NBA superstar and Los Angeles Lakers player LeBron James often takes some of his favorite teammates with him when he changes teams.

That’s what happened when he left the Miami Heat for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010, when James brought in former Cleveland All-Star center and teammate Zydrunas Ilgauskas to serve as his big backup. It happened again in 2014, when James returned to the Cavaliers from his stint in Miami. Sharpshooters Mike Miller and James Jones followed him. Fellow Heat player Dwyane Wade also briefly joined them, during the 2017-18 season.

It happened again after James left the Cavaliers for the Lakers in 2018. During LA’s 2019-20 season, his former Cleveland teammates Dion Waiters and JR Smith joined him. Danny Green, who played on the Cavaliers with James in 2009-10, was also brought in as the Lakers’ starting shooting guard that year. Former Cavaliers power forward/center Tristan Thompson also provided critical minutes during the Lakers’ run to the Western Conference Finals in 2023.

Recently, Eurohoops reported that another former Cleveland teammate, forward Cedi Osman (who played with James in 2017-18 when Osman was a rookie), had turned down a potential training camp offer from the Lakers to play for Greek EuroLeague team Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens.

Learn more: Former LeBron James teammate rejects Lakers offer to play overseas

According to a very knowledgeable NBA insider, Marc SteinHowever, that may not have been the case. Sources inform Stein that Los Angeles never made a concrete offer to Osman. Stein notes that James got along famously with Osman during their season together.

Sources tell Stein that Osman hopes his performance overseas will prompt teams to give him another look at some point during the 2024-25 season.

A solid shooter on the wing, the 2.01-m Turkish wing averaged a mediocre 6.8 points on .479/.389/.673 shooting percentages, 2.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 0.5 steals per night with the San Antonio Spurs in 2023-24. He would potentially be an interesting option for the Lakers, but the team really needs to focus on developing its perimeter defense — an attribute that hasn’t exactly been a strong suit for Osman in his seven seasons in the league so far.

It seems more likely that the Lakers will enter the season with their current roster intact and then look to make personnel changes through trades rather than mid-season free agent signings.

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