The Los Angeles Lakers will need to be given time to really figure out what the best version of their team looks like in 2025-26. That was the message sent by LeBron James when sitting at the podium for Lakers Media Day.
James was asked about what training camp and preseason can do for the Lakers' chemistry among their top guys. The reporter wanted to know where the excitement level was around figuring that crucial element was. The Lakers superstar encouraged patience in his response.
LeBron said, "I just think it's about time. The more and more time that we're together, the better we're gonna be. ... Us grabbing Luka [Doncic], ... it took us all time to transition to how we wanted to play as a team, as individuals, whatever it may be."
The patient approach being the message sent from the NBA's oldest player sure does have some irony to it. However, it is difficult to find fault with anything James was saying. The Lakers have a lot left to figure out. It is important to not let the early knee-jerk reactions dominate the conversations around the team.
LeBron James’ message was simple but impossible to ignore
James did not share anything groundbreaking that has not been said before. Patience is always an important element in figuring oneself out.
A great example of that can be last year's Indiana Pacers. Their team struggled in the early parts of the 2024-25 campaign. They were clawing to get above .500 and stay there until finally turning their season around in January.
That same team wound up one win short of securing an NBA championship. Without Tyrese Haliburton going down in that crucial Game 7, who knows how different that story could have been against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
James knew it would take time to really hone in on the team's strengths. To him, it was not about who can make the plays, but how the collective unit can work to make those plays together.
The Lakers will need to figure out many important aspects like maximizing the Doncic-James pairing, ensuring their defense is up to a championship standard, adding creativity on both ends, and so much more. All of that does not get figured out overnight.
Patience is not always a strongpoint of a hungry fanbase and media market like Los Angeles. There will inevitably be early-season storylines that are tough to ignore. However, there may come a point later in 2025-26 when some of those early analysis come to be seen as the overreactions they ultimately were.