The Los Angeles Lakers ended their 2025-26 season with a narrow loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 4 of the series, as the defending champions completed a sweep. The Lakers played their best game of the series but still couldn’t avoid elimination. Now, a crucial offseason looms, with LeBron James holding a player option that could make him a free agent.
Sports commentator Skip Bayless, known for his frequent critiques of James, shared his predictions on social media. “Assumption 1: LeBron will play at least one more season. Assumption 2: He’ll go to another team,” Bayless wrote on X (formerly Twitter). He also outlined a scenario where James remains in Los Angeles: “I assume LeBron will voluntarily take a pay cut to stay with the Lakers next season. And I guess Luka will silently say, ‘No, not again.'”
James and Luka Doncic have developed solid on-court chemistry in their short time together. However, James’s large salary has been a common point of criticism, with some arguing it limits general manager Rob Pelinka’s ability to build a roster that maximizes Doncic’s strengths and hides his weaknesses. A reduced salary for James would make roster reconstruction much easier. But Bayless suggests that Doncic may want the Lakers to be fully his team, which would require James’s departure.
The Lakers and James face major decisions this summer that will determine the franchise’s direction moving forward.