Let’s catch up on what came by the Enclosures on Day 3.

Who Moved On

In brief for the US: not many. While there are a few more crews yet to start racing–like the Harvard and Dartmouth heavies in the Ladies–the US field, small to begin with, has been winnowed considerably this year already.

Across the 13 races US Thursday, just four eights, plus the two Princeton Brits racing the pair while they are home for the summer, got through Thursday’s racing:

The Harvard Lights and Virginia in the Temple–who will face each other tomorrow–and then the Princeton light women and Rutgers A in the Island.

Just to jump right to it, the Princeton race against a bigger crew from Bristol was textbook aggressive racing as IRA Champs Princeton grabbed a narrow lead at the quarter-mile and clung tenaciously to the lead. Charging down the Enclosures, Bristol was closing (and both crews spent some time in the middle of the river, with blades overlapping for a stroke or two), but the Tigers prevailed for the win…and our Race of the Day nod.

You can watch the rest of therace by race replays here on Youtube, and read the Regatta’s notes on the Thursday races here.

Schoolboys Top College Men; First Schoolboy Crew to Make it to Friday Since 2009

The Teddy Hall schoolboy JV caused a bit of a stir by beating the Dutch college eight from Algemene Leidse Studenten Roeivereniging Asopos de Vliet.

A remarkable row from St Edward’s school in the Temple, becoming the first British schoolboys to reach the Friday in this event (& the first school from any country since Kent School USA in 2009) #HRR25

— Daniel Spring (@fatsculler) July 3, 2025

They can try for a Dutch double on Friday when they face the selected crew from Nereus that ended the Harvard Lightweight 2V’s perfect season today.

The Rutgers Surprise

Rutgers A also remains standing in the Island, making the most of the program’s first ever Henley trip with a 2-length win over U of London A, in the best time of the day in the event.

The trip, long planned as part of the 50th anniversary year of women’s rowing at Rutgers just happens to coincide with the Scarlet Knights’ best season since COVID, where they won Women’s Sprints, took second to Big Ten newcomer Washington in their conference, and posted their best NCAA finish–8th–since 1997, the very first year of that championship.

“Before we came over, we talked a lot about how people in England, they don’t know anything about us and we’re coming over not knowing anything about our competition,” said coxswain Maxine Prawl.

“We talked a lot about how we want to be the ones to surprise the boat next to us on the course. We don’t want to get out there and get surprised. We’ve done a really good job of coming here and making an impact, and I think we’ve been surprising a lot of people.

“At the same time, it’s not really surprising to us because we’ve trained with this intention and intensity, and we knew from the jump, that if we train the way we’re training, and we just go hard every stroke and we do what we need to do, then we can come here and make an impact.”

“So far, we’ve done a great job of executing that,” said Prawl, “but it’s only day two and we’ve got a long way to go, and all nine of us in this boat are very committed to seeing it all the way through Sunday.”

Rutgers gets the Dutch crew Laga on Friday, who was a titch slower to the Barrier today; according to Rutgers head coach Justin Price, the crew is looking forward to “getting it going tomorrow on the Fourth of July.”

Harvard Lights Stay Flawless; Sisters Will Face Off on Friday

The start of the Temple match between Harvard and the Dutch student club G.S.R. Aegir was another classic. Though Harvard pulled away once they got ahead and led by the Barrier, the first minute saw Aegir grab a quick lead and the crews were level at the 1/4 mile as Harvard rallied and responded.

For the undefeated IRA lightweight champs, it was another win in a long run that goes back to last year’s Temple semifinal…and they have not lost a race stateside in two years.

“We’ve had so much success for so long,” said senior coxswain Anya Chang, “but what makes this crew so special is that every time we enter a new competition or meet a new crew that we haven’t ever raced, or raced in a while, we don’t come into it expecting to win.

“I really admire how much they go out there ready to take anything that they want and any result that they want. They go out there as if they are the aggressor and are not expecting anything to happen to them.

