LeBron James

The Los Angeles Lakers are off to a rocky start in 2022, to say the least. After back-to-back wins over the Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Pelicans last week, it seemed that L.A. could be on the verge of turning things around. However, lopsided losses to the Utah Jazz and Cleveland Cavaliers over the weekend have dropped the Lakers to 2-7.

The question of whether L.A. will trade Russell Westbrook this season hangs over the Lakers still, and another star could enter the trade picture as well. According to The Ringer's Bill Simmons, the Lakers could look to deal Anthony Davis if the season continues to go south.

The fact that trading Westbrook would likely require parting with future draft capital would play a role in that decision. Simmons said the following on the latest episode of his podcast.

"There's some buzz, some buzzing that A.D. might be available. That that's a Plan B because the Westbrook trade or whatever they think they can get for Westbrook and whether you want to give up future assets, maybe that doesn't even make sense, because what are you getting if you're the Lakers?"

In many ways, trading Westbrook along with draft capital wouldn't make sense. If L.A. is on the verge of a rebuild, its draft picks would be more valuable than clearing Westbrook's salary for the rest of the season.

Could the Lakers land a couple of players who would better complement Davis and LeBron James in a Westbrook deal? Perhaps, but Westbrook has played well since head coach Darvin Ham began utilizing him as a sixth man.

The 33-year-old struggled as a starter over the first three games. Since coming off of the bench in Game 5, however, he's been a reliable contributor. In his last five games, Westbrook has shot 50 percent from the floor and 45 percent from three-point range. He's averaging 15.6 points per game despite averaging just over 10 as a starter.

Ham has a plan for Westbrook, and it appears to be working.

"One of my goals, and selfishly, is to get him in the conversation for Sixth Man of the Year at some point. And why not start now?" Ham said, per The Athletic's Jovan Buha.

Westbrook's newfound spark is part of the reason why trading Davis wouldn't make a ton of sense right now either. Davis hasn't played like a superstar since the start of last season, but he's also been injury-hampered.

Davis is dealing with a back injury, while James (foot) is less than 100 percent as well. If L.A.'s two biggest stars can get healthy, this squad—which should eventually get Dennis Schroder back from his thumb injury—may still be able to make a run in a surprisingly not-great Western Conference.

The Lakers are just 2.5 games behind the crosstown Clippers, who hold the No. 8 seed in the West.

Suppose the Lakers can't get back into the playoff mix. Perhaps Westbrook's revival is a mirage. Maybe Davis never gets and stays healthy this season. Maybe the 37-year-old James has finally started to decline. If all of that is true, then a full-on rebuild would make sense for the Lakers, but blowing things up now wouldn't.

One thing the Lakers have to find out this season is whether Ham is the right coach for the long term. He's doing good work with Westbrook, and he deserves a chance to navigate the team's early struggles. If the Lakers give up on the season now, they won't have a good idea of whether Ham is capable of success or even overseeing a rebuild.

Would L.A. want to blow up its roster and search for another new head coach in the same offseason? Not if they can avoid it. The Lakers need to see if Ham can pull the team out of its current mess, and that means keeping the roster intact for now.

The last thing to consider here is Davis' trade value. He's a 29-year-old big who isn't healthy. While he'd still bring an enticing trade package to L.A., he'd be even more valuable if he is healthy and playing at a high level. That's unlikely to happen until later in the season, if at all.

A team looking to acquire Davis now would be looking to buy low.

While it may be fun to think about the Lakers folding (some fans will never like L.A.) or Davis landing with a clearer contender, don't expect it to happen any time soon. There may come a point where trading Davis makes sense, but that point won't come until we're closer to the February 9 trade deadline.

Fenway Sports Group, the investment consortium that includes NBA star LeBron James, is considering selling Premier League team Liverpool.

"There have been a number of recent changes of ownership and rumors of changes in ownership at EPL clubs, and inevitably we are asked regularly about Fenway Sports Group's ownership in Liverpool," FSG told David Ornstein of The Athletic.

"FSG has frequently received expressions of interest from third parties seeking to become shareholders in Liverpool. FSG has said before that under the right terms and conditions we would consider new shareholders if it was in the best interests of Liverpool as a club.

"FSG remains fully committed to the success of Liverpool, both on and off the pitch."

