Since NBA teams can negotiate with their own free agents right now, several are already entering verbal agreements. A handful of players have already agreed to something, and rumors suggest others are planning to reach an agreement very soon. One notable name missing from this list of players is 41-year-old star forward LeBron James, who is an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Initial reports stated that he and the Los Angeles Lakers were keeping in touch. However, since reports of those discussions were released, the NBA world has received nothing but radio silence. While everyone else seems to be locking down deals to re-sign with their respective teams, both James and the Lakers have remained silent about their plans. Still, NBA Insider Brian Windhorst has an update on the Lakers’ front office’s mindset, which he shared on ‘5 Good Minutes With Windy’.

Windhorst outlined the two possible approaches they can take if they want to keep James. Option A is to get an agreement on the table already before thinking about how to build the roster around their stars. Option B is to build up the rest of their core for next season, and then take whatever’s left to re-sign James. Per Windhorst, they’re thinking about the latter.

“Now, I do not 100 percent know, but from what I can see, it appears like they’re looking at Option B. Because specifically, what they’re doing right now is they’re trying to trade for players into their cap space,” Windhorst said.

“That seems to me right now is their priority. So, they’re prioritizing LeBron second. Maybe that’ll be smart, maybe it won’t be. We’ll see.”

Following Windhorst’s report, Shams Charania claimed there is no agreement in place between the two sides.

“My understanding is, the Lakers have not made an offer to LeBron as of yesterday,” Charania said. “Over the next five or six days, we’ll learn more.”

There is still some time before James can officially speak with other teams. At 12:01 p.m. ET on June 30, teams can freely discuss terms with all available free agents. As soon as that time arrives, several teams are expected to reach out to James to strike a deal. At the same time, the Lakers can start discussing things with other free agents to build their roster.

With the free agent market expected to be rather shallow this year, LA can’t waste any time in pursuing targets. If they have not reached an agreement with James by then, the chances of him ending up elsewhere increase exponentially.

Of course, at this point, it seems no one aside from James and his immediate family knows what he’s got in mind.

No One Seems to Know LeBron James’ Plans

Is LeBron James finally going to hang up his basketball sneakers after 23 seasons, or is he coming back to continue waging war against Father Time? That’s the question on the minds of nearly everyone in the NBA, and every fan who follows the league. The curiosity surrounding his next chapter virtually has the entire league in a chokehold, and everyone is anticipating the answer.

Over the past few weeks, a few people were in an interesting position to find out exactly that. The four-time champion recently went on a reunion tour with some players from the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers title squad. One would expect they at least asked him, and Brian Windhorst confirmed that on ‘5 Good Minute with Windy.’

Richard Jefferson and Iman Shumpert, both members of that 2016 team and Windhorst’s ESPN colleagues, returned from that reunion with James. Windhorst implied that he asked them if they knew what James was planning next, and they, too, were kept in the dark.

“All those guys were just all together, and I was just with some of those guys when they came back, Richard and Iman Shumpert, who are my teammates at ESPN,” Windhorst said. “And trust me, those guys asked LeBron what he’s planning on doing, and LeBron did not tell them.”

At this stage, James’s plans feel like a closely guarded state secret. But with the free agency period looming, everyone who is curious should get their answers soon.