.0, 11%
- Washington: 1.8, 9.0%
- Williams: 1.6, 8.5%

It’s apparent to me that signing LeBron as a vet minimum free agent would be an easy no-=brainer for the Wolves even before considering the benefits of LeBron’s mentorship and overall positive impact on the team’s competitiveness and IQ. And the numbers tell us that even at age 41 LeBron was still an elite playmaking PF last season. But the numbers also tell us that LeBron is no longer anything close to a superstar on the court. So would I give up Green, Donte and TSJ if that’s what it would take to sign LeBron? Probably yes, but the choice is not clear cut.

What to do if we don’t get LeBron is up for discussion in another thread, but I would’t write-off Jalen Duren as a possibility if we included Rudy Gobert in some sort of package.

https://heavy.com/sports/nba/minnesota- ... ency-news/

Nothing we haven’t already discussed, but this article really makes the case for LeBron coming here as well as it can be made.

Anthony Davis just traded to the Warriors. Does this mean LeBron is going to the Warriors? Would the Warriors have made this trade if they weren’t sure it would land AD? Draymond Green and LeBron share the same agent. Hmm

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 8:09 am Anthony Davis just traded to the Warriors. Does this mean LeBron is going to the Warriors? Would the Warriors have made this trade if they weren’t sure it would land AD? Draymond Green and LeBron share the same agent. Hmm

Wow! You would think one of the sports media organizations would want to let us know about this...

Lip - you must be following some bad people!


Personally, the longer this lingers on, the better it is for the Wolves. I can understand LeBron wanting the Wolves to "take care of all their other business" before he announces his decision to come here. That business includes the BIG trade that cannot go down until July 9th, the Evans signing, the Lyles signing, and the Ayo signing.

60WinTim wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 8:35 am

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 8:09 am Anthony Davis just traded to the Warriors. Does this mean LeBron is going to the Warriors? Would the Warriors have made this trade if they weren’t sure it would land AD? Draymond Green and LeBron share the same agent. Hmm

Wow! You would think one of the sports media organizations would want to let us know about this...

Lip - you must be following some bad people!


Personally, the longer this lingers on, the better it is for the Wolves. I can understand LeBron wanting the Wolves to "take care of all their other business" before he announces his decision to come here. That business includes the BIG trade that cannot go down until July 9th, the Evans signing, the Lyles signing, and the Ayo signing.

I fell for this one. It was early morning and I was half awake. I agree that the long this lingers the better from the Wolves.

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2026 12:55 pm Listening to the national pundits, they can’t contain their disdain for the idea of LeBron signing with the Wolves. The lastest was that it wouldn’t look good for his legacy to go to a team like the Wolves, which isn’t an iconic franchise. Well, the Nuggets, Cavs and Heat aren’t iconic franchises either. The Lakers, Knicks and Celtics are what I would consider the three iconic NBA franchises. You might consider the Sixers in that category, but that’s about it. Yet, the pundits repeatedly single out the Wolves as some sort of irrelevant, Siberian outpost beyond the reaches of civilization. It’s ridiculous. If I were LeBron, I’d sign with the Wolves just to be different. I can’t think of a better way for LeBron to distinguish himself and his legacy than to sign with the team no one expects or wants him to join and take them to the NBA finals and maybe a championship. I doubt LeBron thinks that way, but if he did, then the more the pundits talk the greater our chances would be to land him.

I soooooooooo badly want to see the faces on all these pundits (if he signs here) and it's announced.

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 06, 2026 1:00 pm Apparently, Rich Paul has hinted that next season will not be LeBron’s last. That aligns with my thinking that he wants to match MJ’s six championships. That tells me if he wins one next season he’ll want to come back one more season for a chance to win his 6th. It would just be a longer documentary, right? I’d say the Wolves offer him his best chance for two more titles with the same team because of our youth.

2 more would also take him to 25 seasons. I could easily see a scenario where he comes here, wins one and then goes to CLE for his farewell season with a shot to win there as well. (They have some work to do with that roster and another year may help set that up.

I woke up as LeBron James again this morning and made my final decision. Here it is…. Pause. Dramatic music. I’m going to the City of Brotherly Love. Why am I going there? It’s simple. The only way I can truly cement my legacy and put myself inarguably above MJ as the greatest NBA player of all time is to win at least one but preferably two more championships and do it with a team that has never won the title or hasn’t won it in a long, long time.

