Warriors get bad news on LeBron James free agency decision

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The Golden State Warriors were thought early on to be the potential favorite to land LeBron James in free agency.

That doesn't appear to be the case anymore.

ESPN's Shams Charania joined the Pat McAfee Show on Thursday and gave this update:

"The Warriors would need a little bit of work still for LeBron James to go there... To my knowledge the Warriors are behind the Cavs, Heat, and 76ers right now."

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It was rumored early on that LeBron would want the Warriors to trade for Anthony Davis from the Washington Wizards if they were going to sign James. Golden State hasn't done that, and doesn't have a great path toward doing it, either.

It's not clear whether that's the hold-up or not, but whatever the reason, it'd be a bummer for Golden State if LeBron went elsewhere.

Many NBA fans would be happy to see LeBron teamed up with players who aren't Stephen Curry, but there also would be something fascinating about watching the two all-time greats play a whole season as teammates.

It's worth noting that this news from Charania is a good deal for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers. If the Warriors are indeed on the outside looking in at this point, then those three Eastern Conference teams each have a better chance of getting James to join them.

In Charania's appearance with McAfee he also speculated that "next week" would be when James would really narrow things down and potentially make a decision, or at least get close.

That leaves the Warriors a little time if they want to push to get back into the LeBron picture. Right now, though, it seems they've got some work to do to land the King.