Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James hasn’t quite been a force of nature on the court in his 23rd NBA season, but his good friend and former teammate Carmelo Anthony believes he could dominate if he wanted to. On the latest episode of the 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony podcast, Anthony made a rather bold claim about James.
“He could lead the league in scoring if he really wanted,” Anthony said. “If he really say, ‘Yo this year I’mma go average 30.’ He’s gonna do it. In Year 23.”
Co-host Kazeem Famuyide expressed some doubt on whether James could actually do it at this stage of his career, but Anthony was certain he would.
“If the man put his mind to it,” Anthony stated. “Bro, he was in Year 22 averaging 27, 26… It ain’t that much change from four months ago.”
James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game in 2024-25. He was rewarded for his efforts with a spot on the All-NBA Second Team and was unquestionably one of the best players in the league.
This time around, though, James is averaging 16.5 points, 6.0 rebounds. 7.6 assists, 0.6 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game. That’s a career-low in points, and the 40-year-old has been inefficient by his standards, too. He is shooting 46.8% from the field and 30.6% from beyond the arc.
James, who missed the first 14 games of the season due to sciatica, has looked like a shell of his former self at times, but Anthony believes he just took a step back as Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves had the team rolling during his absence. The Hall of Famer also added that it’s not that hard to average 30 points a game in today’s NBA if you set out to do that as your goal. That’s quite an interesting claim.
To be fair to Anthony, Kevin Durant has said it is easier to score 30 points in the NBA now compared to 15 years ago. Still, it is a bit of a stretch to say that James could be the league’s leading scorer if he wanted to. That certainly was true at one point, however.
James has won only one scoring title in his career (2008), and he definitely would have had more to his name today if he had played more selfishly. He made that clear in 2010 as well.
“If I really wanted to, if I really wanted to win the scoring title, I could win it every single year,” James said. “Every single year, I could really do it. But it doesn’t matter to me.”
That 2007-08 season was the only one in which James led the league in field goal attempts per game. If he had the mentality of a scorer like Anthony or Kobe Bryant, we’d be looking at a multi-time scoring champion.
Now, though, it seems doubtful that James could pull it off even if he only focused on scoring. He looks a step slower, but we’ll soon get a better idea about what he is capable of now.
Reaves has been diagnosed with a mild calf strain and will be reevaluated in a week. The Lakers will need more scoring out of James in his absence, and if he consistently gets to 25 to 30 points a night, then perhaps Anthony would be proven right. We’ll see him in action next when they take on the Phoenix Suns at Mortgage Matchup Center on Sunday at 8 PM ET.
