The Los Angeles Lakers’ playoff run ended on Monday when they were swept out of the Western Conference semifinals by the Oklahoma City Thunder in a 115-110 defeat. All eyes will now be on LeBron James for the next couple of months as he ponders what he will do next with his basketball career.
Despite having just completed his 23rd NBA season, he may not decide to retire, but he could very well decide to end his tenure with the Lakers. Many have been speculating that the 2025-26 season would be his final one with the Purple and Gold ever since he exercised the player option on his contract last summer.
The Lakers aren’t far from being a championship-caliber team, but they may need to make a couple of significant changes this offseason in order to get to that level. Byron Scott, a former star for them during the Showtime era, feels one of those changes has to be telling James to hit the road.
“You getting paid $50 million,” Scott said. “You’re 41, 42, 43 years old, right? You got a three-headed monster like you’re talking about. The Lakers, if you want to move on and be a championship team for the next five, six, seven years, you got to build around Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves. You can’t do that if he’s still here. He’s $50 million. That comes off the cap. You can go get two really good basketball players. And young basketball players that can come in there and help.”
This isn’t the first time Scott has said he wants the future Hall of Famer to leave. A couple of months ago, he said during an interview with local hip hop station Power 106 that James “got to get the hell up out of” the Lakers.
Obviously, Los Angeles cannot pay James anywhere near $50 million next season and expect to also upgrade its roster this offseason. It is projected to have at least roughly $50 million in salary cap space, and it also needs to re-sign a few of its other key players, including Reaves, Luke Kennard and possibly Rui Hachimura, Marcus Smart, Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes.
On the other hand, if James wants to stay for a reasonable amount of money and the Lakers say no, it won’t be easy to replace his ball-handling, ability to create pace, facilitating, rebounding, scoring and leadership.
Plenty of Lakers fans have been hoping for a while that James would leave the team as soon as possible. Whether it helps or hurts the team, those fans may soon get their wish.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Byron Scott: Lakers have to let LeBron go to win NBA championship
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