The group, which also owns MLB's Boston Red Sox and the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, purchased Liverpool in 2010. A sale has been explored in the past, but no deal came to fruition.

Led by majority investors John Henry and Tom Werner, Fenway Sports Group's ownership tenure of Liverpool began with an extended whimper but has been strong of late. After finishing inside the Premier League top four just once from 2010-11 to 2015-16, the club has been no worse than fourth each of the past six seasons.

Liverpool won the Champions League in 2019 and followed it up with a Premier League title in 2019-20. The club was the runner-up in UCL earlier this year.

It's been a struggle for the club to live up to expectations this season, as they're currently sitting a disappointing eighth in the table.

Fenway Sports Group also owns Anfield, Liverpool's home stadium, which would almost certainly be part of any sale agreement.

Forbes currently values Liverpool at $4.45 billion.

Let's start with the good news: Los Angeles Lakers coach Darvin Ham has solved last season's most significant on-court issue. He has unlocked Russell Westbrook.

But here's the bad news: They are now 2-7 after a 114-100 loss at home to the Cleveland Cavaliers Sunday afternoon, and 37-year-old LeBron James is playing some of the worst basketball of his career.

"LeBron doesn't even look like a main option right now," one executive said of the Lakers. "Neither does [Anthony Davis]."

The Lakers may be just as bad as last year's 33-win squad, quite possibly worse. While calls for a season-saving trade come from virtually all over, new questions are beginning to bubble up: What if Laker superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis are finally declining in a meaningful way?

And if that's the case, should the franchise really sacrifice its future by soliciting trades to fix what may be irreparably broken?

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A Matt Ryan Prayer Away from 1-8

The Lakers have yet to establish an identity this season. If the first several games suggested they'd be a hard-fighting defensive squad that couldn't shoot, the last two saw porous defense with either strong or marginal shooting. Against the Cavs, L.A. lost by 14 despite hitting as many threes and more field goals than Cleveland.

James is averaging just 24.3 points a game on 44.7 shooting from the field. Both marks are the lowest since his rookie season, and it's not as if this is a slow and steady decline after last year's 30.3 points a night at 52.4 percent.

He's also shooting a career-worst 21 percent from three-point range and doesn't seem eager to attack the basket or fight consistently on defense.

Some or all that may have to do with a non-Covid illness or the sore left foot he's been playing through over the past week. It might be the team makeup or the new system under a new coach. It could be none or all of the above, but if this continues, the Lakers are dead in the water.

Meanwhile, Davis is playing through back issues. His offensive numbers are on par with his last two seasons, and his rebounding is up to 11.1 per game. But his 22.5 points a night is well below his 26.1 during the team's championship run in 2019-20. Davis' most significant dip since the title has been from three-point range, where he's currently at 23.1 percent.

"The Lakers have a ton of holes. They lack playmaking, shooting and perimeter defense," the executive said. "Once stars get old, you need young, athletic shooters who defend and bring a jolt of energy."

To an extent, the Lakers have improved over last year's roster with a younger, more athletic group of players. New starters Lonny Walker IV and Troy Brown Jr. have played well, but neither is a playmaker, and the shooting is problematic (29.8 and 32.1 percent from three, respectively). Patrick Beverley (22.7 percent) and Kendrick Nunn (23.1 percent) aren't exactly solving the shooting woes either.

Is it a chicken/egg situation? Are the Lakers struggling because James is slowing down, leading to fewer open looks for teammates? Or is the lack of shooting around James giving him no space to operate in the half-court?

Teams are willing to give the Lakers open looks, so it still feels like a personnel problem. But if James is finally starting to show his age, that's a much deeper issue.

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Russ Isn't the Problem

Credit to Ham for getting buy-in from Westbrook on the benching. That's a hard sell for any coach to make to any starter, let alone someone with Westbrook's resumé. But Westbrook has bought in, averaging 18.8 points with 7.2 assists off the bench. He's shooting 50 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from three.

If the Lakers can finish with a respectable record, Westbrook could realistically be a Sixth Man of the Year candidate. Who doesn't love a good redemption story?

But the Lakers still aren't winning games. That points to the fundamental problem in the roster. Westbrook is earning 27.7 percent of the team's total team salary, but he just doesn't fit well on the court with James.

