FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Now they are stuck

The Los Angeles Lakers are getting incredible seasons from Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. The problem is that they have a third star still on board who should be playing somewhere else already. The Lakers made a grave mistake by not moving on from LeBron James this past summer.

The writing was on the wall all offseason. The organization pivoted to making Luka Doncic the center of their universe, building a team that optimized their new superstar rather than their quadragenarian one. The Lakers didn’t offer LeBron James a contract extension, wouldn’t commit to a long-term relationship, and have done everythig short of printing “good-bye LeBron” banners.

Everything, that is, except actually moving on from the King.

Since making his season debut for the Lakers after nursing a sciatica injury, LeBron James has been shockingly good for someone his age. He is averaging 20.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 7.1 assists. Those are All-Star type numbers. That he can still put up those stats is a testament to his elite basketball mind, his relentless preservation of his body, and his prodigious skill.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, they have two players who are more effective with the ball in their hands. Doncic is a Top-4 player in the world with the greatest package of passing, shooting and scoring in a point forward since…well, LeBron James. And Reaves has broken out into All-Star form himself, a pick-and-roll knife slicing through the butter of opposing defenses.

When all three are on the court together, the Lakers are being steamrolled. Per Databallr.com, the Lakers are being outscored by 7.1 points per 100 possessions when all three play (garbage time removed). LeBron and Luka? -8.3 points per 100. LeBron and Reaves are the best pairing at merely 0.0, dead even.

When Doncic and Reaves share the court, however, the Lakers outscore their opponents by 19.6 points per 100 possessions, an elite pairing. They are shredding opponents and there is enough ball to be shared between two star creators. Splitting it three ways isn’t working.

The solution? The Lakers need to replace LeBron James on the roster.

The Lakers should have moved on from LeBron
Ideally, the Lakers would have already done this. They saw their post-LeBron future and started building for it, but it created this awkward transition year where he was still on the roster. That was fine when the Lakers were going through a consolidation year preparing to have cap space in 2026.

Now that Reaves and Doncic are playing at career-best levels, not having moved on from LeBron becomes a much larger problem. Putting the right players around Reaves and Doncic could mean pushing them up into the realm of true contenders, alongside the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets. Instead, their 19-8 record is masking a true team quality closer to .500 and 8th in the West.

Was a trade available this summer that would have worked for both LeBron and the Lakers? Could they have agreed to a buyout for him to sign somewhere else for the MLE? Did the two sides ever discuss moving on, or did their bizarre cold war of “we never discussed an extension” cover all conversations?

LeBron’s value is at an all-time low as he approaches free agency and struggles with the realities of aging. He is still a very good player, but moving him in-season is a daunting task. The offseason would have allowed more teams to get into the mix for LeBron’s services. The Lakers could have genuinely had a shot at putting a better mix of players around Doncic and Reaves.

Hindsight is 20-20, of course, and the Lakers are still on track for significant cap space next summer to upgrade the roster. For now, JJ Redick will need to continue balancing his three ball-dominant stars and make the most of the situation. And fans can wonder what may have happened if the Lakers had made a bold decision when they had the chance.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

The banged-up Los Angeles Lakers face a very familiar foe tonight. This matchup against the Phoenix Suns is their final stop before the Christmas Day showdown with the Houston Rockets, and it comes with plenty of built-in context. It’s the third meeting between these two teams in December alone. Two evenly matched teams. Two teams that know each other well by now. And two teams that, at this point, clearly don’t like each other.

The last game added another chapter to Dillon Brooks trying to poke the bear. He went at LeBron James all night, only to get ejected after a clutch three when he couldn’t resist getting in LeBron’s face. Moments later, LeBron drew a foul on a last-second three, flipping the game once again.

So, another physical, competitive game is to be expected, with the Lakers trying to avoid a loss and remain in an elite group alongside the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Denver Nuggets as the only teams in the NBA that haven’t lost back-to-back games.

That won’t be easy. The Lakers will be without at least two starters. NBA-leading scorer Luka Dončić will sit out with a left lower-leg contusion, and Rui Hachimura remains out due to right groin soreness. The status of the third starter, Austin Reaves, is more encouraging. After missing the last three games with a left calf strain, he was a partial participant in practice and has been upgraded to questionable.

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Lakers (19-8) @ Suns (15-13) game facts
Rest: LAL on 2 days of rest; PHX on 2 days of rest

Ranking: LAL 14th in Point Diff (+1.5), PHX 16th in Point Diff (+1.1)

LAL vs PHX 2025-26 record: tied at 1-1 (see Game 20 observations here, Game 25 observations here)

LAL injuries: Luka Dončić (OUT), Rui Hachimura (OUT), Gabe Vincent (OUT), Austin Reaves (questionable)

PHX injuries: Jalen Green (OUT), Grayson Allen (doubtful)

LAL projected starting five: Austin Reaves (G), Marcus Smart (G), Jake LaRavia (F), LeBron James (F), Deandre Ayton (C)

LAL key reserves: Jaxson Hayes, Jarred Vanderbilt, Maxi Kleber, Dalton Knecht, Nick Smith Jr., Adou Thiero

PHX projected starting five: Devin Booker (G), Collin Gillespie (G), Dillon Brooks (F), Royce O’Neal (F), Mark Williams (C)

PHX key reserves: Jordan Goodwin, Ryan Dunn, Oso Ighodaro, Jamaree Bouyea

PHX rotation:

Learnings from the first two matchups: whoever sets the tone with hustle wins
If we learned anything from the first two games, it’s that this matchup turns into physical, ugly basketball. There are mistakes on both sides. The team that wins the hustle battle, the one that gets to more 50-50 balls, wins the game.

