The Los Angeles Lakers have a long to-do list to tackle this summer, and very little, if anything, seems certain about next season.
One of the few certainties is that LeBron James will be a Laker for the 2022-23 campaign.
But how much longer will he remain with the team?
Next season will be the final season of his contract, and he will be eligible to sign an extension on Aug. 4.
The Lakers would love to get James to commit to some type of extension within the next few weeks, but according to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, that is unlikely to happen.
Via Bleacher Report:
“The Lakers were paralyzed at the trade deadline without clarity from James, and they remain so. The star forward is eligible for an extension on August 4, but most of the team’s moves will need to happen in June and July.
“The Lakers are stuck without a commitment from James, whose contract expires after the 2022-23 season. Competing executives and agents do not expect the team to get clarity from James ahead of the draft and free agency.”
In some ways, it is understandable that James wouldn’t want to commit to an extension before the start of free agency, at least from his point of view and for his personal benefit.
He may want to see what his current team does in free agency and in terms of trades and if it can redo its roster in order to give him a very competitive team for next season.
If the Lakers cannot do anything of the sort, James (from his point of view) may feel he’s better off going elsewhere, and perhaps it would be time for the Lakers to start to rebuild rather than be stuck in mediocrity with an aging and possibly injury-prone James.
But it seems there is a window for L.A. to have a competitive and possibly even championship-caliber roster for 2023, especially if it can summon some of that good old-fashioned Laker mystique.