“To start down and then keep the composure and the confidence to get through them, have a really good result was so exciting and honestly, I’m just so proud of the crew and how far we’ve come to the last couple of years.”

Chang, along with seven seat Brahm Erdmann, are the last two members of the crew who were part of the Harvard light varsity that fell short of an IRA bid their freshmen year. Since then? A surprising silver in 2022 followed by two perfect seasons capped by national titles.

You can read read our interview with Erdmann and more about the perfect season(s) in our IRA coverage from last month.

To keep the winning streak going, Chang and her crew will line up tomorrow against Virginia, who beat Newcastle to make it to the quarterfinals.

And when Anya gets to the start and looks across at her opposite number, she will see a pretty familiar face: her sister Celia. Now we are not about to do the math on the last time sisters may have coxed against each other in the Temple, or even in the regatta as a whole, but we are definitely here for this sister act.

Both Changs steered their crews to national championships this year–Anya at the IRA with the H150s, and Celia at ACRA with UVA–and now they have a chance to race each other that doesn’t happen back in the States, where the two teams race in different leagues.

“I’m going to root for my favorite,” said dad, Karl, with a laugh when we asked him who he’d be cheering for on Friday. He certainly has good reason to be in high spirits today; after all, not every parent gets guaranteed a Henley win the next day, but he sure is, with a daughter at the helm of each boat.

Saving Your Euros and Cents

The actual shell that the Harvard Lights beat, from the Dutch student club G. S. R. Aegir, has a neat back story. Called the ’99 it was donated by the 1999 heavyweight crew, as recompense for a shell they (accidentally) destroyed back in, you guessed it, 1999.

To pay for the boat they crashed, the members of the crew have been putting away 19.99 in Euros every month ever since–and this season there was finally enough in the kitty to finance the new boat.

One of the men who was in the boat back then and led the effort was on hand today. Wietse De Boer took a picture with the crew and the boat after the race, which led to the crew telling us his story.

Aegir, by the way, are the Dutch crew with one of the cooler racing shirt traditions we’ve run across at Henley, and while we covered it before, it is worth repeating: they can tear the sleeves off after they’ve won three races–so this all sleeveless crew was clearly a seasoned outfit–but they cannot wash the shirt unless they win the big Varsity race in the Netherlands. Since Aegir has not won the Varsity since 1982, there are, one athlete admitted, a lot of unwashed red-starred Aegir shirts in closets back home in Groningen. (You can check out the sleeve-ripping tradition on the club’s instagram.)

On to Watching the Friday

If you are all caught up here, then it might already be time to tune in to the livestream to see what’s on.

A few peak interest races you might want to catch live:

7:45am EDT – Harvard LWTs vs Virginia in the Temple (Student M8)
9:20am EDT – Dartmouth Vs Oxford Brookes B in the Ladies (Interm. M8)
9:30am EDT – Redwood Scullers vs Tideway Scullers in the Princess Grace (Open W4x)
10:50 EDT – Harvard vs Thames/Leander in in the Ladies (Interm. M8)

That Redwood Scullers crew is a Stanford “all-star” crew featuring three national teamers out of this year’s Stanford V8, and recent alum Esther Briz, the Spanish Olympian.

Saugatuck and Newport will be back in action Friday as well, after today’s off day in the Prince Philip event. Newport gets Headington, last year’s winner, while Saugatuck will face the other heavy favorite, Shiplake. Saugatuck coach Mike O’Hara is undaunted though, telling row2k: “It’s the Fourth of July, so we’re going to come after them like Rocky.”

Notes from the Banks

You Know It’s a Tough Draw When… you find yourself saying “congrats on the World Cup win” at the end of the race, as Spains Koxme Burutaran did to Logan Ullrich at the end of their heat in the Diamonds. Ullrich won gold in the single for New Zealand just four days ago in Lucerne before heading to Henley–and Burutaran could have also congratulated Ullrich on winning the IRA. Ullrich was still sweeping–and hoisting the Varsity Challenge Cup–with his fellow Washington Huskies a mere month ago on the Cooper.