And splitting up James and Westbrook's minutes hasn't solved the core issues. The Lakers are abysmal in the first and third quarters, partly because of the lack of shooting in the starting lineup.

If the team could turn Westbrook's salary around for two or three role players who better fit the team—like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma and Alex Caruso, to pick three names from thin air at random—the Lakers would theoretically be better suited to support James.

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West Wide Open

If there's a saving grace for the Lakers, the Western Conference hasn't gone as many predicted. The Golden State Warriors are 3-7, while the Utah Jazz (a team many around the league believed was a "lock to tank") were 7-3 entering play on Sunday.

The Lakers are just 2.5 games out of the last play-in slot and 3.5 games behind the sixth-place Dallas Mavericks for a guaranteed playoff berth.

Whether it's Westbrook going out in a trade to rebalance the team or a minor deal to add shooting, playmaking and perimeter defense, L.A. would need to give to get. The price could hurt the team's long-term prospects in a post-LeBron purgatory as he ages out (or potentially leaves as a free agent in 2024 or 2025).

The franchise should have a read on James' and Davis' actual status. Both have missed significant games over recent seasons, and cold stints happen to everyone. If the slow start is a temporary bug and not a feature, then a trade could still be the answer.

The other equally plausible scenario: The Lakers have no real chance of competing with their current superstar duo and could easily panic into a deal attempting to address the unaddressable.

Giving up two future first-round draft picks only makes sense if the Lakers have a path to success. That might lead to the long-rumored Westbrook and two firsts to the Indiana Pacers for Myles Turner and Buddy Hield.

L.A. could also decide Westbrook's contribution off the bench is valuable enough to try and make a smaller deal, like sending Beverley and Nunn with second-round compensation. The Lakers can bring back up to $22.9 million in salary for the pair and even more with additional players.

That might be enough to chase players like Phoenix's Jae Crowder or Hield, but the trade market doesn't usually ramp up until December 15, when most free agents signed this summer are eligible to be dealt. The trade deadline is February 10, but the Lakers can barely wait until mid-December, let alone February, at the rate the team is losing.

If Los Angeles can level out instead of losing at a 77.8 percent rate, patience can be a friend. The NBA has been especially volatile the last few weeks.

L.A. may want to see how the Brooklyn Nets get through the recent drama surrounding Kyrie Irving and his recent suspension for refusing to "unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs." The optics wouldn't be pretty, but is everyone 100 percent sure Kevin Durant will finish the season in Brooklyn?

The West may be open at the top, but the Lakers must overtake at least four teams for a shot at the play-in.

Is there a realistic trade that can make that happen and catapult the franchise into true contention?

Not if James is finally losing the battle to Father Time.

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Email Eric Pincus at eric.pincus@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @EricPincus.

The Los Angeles Lakers are on another losing streak.

Los Angeles lost 114-100 to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday, dropping its record to an ugly 2-7 on the season. The Purple and Gold lost their first five games, won two in a row and have now lost their past two.

To be fair, the Cavaliers have been one of the best teams in the league this season. They have won eight in a row after dropping the opener and cruised in the second half behind Donovan Mitchell (33 points, five rebounds and two assists) and Darius Garland (24 points, seven assists and four rebounds).

That didn't stop social media from criticizing Los Angeles:

Putting together an Odell Beckham Sr-style supercut of LeBron’s Lakers teammates missing shots he set them up for #FreeLBJ

— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) November 6, 2022

The Cavs are good. The Lakers are… not.

— Football Chopz (@Pchopz_) November 6, 2022

#Cavs started off the game today allowing 36 points in the first quarter against the Lakers.

They allowed just 36 in the entire second half.

— Danny Cunningham (@RealDCunningham) November 6, 2022

3rd Quarter Lakers are GARBAGE pic.twitter.com/9ouPebWRZd

— Lakers Lead (@LakersLead) November 6, 2022

The Lakers waived the white flag and have cut it to single digits. This is hilarious.

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) November 6, 2022

Stop freezing him out of the Offense in the 2nd Halves of Games @Lakers pic.twitter.com/3qMmHHZxit

— KBs GOAT (@KbsGoat) November 6, 2022

Mitchell and Darius Garland combining for 57 PTS after beating the Lakers pic.twitter.com/oYyNIRnU4u

— NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) November 6, 2022

idk if this Lakers team can be fixed… Our role players can’t compete.

