Lakers News: LeBron James Still "Out There For Championships"
Los Angeles Lakers All-Star LeBron James has surprisingly high expectations for his team's current season outlook, in one respect -- then again, considering that his seasons have ended in the NBA Finals for half of his 20-year career (10 times to date!), maybe it's not really that surprising after all.
“I’m still playing at an extremely high level,” James said after Tuesday's 116-102 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, per Joe Vardon and Jason Lloyd of The Athletic. In that contest, L.A.'s best player, Anthony Davis, played just for 8:07 before being felled by an illness that had been bugging him all day. James filled some of the void left by Davis in the paint, pulling down 17 rebounds while pouring in 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting. He sat out last night's subsequent 126-113 defeat against the Toronto Raptors.
“I’m not out there to f—- around," James continued. "What would I do that for? Me and [Tom] Brady. We’re the same people. We out there for championships.”
When he has played this season, James has been pretty great, at least on offense (his Miami Heat All-Defensive Team days are long behind him). As a result of his advanced age and mileage, he has also already been absent frequently, having missed seven of the team's 24 games thus far.
Across his 17 healthy contests, the 37-year-old vet is averaging 25.8 points on .466/.331/.718 shooting splits, plus 9.1 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 1.2 steals a night.
LBJ's team does not seem as committed to winning as he is. The Lakers currently sport a middling 10-14 record, good for just 13th in the Western Conference. You could perhaps throw out L.A.'s last two games, both losses with Anthony Davis sitting, but maybe that's part of the problem: as good as James is, the team is very contingent on Davis performing at an All-NBA level to win much at all.
The big issue has been obvious: Russell Westbrook, though a productive sixth man now, is severely overpaid. That has hampered the team's depth, as vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka seems reticent to include one or both of L.A.'s much-coveted available future first-round picks, in any deal that sends out Westbrook's salary. Should the Lakers not make a big move, they could be wasting one of the last years in which LeBron James is a sure-fire All-Star.
