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The Los Angeles Lakers have been busy making moves the last couple of weeks, including signing both Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton off the buyout market. The moves occurred in the wake of LeBron James choosing to opt into his player option despite his agent Rich Paul making some cryptic statements hinting at a potential desire for his client to get out of Los Angeles.
Recently, an anonymous Lakers exec hit back at the notion that player option stipulations in contracts give NBA players an exorbitant amount of power.
“Whenever you sign a player to a deal with an option, you willingly give them the control to initially guide the situation. But this notion that a player option gives the player all of the power is pretty silly,” said the executive, per Keith Smith of Spotrac. “If they opt out, the team is then a partner in re-signing them or not. If they opt in, then the team is a partner in whatever happens next too. For LeBron, he had a player option and made his decision to opt in. We’re just happy that he’s still a Laker.”
A strange summer for the Lakers
The Lakers have made it abundantly clear that their number one priority moving forward is building a championship contender around Luka Doncic, who they acquired at last year's deadline in the most shocking trade in NBA history.
This shift in focus has apparently left LeBron James feeling alienated, at least according to Paul's comments, which made it all the more confusing when James opted into his player option with the Lakers instead of looking for greener pastures.
James' massive contract makes him an exceedingly difficult player to trade, so it appears he will indeed be staying with the Lakers for the 2025-26 season, which could be his last in the NBA as he approaches 41 years of age.
While he's still an elite player, the Lakers are a bit hamstrung in their ability to adequately restructure the roster around Doncic due in large part to the money they owe James, forcing them to make smaller moves like the Smart and Ayton acquisitions.
It remains to be seen whether those signings will be enough to get the Lakers into contention status in the West.