Wenyen Gabriel, Toscano-Anderson, Troy Brown Jr, Pat Bev, and Kendrick Nunn aren’t winning you games lol

— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) November 6, 2022

LeBron James with this Lakers team pic.twitter.com/0oekLkvX80

— McNeil (@Reflog_18) November 6, 2022

Sunday figured to be an uphill battle for the Lakers, but they built a six-point halftime lead with Anthony Davis stuffing the stat sheet, Russell Westbrook playing well in his sixth-man role and LeBron James (who scored 27 in Sunday's loss) playing the role of secondary scorer.

Westbrook wasn't only scoring, he was facilitating while playing true point guard off the bench with more freedom to attack.

However, much of Westbrook's positive momentum was undercut by his seven turnovers. Giveaways helped the Cavaliers string together defensive stops in the third quarter, as the Lakers scored an ugly 16 points in the period.

It didn't get much better in the fourth, as Cleveland pulled away for the victory.

Next up for the Lakers is a road game against the Utah Jazz on Monday when they will look to snap out of their latest skid.

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James said former teammate Kyrie Irving "caused some harm to a lot of people" with his promotion of an antisemitic film.

"He caused some harm, and I think it's unfortunate," James told reporters Friday. "But I don't stand on the position to harm people when it comes to your voice or your platform or anything. So it doesn't matter what color your skin is, how tall you are, what position you're in. If you are promoting or soliciting or saying harmful things to any community that harms people, then I don't respect it."

He added: "I don't condone any hate to any kind. To any race. To Jewish communities, to Black communities, to Asian communities. You guys know where I stand."

James and Irving, who currently plays for the Brooklyn Nets, spent three seasons as teammates with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2014 through 2017.

The Nets announced Thursday they'd given Irving an indefinite suspension of at least five games for his "failure to disavow antisemitism."

Their decision came after the seven-time NBA All-Star wouldn't directly answer questions about whether he held any antisemitic beliefs in reference to a tweet he posted linking to the film:

Kyrie Irving is asked if he has any anti-Semitic beliefs: pic.twitter.com/hHI8FFqMbs

— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) November 3, 2022

Anti-Defamation League CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted the film contains "deeply antisemitic themes." Jon Blistein of Rolling Stone reported the film claims "Jewish slave ships that brought our West African negro or Bantu ancestors to slave ports owned by [Jews]."

While it has been acknowledged that some Jewish people were involved in slavery, the allegation that Jews were the driving force of slavery has been widely debunked.

After being suspended, Irving posted a statement on Instagram, saying he had "no intentions to disrespect any Jewish cultural history regarding the Holocaust or perpetuate any hate."

"To all Jewish families and communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize," Irving wrote. "I initially reacted out of emotion to being unjustly labeled antisemitic, instead of focusing on the healing process of my Jewish Brothers and Sisters that were hurt from the hateful remarks made in the documentary."

Nets general manager Sean Marks said the apology "a step in the right direction," but noted the point guard will be asked to speak with Jewish community leaders before he's allowed to rejoin the team.

"[Irving's] going to have to sit down with them, he's going to have to sit down with the organization after this," Marks told reporters. "We will evaluate and see if this is the right opportunity to bring him back."

The 30-year-old guard served the first game of his suspension Friday night as the Nets scored a 128-86 road win over the Washington Wizards.

He'll be first eligible to return for a Nov. 13 game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Los Angeles Lakers' defense was criticized after struggling mightily to generate stops in a 130-116 home loss to the Utah Jazz on Friday night.

L.A.'s play at that end of the floor has been a bright spot despite the team's sluggish start, ranking seventh in the NBA with a 45.3 percent opponent's field goal percentage. That wasn't the case against Utah, which shot 50.5 percent from the field and knocked down 17 threes to drop the Lakers' record to 2-6.

"We never want it to happen, but there's some games throughout the course of an 82-game season where you don't have it defensively, and tonight we didn't have it," five-time NBA All-Defensive First Team selection LeBron James told reporters.

