LeBron And The Lakers Appear Destined For A Divorce, And It Reportedly All Comes Down To The Team's Transition To Luka Doncic

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When Shams dropped the trade nuke that Luka Doncic was headed to the Lakers, the immediate reaction was that it vaulted the Lakers to be Finals/title contenders. In reality, they lost in the first round in a quick 5 games, but the spinzone was that this was only the beginning. Moving forward, with more time together and Luka having a full season in LA, that things would be better and that this duo would be together for the next few years as they slowlhy move into a transition period, or a passing of the torch if you will, where LeBron retires and gives the keys to the franchise to Luka.

Yet suddenly, that future together doesn't seem like a guarantee. In fact, everything we've seen from LeBron and the Lakers this summer tells us that, actually, this upcoming season might be the only full season LeBron/Luka have together before their eventual split. As they say, where there's smoke there's fire, and boy is there a whole lot of smoke going around right now.

“James understood the Lakers taking advantage of an opportunity to pivot to the younger superstar. But from James' perspective, sources said, nuance was sometimes lost during the transition. Doncic had never asked to be a Laker. James, for his part, had chosen L.A., coming in 2018 when the team had missed the playoffs five consecutive seasons, the worst run for the franchise since it moved from Minneapolis. Two years later, James had helped deliver a 17th championship.”

“The Lakers had already made their statement in not offering James a contract beyond this season. It was abundantly clear that the 21-time All-Star's time as the face of the Lakers had, for the first time, a planned end date, even if James' record-setting NBA career did not yet. Whether the 2025-26 season is to be James' final season in the NBA is up to him. But if he wanted the kind of Hollywood ending that only the Lakers can give legends of the game, the release date was set. Spring, 2026. Luka Doncic in, LeBron James out.”

In a pretty in-depth story that dropped today that goes into detail around the LeBron/Luka pairing, their future, and everything that's gone on since the season ended, it certainly leads you to believe their days together are numbered.

The idea of transitioning from LeBron as the face of the franchise to Luka isn't something that's all that shocking. One guy is about to retire, the other is a young superstar. It's pretty normal for a team to start to prepare for life after their aging star, and it's in their best interest to focus on the young guy, since that young guy can also opt out and leave for nothing if he doesn't love the situation in LA. That's a delicate balancing act because it's also not surprising that the aging superstar probably wouldn't love being tossed aside like that, especially when that player is LeBron James and helped the Lakers win a championship.

It's one of those situations where you can see both sides. The Lakers need to focus on their next era while LeBron is still LeBron and is producing like he hasn't aged a day. Should he just suck it up and be a good sport because that's what a good teammate would do, combined with the fact that he's only a season or two away from retirement? You could make that point. But when you go through that story and line up all of the little instances of the starting point of this rift, you can also understand why he's probably a little pissed.

If you believe the reporting, it started with the Lakers not even telling LeBron they were trading for Luka in the first place. I'm not sure I buy that, but let's go with it. Then there was the immediate attempt to land Mark Williams for Luka, something that the team refused to do with LeBron/AD asking for a center. Then, the Lakers didn't offer LeBron an extension. Then, came the big news

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In my opinion, picking up the option is the biggest piece of this entire saga. LeBron never picks up the option. He almost always reworks his deal for at least another 1+1 (player option). The fact that he instead chose to opt into his final year was extremely telling. I mean, the Rich Paul quotes told you all you need to know. 

Fast forward to these last few weeks, and we're seeing LeBron post pictures on social with him at the Cavs facility and whatnot, which is definitely not an accident, and then there's the little nugget that Deandre Ayton dropped a few days ago that he hasn't heard from LeBron at all after signing with LA

Call me crazy, but that feels like a player who's mentally checked out. Not even a text? If all that stuff hadn't happened prior and LeBron had an extension and was happy, do we think he reaches out to Ayton welcoming him to the team or something?

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This is partly what is going to make the Lakers' season so fascinating to watch. Defensively, there are already issues. But there's also the reality that this roster is loaded with players who tend to "quit" on plays. The quit factor is high when you look up and down that roster, and now, what if that also includes LeBron? If he knows he's leaving and is pissed at the organization, is he going to dig in like he normally would? 

All of this drama just reinforces how delicate things are in the NBA and how quickly they can change. I'm sure when this trade was announced, there were Lakers fans who thought this duo could have 2-3 years together, given how good LeBron still is. Now, who knows if he's even on the team after the February deadline this upcoming season. What if Ayton flops? Is it possible Luka looks around and at the roster post-LeBron and decides he too wants to choose his own basketball destiny? Again, remember, Luka didn't even want to be a Laker in the first place, so I think it's fair to suggest that really, anything and everything is on the table moving forward, especially if things go south.