Los Angeles: Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James says he wants to see the team stockpile more talent in the off-season to prepare for another run at an NBA title next season.
James spoke Friday night at a screening of the new romantic comedy in which he plays himself, “Trainwreck”, that was conducted in his hometown of Akron, Ohio.
James, who signed his own new two-year contract worth $46 million with the Cavaliers on Friday, has seen the Cavs sign deals with forward Kevin Love, guard Iman Shumpert and guard Mo Williams.
“It has been good so far, but we have a lot of work to do,” James said. “We definitely don’t want to come back the same team. We want to come back better. But right now, we’ve been doing so far, so good.”
The Cavaliers, who lost to Golden State in last month’s NBA Finals, are still looking to re-sign top rebounder Tristan Thompson and guards Matthew Dellavedova and J R Smith.
“We still got to re-sign Tristan,” James said. “Hopefully we can bring back J.R. as well and see if there’s some other free agents out there that would love to come here and play if we’re able to do that.”
The Cavs are looking to add talent thanks to the non-guaranteed $10.5 million contract of Brendan Haywood, which many teams seek so they can potentially drop him and save that amount off their salary cap.
Cleveland had been talking with Brooklyn about Joe Johnson but with the Nets waiving Deron Williams, who appears set to sign a deal with Dallas, they are not as interested in letting Johnson leave.
The Cavaliers were reportedly talking with the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers in hopes of obtaining a reserve player who might help contribute next season.
James is a co-star in the film with Amy Schumer and Bill Hader. The movie opens across the United States next Friday. But don’t look for James to be giving up the NBA for Hollywood any time soon. “I ain’t no movie star,” James said. “I know my day job.”