After five and a half months, Su Wan returned to Cleveland. Time hadn't been long, but he felt an unsettling sense of change.
As he got off the plane, he could still see the massive poster of LeBron James, that poster had been taken down twice over the years, and it had been...
5 years!
Suddenly, Su Wan had an idea, to try and push that timeline forward.
Of course, he knew it would be difficult. Asking the team to trade him was different from simply leaving when his contract expired, and it wouldn't help LeBron's potential return to play "hometown basketball".
Another factor was that LeBron's team rarely asked for a trade during his contract periods.
They managed LeBron's contracts carefully, especially after 2014, rarely signing for more than four years; usually, they were 1+1 contracts. Even in big cities like Los Angeles, a four-year contract was their limit; this was to maximize their leverage.