And Then There Were Six – Umpire launches that is: the morning schedule today was a bit of an experiment, as the Stewards “river-tested” using six launches instead the usual five. That meant the morning could run fully on 5 minute centers, without the traditional 10 minute break every five races to reset the launches…and that would let the Regatta add more races as the Stewards keep looking for way to increase the parity across the men’s and women’s events.

All USA was A-OK – Earlier in the week, we noted that Purdue and Virgina drew the proverbial short straw when they came all this way just to see a crew they race all the time back home, but UVA coach Frank Biller pointed out that seeing the top two crews from the ACRA racing each other at Henley was both historic, and a real sign of how healthy college club rowing is these days. He and Purdue coach Jack Kellmanson, a former UVA rower himself, made sure their crews knew just how historic it was and the two crews even met before the race to wish each other luck.

Dustin Poirier is “getting jacked” after UFC retirement

“This will be the last time I’m ever 155 pounds in my life,” Poirier said with a smile. “[When I retire], I’m getting on steroids. Once USADA stops knocking on my door and I lay the gloves down, I’m getting jacked.”

Again, knowing what we know about Poirier—he’s a consummate sportsman—he may be choking about this. Then again, maybe he’s not. One way or the other, he’ll be retired from fighting, so that’s his prerogative.

UFC 318 goes down on July 19. It will mark the third time Poirier and Holloway have fought. Poirier won both of the first encounters. First, he defeated the Hawaiian by submission at featherweight. He later picked up a second win in their rivalry, winning a decision in a fight for the interim lightweight title. Other highlights of his resume include wins over Conor McGregor (twice), Justin Gaethje, Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Pettis, Michael Chandler and Jim Miller.

The MLB Breakdown offers data-driven analysis using the FantasyLabs Tools and predictive metrics to highlight notable players within our MLB Player Models.

MLB DFS Pitching Picks

MLB DFS Stud Pick

Logan Gilbert ($9,500) Seattle Mariners (-180) vs. Kansas City Royals

Gilbert is a very tough pitcher to handicap at the moment. He’s a phenomenal pitcher, and he got off to an outstanding start this season. He pitched to a 2.37 ERA through his first six starts before unfortunately being shut down with an injury.

Gilbert has not looked like the same pitcher since returning to the lineup. He’s pitched to a 5.87 ERA across his past three starts, and he’s allowed four earned runs in each of his past two. That’s caused his salary to dip to $9,500 for Wednesday’s matchup vs. the Royals.

However, Gilbert is still an extremely talented pitcher, and he has a lot working in his favor in this matchup. For starters, he’ll get to pitch in Seattle after pitching on the road in his past two starts. T-Mobile Park is the most pitcher-friendly venue in baseball per Statcast Park Factors, so that’s a massive upgrade. The last time we saw Gilbert in Seattle, he struck out 10 batters and allowed two earned runs in five innings against the Red Sox.

The matchup vs. the Royals is also solid. Kansas City doesn’t strike out often – which does limit Gilbert’s upside – but they struggle to put runs on the scoreboard. They’re currently implied for just 3.1 runs, which is the lowest mark by a pretty wide margin. Historically, pitchers with comparable salaries and Vegas data have averaged a Plus/Minus of +2.42 (per the Trends tool).

Add in a lower price tag than usual, and this is a clear buy-low spot for Gilbert. He ranks first in projected Plus/Minus in THE BAT X, and he also has the top median and ceiling projections by a comfortable margin.

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MLB DFS Value Pick

Clayton Kershaw ($8,000) Los Angeles Dodgers (-325) vs. Chicago White Sox

It’s pretty tough to look past the Dodgers when they’re playing the White Sox. You don’t get mismatches much bigger from an MLB standpoint, so whoever is on the bump for Los Angeles is going to have massive win expectancy.