Here's a look at some social-media reaction to the defensive performance:

Defense was trash tonight. Ham should light em up. Seeing this team again on Monday. Gotta tighten up. Jazz playing beautiful team ball. Kudos to them.

— QuestFor18 (@HisandHerLakers) November 5, 2022

Lakers playing defense https://t.co/xheoCoaVEd

— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) November 5, 2022

LeBron finally looks kinda old. This lakers team is more embarassing than their record. AD took one shot in the fourth quarter and played awful defense. What are they doing lol. They needed russ to bail them out tonight and got run out the gym

— kang (@jaycaspiankang) November 5, 2022

The Lakers had the 3rd best defense coming into tonight.

The Jazz just dropped 130 points on them, shooting 51/43/90%.

They are 7-3. pic.twitter.com/Gn0IejyepM

— StatMuse (@statmuse) November 5, 2022

Lakers’ game plan on defense. pic.twitter.com/fIjkX180fi

— Durham Hurricanes (@DHurricanes2002) November 5, 2022

Not a lot to say, the defense was pitiful. Nobody put bodies on people. Utah was able to get open looks off simple ball movement and they set a ton is screens that the Lakers just died on

— CL Owens 🏀 🇺🇸 (@CSmoove_Sports) November 5, 2022

Lakers defense let them down tonight. Get back on track next game.

— TheLakersOptimist (@LakersOptimist) November 5, 2022

Russ has looked great the last few games! The defense let the Lakers down tonight which had been their strong front. Jordan Clarkson balled out!
I think they’ll find a groove here and start winning some of these games. If they keep their defense going & run faster breaks

— Kelvin Washington (@Kdubblive) November 5, 2022

The defense all around let the Lakers down in this one

Just abysmal.

Tough one coming up against Cleveland. #LakeShow

— 𝒦𝒶𝓃𝑒 💜💛🇳🇿 (@LALPrime) November 5, 2022

The struggles defending a well-rounded Jazz offense overshadowed some other positive signs for Los Angeles.

James nearly had a triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, while Anthony Davis recorded 22 points and eight boards. Russell Westbrook also continued his resurgence off the bench with 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting along with six dimes.

They just couldn't slow down Utah, which scored 40 points in the first quarter and never looked back.

Lauri Markkanen paced the Jazz with 27 points and 13 rebounds. Jordan Clarkson (20 points), Kelly Olynyk (18), Collin Sexton (17) and Mike Conley (15) also reached double figures in scoring for Utah, which improved to 7-3.

"Defense is something you can get right damn near every night," Lakers head coach Darvin Ham said. "We need to be accountable on that end of the floor. ... We gotta get stops to survive and excel."

L.A. will look to combine its typically reliable defense with an improving offense when it returns to action Sunday to host the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Perhaps by now, we should know better than to wonder whether any one move or tweak can reinvent the 2022-23 Los Angeles Lakers. And yet, just three games into the experiment, we have to ask:

Did moving Russell Westbrook potentially save this team's season?

Entering Friday night's tilt against the Utah Jazz, nothing is for certain. And no one game is an end-all benchmark, not even versus the awesomely random and plucky Jazz. But posing this question at all is a breath of fresh air for an organization that has spent the past year-and-change choking on the thick, acidic smog of its own derailing decisions.

The story of these Lakers cannot be told through a singular plot line. Westbrook was and remains an easy focus—a low-hanging scapegoat. But this team was and remains so much more than his awkward fit and mammoth salary and the obstacles imposed by both.

Really, that's the problem.

Through all the early-season losses and trade speculation, missed threes and body-language decoding, injury concerns and frustration with the front office, the most damning thing about these Lakers was that they felt unsalvageable. No Westbrook trade or tweak, however improbably impactful, could feasibly rescue them. They were—and are—an issue of compounding variables.

Still, bringing Westbrook off the bench always loomed as a welcomed stopgap, an adjustment the Lakers could make without overhauling their roster or future draft equity. They finally went that route after Westbrook missed a game with a hamstring injury.

And right now, the demotion looks like a promotion for everyone involved.

Through his first three games of the season, as a starter, Westbrook averaged 10.3 points and 4.3 assists while downing 38.5 percent of his twos (10-of-26) and 8.3 percent of his threes (1-of-12). The Lakers were outscored by a total of 16 in his 86 minutes, and the starting unit was a minus-8.8 points per 100 possessions, with an offensive rating of 75.

