A ship journey is sparking hypothesis that two of the NBA’s largest names may finally crew up with the Nuggets, based on BasketNews.
In an Instagram put up on Saturday, Misko Raznatovic, the longtime agent for Nikola Jokic, shared images of himself with LeBron James and Maverick Carter, James’ enterprise associate, in St. Tropez. Raznatovic added the caption, “The summer season of 2025 is the proper time to make huge plans for the autumn of 2026! @kingjames @mavcarter.”
Hypothesis has been constructing that James may very well be on the transfer — whether or not it’s throughout the upcoming season or subsequent summer season — since he picked up his $52.6M participant possibility. That call was accompanied by a press release from his agent, Wealthy Paul of Klutch Sports activities, who stated the 40-year-old star nonetheless needs to compete for championships and can be monitoring the Lakers‘ offseason strikes.
The Cavaliers, Mavericks, Warriors and Knicks are among the many groups which have been talked about as future properties for James, however the Nuggets additionally make sense from a aggressive standpoint. James is coming off a second crew All-NBA season, and partnering him with Jokic may considerably bolster Denver’s title probabilities.
The Nuggets couldn’t afford to offer James one other $50M contract with Jokic ($59M) and Jamal Murray ($50.1M) already on their books for 2026-27 and past. Aaron Gordon ($32M) and Cameron Johnson ($23M) may even restrict the Nuggets’ monetary flexibility, however James is likely to be keen to simply accept a smaller wage to affix a crew that will give him an opportunity to win a fifth ring.
There appears to be a rising sense across the league that this will likely be James’ closing season with the Lakers because the crew focuses on constructing round Luka Doncic and prioritizes cap area for the summer season of 2027. James has been an All-NBA choice in every of his seven seasons since coming to L.A. in 2019 and delivered a title in 2020.
