LeBron James

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is set to return from a one-game absence on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers, but it sounds like he's not fully recovered from his sore left foot.

James told reporters that he will play Wednesday, but he still needs more rest to help his foot heal, putting his status for back-to-back games in question:

James missed the Lakers' game against the Utah Jazz on Monday because of foot soreness. He also reportedly was recovering from an illness that affected him in the previous week.

In his 20th season, James had gotten off to a strong start. He leads the team with 24.3 points and 7.1 assists per game while also averaging 8.9 rebounds. His efficiency has plummeted, however, as he's shooting just 44.7 percent from the field and 21.0 percent from three-point range.

James was once known for his durability, but he's been slowed by injuries recently. The 18-time All-Star played in only 56 games last year because of knee, ankle and abdominal injuries. He missed 27 games in 2020-21 with an ankle injury. Since signing with Los Angeles in 2018, he's appeared in 60 games in a season only once.

The Lakers are off to a slow start this season with a 2-8 record, so any missed time for James is far from ideal. But on Wednesday, he will give the team its best chance to stop a three-game losing streak when he takes the floor against the Clippers.

LeBron James has made it known he wants to own a sports team someday, and the Los Angeles Lakers star could be seriously considering purchasing an NFL franchise at some point in the future.

Speaking to Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times, James said we have "possibly" been underselling his interesting in buying an NFL team.

James is currently a part-owner of the Boston Red Sox, having joined the Fenway Sports Group in March 2021. The group also owns Liverpool Football Club, Roush Fenway Racing and the regional sports network NESN.

The Athletic's David Ornstein reported on Monday that FSG has put Liverpool up for sale, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley being retained to help assist with the process.

In a separate quote to Woike, James said he always has "ongoing conversations" with his business partners about potential opportunities, and "we'll see what happens" with regard to Liverpool's sale.

James has spoken in the past about how the lack of diversity among NFL owners is a problem.

During an episode of The Shop in December 2018 (h/t Ben Golliver of The Washington Post), James said the NFL has a "bunch of old white men owning teams" who have a "slave mentality" toward players.

Mellody Hobson became the first Black team owner in the NFL as part of the Walton-Penner group that purchased the Denver Broncos earlier this year. Shahid Khan of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Kim Pegula of the Buffalo Bills are the only non-white people who own a majority stake in an NFL franchise.

After playing a preseason game at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas last month, James said he would love to own an NBA franchise if the league ever brought a team to the city.

"It was wonderful," he told reporters on Oct. 6. "It’s the best fan base in the world, and I would love to bring a team here at some point. That would be amazing."

There have been rumblings for years that James would look to get into ownership when his playing career ends. His longtime business partner Maverick Carter told Variety's Audrey Cleo in July 2018 that the four-time NBA MVP "will be owning a basketball team or maybe even a football team" in about 10 years.

If James does move into an ownership role after retiring as a player, it will almost certainly be part of a group making the purchase. He became the first active NBA player with a net worth of $1 billion earlier this year, per Chase Peterson-Withorn of Forbes.

Forbes estimates the Cincinnati Bengals as the least valuable NFL franchise at $3 billion. Dan and Tanya Snyder recently hired Bank of America Securities to explore potentially selling the Washington Commanders.

It's unclear if the Snyders will sell all or a part of the franchise, if they sell at all.

The Commanders are currently the sixth-most valuable NFL team at $5.6 billion, according to Forbes.

As the Los Angeles Lakers sort through the reality that they have the third worst record in the NBA (2-8) after Monday night's lopsided 139-116 loss to the Utah Jazz, it's obvious that there are a lot of uncertainties to navigate in the land of Purple and Gold.

That includes the status of LeBron James, who is listed as probable for tonight's game against the Los Angeles Clippers due to left foot soreness, according to Lakers insider Ryan Ward.

As if that weren't enough, Anthony Davis is also listed as probable due to low back tightness for a team that desperately needs to avoid sliding further down in the standings.

"I don't want to be 2-8 at all," Davis told reporters. "We got guys out. You got to look at big picture as it's only been 10 games, but 2-8 is a hard pill to swallow."

