The New York Knicks and the rest of the NBA are keeping an eye on LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers after the King accepted his $52 million player option.

There is another reason to pass on a James deal. The Knicks' moves last summer cleared out assets, but what they have will need to be held onto tightly right now because of the whispers and theories that Giannis Antetokounmpo will ask out of Milwaukee.

Trade talks involving the New York Knicks and LeBron may not proceed, despite plenty of unfounded speculation around the basketball world. For the LeBron-to-Knicks speculation, I checked on it and the answer was, “No. Makes for good chatter but no.”