LeBron James may be at a career crossroads with one year remaining on his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Roughly four years ago, when LeBron James elected to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, I don’t believe this is how he thought it could possibly end. Even less so considering that at the age of 37, he’s primed to win the NBA’s scoring title.
Through nearly four seasons with the Lakers, it’s looking more and more likely that LeBron is going to have one championship and three other disappointing finishes – with three of them coming with Anthony Davis by his side.
During his first season in Los Angeles, LeBron and the Lakers missed the postseason. During his second season, they won a championship inside the NBA bubble. In year 3, they lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Phoenix Suns. In year four, they may not even make it that far. At this point, they’ll be lucky to make the Play-In Tournament.
Even if they do make the Tournament, they’ll have an uphill road to climb as the 10th seed. Currently, the Lakers are one game back of the San Antonio Spurs for the 10th seed and two games when you consider they own the tiebreaker over LA.
With four games left to play in the regular season, it’s looking more and more likely that the Lakers are going to miss postseason action.
And that leaves LeBron at a bit of a career crossroads, especially considering that he still has one year left on his contract with the Lakers.
Heading into the offseason, the Lakers won’t have much flexibility to drastically improve the roster. And any flexibility that they do have, they’ll likely have to attach to get off Russell Westbrook’s contract.
It’s hard to look at the possibilities that await the Lakers during the offseason and think that this team will be drastically better next season. Even when both Anthony Davis and LeBron played for the Lakers this season, they were just 11-11 and far from special.
That leaves LeBron in a difficult spot. I’m not sure he wants to spend the last few years of his career as an afterthought in a place where he doesn’t have a real shot to contend. He may be saying all the right things and that he’s as happy as he’s ever been in Los Angeles, but something has to give.
Something needs to be said that I’m not sure is out there – the modern game has passed this version of the Lakers by. Russ was never going to be a good fit and now they’ve set themselves back more than they needed to be.
AD is still one of the best players in the league when he’s healthy, but the problem is that he is almost never healthy. LeBron is still an amazingly productive player but seems to have lost the ability to significantly make his teammates better.
And that’s all OK, but none of it will equate to the Lakers returning to contender status next season – short of a miraculous acquisition from the front office, something that they haven’t been able to do since the AD move.
LeBron finds himself at a career crossroads and needs to figure out how he wants to end his career. And if he is serious about winning another title, it may need to come with another franchise.