LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

@ADKOBE

Not just LeBron's groin. Whole team needs to stay free of injury ....no ankles coming down on feet, knees planted with big bodies rolling into them, Smart further screwing up more fingers on shooting hand .... all s*** happens injuries to our top 9-10 guys. Because we have a bleep load of talent with our Big 3 topped by best player in the league now Luka. Then we have a chance to do something.

 

the "they're enjoying each other; the chemistry has done a 180" quote seems off to me.

i don't think the issue was ever between lebron and luka or lebron and AR--it's been between lebron and rob/ownership.

the on-court chemistry is better bc lebron has bought into the role we need him to play AND luka and AR have been available at the same time. it took a few games coming out of the break (which were ugly), but that's where it is.

and while one possibility is that lebron's never had his mind made up, another is that he's changed it. we'll never know, but my sense is that when he didn't get the 1+1, he kind of mentally checked out. then when he saw how well the team played without him, he began to realize the grass maybe wasn't greener in cleveland or gs.

 

Is that a bad thing?

 

i'd still be surprised if he doesn't end up back in cleveland for his final season

 

I'd kind of be surprised if he did to be honest. His family live in LA. The situation in Cleveland isn't really better for him financially than here either. Then we can talk about who's more competitive, us or them?

 

I don't want to hear about Lakers or Lebron flopping - lebron is still treated like he was in his prime where he had the Shaq effect.
If this was Shai they'd call a bunch of techs on the fouling players

meanwhile MJ had the softest whistle of all time

 

Yup, this is getting ridiculous. I admire him for keeping calm... i wouldn't/couldn't. There would be a KO'd ref and an opponent sooner or later.

 

this will sound homerrific, but i think one reason they don't call fouls for lebron and luka is that if the refs actually called all the times they're fouled (plus AR), we'd shoot like 40 FTs a game, and fans would whine even more than they already do.

 

https://www.theringer.com/2026/03/23/nba/lebron-james-los-angeles-lakers-luka-doncic-stats-points

generally don't like pina--he's a laker hater/clipper lover, and it drips off literally every single piece he writes--but he had some good numbers in here. specifically:

basically, both lebron and the team started looking better when he stopped being a ballhandler and started being a connector and finisher.

and this has been true the whole time:

still very curious to see how all this plays out for the remainder of this year and into next, but i think the adjustment has been hard for him. he's getting it, though, as one would expect (i'd hoped it would happen from day one, tbh).

 

Westbrook had to do a similar adjustment here playing with Lebron and he didn't enjoy it at all. So it's another feather in his cap if Lebron can set the ego aside and go from All NBA to good role player numbers for the benefit of the team when he is still capable of putting them up.

 

Was thinking during the Detroit game, we're all assuming Bron is ending his career soon. But will he? He's a top50 player now, averaging 21/6/7/1 at 51% FG. It's kind of insane to think a guy like that is retiring soon.

How far fetch is it that we see him play 5 more years? Continue extending his records, play until he's in his late 40s and absolutely shattering all related records. It would all depend on his ability to accept diminished roles, less minutes, even coming off the bench which seems hard to believe but it's what all other old guys did to extended their journey to the late 30s, he just happens to be an alien that is in great shape on his 40s.

If we look at him in a vaccum and ignore his context (legacy, personality, etc), he's definitely quite far from retirement based on his performances.

Only thing is that the work he needs to put in to stay in this shape is huge but guys that reach this level of fitness (like him, Cristiano Ronaldo in soccer or Djokovic in tennis) are absolute workout junkies, they love it, they live for it so I think until their body really cracks, they keep going because they don't know any other way of living

 

i think some of the staying in shape is out of his control, though. speaking as someone over 40...the body kind of wins these fights. i'm pretty sure lebron is doing pretty close to what's humanly possible to staying out there, and he's still missing large chunks of seasons with soft tissue injuries/sciatica type stuff.

i'd be surprised if he plays more than two more years, and even the second of those is really iffy for me (i'm still seeing a possibility of him signing a wink/wink vet min followed by a balloon payment for a season that might just be a truncated retirement tour).

 

Old man is getting the "Shaq treatment". Dude gets hacked, smacked, hit, shoved on every trip to the basket.

 

If he's able to lock in mentally and physically in this role for the majority of the season sure but I don't think it's possible at this point of his career .
" My" scenario won't happen though but it would be ideal for him AND for the team

I'm just fed up with the " let's wake up in March , play a ton of minutes and spend too much energy for seed purposes" mentality of this team .

Look at the minutes Luka and Austin have been playing March .
Can't be good for the postseason

 

Lebron could feasibly play another 3 years to 45. He takes incredible care of his body, but every year the drop off will be noticeable. He has gone from All NBA to All Star... does he have another All Star year in him next year? After that, I'm not sure if he could make the All Star on merit.

The year after, he might only be a 24-26 min player and the year after he might be a 20-24 min bench player and if he makes it past that, he'll be a better Vince Carter at the end of his career.

 

The resurgence of Lebron is mind-blowing. He's turned back the clock, back to being a 2nd team All-NBA level player again.

I was 100% convinced that Father Time had finally caught up to him. And I was wrong. This guy defies human biology. You are not supposed to be dunking 6 times a game at age 41. He's playing like a juiced up Aaron Gordon right now.

With this version of Lebron, I think we can win it all if we're healthy.

 

“We’re” meaning 1-10 in rotation to be able to have the bench not be overwhelmed by top teams’ depth and benches. Extremely talented puncher’s chance because of the top end.