Lakers News: LeBron James Reflects On 2022-23 Lakers Roster, Preseason Takeaways

Los Angeles Lakers All-NBA forward LeBron James had a pretty productive preseason under new Lakers coach Darvin Ham personally. The team fared worse, although in part that's because Ham was cautious about overextending several key rotation players, including James, in what were essentially just tune-up exhibition games. L.A. posted a 1-5 record overall. Through his four available games this preseason, James averaged 16.0 points on 54% shooting from the field and 33% shooting from long range, plus 4.5 rebounds.

James, who started at both small and power forward across a variety of lineups as Ham experimented with his personnel, addressed his preseason takeaways recently in a locker room conversation with gathered L.A. media:

"I like the way our team is constructed, but we have to continue to work." - LeBron James shares his takeaways from the preseason. pic.twitter.com/CqstUeN6Xy
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) October 15, 2022

"Obviously we've been mixed and matched with a lot of lineups... but the way we want to play no matter who's on the floor, that's what you take from [the preseason]," James said. "We gotta get better."

"I think we have the ability to go to many lineups," James continued, when asked about the relative versatility of the roster. "We won't know honestly until we become whole" which rotations will stick.

Russell Westbrook was moved to the bench during the team's preseason finale, a lopsided loss to the Sacramento Kings, as head coach Darvin Ham dabbles with staggering the minutes of its two most decorated playmakers in James and Westbrook. He exited the game after just five minutes due to a hamstring injury.

"I thought Russ definitely made some great plays when he came in, couple of dish-offs to the bigs, tempo was pretty good, but I mean that's not even a sample size," James said of Westbrook's cameo. James then addressed Ham's approach to sagger the duo, saying, "I think it was just something for us to look at tonight, it wasn't something that's set in stone."

"I like the way our team is constructed, but we have to continue to work, because a lot of the... NBA teams right now have been together for a couple years or a few years and we haven't," James reflected. "You look at the top teams in the West, you've got the Clippers, you've got Phoenix, you've got Denver, just to name a few."