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Dave McMenamin, ESPN Staff Writer
In April, after the Los Angeles Lakers suffered a second straight playoff defeat at the hands of the Denver Nuggets, LeBron James was asked if he had played his last game with the franchise.
“I’m not going to answer that,” James replied.
James let his signature do the talking in July, when the 39-year-old superstar inked a two-year, $104 million contract extension.
However, more questions have surfaced after a consequential summer that saw the team replace coach Darvin Ham with JJ Redick and select Dalton Knecht and Bronny James on draft night.
And, thanks to a string of role players exercising options on their contracts, the Lakers will return largely the same roster that finished No. 7 in the Western Conference and had to reach the playoffs through the play-in tournament.
With less than three weeks until the start of training camp, here is a look at five major storylines as James embarks on season No. 22, Redick makes his coaching debut and the Lakers chase a return to championship contention.
The King’s range from 3-point land
Often a coach will want to have his team perform in a fashion that reflects his playing style, but the plan Redick shared for James during his introductory news conference was next-level mimicry.
“Him and I have joked about this, but like, he shot over 40% from 3 this year,” Redick said. “Like, I want him shooting 3s.”
Indeed, James shot 41% last season — the highest of his 21-year career (and not far off the sharpshooting Redick’s career 41.5% mark). It was up from 32.1% the season before, a leap that James credits to his foot injury healing and being able to put in the requisite practice time to hone his shot.
The 8.9% increase was the fourth largest in NBA history season to season for a player with at least 300 3-point attempts. Another substantial increase under Redick would be rarer still, but there could be improvement by the offense creating more of the right types of looks for James.
James particularly excelled at catch-and-shoot 3s (45.4%), which ranked third in the league among players with 200 or more attempts, according to Second Spectrum tracking. This could also explain why the analytics-minded rookie coach said he wants to mix in more off-ball action for James this season.
And there was one area of the court — above the break on the left side — where James was elite, connecting on 46% of his 3s from there, per Second Spectrum.
AD’s quest for DPOY
After finishing fourth in voting for Defensive Player of the Year last season, Anthony Davis seemed resigned to being overlooked for the Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy.
“I’ll never get it,” Davis told ESPN when asked about the award. “They’re not giving it to me. The league doesn’t like me. I’m the best defensive player in the league. I can switch 1 through 5. I can guard the pick-and-roll the best in the league, from a big standpoint. I block shots. I rebound.
“I don’t know what else to do. I’m over it. I’m just going to do what I got to do to help the team win and try to play for a championship. Accolades and individual awards, I’m done with those.”
Davis got the last laugh over the reigning DPOY over the summer, besting four-time winner Rudy Gobert and France in the Olympic gold-medal game while bringing a defensive edge to Team USA. Davis led the U.S. in blocks (1.5) and was second in rebounds (6.7) and fourth in steals (1.2) while ranking only eighth in minutes played (16.6).
His defensive numbers for the Lakers last season were dominant en route to a first-team All-Defense selection, joining San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama as the only other player to average at least two blocks and one steal.
Last season, Davis ranked in the league’s top 10 in:
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Field goal percentage allowed in the paint
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Field goal percentage allowed on post-ups
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Field goal percentage allowed in isolations
His presence lifted the entire team, as L.A. held opponents to 60% on layups and dunks with Davis on the court (which would have ranked ninth in the league for the entire season), but that number jumped to 65% when Davis sat (which would have ranked 29th).
While there’s a case to be made for Davis being back in the DPOY conversation this season, especially after Gobert’s playoff ineffectiveness in the conference semifinals and occasional benching in Paris, Wembanyama’s star has only risen since finishing second for the award as a rookie.
One thing Davis has made clear to the Lakers, sources told ESPN, is his preference to play alongside another big more often. The Lakers are thin in the middle going into the season with Christian Wood expected to be out for at least eight weeks following left knee surgery, leaving Jaxson Hayes and two-way player Colin Castleton as the only other healthy centers on the roster.
Role player roulette
The Lakers lost 190 games to injuries to four role players last season: Wood (32), forward Cam Reddish (34), forward Jarred Vanderbilt (53) and guard Gabe Vincent (71).
Wood and Reddish picked up options on their contracts to return, despite underwhelming campaigns, while Vincent, Vanderbilt and second-year guard Jalen Hood-Schifino, who played in just 21 games last season, were all on multiyear deals.
All of this is to say, while the Lakers’ roster might look virtually identical to last season, the effectiveness of the roster could be vastly better with an increase in availability.
While Wood underwent surgery last week and Vanderbilt’s foot is still not 100%, team sources confirmed to ESPN, Vincent, Reddish and Hood-Schifino will be ready to compete for minutes from the start — giving Redick more options.
What about Bronny James?
The Lakers’ No. 55 selection in the draft likely received more attention than every other 55th pick in league history combined.
Then again, no other No. 55 pick was the son of the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
After a lackluster summer league showing in which he made seven of his 31 shots across six games, Bronny James continued to work out at the Lakers’ facilities throughout the offseason, and the team remains enthusiastic about the 6-foot-2 shooting guard’s potential.
The younger James signed a four-year deal with the Lakers but is likely to spend significant time in the G League this season. Once there, he’ll be coached by new South Bay Lakers coach Zach Guthrie, a disciple of Atlanta Hawks coach Quin Snyder who is expected to bring high-level offensive concepts to the team.
Trading into contention?
The Lakers were quiet at the 2024 trade deadline and quieter still in the offseason when it came to finding upgrades. But don’t expect the team, which maintained some roster flexibility by remaining under the restrictive second apron, to look the same in the postseason as it does on opening night.
L.A. has several assets in its coffers that it can aggregate in a potential trade for a star: its 2029 and 2031 first-round picks; young talent on affordable contracts, such as Knecht, Hood-Schifino and Max Christie; and players on midrange contracts, such as D’Angelo Russell (an expiring $18.6 million deal), Rui Hachimura ($17 million), Vincent ($11 million) and Vanderbilt ($10.7 million).
One name to watch: Jonas Valanciunas of the Washington Wizards. James offered to take a pay cut to open up the full midlevel exception to sign the free agent big man, but he opted for more guaranteed money from a three-year, $30 million deal in Washington.
Still, the Lakers need a center, the Wizards don’t figure to be contenders this season, and Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka has a proven record of getting deals done with Washington’s organization.
ESPN Stats & Information’s Matt Williams contributed to this story.
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