Source close to situation rips Lakers: ‘Until LeBron leaves, it’s not going to be a good job’

As more time passes in the 2024-25 NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers aren’t looking like real championship threats in the Western Conference, and it seems like people around the NBA world are taking notice.

One source close to the situation implied that even with the Lakers changing coaches once again — this time, bringing in J.J. Redick to replace Darvin Ham — L.A. remains a flawed team.

“It’s the same stuff you’ve been hearing for a while, just with some different people,” the source told Heavy Sports while discussing L.A.’s mission for another championship. “Like, now it’s JJ instead of Darvin. They can keep changing coaches, but it’s not going to change where they are. They’ve got LeBron [James] and Anthony Davis and…what?”

The source added that the Lakers job won’t be good until James leaves.

“Until LeBron leaves, it’s not going to be a good job, you know?” the source continued. “You’re going to be held to a standard that isn’t realistic. LeBron’s almost 40, man, c’mon. He can still do great things because he’s freakin’ LeBron. But in terms of getting that team to be good consistently for a period of years — a contender — it’s not going to happen with how it’s set up now. They took their shot these last couple of years, and it didn’t work. They have to be honest. Two stars weren’t enough with what they had around them. It wasn’t a coaching thing. It almost never is.”

James is 39 and will turn 40 later this month. He and Davis have been L.A.’s staples for several seasons. While the Lakers have experienced some very high highs during the James-Davis era, they’ve also experienced some very low lows.

In many ways, L.A. has been a boom-or-bust franchise with James and Davis. Excluding the current campaign, the two superstars have been together for five seasons.

In two of those seasons, they helped the Lakers go on deep playoff runs. L.A. won the NBA Finals in 2020 and reached the Western Conference Finals in 2023. However, the Lakers weren’t able to win a single playoff series in 2021, 2022 or 2024, significantly complicating the duo’s time together.

Making matters more distressing is the fact that L.A. may very well be on its way to another season in which it won’t win a playoff series, as the team is currently just two games above .500 and merely holds a play-in spot.

James and Davis certainly can’t be blamed (at least entirely) for L.A.’s shortcomings, as they often haven’t had enough help to carry the team to success. The 2019-20 season was a good example of what James and Davis can do with a strong supporting cast.

However, now that James is aging and possibly starting to slow down, one has to wonder if the Lakers should keep trying to build a championship team around James and Davis or start to look ahead toward the future.

The storyline will be worth monitoring going forward. For now, James and Davis remain the faces of L.A.’s franchise and will look to turn the current season into a memorable one for the Lakers.