Lakers' Updated Salary Cap, Luxury Tax After LeBron James' Rumored $104M Contract

Time has offically run out on the Los Angeles Lakers bringing LeBron James back at a discount.

James and the Lakers agreed to a two-year, $104 million maximum contract Wednesday that includes a no-trade clause and a player option for the 2025-26 season, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

The deal comes after the Lakers tried and failed to land multiple high-profile players in recent days, with James volunteering to take a pay cut under the right circumstances. Instead, James' new deal will take the Lakers into second-apron territory and essentially lock in the roster they have in place.

The Lakers are an estimated $3.1 million over the second apron.

Wojnarowski reported James could wind up taking a little less than his maximum to allow the Lakers to duck under the second apron. That would allow the front office to aggregate contracts in a trade, which they would be prevented from doing as a second-apron team.

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka will likely be hard at work until the start of the 2024-25 league year trying to find a deal worthy of convincing James to take less. The future Hall of Famer was reportedly willing to take a sizable pay cut to facilitate moves for Klay Thompson, Jonas Valanciunas or James Harden, all of whom signed elsewhere this offseason.

"He is prioritizing a roster improvement," agent Rich Paul told ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "He's been adamant about exuding all efforts to improve the roster."

With Pelinka striking out in free agency, pressure will be on for him to quickly make a trade that improves the Lakers roster. As it stands, it's looking increasingly like the Lakers will be running things back with a roster that didn't make it out of the first round of the playoffs.