If you’re an athlete, you’d ideally reach your twilight years by the time you’re 35. It seems like a pretty accurate number that fits most sports. More so one like basketball – where your physicality and reliability are key to your place in the team. But does logic really matter when you’re LeBron James? The King is still ranked among the top-10 players of the season aged 40, in his 22nd season in the NBA. Dominating for a year in the majors in itself will get you recognition forever. But doing the same for 22 years straight? Remarkable. And he’s not done yet.

Shams Charania of ESPN has just gone and confirmed the Lakers superstar for another season at least. “There’s no expectation for LeBron James to retire, will say that. My sense, my understanding is he will play at least another NBA season. You think about next year, 2025-26. It’ll be year 23 that would set a league record. Year 23 for number 23. The All-Star game is in Los Angeles. He’s potentially playing in Los Angeles. There’s a lot of stars that would align for next season, potentially, if that’s what LeBron James decides,” said Shams on ESPN.

That’s huge. We all know the King’s retirement is due to shoot up tissue paper stocks around the world. All this does is show his importance to the 15-man team. But what about the rest? The Lakers didn’t even make it to the conference semis this season, despite getting Luka Doncic on the books. They’re far away from their aspirations. Well, one option could be getting LeBron James’ other son, Bryce James, into the mix.

Bryce has just committed to playing for the Arizona Wildcats from next year. This makes him eligible for the 2026 NBA draft. And apparently, this could tempt Bron into staying for another 2-3 years. Can you imagine LeBron playing alongside not one, but both of his children? That’s never happened before, and it’s likely to never happen again. Well, Shams has also mentioned the 17-year-old sensation being an option for Showtime.

“The other thing is Bryce James, his son- does that factor play into it at all? His son is going to be potentially draft eligible in 2026 next year. So if he feels at some point next year, Bryce James might be an NBA player, might be a draft eligible player. Does he extend that window? I think that’s the only potential caveat that you think of out there that could keep LeBron James even longer than at least one more year,” said Shams.

But if you’ve seen the Lakers’ first-round blunders in 5 games, you know there’s more that needs fixing. And in their postseason interview, that’s exactly what Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick talked about. So let’s break it down.

JJ Redick and Rob Pelinka speak on future in LeBron James’ 23rd year

There’s a lot of change expected. They’re not moving on from LeBron James, that’s pretty much confirmed. They’ve got a fantastic core in Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. But apart from those three, the rest of the squad looks bare. There’s not enough to back up the triple threat on either side of the court. So starting from the back, they said that their top priority is to look for a center.

Pelinka admitted the issues caused by the swap of a starting center (Anthony Davis) for a point guard (Doncic). So, their next step is to plug that hole. “We know this offseason, one of our primary goals is going to be to add size in our front court at the center position and that’s going to just be part of the equation.” But all this points to one thing- for them to win the elusive 18th championship ring. And for that, they need to get into championsiop shape.

“We have a ways to go as a roster and certainly there are individuals that were in phenomenal shape. There’s certainly other ones that could have been in better shape. That’s where my mind goes immediately — we have to get in championship shape,” said Redick. And that starts with the center, but continues with wing defenders to complement LeBron, Luka, and Austin.

It’s gonna be an interesting off-season for the Lakers, no doubt about it. LeBron James’ commitment to LA’s future is huge news – who better than the King to lead them to the NBA crown? But whether the future involves getting in Bryce James is yet to be seen. How do you think Pelinka and Redick should go about their off-season trades?