Kershaw will get that designation on Wednesday. He’s not the same pitcher that he was in his prime, but he’s still been really effective of late. After a rocky first start, Kershaw has allowed two earned runs or fewer in six of his past seven outings. He’s allowed one or zero earned runs in five of them, and his ERA in five June starts ultimately checked in at 2.28.

He should be able to keep things rolling vs. the White Sox. Kershaw is a massive -325 favorite, and Chicago is implied for just 3.4 runs. They also have the second-highest strikeout rate against southpaws, so Kershaw brings a bit more upside to the table than usual.

Some of Kershaw’s advanced metrics suggest room for regression, but this isn’t the matchup where you need to worry about it. No pitcher is more likely to earn a win on Wednesday, making him a solid value at just $8,000.

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MLB DFS GPP Picks

Hunter Brown ($10,300) Houston Astros (-264) at Colorado Rockies

If not for the location, Brown would be in consideration for the top pitching spot on this slate. He’s been an absolute monster on the bump this season, posting a 1.74 ERA with fantastic strikeout and batted-ball metrics. The Rockies are also an elite matchup, even with this game being in Coors Field. They’re 28th in wRC+ when facing a right-hander at home, and they have the second-highest strikeout rate in that split. Brown’s floor is ultimately lower than usual, but his ceiling is pretty much unchanged. He’s projected for far less ownership than Gilbert, making him an interesting pivot for tournaments.

Brayan Bello ($6,400) Boston Red Sox (-128) vs. Cincinnati Reds

Bello has plenty of natural ability, and he draws a solid matchup Wednesday vs. the Reds. Cincinnati plays its home games in one of the most hitter-friendly parks in baseball, so they tend to struggle when they go on the road. Fenway Park doesn’t represent a huge downgrade from a Park Factor standpoint, but it’s enough to make Bello intriguing at a very low price tag. He’s also pitched pretty well of late, posting a positive Plus/Minus in three of his past four outings. He ultimately trails only Gilbert in terms of projected Plus/Minus per THE BAT X, so he’s a viable SP2 for those looking to load up on bats. 

Shota Imanaga ($8,500) Chicago Cubs (-162) vs. Cleveland Guardians

Imanaga made his return to the lineup last week and was pretty much perfect. He allowed just one walk and one hit across five scoreless innings, dropping his ERA to 2.54 across nine starts. The Cubs were careful with his pitch count in his first game back, but his leash should be a bit longer on Wednesday. He’s not going to pile up the strikeouts, but he’s simply a more talented pitcher than his current salary suggests. He posted a +4.22 Plus/Minus in his last outing despite throwing less than 80 pitches, and he was priced at $9,000 for that contest.

If you’re craving more MLB DFS or betting tools, be sure to check out one of our most powerful tools on the site—PlateIQ.

MLB DFS Hitters and Stacks

Notable Stack

With the Lineup Builder, it’s easy to incorporate stacks into DFS rosters.

Also, don’t forget that for large-field tournaments, you can utilize our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 300 lineups.

The top DraftKings stack in the FantasyLabs MLB Player Model when generated by projected points using THE BAT X belongs to the Houston Astros:

No real surprises here. The Astros are playing their second consecutive game at Coors Field, and they lead the slate with a 6.6 implied run total. Houston was slightly disappointing on Tuesday, but they did manage to get six runs off Chase Dollander in the first three innings. The Rockies’ bullpen shut them down after that, but putting that kind of workload on their relievers could pay dividends as the series progresses.

The best part about this stack is the price tag. Stacking the top of a lineup in Coors Field can occasionally run you upwards of $27-28k, but the top Astros’ stack costs just $22,700. Three of the five hitters will run you $4,400 or less, so they are extremely affordable on a slate with plenty of pitching value.

