INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- LeBron James said his previously stated intentions to finish his career with the Cavaliers haven't changed, though he would make his decision on his future after this season.

"It hasn't changed," James said, when asked. He also nodded when asked, directly, if he intended to finish his career in Cleveland.

"And that's why I sit up here today, still in this uniform, still ready to lead this franchise to a championship, put us in a position where we can be successful."

James, 32, has a player's option for next season worth $35.6 million. He has never exercised a player's option in any previous contract, so the odds are he'll at least become a free agent for a few days.

"Anytime I'm able to be free agent or my contract ends, I'll approach that when the summer comes," he said. "At the end of the day I have a contract and I will fill out that obligation, which I've always done.

"And if you guys know me, I don't know if you know me as much, but I've always handled it in the most businesslike way. And I will do that with my team, and we'll handle that in the summertime, as we always have."

James' agent is Rich Paul. He could get a new contract worth $209 million from the Cavs next summer, or he could exercise his option, which as previously mentioned is unlikely.

Rumors and whispers swirled all summer about James maybe eyeing the Los Angeles Lakers next season. But James said at least three times upon his return to Cleveland in 2014 that he intended to end his career with the Cavs.

In a sitdown interview with CNN, James said "I plan on finishing my career back home." In his Sports Illustrated essay announcing his return, he said "I always believed I'd return to Cleveland finish my career there."

And, at his homecoming celebration at the University of Akron, he told roughly 30,000 screaming fans: "I don't plan on going nowhere. I don't have the energy to do it again."

James said Monday that he would not discuss his free agency frequently during this season because "I should be focused on what I need to do on a day-to-day basis to help this franchise compete for a championship.

" I think that's what Koby (Altman) would want in the front office and I think that's what Dan (Gilbert) would want," James said. "If that wasn't the case then they wouldn't have made the deal that they made to bring in this group of talent and made the deals to get D Rose (Derrick Rose) here and get Jeff Green here and Jose Calderon and guys like that who have championship level talent."

"LeBron is the ultimate competitor," Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said, when asked about the potential distractions surrounding James' pending free agency. "The biggest thing for him is to win. ... As far as speculation and everything else, I have nothing to do with that. i just know he's the ultimate competitor and we're focused on winning a championship."

James averaged 26.2 points last season to go with career highs in rebounds (8.6 per game) and assists (8.7). He's reached seven consecutive Finals and has won four MVPs.

Asked if this coming year offered him a chance to show where his game stands in this his 15th season, he said: "The fact that I gotta come up here and talk about free agency lets me know where my game is. Does that make sense? If I wasn't that good I don't think we'd be talking about it."