For a team that has a fanbase that expects them to compete for a championship every year, being a half-game ahead of the last-place Houston Rockets in the Western Conference after 10 games is unacceptable and the pressure is mounting for a turnaround.

The Lakers new head coach Darvin Ham is aware that his team needs to stop the skid and get back in the win column, quick, or it's going to be a long season.

"I would say this, man. And write it, quote it, however," Ham told ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "This may be happening now at the outset of what we're trying to force to be a culture change in terms of getting us back to being highly competitive on a highly consistent basis, but it's not going to always be like this.

"We're going to turn the corner. I didn't come here to lose. They didn't bring me here to lose."

L.A. certainly didn't hire Ham to tank, they brought him on to figure out the conundrum of Russell Westbrook.

Right away, he's made headway with that directive by re-aligning the former MVP to the bench.

Westbrook initially balked at the idea of having to be a reserve, but it has paid dividends for him personally.

Much-maligned for his shooting woes, shot selection and decision making while in the starting lineup last season, Westbrook is now shining as the team's Sixth Man.

Despite the Lakers' disastrous start to the season, the nine-time NBA All-Star is showing signs of life, averaging 19.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game in the six games he's come off the bench.

Additionally, he's shooting 48 percent from behind the arc and proving that's he's not the only thing that's wrong with the Lakers.

Case in point: after the first half of action in the loss to the Jazz, Westbrook had 18 points on 6-of-9 from the field (2-of-2 from three) and was a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line.

And according to StatMuse, L.A. is +5 with Westbrook on the floor, as opposed to -47 when he's on the bench.

That's quite the turnaround.

So what is wrong with the Lakers?

First of all, collectively, they can't shoot.

"We gotta be able to step up and make a shot," Ham told reporters after losing to the Jazz. "If you can score, we'll work you out tomorrow."

Imagine needing shooters to the point of soliciting scoring help from reporters in a press conference, even in jest.

That's how bad things are in L.A.

Even worse than the Lakers' offensive woes is their decline on the defensive end.

Currently, they have a defensive rating of 110.8, which is good enough for 12th best in the league.

But after giving up 139 points to Utah (average of 134.5 points in two losses), it's evident that their intensity on that end has taken a step back.

"We have lost all of our defensive intensity and that’s what is killing us," Davis added.

Davis is still rallying to be moved to the power forward position, so that he can roam on defense to help, but with no one protecting the rim behind him, that's a move that Ham can't make.

Should L.A. find a way to reshape its roster, it might be prudent to go out and sign players like DeMarcus Cousins or Tristan Thompson to play center, so Davis can float back to the 4 and be the versatile defender he was during the team's championship run in 2020.

Until then, though, Ham has his hands full trying to turn the page on the Lakers' disastrous start to the season.

"I don't want anyone around me with a defeatist mentality," Ham added. "I don't want anyone around me that's not competitive. I don't want anyone around me that's selfish. We got to be on the same page at all times, through the good, bad and indifferent."

The Los Angeles Lakers don't exactly have a slew of first-round draft picks at their disposal, which may limit their ability to make a major trade in an effort to turn their season around after a 2-8 start.

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium explained the Purple and Gold only have two more of their own first-round picks for the rest of the decade (2027 and 2029) and will be hesitant to trade them in a deal to improve a team that may be a lost cause anyway.

"They're probably looking at marginal changes around the edges at best," Charania reported. "… The organization seems to be moving in a direction where they're going to resist moving first-round picks if the season continues to go down this path."

It seemed almost inevitable that the Lakers would trade Russell Westbrook this offseason, but a deal never materialized. There were reports the team had no interest in attaching one of those picks to Westbrook in a trade, which surely impacted interest.

Now Los Angeles has reached a point where the veteran point guard is actually playing well in his sixth-man role off the bench even though the team is losing.

But things aren't clicking overall on the court, and the result is separate losing streaks of five and three games on the way to an ugly first 10 contests. A championship run seems like the longest of long shots even with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and it may take more than peripheral moves to even reach the playoffs.

That Los Angeles' front office wouldn't be particularly interested in mortgaging even more of its future by trading those picks should come as no surprise.

After all, James turns 38 years old in December, Westbrook is under contract through just this season and Davis has dealt with durability concerns a number of times even ahead of his 30th birthday in March.

