NBA insider says Cavaliers dodged massive bullet with LeBron James last summer

Last summer, when future Hall of Famer LeBron James was a free agent, the Cleveland Cavaliers had a chance to heavily pursue him and bring him home for one more ride. It appears they made the right call in not moving further in conversations with James.

While appearing on BIGPLAY's "The BIG Factor," NBA insider Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson shared that the Cavaliers were one of the four teams that called James during the summer. Anderson believes that, after all the issues LeBron has had early in the season, Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman might have made the right move by not bringing James home.

"I think he dodged a bullet because they would've allocated a certain amount of money to potentially be getting a part time player this year. As far as the future, it's a different story and I'm sure we'll touch on that later on in the segment. I think sometimes, if you have a nice body car, you put some rims on it, you get some tints, you make sure the engine is straight and you fud that thing out."

"I think he dodged a bullet because they would've allocated a certain amount of money to potentially getting a part time player." @ScoopB thinks Koby Altman made the RIGHT move by not trading for LeBron this past summer. pic.twitter.com/GzsF6EWnP5
— The BIG Factor (@TheBIGFactor) December 11, 2025

It's been an odd start to the season for the 21-time All-Star as he has played in just eight games this season. James is only averaging 16.5 points, six rebounds, and 7.6 assists a game for the Lakers. He has missed 14 games this season due to a sciatica injury that has affected him significantly.

While he's still playing well, it's clear the injury has prevented him from playing like the four-time MVP the NBA has been accustomed to seeing. Some think that at 40 years old, he might be at the tail end of his career, which might be true, but he is still in the top half of players in the NBA.

Cleveland is lucky that it isn't a headache they didn't have to deal with, as the Cavaliers have had their own injury problems to start the year. All but one player has missed time this season with some injury.

This season might also serve as a reminder to the Cavaliers that they need to add some more depth players to the team to avoid the 14-11 start they have gotten off to. Cleveland could end up being a buyer at the trade deadline to try to catch up in the Eastern Conference.

While it doesn't make sense this year, the Cavaliers might want to get back in the running for James in the next year or two to make that NBA title run they want to win truly.