LeBron James' path to his ninth straight NBA Finals became much more difficult when he decided to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers this offseason. Much will be different for King James in the Western Conference, including what position he finds himself playing next season.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst spoke about the adjustments LeBron will need to make in his new home:

“I'm not sure how he's going to handle this. For example, LeBron doesn't like playing center. He just doesn't like it. He doesn't actually like playing defensive power forward, but he'll hold his nose under certain matchups…

“This is completely different. I mean the concept of LeBron, first off, going to a team that at least at this point doesn't have championship aspirations. Now if they trade for Kawhi Leonard on Feb. 2 we'll have a different conversation, but this is not a team that Day 1 has championship aspirations and it's really been 10 years since that's been the case because even his last two years in Cleveland, the first time around those teams were awesome. Those were 60-win teams. They were not as good as the Lakers. Had they gotten to the Finals either of those years I don't think they necessarily beat the Lakers, but they were championship-level teams. The one year, they only lost one game at home all year and it was to the Lakers.

“So it's been a long time since he's come into a training camp not thinking about making the Finals. So that I'm not used to and then I'm really not used to him coming in with the concept that he's gonna have to play a position that he's really not comfortable with.”

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Everyone in Los Angeles is thrilled with the LeBron signing — and for good reason. But Windhorst discusses legitimate concerns for James and his new squad. Of course, James knew when he signed that he would be playing out of position at times. But regardless, there are new things that James will need to adapt to in his new surroundings.

Additionally, LeBron's ridiculous run of eight straight NBA Finals appearances is probably over. That doesn't mean that the Lakers can't sign or trade for someone and immediately re-enter the championship conversation, but as it stands, the Warriors are still overwhelming favorites out West.