Should The Lakers Expect A Future Without LeBron James?

Will he remain in LA next year?

LeBron James always does this.

The 20-time All-Star loves to put pressure on his current franchise towards the end of a season, in the hopes that it will surrender future draft flexibility and/or cap space in favor of a win-now move that he deems suitable. 

This year, James was up to his old tricks, post cryptic tweets and offering up vaguely dismissive assessments of his current teammates. He has a $51.4 million player option for 2024-25, which would be his 22nd NBA season, and has openly talked about playing alongside son Bronny James, a raw freshman at USC, wherever Bronny is drafted -- even though the Lakers don't currently possess a guaranteed draft pick this summer (the Pelicans will either take it or defer till next year).

But when finally faced with an actual out by LA in the form of a potential Golden State Warriors bid, James reportedly demurred.

So what the hell does that mean? 

James was faced with the opportunity to augment an aging but high-level core of Stephen Curry, Green, Jonathan Kuminga, and either Andrew Wiggins or Klay Thompson (one of the latter two wings would probably be part of a theoretical deal), but decided to stick with LA, despite his supposed issues with the franchise's team-building. The Lakers, by the way, made zero trades in-season, though they did pick up point guard Spencer Dinwiddie to essentially replace Gabe Vincent, whose left knee effusion has caused him to miss all but five games for the 30-26 club.

Clearly, James is either (a) happier with his team than the theoretical Warriors fit, (b) too comfortable in LA to move mid-season or (c) both. Which it is may be hard to discern.

This year's Lakers squad seems unlikely to compete for an actual championship, barring some insane injury luck with the opposition in the West. But maybe it's good enough for LeBron James, after all.

Will that be the case next year? It's hard to say, but regardless, he's 39 years old. The Lakers need to plan for a future sans King James.