LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

You can absorb a contract (Dort?) and still pay LeBron close to 30 million.Or you can sign two FA (Timelord and another smaller contract) and still pay LeBron close to 30mil. You would still have picks and players to trade for more upgrades.I don’t see a huge problem here

 

Is LeBron More or Less Likely to Go to Cleveland?

 

Yeah and like it's not only the 1st pick that gives you a superstar. I'd go on a limb without looking at it and say most all-stars weren't the 1st pick. You should still be able to get better with any top 10 lottery pick, especially if you get multiple in straight years

Basically the draft shouldn't save a franchise. You need to improve from all avenues at your disposal, make a combination of good decisions that brings growth to your club. Get good scouts, build good programmes, invest in player development. Not giving up on competitive basketball for multiple years and large chunk of seasons until you luck out on a top pick

You have guys like Maxey or Jalen Johnson for example that developed into leading superstars without being top picks, if not wrong. So if the worst case scenario of this new model is a bad team being unlucky and not getting top 5 picks, it's still not an excuse to not become better

For example, look at the Nets. They currently have no young hot prospects despite being bad for multiple years. With the current model the smartest thing to do is to have the worst possible roster, to be point of playing me or you if needed be for multiple seasons until they get 1 or 2 young guys they can build around. That can't be. We can't have a team that has absolutely no incentive to win a basketball game for multiple seasons. They literally start the season knowing that losing 82 games is literally better than winning 1, 5 or 30. That can't be. This new model addresses that.
So with this new model, although still having a bad team they would be incentivized to maybe overpay someone in FA to get better. Play their best guys all year to try leaving the bottom 3. Develop the guys they have so they get out of this position and become a better team

 

looking forward to seeing how new ownership navigates this situation

Honoring an all time great
Making the numbers work
Assembling a competitor
Not pissing off our other stars and wasting their prime

He doesn't have that many great options, but we also probably have a hard time replacing his production.
But then I balance trying to get over the fact that any day could be the last day. Do you take that chance on the oldest dude with the highest mileage in history with max numbers and actually expect him to continue that type of production. Seems foolish is you're being rational.

fans will do crazy stuff and make amazing proposal, but dealing with bazillion dollar deals, the pros have to make the numbers work.

and is the ticket sales worth it in case this is his final go round? LeBron is bigger business than his production to this team.

I predict a multi-year deal in the 20-30mil range.

 

End of Season Lakers Grades: LeBron James & Austin Reaves

 

Everyone just keep in mind that most of the recent Bron rumors are coming out of Windy's mouth. He no longer has any ins with the Bron camp.

Maybe he's getting stuff from Cleveland's side but outside of that, he's not much more valuable than Amico regarding any Bron stuff right now.

 

Unreal that was almost 20 years ago and he just left his team into the second round. Freight train just keeps chugging along

 

true

 

Grading LeBron James' 2025-26 Lakers Season

 

Jovan has turned himself into the most level headed of the Lakers podcasters. Really solid points about Lebron 3 point shooting was the one issue that prevented him from moving that draybron role or even when he had to take over to it's maximum realistic benefit

The first half of last year wasn't very good due to the injuries ramp up. Finished the season very strong but between aging, lack of the 3 pointer became a guy likes to attack from the post for the most part

 

I do hope (and expect) that LeBron will have a bounce back from 3. Something like 37% in 5+ attempts.

If he can be a successful 3rd option, we’ll be set up really well.

 

Couldn't resist

 

I feel like it’s inevitable that significant impact drop starts now. He’s an all time great, but everyone gets old and ages out.

even secret serum eventually wears off

 

I sure hope his new deal isn’t a multi year one.
He can come back for a season, and if he wants to keep playing, I’m sure the Flippers or Cavs would welcome him.
One more Laker run in him seems about right.

 

I think I already predicted 2 years, 20-30 mil each.

Should we? Probably not.

Will we? Without hesitation.

 

People have been saying Lebron was going to decline every year since 2016. First it was, he will lose his top line athleticism and not be as good, then it was he came to the Lakers because he was done with competing, then the bubble championship was a fluke and AD was the rightful FMVP, then it was no player could be this good at 36, at 37, at 38, at 39, at 40... etc etc.

The truth is he has already declined. But he started at such a high level, a top 3 player of all time, has just devolved into a top 20 player in the NBA at 42. I don't know why we expect the wheels just to fall off now? He was still at an All NBA level just this post season.

It's hardly crazy to expect him to be a 20/8/6 player in 30 mins this coming year and an 18/7/5 player in 28 mins in year 3. That's absolutely worth 20-30m per and we'd be raving about any role player that could produce like that.

 

as long he's aware he's a role player. that was part of the problem, and then his best moments came with him at the helm against houston in something more akin to his old role. we don't have that role for him. honestly, no team with big aspirations does.

 

The "LeBron didn't accept his role" thing is way overblown. When he first came back from the back injury his role was just fine. The team started to trend down in December after a nice start just like a lot of teams that got off to hot starts (OKC and Denver come to mind). It's just something that happens when the newness of the season wares off and you realize its a marathon. Then Austin got hurt on Christmas and LeBron, rightfully, had to shoulder more of a playmaking load for a while. Then Austin came back at the beginning of February but wasn't himself. Aside from a couple of big games against the Sixers and Clippers, he wasn't great for all of February. But then he started to round back into form, LeBron receded and the team went on the March tear.

We need LeBron and Austin to each be capable of filling the second star role or taking a backseat as the third guy as matchups dictate. During the regular season its more often than not going to be Austin taking the reigns because LeBron is old and Austin's style of attack works great in the regular season. But in the playoffs its probably going to need to be LeBron more often given the construction of these other teams in the West. I'd rather run offense through LeBron out of the mid-post against the Spurs than through Austin at the top of the key. But against say the Nuggets, it's probably the opposite.

 

i'm going in part based on lebron's own words, but i agree with most of that.

his salary number will just come down to how much he values money vs. winning and what we could do with any savings. if lebron ends up making 30m next year, i'm going to be disappointed, because it means we didn't improve the roster substantially.