They’ll square off with southpaw Austin Gomber, who has pitched to a 6.95 xERA so far this season. He’s been absolutely blasted in his two starts at Coors Field, surrendering 10 earned runs and three homers in just 9.2 innings pitched. The Astros are expected to roll out nine right-handed or switch-hitting batters, so they’ll all have the splits advantage in this matchup.

The only downside is the projected ownership. Seven of the top eight hitters in terms of projected ownership play for the Astros, so you’re going to need to be cognizant of that when filling out the rest of your lineup. Specifically, pairing the Astros with Gilbert will be extremely chalky, so you’ll need to go with a few off-the-board plays to ensure a unique lineup.

Not interested in messing around with optimizer settings? No worries, you can use our MLB DFS Simulations and let it find the best way to control your stacks, exposure, correlations, and more!

Click here to find out how SimLabs can elevate your MLB DFS game, and watch the video below.

Other MLB DFS Hitter Picks

One of the great features of being a FantasyLabs Pro member is the option to purchase additional items in the FantasyLabs Marketplace.

In addition to our in-house MLB projections,  THE BAT X from Derek Carty of RotoGrinders is available in our marketplace. With this purchase, you can use his projections alone or create aggregate projections within our Player Models.

For this example, we created a 50/50 blend with THE BAT X and the FantasyLabs projections to pinpoint some hitters that stand out.

Corey Seager, SS ($3,800) Texas Rangers vs. Baltimore Orioles (Tomoyuki Sugano)

This is an egregiously low price tag for a hitter of Seager’s caliber, especially with how he’s been swinging the bat recently. He got off to a slow start this season, but his advanced metrics suggested he was more unlucky than bad. He’s unsurprisingly turned things around recently, posting a positive Plus/Minus in seven straight games.

Seager has had at least 16.0 DraftKings points in five of those contests, and he draws an exploitable matchup vs. Tomoyuki Sugano on Wednesday. Sugano owns an xERA over 5.50 this season, and Seager will have the splits advantage as a left-handed batter. Expect the positive regression to continue. He owns the top projected Plus/Minus among the non-Astros’ hitters in our blended projection set.

Marcel Ozuna, OF ($4,000) Atlanta Braves vs. Los Angeles Angels (Yusei Kikuchi)

The Braves are an intriguing team on Wednesday’s slate. They have a tough matchup vs. Yusei Kikuchi on paper, who has pitched to a sub-3.00 ERA this season. However, his advanced metrics are much less impressive, and the Braves’ projected lineup still has plenty of firepower. Vegas is giving them a lot of credit in this matchup, with an implied run total greater than 5.0.

Ozuna is one of their most dangerous hitters. His numbers are down this season, but he owns a career 125 wRC+ against southpaws. He’s priced affordably at $4,000, and he has plenty of upside.

Teoscar Hernandez ($4,500) Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Chicago White Sox (Brandon Eisert)

The White Sox are expected to deploy a left-handed opener on Wednesday. There’s no guarantee that he makes it to Hernandez’s spot in the lineup, but if the Dodgers are smart, they’ll move him up in the lineup to ensure at least one at-bat against him. That’s how good Hernandez’s numbers are against southpaws this season (via Plate IQ):

Once Eisert departs, Sean Burke is expected to pitch the bulk of the innings for Chicago. While he throws from the right side, Hernandez still has plenty of appeal in that matchup. Burke has struggled to a 5.26 xERA for the year, so Hernandez and the Dodgers can certainly do some damage in this spot.

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Pictured: Logan Gilbert
Photo Credit: Getty Images

LeBron James will play basketball next season. But for whom?

The Los Angeles Lakers are the clear leaders. James picked up a $52.6 million player option over the weekend, which could have inspired little analysis if not for the cryptic statement that followed.

Now, an awkward situation would make anyone wonder — how would the league react if the best player of his generation, if not of any generation, became available? After all, this is the NBA, where it’s always worth monitoring two entities with diverging philosophies.

