LeBron James remains "extremely happy in Los Angeles despite the Lakers' back-to-back rocky seasons," sources tell Marc Stein of Substack.

James and his family relocated full time to Los Angeles in 2018 and they have become even more entrenched in the community.

"The prevailing thinking in league circles holds that only the chance to play elsewhere alongside son Bronny James, who will be eligible for the 2024 draft and continues to develop as an NBA prospect, would spur LeBron to push for an L.A. exit," writes Stein.

James is eligible for an extension on August 4th and he has three options available to him:

1. Play out the final season of his $44.5 million contract and become a free agent in 2023
2. Sign a one-year extension worth $46.7 million
3. Sign a one-plus-one extension worth $97.1 million

Because James will not be subject to the Over-38 rule, he cannot sign anything longer than a two-year extension.

Dwight Howard is still hoping to land a deal in the NBA for next season. If he doesn't, Howard has an interesting backup plan.

The eight-time All-Star says he's ready to start his WWE career if he can't find an NBA contract for this upcoming season. Howard said he's still passionate about basketball and that he has "several good years left" to play in the NBA.

The WWE Performance Center, where new wrestlers are trained, is located in Orlando. That symmetry with his NBA career wasn't lost on Howard. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year said, "Imagine after starting my NBA career in Orlando, if I started my wrestling career in Orlando?"

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed Jay Huff to an Exhibit 10 deal.

Huff played in four games for the Lakers last season as well as 28 G League games. In four Summer League games, Huff averaged 10.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 18.4 minutes. 

Huff is a 23-year-old 7-1 center who went undrafted out of Virginia in 2021.

Rasheed Wallace will no longer join the Los Angeles Lakers as an assistant coach under Darvin Ham.

Wallace was widely expected to join the Lakers this season.

Wallace served as an assistant under Penny Hardaway at the University of Memphis last season.

The Los Angeles Lakers are well-known to be open to moving Russell Westbrook in the right trade. The Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks and Utah Jazz are the most recent teams to have talked with the Lakers on a deal involving Westbrook.

Those three teams are all open to bringing on Westbrook, as long as Los Angeles attaches future first-round picks in any deal. Thus far, the Lakers have reportedly held off on including more than one first-round pick in any Westbrook trade.

Indiana has roughly $30 million in cap space, which makes acquiring Westbrook an easier task for them than most other teams. The Pacers and Lakers have been linked in recent trade talks involving Buddy Hield and Myles Turner potentially headed to Los Angeles.

New York would have to send matching salary, including that of likely one or two rotation players. With the Knicks engaged in trade talks for Donovan Mitchell, it's unclear how they would approach a Westbrook trade.

The Jazz could offer the Lakers a package of players, as they are kicking off a rebuild after trading Rudy Gobert and talking Mitchell deals. Utah can't aggregate any of the players they acquired in the Gobert deal just yet, but those restrictions will lift in advance of training camps opening.

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed Javante McCoy and Fabian White Jr. to Exhibit 10 contracts. Both deals are fully non-guaranteed, training camp contracts.

McCoy is a 6-foot-5 guard out of Boston University. McCoy was a five-year starter for the Terriers. As a senior, he averaged 17.4 points and 3.9 rebound per game. McCoy averaged 10.3 points for Lakers over seven games in the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer Leagues.

White is a 6-foot-8 forward out of Houston. White started 37 of 38 games as a senior for the Cougars. He averaged 12.5 points and 5.7 rebounds in his fifth year at Houston. White appeared in five contests for the Lakers between the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League.

Darvin Ham is attempting to get Russell Westbrook to embrace a supporting role with the Los Angeles Lakers, which is something the team was unsuccessful in persuading him to do last season. The Lakers want Westbrook to play more as a screener and to give more effort defensively. 

"I was talking to somebody who was with the Lakers last season and they were saying that if there's a person in the organization that Russ could listen to, they tried to talk to him," said Brian Windhorst. 

"From what I'm told, just everybody there who Russ would allow an audience for [talked to him]," added Windhorst.

The Lakers parted ways with Frank Vogel this offseason and hired Ham as his replacement. 

The Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers have discussed a trade involving Russell Westbrook and a first round pick for Myles Turner, Buddy Hield and other assets, but those talks are currently dead. 

The package the Lakers have offered has included Westbrook and a first round pick. If the Lakers add another first round pick things could resume, but there currently "at a standstill."

The Lakers previously pursued a trade for Hield before they shifted to a trade for Westbrook last summer.

The Los Angeles Lakers appear to prefer a trade of Russell Westbrook for Kyrie Irving, but with the Brooklyn Nets seemingly unprepared to make such a move until resolving the Kevin Durant situation, Rob Pelinka has engaged on other scenarios.

The Lakers nearly traded for Buddy Hield last July before pivoting to Russell Westbrook and they appear to be attempting to trade for him again now that he's on the Indiana Pacers.

"There is no traction on a deal that would involve sending Russell Westbrook out and bringing Kyrie Irving in," said Dave McMenamin.

"One thing I have learned over the last day or two, tangentially, there has been some talks reengaged between the Lakers and Indiana Pacers. Now, that would center around a Buddy Hield deal and could it be that would include Russell Westbrook in terms of also having Myles Turner in that deal? Or perhaps it could be a secondary move where you would be talking about a Talen Horton-Tucker type of package to try to get Buddy Hield deal so we would see whether that would affect Russell or not.

Russell Westbrook is expected to hire a new agent following his separation from longtime agent Thaddeus Foucher. 

In a highly unusual statement, Foucher publicly detailed how he believes Westbrook should accept a lesser role with the Lakers offered to him by Darvin Ham. This has led to speculation that Westbrook is unwilling to accept the role with the Lakers and would prefer a fresh start elsewhere.

Westbrook will be a free agent in 2023.

"If That Foucher is on the opposite side of Russell Westbrook, the real question is what is Russell Westbrook's plan?" said Brian Windhorst. "Especially as he hires a new agent, which he's expected to do in the short-term future."