Getty Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.
Expectations weren’t high for the Los Angeles Lakers heading into this season and they’ve still managed to be disappointing. The team is 0-4 despite having a healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis. They can’t even use Russell Westbrook as an excuse anymore after the team got blown out by the Denver Nuggets while the former MVP stayed home with a hamstring injury.
For his part, LeBron is playing about as well as a 37-year-old could play. He’s averaging 25.2 points a game, 10.0 rebounds and 7.8 assists. If the Lakers were 4-0 and he had those numbers, there could be talk of him being an MVP candidate. Instead, everybody is ready to see the team blow things up and start over. LeBron has been known to put pressure on teams in the past but he’s been relatively relaxed with the Lakers and signed a contract extension in the offseason when he didn’t have to.
He’s exercised a surprising amount of patience with the team but that could be coming to an end. After the Lakers’ 110-99 loss to the Nuggets, LeBron posted a clip on Instagram of him dunking the basketball with a caption that said, “How long will you be taken for granted…..”
How to Interpret LeBron’s IG Post
LeBron has every right to be frustrated with the Lakers’ start to the season. He’s playing at a very high level but he has one of the worst rosters in the NBA surrounding him. He holds a part of the blame for the Westbrook trade but he’s not completely at fault for the mess that vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka has created.
There are a couple of ways to interpret LeBron’s post. He’s stated before that he believes he’s the greatest basketball player of all time over Michael Jordan. His post could simply be suggesting that what he’s doing is unprecedented in NBA history but people aren’t fully appreciating what he’s accomplishing.
However, there’s also a strong chance that he’s taking a shot at Pelinka and the Lakers. The team hasn’t been willing to make the necessary sacrifices to improve the roster around LeBron right now. Los Angeles has specifically avoided trading away their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks until the perfect trade comes through. LeBron doesn’t care about draft picks that will happen when he’s likely out of the league. By Pelinka and the Lakers not trading the draft picks to make the team better right now, they are taking LeBron for granted.
LeBron Wants to Be More Aggressive
LeBron has played very well this season but hasn’t been perfect. His worst game of the season came against the Nuggets where he scored nine points on 8-for-21 shooting and commited eight turnovers. He explained why he had a bad game.
“I wasn’t aggressive enough in a lot of my turnovers,” LeBron said after Wednesday’s loss to the Nuggets, via ESPN. “I was coming off a lot of screens, looking to pass, get guys involved, and I wasn’t aggressive enough.”
Fortunately, LeBron isn’t too concerned with his down peroformance.
“That’s an easy fix for me,” LeBron said. “I’ll be much better on Friday with that. I’ve done it over and over the course of my career. That’s an easy fix. I’m not worried about that.”