At 40 years old, James wants to win, and win now. Meanwhile, the Lakers just bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. They are still without a center and lost Dorian Finney-Smith in free agency. They have made it clear, both through their actions and their words, that they are building around the 26-year-old Luka Dončić. An organization that once revolved around James and only James now has other priorities.

And thus, a divide builds.

One side thinks more about the short term. The other considers years down the line.

“LeBron knows the Lakers are building for the future, and he also wants to compete for championships,” James’ agent Rich Paul said to The Athletic and ESPN shortly after James picked up his option. “We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what’s best for him. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we’ve had for eight years with (owner) Jeanie (Buss) and (general manager) Rob (Pelinka) and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.”

So, if James is evaluating what’s best for himself at this stage of his career, if he wants to make every season he has left count, and if he decides the Lakers can’t help him accomplish that, what’s next?

Most obviously, he and the Lakers could work together on a trade. Let’s break down the options.

One reason James would pick up the option, even if he were uncertain about his future, is for the money. He will make $52.6 million next season. No one else could pay him that on the open market.

The other reason is for security. James is one of two players in the NBA, along with Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal, to wield a no-trade clause. If James were to get dealt, he could choose his destination.

Trading James would be a headache. Given the no-trade clause, the list of teams couldn’t be long.

The San Antonio Spurs could cobble together the salaries to make a deal for him, but they won only 34 games last season. It would be difficult for him to argue that squad would have a better chance at a 2026 title than the more veteran one that costars Dončić. The Denver Nuggets could build a trade around Jamal Murray, but is there a contender in existence that needs an offensive hub less than the one that already employs the greatest one in the NBA, three-time MVP Nikola Jokić?

The James saga could end any way: Most likely in him remaining with the Lakers at least through the end of this season, but also, if the situation goes sideways, in a trade. Maybe if James wants a new home, the Lakers choose to do right by him, buying him out of his contract and sending him into free agency. Of course, the only motivation the organization would have to do this is for the good karma. Usually, if you say goodbye to an all-timer, you want players and/or picks in return.

Whether James would even consider a buyout could come down to how many more seasons he wants to play. If he believes he has three more years in him, then he’ll need another contract in 2026. Signing a cheap deal after taking a buyout this summer would make paydays in ensuing seasons more unlikely. But if he felt retirement was on the way in a year, that wouldn’t matter.

For now, though, James is a Laker. He is not negotiating a buyout with the team. He has not demanded a trade, and maybe he never will.

However, if he does eventually ask out and the Lakers comply, there are various franchises that could enter the conversation. Just as an exercise, let’s run through five of them (listed in no particular order), outlining how those teams could make James trades happen.

Cleveland Cavaliers

There is no team more obvious to throw on this list — from both James’ perspective and that of the Cavaliers.

On one side would be the romance. James could finish his career in the place he began it. On the other side is a squad that just won 64 games last season and sits in a conference that is falling apart.

The Cavs could be the favorites to win the Eastern Conference already. Add James to the mix, and they would vault into a tier of their own.

But it’s not that simple.

A hypothetical James-to-Cleveland trade is impractical, if not impossible.

Forgetting about James’ and Cleveland’s wants, the math it would take to get James traded back to Ohio would leave Pelinka writing on windows. The Cavaliers, as currently constructed, are the one organization certain to be above the dreaded second apron, a payroll threshold that limits a team’s resources, hinders the types of transactions it can pull off and forces significant luxury-tax payments.

Because of this, there is no way for the Cavs to trade for James without losing two of their top players: starting center Jarrett Allen and All-Star point guard Darius Garland.

One of the second-apron rules that dings Cleveland is about “aggregation.” The Cavaliers cannot aggregate players together to trade more than one at a time — unless they find a way to dump salary. At the moment, Cleveland is $23 million above the second apron.

Let’s say the Cavs trade Allen, an essential contributor, and Dean Wade, who combine to make $26 million next season, without taking any salary back, dipping them below the second apron. (Already, this is an aggressive move to make just to acquire a soon-to-be 41-year-old.) There would still be issues.

