Rich Paul drops bottom line on Lakers’ LeBron James trade this season

Story by

Zachary Weinberger, ClutchPoints

Tue, Dec 9, 2025 ·

2 min read

Rich Paul drops bottom line on Lakers’ LeBron James trade this season appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .

With the Los Angeles Lakers being led by superstar LeBron James , there is still speculation in the basketball world about the possibility that the 40-year-old will be traded during the season. As fans will go crazy thinking about James’ future with the Lakers , his agent, Rich Paul , would give a straightforward answer on the chances of a deal happening.

On Paul’s new podcast with Max Kellerman, called “Game Over,” the latter would ask if there is a shot that James will not be on Los Angeles by the end of the year. Paul would not hesitate to say James is not leaving the Lakers.

“No,” Paul said. “Where’s he gonna go? … Does LeBron make the Knicks better? Yes, he would, of course, but 29 other teams would say the same thing.”

Rich Paul gets real on the Lakers’ chances with LeBron James this season

This will be good to hear from fans who were initially concerned about Paul’s comments back in June after James picked up his option, putting the Lakers on notice that the star wants to compete for a title , though the team is building for the future. To some degree, Paul could feel the same way, as he even said to Kellerman on the same show that he does not believe the Lakers are contenders this season, even saying they don’t “have enough” to get to the conference finals.

“I, personally, don’t think the Lakers are good enough to be contenders right now. Not right now,” Paul said. “I don’t think they have enough to get to the Western Conference Finals. I don’t think they really have enough to contend from that perspective right now.”

At any rate, it remains to be seen how far James and Los Angeles get, but so far, the team boasts a 17-6 record, putting them second in the Western Conference. The team next faces the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup.