The Los Angeles Lakers may be punting on the 2022-23 NBA season, and it is easy to imagine why such a decision would rub superstar forward LeBron James the wrong way.
James is 38 years old and only has so many more years left to add to his current four NBA titles. There is a pretty widely held belief that the Lakers are essentially wasting a chunk of James’ career due to their inability to craft a winning roster around the four-time MVP and superstar teammate Anthony Davis.
James might be starting to feel that way as well. In fact, a recent report indicated that if James could be traded before the deadline, he may be pushing for a trade.
“I honestly believe that if he could be traded before the trade deadline, which he can’t be, he might be pushing for that behind the scenes right now,” Ethan Skolnick said. “But he can’t, so that’s not an option. … He should be finishing his career in a place like Cleveland or Miami…and try to finish up and win there. If the Lakers, look if they don’t want him, somebody else with take him. And it does not seem to me like they want him.”
It’s a pretty stunning hypothesis, but it can be taken as nothing more than the opinion of one person at the moment. Still, it is easy to imagine that trade rumors involving James will start popping up by the end of the 2022-23 campaign.
That will only become increasingly likely if the Lakers do indeed end up missing out on the playoffs as they are currently projected to do.
As things currently stand, the Lakers are 16-21 on the season and sitting at the No. 13 seed in the Western Conference. Only the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets have worse records.
As for James, he’s putting up an incredible 29.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game.
James, a four-time MVP and four-time champion would very obviously garner a massive market if he were made available via trade. He has brought championship-level basketball to every team that he has played on in his storied NBA career.
In fact, a very real argument can be made that the Lakers team that he is currently on is one of the worst teams he’s played on in his entire NBA career.