In the three games Westbrook has come off the bench, he's averaging 16.3 points and 6.7 assists while converting 51.9 percent of his twos (14-of-27) and 33.3 percent of his threes (4-of-12). The Lakers, meanwhile, have outscored opponents by a total of 22 during his 90 minutes, the second-best mark on the team.

Small-sample theatre at its finest? Maybe. And it's not all good.

Anthony Davis missed Los Angeles' Oct. 28 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the new preferred starting five with Troy Brown Jr. has been outscored by six points in 17 minutes, missed all of its threes (0-of-5) and posted a pedestrian offensive rating (105.3) to go along with a horrific defensive rating (127.8). This could be more small-sample theatre. It's also not great.

Immediately, though, it matters more that the Lakers have potentially found a way of optimizing Westbrook—and, in turn, themselves.

Staggering him from the starting lineup, and most notably LeBron James, irons out a big-time wrinkle. LeBron knows how to utilize himself away from the ball. That has never once been Westbrook's forte. And displacing LeBron from the ball in favor of Russ never made sense, because any solution that rests on marginalizing a GOAT candidate still playing at a star level isn't a solution at all.

Increasing Westbrook's independence is the smarter course. It allows him to operate in his natural state, on the ball, and have more of an influence over the offense.

His usage off the bench already bears this out. He has gone from averaging 26.4 frontcourt touches per 36 minutes to 31.6. His drives per 36 minutes are similarly on the rise, jumping from 13.8 all the way to 17.6.

Though Westbrook's finishing inside remains prone to misadventure, he has traded out in-between twos for more point-blank looks. Around 66.7 percent of his looks are coming inside the restricted area compared to 42.1 before, and he's taken just one total non-RA shot in the paint over his past 90 minutes.

Darvin Ham says one of his goals is to get Russell Westbrook in the Sixth Man of the Year conversation.

— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) November 3, 2022

Three games aren't necessarily telltale. In this case, they're also gargantuan. That's the point we've reached with the Lakers—and with Russ, specifically. Turning in three consecutive rock-solid performances is refreshing and, frankly, flat-out huge.

This is not to say the Lakers are out of the woods. They most certainly are not.

Moving Westbrook to the bench has amounted to roughly three fewer minutes per game that he spends alongside LeBron (17.5 down from 20.4). That is not a whole lot.

More than that, the Lakers are still trying to wrap their head around a torrent of other problems.

The offense as a whole is 24th in points scored per possession during this stretch and shooting just 33.7 percent from deep outside garbage time (17th). Both qualify as improvements, but progressions to not-quite-the-middle are not achievements worth lionizing.

Kendrick Nunn already appears to be out of the rotation. Anthony Davis is playing through a back injury that's visibly affecting his movements for possessions at a time. This team is awfully dependent on Lonnie Walker IV, and on LeBron logging over 36 minutes per game. Both are, at best, uncomfortable realities.

Los Angeles' Westbrook conundrum hasn't suddenly dissipated, either. Head coach Darvin Ham still rolled with Patrick Beverley over him to close their Nov. 2 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. And the Lakers still needed end-of-regulation heroics from—*checks notes*—Matt Ryan to force overtime in that victory.

🚨 MATT RYAN SENDS IT TO OT 🚨

OT on the NBA App👇https://t.co/1pomQZMAZK pic.twitter.com/NL4kP9l9Nc

— NBA (@NBA) November 3, 2022

More tough calls like this await, and they figure to be a constant. And the Lakers' larger-scale fit issues aren't suddenly dunzo.

The three-star minutes have been fruitful over this brief stretch, as has the LeBron-Russ dynamic. But the continuance of this trend rests on Brown and Ryan and Walker and Austin Reaves collectively generating enough space to buoy the offensive inklings of the stars. That's not a no-risk proposition.

This raises the overarching question: How good is the most optimized version of these Lakers anyway?

"We can't be sure yet" is the charitable, albeit not unfair, answer. "Not good enough to hang with the West's elite" is the more honest, equally fair response.

All of this invariably begets another, identically fraught question: Just what are the Lakers working toward if this is, in act, a quasi-Russell Westbrook revival?

