Will it be reduced? Famous reporter: If James cuts his salary by 15 million, the Lakers will have 14.1 million yuan in full middle class to strengthen

The time is coming to the end of May, and the NBA offseason has begun. For the highly anticipated Los Angeles Lakers, they need to upgrade their roster this season. The most urgent task for the Lakers to strengthen is to improve the center position. As we all know, the Lakers have suffered enough of weak center positions in the past few seasons. In this playoffs, the Lakers were ravaged by the Timberwolves' two inside players Gobert and Randall in the series against the Timberwolves.

The problem is that although the Lakers want to strengthen, the team's operating space is very limited, and they no longer have enough salary space to add a powerful player. Moreover, James has the right to break out of his contract and re-sign with the team this summer. What kind of salary James will want is also related to the Lakers' prospects for signing. If James is willing to cut his salary, the Lakers will have a lot of room for operation. The key is how he thinks.

Recently, Lakers' team reporter Jovan Buha looked forward to the Lakers' offseason operation space this year on the show. He said: "LeBron determines their flexibility to a certain extent. He needs to accept a salary discount of about $15 million to $17 million in order for the team to use the full middle class special case, which can be paid $14.1 million in the first year. However, sources suggest he is unlikely to accept a salary cut. Today, ESPN's Shams reported that he heard that the most likely result is LeBron's choice to execute his $52.6 million player option, which we will discuss in detail in the salary analysis. It looks like LeBron's contract amount will be around $50 million next season, which does limit the Lakers' financial flexibility." James signed a 2-year, $101.3 million contract with the Lakers last offseason, the player option this summer. At that time, James received $3 million less to help the Lakers avoid taxes and gave the Lakers room to sign another star. But the Lakers failed to pursue Clay, Harden and DeRozan at that time.

In my opinion, although James' salary cut can help the Lakers gain more room in signings, James' salary cut is a favor, and not a duty. Even if James does not cut his salary and still pursues a big contract, it is undisputed. If James doesn’t cut his salary, it’s completely understandable. Why should he take the initiative to cut his salary? After all, every penny is earned by strength. Although James is not short of money, it is real money after all.

Having said that, James cut his salary by $3 million last year, which is already a lot of money. It can be 10 or 20 million yuan to convert it into RMB. It helped the Lakers avoid the luxury tax and gave the Lakers a certain amount of room for signing. But what did the Lakers management do in the end? Did you sign Clay, or did you get Harden and DeRozan? Didn’t I accomplish any decent signings? Seeing these practical actions by the management, James may not be willing to cut his salary again.

Of course, if James sees that the team can really complete strong signings, he may agree to a salary cut. However, it must be possible after James sees some actual signs. In addition, the Lakers management's signings cannot always rely on James' salary cuts, which would be too unsuccessful. The Lakers management can also complete strengthening through trading, draft and free market signing. As for what kind of players they can bring back, it depends on the vision and ability of the Lakers management.