In the first matchup, the Phoenix Suns were the aggressor. They jumped on the Los Angeles Lakers, got their hands on 16 steals, forced 22 turnovers, and repeatedly punished the Lakers in transition.

The rematch marked the first game in which JJ Redick shifted his rotations toward banshees and hustle, reintroducing Jarred Vanderbilt into the lineup with a major payoff. The Lakers decisively won the hustle battle, dominating the smaller Suns on the offensive glass and posting their highest offensive rebound rate in the last 15 years.

Lakers on offense | Suns on defense

The 2025–26 Phoenix Suns have clearly taken on the identity of Dillon Brooks, becoming a scrappy, in-your-face, aggressive defensive team. They mostly play smaller lineups with four perimeter players who can apply pressure.

Ryan Dunn, Jordan Goodwin, and Royce O’Neale are all physical defenders. If they cannot get a deflection or a steal, the goal is to funnel the ball handler toward the paint, where Mark Williams, supposedly the player with the longest standing reach in the NBA, is waiting. The Suns’ aggressive style shows up in the data. They rank second in the NBA, behind only the Thunder, in opponent turnover rate, and sit 24th in opponent free-throw rate. The Lakers have struggled against the Suns’ pressure in both games. Their second- and third-worst turnover rate performances of the season have come against Phoenix.

Lakers: top five games in turnover rate (source: Cleaning the Glass)
Without Dončić, a potential return from Reaves would be a huge boost. It would allow James to stay in the secondary ball-handler and creator role he has thrived in over the last six games, during which he is averaging 27.6 points per game. James struggled against the Suns aggression in the last matchup, committing eight turnovers, five of them coming in the first quarter.

Apart from occasional excessive fouling, the biggest defensive flaw for the Suns is rebounding. Their smaller lineups can be punished on the offensive glass, something the Lakers exploited in the first matchup and a clear priority for Redick since the recent rotation shift.

Suns on offense | Lakers on defense

The Suns are a perimeter-oriented team with several good shooters. Devin Booker, Collin Gillespie, Royce O’Neale, and Grayson Allen all stretch the floor, though Allen is listed as doubtful. Dillon Brooks is more streaky but a willing shooter. In their loss, the Lakers struggled to defend pick actions and off-ball screens against the Suns’ “lasers,” JJ Redick’s term for sharpshooters. That was especially true for Gillespie, who erupted for a career-high 28 points.

While the Suns force a lot of turnovers, they are not strong at controlling the ball themselves, ranking just 24th in turnover rate. Outside of Booker, they lack a true on-ball creator, and even Booker is better suited as a scoring and finishing guard than as a primary playmaker. They try to fill the playmaking void with Gillespie, Brooks, and O’Neale, but all three can be pressed and forced into bad decisions.

Player spotlight: LeBron James
Even if Reaves is good to go, a lot will again be asked of James, who is coming off his season-high scoring performance of 36 points in the last game against the Clippers.

Without Dončić, the James versus Brooks matchup should be even more frequent, with Brooks likely drawing the primary defensive assignment against his longtime nemesis. Excessive aggression and fouling have long been issues for Brooks. James staying patient and using Brooks’ eagerness to redeem himself after the ejection in their last matchup could be key.

Deandre Ayton finding an extra gear against his former team could also tilt the game in the Los Angeles Lakers’ favor. Williams was the more impactful big in the first matchup, while Ayton outplayed the center the Lakers had targeted to fill the spot in the middle before him in the rematch. Ayton he will need to be careful against Williams, especially in transition. In the first two matchups, Suns big men consistently sprinted the floor, punishing even the slightest lapse with aggressive rim runs.

Final thoughts
If Reaves is not ready to return yet, this one will be tough to pull off. The Suns are the better shooting team, and without Dončić, Hachimura, and potentially Reaves, the Lakers could struggle to match the Suns’ threes with paint points and free throws, which has been their primary way of compensating for the math disadvantage this season.

However, the Lakers have surprised us this season by winning several games while severely undermanned, and if nothing else, this should be another chippy and entertaining matchup.

Trade cannot be completed until Jan 14 due to Herb Jones not eligible to be traded until then. pic.twitter.com/SyDVQmsvwL— LakerTom (@LakerTom) December 20, 2025

What Could Lakers Get For Austin Reaves? https://t.co/Ne9h5Dyd8C pic.twitter.com/2C25AAGcxw— LakerTom (@LakerTom) December 20, 2025

Does not solve the starting small forward but gives us the perfect stretch center to play alongside Ayton and a volume 3-point shooter. Solves the Lakers negative 3-point shooting differential. Worth going all-in on imo.— LakerTom (@LakerTom) December 20, 2025

Thanks, Tom. Mine is is working now.