James new decision makes the Lakers difficult. May the battle to defend privileges turn into a big deal?

James made another decision.

Before the deadline set by the labor agreement, James chose to execute the player option for the last year of the existing contract. After the

option is executed, a series of new records are activated immediately.

First of all, next season will be the 23rd season of James' personal career, and he has also become the first person in the entire NBA history to reach his 23rd year of his career.

In addition, if no trade occurs during the offseason, James will continue to stay with the Lakers before the start of next season, which will be his 8th season at Los Angeles City. This number will also be the longest time that James has played in a team in a row. Previously, James had played for the Cavaliers for 11 years, but he had a 7+4 mode. He had four years left Cleveland and moved to the Miami Heat.

In 2018, when James just came to the Lakers, probably not many people could have expected that he would stay in Los Angeles for so long. But now, James is over 40 years old, but he can still compete on the court wearing a purple gold robe. Last season, James averaged 34.9 minutes per game, handed in 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.0 steals. In terms of personal output alone, it is still high enough.

According to common sense, it should have been a great joy for such an immortal legend to decide to stay in the team. However, after the news that James chose the execution option was revealed, the feedback in the public opinion field was mixed. Even after James executed the options, his future prospects became more uncertain, and new questions were generated.

After James executed the option, his agent Ritchie Paul did come out and say some polite words at the first time. He said, "We cherish the eight years we worked with Jenny Buss and Robert Pelinka. The Lakers have always been an important part of LeBron's career."

But while grateful, Paul also revealed some other information. He said, "We understand the difficulty of balancing the preparations for the present and planning for the future, (but) we need to evaluate what is the most beneficial to LeBron."

At present, executing the player option is precisely the decision that is most beneficial to James. Because if he gives up the option and chooses to renegotiate a new contract with the Lakers this summer, then he is likely not to receive such generous treatment. The Lakers have just changed their new boss, and they are likely to ask James to make some compromises for the team's next big plan for championship, such as appropriate salary cuts, so that the team can have more room for operation. For example, when negotiating a new contract, James's veto power was removed, which was obviously something that James didn't want to see.

In addition, after the super big deal in the middle of last season, James has realized that the scepter that dominated the Lakers has been transferred from his hands to Doncic. In this case, James doesn't want to give up any more of the privileges he can still grasp... From the perspective of pure commercial influence, there is no problem with James doing this. After all, although he is already a 40-year-old fossil-level veteran, James' market appeal is still there. He is still the top star in the entire league, and any game he plays will still be the focus of the current NBA.

But from the perspective of the specific operation of the Lakers, James chose the execution option instead of reducing his salary to sign a new contract, which created a considerable obstacle to the offseason operation of the pipeline.

According to estimates, if James can cut his salary and reduce the Lakers' total salary to below the luxury tax line, then the Purple and Gold Army can recruit strong players in the offseason with the full middle class special case (about 14.1 million US dollars); but now, with James' execution of the options, the Lakers' total salary next season has been determined to exceed the luxury tax line. Therefore, only the Mini Middle class special case (about 5.7 million US dollars) of players they signed with this summer are available.

Judging from the situation of the crushing defeat last season, especially in the playoffs, the Lakers need to add the most are the inside vanguards, but discerning people can also see that the inside 14 million and 5.7 million signings have a fundamental gap in strength. In other words, after James executed the option, he actually changed his direction and blocked the Lakers' high-quality reinforcement path.

Of course, there is also a saying that James actually had other plans from the moment he decided to execute the option. A famous reporter from Luocheng pointed out, "For many years, the interests of the Lakers' team were mostly consistent with LeBron's personal interests. But perhaps, now it is time for the interests of the two to be no longer consistent..."

In other words, next, once the new Lakers boss feels that James' contract hinders the team's long-term development, once James is not satisfied with the upgrade of the Lakers' lineup, it is entirely possible for both sides to break up, and what follows will be another big drama of transaction negotiation.

In fact, in the past year, there have been rumors of James' trading, and teams such as the Knicks and the Cavaliers have all been on the list of next-generation scandals. Among them, the Cavaliers' trading demand is the strongest.

In the past two years, the Cavaliers' playoff journey has come to an abrupt end. One of the core issues is the lack of super giants with high enough levels. In addition, as the hometown of James, Cleveland fully accepts his script of returning to his roots.

There is another more realistic problem. The Cavaliers' salary will be over the charts next season. If nothing is done, their total salary next season will exceed the second rich line, and the total salary + luxury tax expenditure will reach US$371 million. Since the team's four main players Mitchell, Garland, Mobley and Allen are all on contracts, this super high tax situation will continue for many years. But if James returns, his expiration contract will greatly optimize the Cavaliers' salary structure, allowing the team to get a major salary reduction next summer.

Of course, let's put aside the conspiracy theories of deals and simplify things. Perhaps the reason why James implemented the option was to complete the last season of his career. Maybe next season will be James' last dance, but he is still deliberately maintaining a sense of mystery and has not announced it to the public...