LeBron James’ future has become one of the biggest storylines of this summer. After James picked up his $52.6 million player option, his agent, Rich Paul, claimed that James wants to compete for a championship, and he knows the Lakers are rebuilding around Luka Doncic. This cryptic statement from Paul sparked trade rumors for James as it indicated that James and the Lakers are not on the same page.
Following multiple speculations about LeBron James’ future, Senior NBA Insider Shams Charania went on Sirius XM’s NBA radio show and predicted a potential timeline within which James’ future could be decided. He claims that it could be as early as before the beginning of the coming season in October.
“The moment that trade was made when Luka Doncic goes for Anthony Davis, it was like ‘alright, AD is now joining a win-now team in Dallas; Luka Doncic face of the franchise for the next eight to ten years’ that was really the vision. But anytime you’re in LA, the Lakers, the goal is to compete for a championship. And that team was actually in home-court competition; they ended up staying in that even after the trade, so that set some expectations.”
Charania pointed out that the moves the Lakers have made in the offseason indicate that they’re still in the process of figuring out how to compete instead of having a blueprint to win.
“LeBron James, on the other hand, he’s 40 years old, going to be 41, he wants to play for a championship next season, he’s made that abundantly clear. His agent, Rich Paul, told me that very directly, he wants a realistic chance to compete for a championship. And so, no matter that he has one year left, two years left, or three years left, he wants to be in that mode.”
“He feels, clearly, that the Lakers are in a more futuristic mindset. Where does that go? If one side says I want to compete for a championship, and the other side wants to compete for the future—where does that meet on the road that we see? And I think that situation will play out over the next two months, I think some hard conversations will eventually need to happen there.”
Ideally, a few weeks into the season would be the best time for James to judge whether the roster the Lakers have put together is actually in contention. However, Charania feels that he could decide as early as within the next months before the season even begins.
Going into his 23rd season in the NBA, James is still averaging All-NBA caliber numbers. He averaged 24.5 points, 8.0 assists, and 7.9 rebounds in the 75 games he played last season (70 regular season games, 5 Playoff games). He can still be a valuable contributor to any team that is looking to compete for a championship.
The question that then remains is: who wants to invest in a 40-year-old player by potentially sacrificing the future of the team in a win-now decision? If the Lakers find an answer to this question, the front office should look to trade James to that team if they decide he no longer fits the vision they see for the team’s future.
