Season Review: LeBron James (2024)

Welcome to our Lakers Season Review Series! For the last several weeks, we have been writing columns every weekday, breaking down the biggest questions we have about every player on the Lakers roster. Today, we close out our series with the one and only LeBron James.

When four entertainment sources and a Film Room revealed that LeBron James would leave Cleveland for the Los Angeles Lakers almost exactly six years ago, I’m not sure I would have believed then that he’d end up being a member of this franchise longer than he did the Miami Heat or spend more time in LA than in his second stint with the Cavaliers.

And yet here we are in the aftermath of James completing his sixth season as the face of the franchise, one of the marquee players in the league and someone who continues to rack up accomplishments that, when considering the stage of his career he came to the organization, barely even make sense. Consider the following...

In each of those six seasons, LeBron was an All-Star and was named to one of the three All-NBA teams. In year two of that stretch, he won an NBA championship and was named the Finals MVP. Over the past two seasons, he became the league’s all-time leading scorer and the only player in history to surpass 40,000 points.

In a word, LeBron is and has been, unprecedented.

And while some can debate how high he might rank on all-time lists or whether another player was better at their respective peak, it’s becoming harder to deny that LeBron has had the best career of any basketball player ever. And fans should feel lucky that the last half-dozen of the years that have made up that legendary career have come while wearing a Lakers uniform.

How was their season?

Including LeBron, there have been just seven players in NBA history who have played a 21st season in the NBA. Of those seven, LeBron not only put forward the best statistical campaign, but his numbers are such that you could add up all their other players’ numbers in the five main box score categories and LeBron’s are either better or close enough that the difference isn’t really substantive:

• Total points — LeBron: 1882, Everyone else: 1279
• Total rebounds — LeBron: 518, Everyone else: 645
• Total assists — LeBron: 589, Everyone else: 213
• Total steals — LeBron: 89, Everyone else: 91
• Total blocks — LeBron: 38, Everyone else: 78

Totals are nice, of course, but the per-game averages pop even more: 25.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 8.3 assists in a tidy 33.4 minutes per night. He made 54.0% of his field goals overall, including 59.2% on two-pointers — the sixth-best mark of his career — and 41.0% of his threes — the best he’s ever shot from distance — on 5.1 attempts per game — the sixth most he’s ever taken. And he did this all while playing 71 games, which is the most appearances he’s made in his six seasons with the Lakers.

All of this amounted to being named to the All-NBA 3rd Team, his 20th consecutive season as an All-NBA player. Again, all of this is so unprecedented it barely makes any sense at all.

In the postseason, LeBron again showed he was capable of being a night-in, night-out force, upping his scoring to 27.8 points per night, grabbing 6.8 rebounds and dishing out 8.8 assists while shooting 56.6% from the field overall, including 63.0% on two-pointers — the second highest mark of his career in the playoffs.

Of course, more than one thing can be true and while LeBron was incredible and had what was possibly the best late-career season ever, he also showed more slippage on the defensive side of the ball and in his possession-to-possession effort on any given night.

This shouldn’t be of much surprise. In fact, it is expected and, really, understandable. LeBron’s not 25...hell, he’s not even 35 anymore. He cannot be the dominant two-way player who is giving 90%+ effort on most every possession and this season, despite — and maybe because of — playing 71 games, he had to be more aware about how he doled out his energy and to what degree he would push himself.

But, really, this only served to reinforce the greatness of him as a player. Because on so many nights, LeBron was able to navigate a short stretch where he may not have been at his best, only to then turn up his intensity for a shift or two and pull the rope back in the Lakers' direction to give them a chance to win.

This was especially true in fourth quarters — LeBron led the entire NBA by averaging 8.1 points in the final frame of games, consistently putting the Lakers in position to win at the end.

Should the Lakers Bring Him Back?

First and foremost, whether LeBron is a Laker next season will be entirely up to LeBron. Not only does he have a player option for next season, but reports say the team is willing to give him whatever contract he wants to facilitate his return. Whether that means opting out and re-signing or opting in and extending, the decision is LeBron’s and his alone.

That said, even if control rested with the Lakers, it would be a no-brainer for the team to want him back — even at a max salary. LeBron was an All-NBA player last season and whatever decline he’s exhibiting is not enough to no longer want him on the roster. Further, with no functional means to replace him should he walk in free agency, the Lakers should want him solely from an asset management perspective, to say nothing of how good he still is and why that matters.

But, even though the team should want him back, they should also be starting to have more extensive conversations about what the post-LeBron version of the team can and will look like and beginning to lay the groundwork for building that team once LeBron is gone.

Whether that means chasing a third star or not is worth a longer discussion, but the team must begin to account for what a roster without LeBron will look like and try to ensure that whatever drop-off happens is as limited and short as possible.

Will he return?

I will not make a prediction here, so I will only say that I hope he does decide to return. Because for whatever potential downside exists in the form of slippage in play or increased injury risk as he heads into what will be his age-40 season, he’s earned the benefit of the doubt as a high-level player who can still have a great impact in both the regular season and the playoffs.

And while supporting him with the right roster, rotations, and schemes in both the 82- and 16-game environment is more important than ever, I’m going to have to see LeBron no longer be effective before I jump ship and no longer believe he can be great.

Because if it comes down to trusting LeBron or not, I’m going with the former and will deal with the consequences of being late. He’s done nothing in his career to make me feel otherwise.

You can follow Darius on Twitter at @forumbluegold.