To say that the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled to start the new season would be a complete understatement at this point. This team has won just two out of the nine games it's played this year, and their 2-7 record represents one of the worst in the entire NBA.

All this is despite the fact that LeBron James has been playing some pretty great basketball yet again. For LeBron's former teammate turned ESPN analyst Channing Frye, however, this might be the biggest issue for the Lakers at the moment:

“Right now, LeBron is thinking for everyone instead of just being LeBron,” Frye told Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “And it's just like, damn. You just want to see him be able to just — I don't want to say relax, not relax — but to be sort of one-dimensional. Do you need him as point guard? Do you need him as off guard? Where do you need him? And he does that.

“Not like, ‘Hey, LeBron … we just need you to do a little bit of everything.'”

The man has a point. LeBron has been great for the Lakers, but sadly, it hasn't resulted in wins for them. As Frye said, perhaps this is brought about by the fact that the team has relied too heavily on their talisman to do it all for them. James has carried his teams in the past, but at age 37 and in his 20th season in the league, this man does have his limits.

Frye also pointed out another major flaw for the Lakers, which is their lack of shooting. During his time playing alongside LeBron with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Frye was one of a handful of shooters that surrounded James and Kyrie Irving.

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“Our job on that 2016 team was to make sure those fools did not get double-teamed,” Frye said. “And we had the opportunity. We got the green light to shoot 50,000 3s. It was awesome.”

That tactic worked wonderfully and it resulted in a championship for the Cavs. Frye experienced that firsthand, so we can consider him a bit of an authority in this respect.

To be fair, the Lakers have shown improvements of late, but it is clear that they have to address this LeBron James dilemma if they want to find success this season.