LeBron James Trade Rumors Swirl as Lakers Fall Flat Without Him on Opening Night

Despite a 43-point performance from Luka Doncic, the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Golden State Warriors on their home court on opening night.

The Lakers were without LeBron James in the opener, and he is likely to miss the first month of the season for LA.

LeBron is currently taking up nearly $50 million in cap space at the age of 40, and will have to bounce back from a sciatica injury that could continue to bother him as the season progresses. If LeBron is to miss serious time this season, it might be time to have some difficult conversations in the organization.

Of course, LeBron has a no-trade clause, so any difficult conversations start and end with his willingness to leave Los Angeles. However, his body language suggested he might be interested in these talks. He looked disinterested, not cheering for teammates, staying on the bench during timeouts, and overall just seeming different from years past when he sat out a game.

Maybe he’s just disappointed that he’s missing his first opening night of his career, or perhaps he’s realizing what everyone else is – the Lakers roster is exceedingly flawed.

Luka Doncic is currently a top-five player in the sport, and if he and LeBron have a full season to work together, they could will any team into contention. The problem is, Doncic and LeBron need to have the ball in their hands, so one player will have to sacrifice, and at this point in their careers, it needs to be LeBron. Will LeBron be willing to do that to get one last title before he calls it a career? I just don’t think it’s in the cards.

More importantly than these two stars meshing together, what else is there really to build off of on this roster? Austin Reeves is a solid third option for this team, but the rest of the current starting five of Rui Hachimura, Deandre Ayton, and Gabe Vincent is one of the worst surrounding cores LeBron has been dealt since his first stint in Cleveland.

It’s really been one of the main flaws his entire time in LA. The Lakers have managed to add a second star for LeBron, but outside of the bubble season, the rest of the roster hasn’t had the talent to win deep in the playoffs.

If you watched any of the game on Tuesday, it was apparent that it was Luka (and at points, Reeves) against the Warriors. It will be interesting to see what type of package the Lakers could get in return for LeBron if he were to drop his no-trade clause. Getting off that contract would open them up to signing a big-name player in free agency, and also could provide them with the draft capital needed to pair Luka with a younger star.

The power dynamic in Los Angeles shifted the second the Lakers traded Anthony Davis without telling LeBron. 

This trade was more of a first domino in the changing of tides in Los Angeles. Lakers GM Rob Pelinka knows that he can’t win with this current iteration of the Lakers. Unless they burn the very little draft capital they have to get a big man that can help this team win now, it might be time to trade what might be the best player of all time to start planning for the future. Keep a lookout for more smoke coming out of LeBron’s crew, because when there’s smoke for the LeBron, there’s almost always a fire too.