Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James could very well be playing his final season in the NBA as he’s been non-committal about his playing future.
James acknowledged that retirement is around the corner, but is focused on chasing a title during the 2025-26 season. With a healthy and motivated Luka Doncic by his side, James has a good shot of making another deep postseason run though the roster still feels like it needs one or two more pieces.
James has yet to make his preseason debut as Los Angeles looks to monitor his ramp up for the regular season, but has been working out with the team. While Doncic said a title would be the marker for success this upcoming year, James offered a different answer, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“That we’re detailed every day. We have to be detailed. And the Western Conference is a gauntlet. The league is tough, and we have to be detailed on everything, on all facets of the game, both offensively and defensively. We have to hold each other accountable, and we got to play championship basketball every single day. And does that [always] result in wins? No. I mean, this is a win-loss league; you’re not going to win games even when you play well. And it’s sometimes when you don’t play well and you still win. That’s all a part of the game.
“But we got to pay attention to the details, and I think we will do that.”
It sounds like James is laying down what the Lakers need to do get themselves ready to truly compete for a championship. At this point in James’ career, winning championships is the only thing left for him and he understands full well what it’ll take to get back to the NBA Finals.
Head coach JJ Redick consistently preaches about the importance of nailing down the details on both ends of the floor, so he and James are in lockstep as far as Los Angeles’ approach. The roster on paper looks capable of hanging with any team in the league, but as James noted everyone needs to be keyed in on the details over the course of a season to get to where they want to go.
JJ Redick discusses preseason plans for Luka Doncic and LeBron James
Lakers head coach JJ Redick has no reason to exert his stars during preseason, but he did reveal the plan for Luka Doncic and LeBron James is for the former to play while the latter will be touch and go.
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