One of the biggest question marks surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers going into the offseason is the future of LeBron James. Throughout the season, it has felt like this could be James’ last as a member of the Lakers.
Things have changed in recent weeks though as he has accepted his role and the team is winning because of it. With that being the case, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported on the “Hoop Collective” podcast that the odds of James returning to the Lakers for at least one more season appear to be increasing:
“If you asked me in October or December, I’d probably put retirement as the No. 1 option here. As of today, covering LeBron with the Lakers winning 15 out of 17 games and accepting this role that I don’t know I’d ever seen him accept, willingly being this much off the ball, why wouldn’t he stay with the Lakers? It gives him all the off-court things that he values, his business empire, his family, his son is on his team, his other son is a short flight away in Arizona… I think the only part of the equation that would be less desirable than other equations would be the money because the Lakers do intent to build this team around Luka Doncic and use their cap space to get younger and get some two-way type players, so talent. They don’t have a ton of cap space after they re-sign Austin Reaves and Jaxson Hayes and Luke Kennard and maybe Rui Hachimura… So if he wants to come back, you’re not talking about a lot of money. That’s the sacrifice he would make. But everything else checks the box. So the Lakers, I think are No. 1 by a wide degree at this point.”
James himself and his agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports have made it clear numerous times that no decisions will be made until the summer, so everything right now is just speculation.
There’s no denying that March was the best month of the season for the Lakers though as they went 15-2 and looked like a team that can compete with any squad in the NBA. One big change that came has been in the role of James, who has become clearly the Lakers’ third option, and found ways to be extremely effective for this team.
Whether it is screening, rebounding or defensively, James has done whatever the Lakers have needed to be successful and head coach JJ Redick had nothing but praise for the future Hall of Famer leading the way on both sides of the ball.
“He’s been great on both sides of the ball,” Redick said recently. “I don’t know what he’s averaged during this stretch of games where we’ve gone 16-2, but I imagine it’s around 20 a game, I imagine he’s grabbing around eight rebounds, around eight assists. He’s just doing a little bit of everything at a super high level for us.
“Again, Luka may get headlines here and there, and AR may get a headline, certainly our fives have had some games where they can be headliners. But really it’s been every single guy contributing to winning and LeBron has led on that.”
James played in 14 games in March averaging 18.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting an extremely efficient 56.2% from the field. As Redick noted, Luka Doncic’s offensive exploits will often dominate the headlines, but what James has been doing has not gone unnoticed.
His usage rate has gone down tremendously, which has allowed Austin Reaves to remain aggressive as more of a primary on-ball creator and James can pick his spots more selectively, which allows him to be more efficient. It also gives him some extra energy on defense where there have been more of those signature chasedown blocks and the Lakers creating more turnovers allows him to get out in transition where he remains a force.
A player of James’ status could easily scoff at being asked to play more of a supplementary role, but he has always said he is about winning more than anything else and this has undoubtedly made the Lakers a better team.
As he looks to prolong his career, continuing in this type of role may be in James’ best interest so long as it continues to lead to winning. How the rest of the season plays out will likely determine the 41-year-old’s future, but compared to earlier in the season, returning to the Lakers for at least one more year definitely seems like more of a possibility.
LeBron James becomes winningest player in NBA history
James continues to make history when he steps on an NBA court and with the Lakers’ victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers he took hold of an amazing record, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most wins in NBA history combining the regular and postseasons.
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