It’s still surreal to type out, but LeBron James is a Los Angeles Laker. Four games into the season, the Lakers are 1-3. However, the excitement around this team is real and growing every day. There are flashes of the Showtime Lakers with Lance Stephenson LeBron James at the helm, where he’ll be for the foreseeable future.
What could that future look like?
James is signed through the 2020-21 season, where he’ll have a $41 million player option for the 2021-22 season. It’s way too early to determine whether he’ll opt in, or what the Lakers roster will look like then. What is known is what the roster looks like right now, along with his career statistics that can help paint how much of an impact he can have on this historic franchise.
As long as there isn’t too much of a drop off in his play, LeBron James has a chance to rewrite the record books.
There’s no exact science to this. A mixture of context (primarily this year’s roster and each of James’ teammates’ skillsets along with James’ level of play throughout his career), James’ career stats and early trends will be used to determine how the King’s time in L.A. could pan out to the best of this writer’s basketball knowledge.
Let’s begin.
Records LeBron has the best chance(s) at ranking top-five in:
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Assists per game
- In his illustrious career, James has averaged 7.2 assists per game. So far this season the King is averaging 8.8 assists per game.
- The all-time leader in assists per game average is (of course) Magic Johnson, who averaged 11.2 assists a game. The next man on the list is Norm Nixon with 7.9, followed by Nick Van Exel in third place with 7.3.
- If LeBron averages closer to his career assists per game average, he’d rank fourth on the Lakers’ leaderboards, ahead of all-time (Lakers) greats like Jerry “The Logo” West, Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, and Elgin Baylor.
- If LeBron bests his career average and stays in the 8+ assists per game average for the duration of his time donning the purple and banana yellow, LeBron would have the second-highest assists per game average in Lakers history. (And this is with guys like Lance Stephenson as his supporting cast. Say a star like Durant or Thompson joins forces with LeBron in Los Angeles…)
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Player Efficiency Rating
- Disclaimer: The Player Efficiency Rating is a bit of a flawed statistic, but it provides a decent baseline (for lack of better phrasing) for just how all-around a player’s performance really is/was.
- The all-time PER leader for the Lakers is Shaquille O’Neal, who averaged a 28.9 PER.
- LeBron owns a career 27.7 PER, which if he averaged close to during his tenure with the Lakers, would rank second all-time in Lakers’ history, ahead of the likes of George Mikan (27.0), Magic Johnson (24.1), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (23.4), and Kobe Bryant (22.9).
- LeBron is currently averaging a 23.3 PER, which if held, would be the lowest since his rookie season with the Cleveland Cavaliers (18.3). That number figures to increase a few points, as he gets adjusted to his teammates and as the season goes on.
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Usage Percentage
- Usage percentage does not indicate that a player is necessarily efficient or makes a positive impact on their respective team, but it can paint a picture of how a team’s offense works.
- The Lakers’ all-time leader in usage percentage is Kobe Bryant (31.8), followed closely by Shaq (30.9).
- LeBron James’ career usage percentage is 31.5, and he’s never been used in less than 28.2% of his team’s plays.
- If LeBron maintains his current 28.6 usage % and hovers above 28% for his Lakers’ career, he’ll rank third all-time in usage percentage in Lakers history.
Lakers’ records LeBron has a chance at making a dent in.
Points
This one was a bit harder to predict/extrapolate, as scoring is so fluid from night-to-night in the NBA.
- LeBron has averaged 27.1 points per game for his career.
- This season, LeBron has averaged 25.3 points per contest.
- During his time in Cleveland (including pre and post “Decision”), LeBron roughly averaged 2,102 points per season.
- In Miami, LeBron roughly averaged 1,980 points per season.
- Excluding the 101 points he’s scored for the Lakers this season, LeBron has averaged 2,076 points per season.
- Of the 1,147 regular season games James has played in, he’s scored 20+ points in 948 of them, roughly 83% of them.
- Of the 1,147 regular season games, James has scored 30+ points in 369 contests, roughly 32% of them.
- James has scored at least 40 points in 49 regular season contests, roughly three times a season (on average).
- LeBron has cleared 50+ points 10 times in his career, including a career high of 61 points against Charlotte during his time in Miami. That averages out to a 50-point game (maybe) once a season.
- If LeBron only plays for the Lakers for three seasons, coupled with the above information, LeBron will roughly accumulate 6,300 points (not including playoffs), which would place him 22nd all-time in Lakers history.
- In that same vein, if he plays for the full four of his contract, he’d total roughly 8,400 points, which would place him 13th all-time in Lakers’ history.
Total assists
- As mentioned earlier, LeBron James has averaged 7.2 assists per game and is averaging 8.8 assists per game so far this season.
- For his career, LeBron has averaged 563 total assists per season and is coming off a career high of 747 last season.
- If LeBron averaged his career total assists per season for three years, he’d total 1,689 assists; taking Shaq’s 16th place in the franchise record books.
- If he played four seasons, he’d total 2,252, which would move him up from his “previous” ranking of 16th to 13th.
- Bonus: The past two seasons LeBron has averaged nearly 700 assists a season. If those numbers were to replace his average total assists, he’d rank 13th on the leaderboards in three seasons and ninth in four.
NBA records LeBron could break as a Laker.
Total assists
- Still, on the assists train, LeBron (at the time of this writing) ranks 11th all-time in total assists in NBA/ABA history. If he were to add 1,689 in the next three seasons, that would give him 9,932 for his career; placing him 6th-all time*.
- If LeBron added the predicted 2,252, he’d have 10,495 when his contract would expire, ranking third all-time.
*Chris Paul ranks ahead of James in total assists by nearly 500 and is also still playing, so the exact ranking is hard to predict.
Total points
- Currently, LeBron has 31,139 points to his name. If he adds 6,300 points in his potential three regular seasons with the Lakers, he’d rank second all-time with 37,439 points; just 948 behind of Kareem.
- If LeBron added 8,400 points in the next four regular seasons, he’d have 39,539 points to his name; firmly ahead of Kareem, not including playoffs.
- Dirk Nowitzki currently ranks ahead of James in career points, but the Mavericks likely won’t make the playoffs this season, and Dirk has (maybe) one more season in him, allowing James to have no active player as competition for the rest of his historic career.
LeBron James with this current Lakers squad has a chance to be great. Over the next few seasons, he has a chance to make some real history – for both his current team and league-wide.