There are only two teams among those I consider potential title contenders based on their rosters that haven’t won a title or haven’t won in decades and that’s the Wolves and Sixers. Of those two, I believe the Sixers have both the better roster and the easier conference.

The Sixers were a surprisingly good team last season. They haven’t lost anyone meaningful from last season and now they’ve added former finals MVP, Jaylen Brown. They’ve also added the darling of the NBA analytics people, Dean Wade. The Celtics are much weaker than last season. The Knicks are still very good, but no one knows better than I do that it’s hard to repeat. And I think it’s not insignificant that the Knicks lost Mitchell Robinson in free agency. Miami is a contender with Giannis, but they’re pretty thin once you get past Giannis and Bam and they’re simply not as good as the Sixers. Cleveland is a contender but I think the Sixers have the superior roster. Also, going back home to play is something I’ve already done. I don’t want to repeat myself. My legacy is enhanced more by doing something different. I’m a ground-breaker. I do things that haven’t been done before by anyone else or by me.

As I said, I like the Wolves roster. I’m a big fan of Ant Man and it would be cool to help the Wolves win their first championship in franchise history. But the Wolves roster is more of a question mark than the Sixers. The big question mark for the Sixers in Embiid’s health. I’ll take my chances with that risk. The Wolves have several question marks. One of those is the health or durability of LaMelo Ball. He’s durability might not be as suspect as Embiid’s’ but it’s pretty close. And as much as I like the Wolves roster, they didn’t just add pieces to upgrade what was already successful the last couple season. They actually subtracted two key pieces in Randle and Naz. And they won’t have Donte most of the season and maybe not at all. So it’s really hard to know how good they’ll be. In contrast, the Sixers have enhanced what they already had. I don’t have to guess the net impact because it’s all additions and no subtractions compared to last season. And even if I had the same level of confidence in the Wolves roster than I have in the Sixers, I can’t help but come back to the two elephants in the room — OKC and the Spurs. Because of those two teams, the Wolves will invariably have a tougher time than the Sixers making the NBA finals.

Publicly I’m going to tell everyone it was a close call. But privately I’ll tell all of you that once I thought it through thoroughly and once the Jaylen Brown deal was finalized, signing with the Sixers was an easy choice. Sorry to all you loyal Wolves fans. I’ve been following this message board for a long time. You are all knowledgable, passionate Wolves fans and I applaud you for that. I’m happy you were all pining for me to come to your cold state. But in the end, this is about me, not you, and I want to go where my chances to win are the greatest. So it’s off to Philly where I can fix the crack in the Liberty Bell and bring the NBA championship trophy back to the City of Brotherly Love for the first time since Dr. J and Moses Malone. And when I’m done winning my 5th championship I just might return to Philly for a sixth unless Embiid suffers a majorly injury in which case I might again consider going to Minnesota.

Maybe Trey Lyles will have a breakthrough NBA season.

Something I saw pointed out this week was that part of the reason Lebron left MIA was due to DWade's knee issues leading to a lot of uncertainty game to game. Embiid's uncertainty is even worse. So PHI may have the roster edge, but they also are the situation with the biggest downside and that's Embiid's health.

The Wolves have a health question mark as well with LaMelo, but it's not nearly as big as with Embiid, especially with Ayo who could start some games if needed.

The conference debate is too dismissive of the East lately. The West is tough, but in this discussion it's mostly the top 2 teams (SA/OKC) while the East has just as many good playoff teams.
NYC, BOS, DET, CLE, PHI, TOR, MIA, IND?, CHA?, ATL? ORL?

OKC, SA, MIN, DEN, HOU, LAL?, GS?, POR?

I too am FULLY prepared for the narrative to come out that the Wolves were an extremely close 2nd to whichever team he lands with. Still think they have a great shot though. We know they are VERY high on his list per reporting.

We're down to five teams including the Wolves, shams just reported that LeBron has crossed Denver off his list

He has to be loving all of this attention he's getting lol

BloopOracle wrote: ↑Wed Jul 08, 2026 3:55 pm We're down to five teams including the Wolves, shams just reported that LeBron has crossed Denver off his list

He has to be loving all of this attention he's getting lol

Find out next week on Lebachelor which team doesn't get a rose.

I really think it’s between us and Philly. Just gotta hope the time he spent with Ant on USA team is enough to make him want to come here.