Because they would remain above the first apron, they would not be allowed to take in more money than they send out in a trade. The Cavaliers would need to compile enough salary to surpass $52.6 million and then some. If they flip four or five players for James, they need to leave enough room below the second apron to fill out the rest of the roster, since a trade where they aggregate players would hard cap them there.

De’Andre Hunter, Max Strus and Lonzo Ball combine to make less money than James does. And thus, Cleveland would need to include more players than just those three, but its remaining ones make make either too little (remember, sending out minimum salaries is not helpful in this scenario because the Cavs would just have to sign other minimum guys to replace them) or are too good to part with: Garland, Donovan Mitchell or Evan Mobley.

And thus, the only way a James acquisition could make sense for Cleveland would be if he somehow became a free agent and could sign there for cheap.

Dallas Mavericks

If there is one activity the basketball world has mastered, it’s connecting dots. The relationships are already in Dallas.

There’s injured All-Star Kyrie Irving, who James teamed up with for a title in Cleveland and who he has tried to play with again since. There’s 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis, who the Lakers flipped for Dončić only five months ago — and who James never hoped to see leave. Mavericks GM Nico Harrison is a former executive at Nike, where James has a lucrative shoe contract. As became front-page news after the Lakers acquired Dončić, the two guys who would negotiate this deal, Harrison and Pelinka, go back a long way.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks could make an offer of just role players — albeit, important ones.

Future Hall of Famer Klay Thompson along with versatile contributors Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington would get the deal done financially. Dallas could trade a future first-round pick, as well, though draft picks would become complicated in a trade for James. Teams wouldn’t be excited about giving up chunks of their future to acquire a 40-year-old, even if there has never before been a 40-year-old as good at basketball as James is now.

On the other side, Pelinka recently said that the Lakers are focused on creating significant cap space in the summer of 2027. Gafford just agreed to an extension that will stretch into 2029. If Los Angeles were picky enough about its cap situation that it lost an imperative role player, Finney-Smith, who signed a four-year deal with the Rockets, over long-term money, then it may not be so enthusiastic about taking on Gafford, even if he already has experience excelling alongside Dončić.

Golden State Warriors

Ease your brain. The mathematics in northern California are not nearly as strenuous.

James is close with two-time MVP Stephen Curry, with whom he finally played last summer, when the couple paired up at the Olympics. He and former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green share an agent. He played for head coach Steve Kerr with Team USA. And the Warriors have the lure of … well, the Warriors.

Golden State has one obvious offer for James: Jimmy Butler for the quadragenarian.

Butler makes a tad more than James does, marking the trade legal, though if it were constructed this way, it would hard cap the Lakers at the first apron, since they’d be absorbing more money than they send out in a deal. If the Lakers were fine with that, they could execute the one-for-one trade. However, they may want to maintain flexibility, which they could do somewhat easily.

Golden State and Los Angeles could find a third team willing to take on one of the Lakers’ minimum salaries (say, Jordan Goodwin’s) without giving any salary back. This way, the total money leaving the purple and gold is above Butler’s incoming salary.

Beyond Butler, Golden State wouldn’t have many options in a trade for James. It could combine Green with role players Buddy Hield and Moses Moody, but that package isn’t as enticing for the Lakers. Plus, Moody would present the same issue that Gafford would or Finney-Smith would have: He’s under contract beyond 2027.

The Warriors could try including talented 22-year-old Jonathan Kuminga, who is a restricted free agent at the moment. But signing and trading Kuminga comes with speed bumps. A deal like this would fall victim to a niche CBA quirk called “base year compensation,” which complicates any sign-and-trade involving a player who earns a raise of more than 20 percent, as Kuminga would. Essentially, Kuminga’s outgoing money for Golden State would be treated as a different number than his incoming money to Los Angeles, which creates even more obstacles.