His salary is so large ($47.1 million), his fit so complicatedly specific, that better play doesn't make him more tradeable. Even if it does, what does that mean?

That the Lakers can get a better return for his contract? Unlikely. That they don't have to bankrupt their entire draft-pick fund to move him? OK, cool.

Cheapening the opportunity cost of what it takes to trade him doesn't magically change the scenarios available to them. Nor does it protect them against better offers for anyone they're circling. Plenty of other teams can send out first-rounders that convey sooner than five drafts away.

Thinking this way is ultimately counterintuitive. Bringing Westbrook off the bench has not fixed the Lakers from within or made it easier to reinvent themselves from the outside.

What it has done, though, is buy them time and possibility—a chance to self-explore and wait out issues inside and beyond their control without necessarily torpedoing what's left of their season.

And that's far more hope than these Lakers had before.

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Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference, Stathead or Cleaning the Glass and accurate entering Friday's games. Salary information via Spotrac.

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and his son, Bronny James, were featured in a trailer for the upcoming video game God of War Ragnarök on Tuesday.

The James' were joined by actors John Travolta, Ben Stiller and their children in the PlayStation promotional clip:

LeBron has built a surefire Hall of Fame résumé that's put him in the conversation as one of the greatest basketball players in history with four NBA championships, four MVP awards and 18 All-Star selections, along with numerous other individual accolades.

While he's still chasing titles, there's another goal on his to-do list before he hangs up his jersey for the final time: playing alongside Bronny in the NBA.

"My last year will be played with my son," James told Jason Lloyd of The Athletic in February. "Wherever Bronny is at, that's where I'll be. I would do whatever it takes to play with my son for one year. It's not about the money at that point."

The 6'3'' guard is a 4-star prospect in the 2023 college basketball recruiting class, according to 247Sports' composite rankings. He'll be first eligible for the 2024 draft.

James' recent contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers includes a player option for the 2024-25 season, meaning he'll have an opportunity to opt out and join whichever team drafts his son during the 2024 offseason if he's a one-and-done college player.

Meanwhile, God of War Ragnarök is the ninth edition in the God of War video game franchise, which debuted in 2005.

The single-player action game is scheduled for a Nov. 9 worldwide release on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

LeBron James' decision to publicly state his desire to play in the NBA alongside his son, Bronny James, has reportedly "complicated" the 18-year-old guard's college recruitment.

Sources on college coaching staffs told Dana O'Neil of The Athletic that the James family has been "as low-maintenance as a megastar can be," but the potential desire to fast-track Bronny's path to the NBA to play with his four-time MVP father is an issue.

"That just complicated everything," an unnamed college coach told O'Neil about LeBron's comments.

Bronny has garnered plenty of hype—247Sports' composite rankings list him as 4-star prospect and the No. 45 overall player in the 2023 class—but coaches don't necessarily see him as a lock to emerge as a one-and-done college player.

Instead, those recruiting James' eldest son—15-year-old Bryce is also starting to garner attention as he arrives to high school—see a player who "might not be NBA-ready after two or even three years," per O'Neil.

The question is whether the James family is willing to wait for a more natural, long-term college career or if they'll push for heavy involvement during his freshman season with a focus on Bronny entering the 2024 NBA draft when first eligible.

LeBron's latest contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers includes a player option for the 2024-25 season, meaning he could opt out and hit free agency with an eye toward signing with whichever team drafts his son in 2024.

Along with the timeline, the other issue raised by college coaches is the amount of attention Bronny will bring to the program, for better or worse.

"And this is LeBron's kid," one coach told O'Neil. "If you play him 30 minutes and then you don't win, what are you doing? But if you play him eight minutes and you do win, are people going to think you're an assh--e for not playing LeBron's kid?"

Another added: "Whether he scores four points or 40, it's going to be talked about the next morning on First Take. Not if your team won, but how Bronny played."

Put it all together and a picture emerges about potentially why no favorites have emerged in the race to land the top-50 prospect. It's a complex situation to handle despite the 6'3" combo guard's ability to provide a major boost, both on and off the court.

Bronny has long-term NBA upside, but his game would need to evolve significantly over the next 24 months for him to prove himself ready for the professional ranks in 2024-25.