LeBron James has baffled fans and critics alike with his ridiculous longevity, still playing at an All-Star level despite being in Year 22 of his NBA career. The league hasn’t seen anything comparable to LeBron’s dominance over two decades in its past and might not for years in the future. But the 2024-25 season is proving that LeBron might just be human.
The Ringer’s Kirk Goldsberry illustrated how peculiar James’ 24-25 season performance has been relative to how he’s performed in the previous years of his career. James’ on-off differential this season is a shocking -107, the worst on the Lakers and the first time in his career that he has had a negative plus-minus.
The Lakers leader in plus-minus has surprisingly been D’Angelo Russell with a +43 in what’s primarily been a bench role this season. The only other Lakers with positive plus-minuses are Rui Hachimura (+26) and Austin Reaves (+4). Jalen Hood-Schifino would technically make the list as well with a +8 but he has made just two garbage time appearances this season.
James’ -107 is almost two times worse than the next worst-performing Laker, Max Christie (-59). This is shocking to many, as everyone’s been able to tell LeBron isn’t performing at the level we’ve come to expect from him, but such a negative impact on the Lakers on the court couldn’t have been foreshadowed.
Plus-minus is a deceptive stat as it heavily depends on the lineups which players play in, so it wouldn’t be fair to conclude that D’Angelo Russell is better for winning than LeBron James this season, but it is something to note given James has never finished a season with a negative plus-minus.
This season’s Lakers have a -6.5 net rating with LeBron, with an offensive rating of 109.2 and a defensive rating of 115.7, all ranking amongst the bottom five in the NBA. Their defensive rating in particular improves to 106.1 in non-LeBron minutes, indicating the Lakers especially have struggled with LeBron defensively.
This could be because of James’ offensive drop-off this season, averaging 23.2 points on 49.4% from the field and 35.3% from three. This would be the second-lowest scoring season of LeBron’s career, with only his rookie scoring average being lower (20.9 PPG).
His athletic decline has played a key role in that, with the statistics showing how James has gone from being one of the greatest transition players in NBA history to greatly declining on that front as age has withered away his speed and vertical ability.
James is taking more threes in games this season than two-point jumpers, a thought that fans who saw LeBron in his prime in the mid-2010s would consider unrealistic. But with James shooting 41.0% from three last season to establish himself as an above-average shooter, he’s trying to replicate that to add spacing to the Lakers.
This includes James choosing to shoot pull-up threes in transition more often than before where he would simply drive to the rim. Unfortunately, with his poor outside shooting numbers this season, he hasn’t been able to compensate for the once prolific transition and fast-break portion of his skill set.
Father Time has been fighting a losing battle against LeBron for the last decade, but it seems like this year is finally where the battle finally flips. Father Time has always been undefeated and it seems like he’s one step closer to beating one of his greatest opponents ever: LeBron James.
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