LeBron and Steph together at last in the NBA? (Photo by Gregory Shamus  /Getty Images)

LA Clippers

Let’s get wild. James stays in Los Angeles — just not at Crypto.

The Clippers could toss together a trio of shooting guard Norman Powell, who was sneakily better than ever last season, bench scorer Bogdan Bogdanović and defensive stopper Derrick Jones Jr., who was a starter next to Dončić on Dallas’ 2024 finals team. However, doing so would eat into the depth that made them so dangerous a season go.

Presumably, they would not want to part with starting center Ivica Zubac, who made his first All-Defensive team in 2025-26 and who they reportedly would not entertain in conversations with the Suns about former MVP Kevin Durant only a couple of weeks ago.

There’s another way the Clippers could go about this too — and yes, it’s one that would happen only in fantasyland. They could trade their highest-paid player, two-time finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, for James.

As he showed at the end of this past season, Leonard can still annihilate teams on both sides of the court when healthy. But he is often hurt. The goal is to forget about the first 82 games, to make sure his body is in its best shape come April. In that sense, even an older James projects to hold up better throughout a season.

The swap could clean the Clippers’ books, too. Leonard’s contract expires in 2027. James’ expires next summer.

With James’ money coming off the roster in 2026, the Clippers would enter what could be a star-studded free agency with enough cap space to sign a max player and then some.

However, the Lakers might not want to absorb more than $50 million of 2026-27 money for an oft-injured player who will be 35 years old by then. Unless the Clippers sweetened the deal with draft picks, Los Angeles may rather hold onto James in this scenario.

The Lakers may have a difficult time extracting draft picks from anyone, too, considering front offices around the league are locked into Giannis Antetokounmpo’s situation with the Milwaukee Bucks — if Tuesday’s moves didn’t change things. Parting with picks while also giving up the salary slots it could take to acquire Antetokounmpo may not be worth it for some of these organizations who are waiting to pounce if the two-time MVP were to become available.

New York Knicks

This is another situation that combines basketball with cleaning up the finances.

Purely from a standpoint of matching salaries, the Knicks could construct various types of offers for James. The most chaotic deal would be flipping All-NBA big man Karl-Anthony Towns for James, straight up — two teams betting on the other’s star. Of course, this could leave the Knicks center-less, given Mitchell Robinson’s injury struggles.

They could pair a couple of wings, OG Anunoby and either Josh Hart or Mikal Bridges, in a trade for James. They could piece together a trio to offer for James: Anunoby, Robinson and point guard Miles “Deuce” McBride.

But Anunoby will make $45 million in 2027-28 and has a player option for the following season, which would eat into the Lakers’ possible cap space two summers from now. Meanwhile, the Knicks — or any other team — may not want to part with three key rotation pieces (and three of their four best defenders) for a 40-year-old.

The Knicks could justify Towns-for-James with a similar financial argument the Clippers could use in a Leonard-for-James one. New York owes Towns $110 million over the next two seasons. The five-time All-Star has a $61 million player option for 2027-28. Meanwhile, the Knicks are at risk of climbing into the second apron next season, a possibility that does not excite them but could be inevitable if they keep their current top five or six together.

Bridges, who is eligible for an extension now, can become a free agent in 2026. His new salary could drive the Knicks past that feared threshold.

James could double as a basketball fit, as well as a giant expiring contract to avoid the second apron in 2026-27 and maybe beyond. In Los Angeles, Towns and Dončić could destroy any defense they face.

But the Knicks are also made up of prime-aged contributors. This would make them older. Like in the other hypotheticals, a James trade to the Knicks, even in a world where both he and the Lakers agree it’s best for the two to part ways after seven years, isn’t likely. The Knicks didn’t get in on the hunt for Kevin Durant. Like so many others, they could be saving up salary and assets for a guy in Milwaukee. They may not handle this hypothetical much differently.

(Top illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photo: David Liam Kyle / NBAE via Getty Images)