The franchise will have to start thinking about building a new core in the future, and moving one or both of those first-round picks in a desperate trade to try to salvage what may be a lost cause in 2022-23 would undercut those efforts.

That means Los Angeles fans may be stuck watching the playoffs without their team for the second straight season.

The calls for the Los Angeles Lakers to shake up their roster continued after Monday night's 139-116 loss to the Utah Jazz, which dropped the team's record to 2-8.

LeBron James missed the contest with a foot injury, while Patrick Beverley and Lonnie Walker IV each sat out with an illness. The shorthanded Lakers allowed the Jazz to shoot 55.8 percent from the field and knock down 16 threes. Utah also won the rebounding battle, 41-33.

"I don't want to be 2-8 at all," Anthony Davis, who scored a game-high 29 points, told reporters. "We got guys out ... you got to look at big picture as it's only been 10 games, but 2-8 is a hard pill to swallow."

Here's a look at some social-media reaction to L.A.'s latest loss:

The only silver lining for the Lakers was the continued strong play of Russell Westbrook, who's been far more impactful since switching to a bench role. He tallied 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting along with five assists, three rebounds, a steal and a block in 24 minutes.

Westbrook's trade value should be on the rise given his strong play over the past six games, which could be a factor if the front office does decide to become active in the market.

Head coach Darvin Ham, who was hired in June after the team missed the playoffs last season, remained hopeful L.A. is going to turn things around.

"I would say this, man. And write it, quote it, however," Ham said. "This may be happening now at the outset of what we're trying to force to be a culture change in terms of getting us back to being highly competitive on a highly consistent basis, but it's not going to always be like this. We're going to turn the corner. I didn't come here to lose. They didn't bring me here to lose."

Meanwhile, Lauri Markkanen paced a well-balanced Utah offense with 23 points. Jordan Clarkson (22 points), Collin Sexton (17), Talen Horton-Tucker (15), Mike Conley (14), Malik Beasley (14) and Kelly Olynyk (10) also reached double figures in scoring.

The Jazz improved to 9-3, making them one of the NBA's surprising teams after an offseason roster overhaul that included the departures of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.

Utah is back in action Wednesday when it visits State Farm Arena to face the Atlanta Hawks, while L.A. faces off with the rival Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday.

All eyes remain on the Lakers front office to see if any deals are on the horizon, though.

LeBron James' former teammate, Denver Nuggets wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, offered a blunt assessment of the current state of the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday.

"Just watching the games, it just looks like there's no basketball over there," he told ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "It's just playing pickup. It's hard to watch sometimes. So from me to him, just get the team together, and I just want to see that spark in him again. I don't think I see that spark in Bron. So, hopefully, he can get it back."

KCP, who played with James during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons and won a title with him in the Orlando bubble, said the key was surrounding him with plenty of shooters.

"The spacing was great," he said of the title-winning season. "The spacing gives driving lanes for Bron and [Anthony Davis], where Bron didn't like to shoot as much threes. So it gives him driving lanes, and when he does see the help, he's a tremendous passer and he would find us."

The 2-7 Lakers, meanwhile, are devoid of great shooting, hitting on just 28.4 percent of their three-point attempts this season. Even the Lakers are acknowledging as much at this point.

"I mean, to be completely honest, we're not a team that's constructed of great shooting," James told reporters after the season opener. "And that's just what the truth of the matter is. It's not like we're sitting here with a lot of lasers on our team."

Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka said on media day: "I think in terms of shooting, that's a needed skill. Some of that can come from the outside, by additional roster moves or roster moves throughout the season."

The Lakers seemingly addressed one of their biggest concerns coming into the season, with Russell Westbrook thriving in recent games coming off the bench. The trio of Westbrook, James and AD didn't play particularly well together in the starting lineup, so Westbrook's buy-in to a sixth-man role has been a welcome development.

But like James and AD, Westbrook is another player best suited to playing in a lineup loaded with shooting. And if the Lakers are going to address that need, Westbrook is still the most likely player going out the door.

At some point, the 14th-place team in the Western Conference is going to have to do something. The current roster isn't cutting it, potentially wasting one of the few remaining years James has left in his career.