The Los Angeles Lakers’ roller coaster season is now officially over. This, after losing to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals. Few expected them to get this far after starting the season 2-8 and looking unlikely to make the playoffs. However, they promptly remade their roster with several mid-season deals, allowing them to embark on their big post-All-Star break.
Until then, they were swept away by nuggets. That made it clear that the Lakers don’t have enough to compete against elite teams, and there will likely be major changes to their roster this summer as a result. They may not be far from championship contention, but that will of course depend on LeBron James. While James was expected to play at least two more seasons in the NBA, after another deep playoff run, he is now considering retirement.
LeBron James’ next “decision” looms large for the Lakers.
After playing for 20 years, it’s totally understandable that he would retire, even though it would be devastating for the Lakers. After all, James has pushed the Lakers to transfer their two remaining tradeable options in 2027 and 2029, and if he’s going to call it a career, they could be out of those two picks as well as their MVP.
Although nothing is set in stone, perhaps James’ hint of retirement serves a dual purpose. James may already be thinking of retiring, but Los Angeles. Los Angeles, he is also pressuring the Lakers to improve their roster to try to convince him to return. They’ll have to get creative in order to do that, since they have few assets left.
However, it’s not impossible, and they could theoretically convince James’ former teammate Kyrie Irving to take a pay cut to play in Los Angeles or, potentially, work on signing and trading to the Mavericks in that scenario, signing and trading D’Angelo Russell to Dallas in addition to Malik. Monk and Jared Vanderbilt, and the 17th pick in this year’s draft for Irving.
That would give the Lakers the core of James, Irving, Anthony Davis and Austin Reeves, better than most teams. Of course, they’ll have to fill out the roster with mostly veteran minimum contracts. This assumes James will return, and this also assumes Los Angeles can convince Irving to leave more money on the table in Dallas to join the Lakers. That assumes a lot, and we all know what they say about assumption.
Ultimately, regardless of whether or not James retires, the Lakers front office will need to continue to reshape the roster in the offseason. If they can get an All-Star like Irving, that might be enough to stop James from being called a game finisher.