Would LeBron James leave the Los Angeles Lakers in 2023?

Would LeBron James leave the Los Angeles Lakers in 2023? 

Over the past year and a half, the Los Angeles Lakers have been, for the lack of a better word, a big disappointment. Last season in the playoffs, the Lakers lost in the first round of the playoffs and so far this season, the team is on pace to, once again, back their way into the postseason.

The Lakers are currently 16-18 and sitting in the 7th seed of the Western Conference. Sure, the Lakers have had to endure injury after injury this season – and are currently without Anthony Davis for the foreseeable future – but what team hasn’t had key players out to either injury or health and safety protocols?

Contrary to what LeBron may say, every team in the league has had to endure key players out at some point this season.

Despite that making a big addition during the offseason – by acquiring Russell Westbrook and reshuffling the team’s rotation players – the Lakers have somehow come out as a worse team than last year.

Even when the team was healthy and had all hands on deck, the team still left much to be desired as an overall team. Should their season end as it appears it will – with another disappointing loss in the playoffs, if they even get there – there will bring at least some doubt to LeBron’s future with the team.

After this season, LeBron still has one year remaining on his contract. But would then be able to hit free agency once again. Of course, all of this is moot if he plans on retiring after next season. Though, especially considering at what level he continues to plan at, that seems unlikely.

LeBron is about to turn 37 and would be 38 should he decide to hit free agency again. At that point, he’ll be a year and a half older and who knows what level he’ll be playing at.

The big question is whether or not LeBron would actually want to start over with a new team at age 38. Even though it’s hard envisioning that, I still won’t put it past him. And if there’s anything we know about LeBron, it’s that he’s going to do what he can to apply as much pressure on the Lakers to continue to build contending teams.

Right now, it’s become quite clear that the Lakers are not a contending team. They may have some big names on their roster but I don’t think any team believes this team has much of a chance to win a championship.

It would be extremely surprising if LeBron’s last stop in the NBA wasn’t in Los Angeles. But, knowing what we know about LeBron, you can never put it past him.