Lakers Must Focus on Fixing Relationship with LeBron James amid NBA Trade Rumors
The Los Angeles Lakers no longer orbit around LeBron James.
That baton was passed as soon as L.A. finalized the trade that sent out James' handpicked sidekick, Anthony Davis, to acquire Luka Dončić, a 26-year-old megastar more than capable of piloting the Purple and Gold well past the LeBron era.
That said, James clearly remains the second in command. And for a team with enough talent on hand to carry realistic championship hopes into the 2025-26 campaign, it's hard to overstate the importance of that position.
Now, it's a new role for the 40-year-old, and one he doesn't seem completely comfortable with. Even for someone who has utilized leverage when possible in the past, it felt uncomfortable when reports of him exercising his $52.6 million player option for next season were accompanied with news that his camp "will be closely monitoring the Lakers' moves" this offseason, per ESPN's Shams Charania.
While things have been relatively quiet on the relocation front since, Lakers insider Jovan Buha opined that James' relationship with the franchise is not "in the best place right now, to be completely honest.
"As you know, there's been no official statement about LeBron opting in," Buha added. "There typically is—especially for a player of that magnitude. And then he's had his stuff on social media or whatever he's posted, and there was obviously the statement when he opted in. So, I don't think things are in the best place they've ever been."
This coincides with a recent characterization from The Athletic's Sam Amick that the situation between James and the Lakers "does feel a little crunchy and dicey at the moment."
None of this, of course, means that James' days in Hollywood are numbered. In fact, The Ringer's Howard Beck recently reported that the "general sense" around the NBA "is just outright cynicism or skepticism that this is actually the pass-aggressive or aggressive-aggressive trade demand, request, desire—whatever you want to call it."
In other words, no one seems to think James is really searching for the exits. Maybe that means he's actually happy in L.A., where he has family and business ties (plus his son, Bronny James, by his side on the Lakers). Or perhaps it's a reflection of the fact James would be extremely difficult to trade, especially to the contending clubs he'd presumably covet.
His $52.6 million salary is tricky to trade on its own under this collective bargaining agreement. Then, there's also the fact that for as ageless as he looks, he's still 40 years old and down to the final season of his contract. His arrival would put immense win-right-now pressure on his next employer, which would be taking a significant chunk out of its roster just to get him onboard.
And that doesn't just mean significant salary, by the way. As ESPN's Brian Windhorst put it, "If the Lakers are trading LeBron James, they're going to want really good stuff for him."
It feels like there a million and one—or maybe 52.6 million—different barricades blocking a LeBron summer blockbuster. So, the Lakers better start mending whatever fences are less than structurally sound, because it sure feels like James is sticking around.
L.A. technically has time to go about patching things up, but the longer things linger, the more uncomfortable they get. The franchise just doesn't need these distractions, especially when it still needs to convince Dončić that this is the right place to make his hoops home for the foreseeable future.
So, while the Lakers have other irons in the fire—a possible (though maybe not likely) Andrew Wiggins trade, a De'Anthony Melton pursuit or the seemingly inevitable Bradley Beal sweepstakes—they should have two top priorities: getting some kind of commitment from Dončić and repairing their relationship with James.
