The acquisition of center Deandre Ayton shows that the L.A. Lakers are still in win-now mode. However, it appears that LeBron James no longer aligns with the Lakers’ long-term plan. The Lakers are treating LeBron as an “expiring contract.” And this is not sitting well with LeBron and his Klutch Sports crew.

Deandre Ayton, former No. 1 overall pick in 2018, signed with the Lakers on a two-year deal worth $16 million. The Lakers now have their starting center in place. Ayton wasn’t the top center Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka had targeted at the start of free agency, but he took advantage of the bad breakup in Portland after the Blazers bought out Ayton’s contract.

Ayton will make $33 million during the 2025-26 season, but the Lakers are on the hook for only $8 million, so the Blazers are eating the bulk of that contract. That’s how badly they wanted to distance themselves from Ayton, whose time in Portland was a disappointment. He averaged 14.4 points and 10.2 rebounds in just 40 games in the 2024-25 season.

Here’s what the Ayton move means for the Lakers. It means the Lakers are still in it to win it for 2025-26; they still want to win now. However, they are also preparing themselves for the future and that future doesn’t include LeBron James.

Ayton’s deal is team-friendly. It’s consistent with the Lakers’ plan of attack so far, which is to sign short-term deals and avoid contracts that will strain their salary cap situation. This approach played out during negotiations with free agent Dorian Finney-Smith. Finney-Smith wanted to return to the Lakers but he was seeking a four-year deal. The Lakers declined and DFS agreed to terms with the Houston Rockets on a four-year, $53 million deal. The Lakers quickly pivoted to fill the open roster spot, signing wing player Jake LaRavia. The 3-point specialist signed a two-year contract worth around $12 million.

The cost-effective and shorter-term deals put the Lakers in a position to leave the door open in case players like Giannis Antetokounmpo or Nikola Jokic become available. There’s no guarantee that the Greek Freak or Joker will be coming to L.A. shortly, but at least the Lakers are setting themselves up to be in good standing cap-wise for any scenario. This is a savvy business move, and it’s a smart move. This is how Mark Walter, the new majority owner of the Lakers, operated the L.A. Dodgers and that turned out pretty well for the Dodgers.

The Lakers are prioritizing Luka Doncic’s timeline over LeBron James’ timeline. Everything the Lakers have done after LeBron opted into his $52 million deal to play one more year is consistent with the Lakers’ long-term plan — and the master plan revolves around Luka.

There’s a strong indication, based on LeBron’s social media reactions and the messaging from his agent Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, that the Lakers prioritizing Luka over LeBron is something that LeBron and his team are not OK with.

Luka is now wearing the crown and this narrative undercuts the King James brand. You can’t be king if someone else is now wearing the crown. For the first time in LeBron’s career he is no longer in full control of the situation.

LeBron is a brand. He operates on LeBron time. He controls the narrative. He is the face of the player empowerment era that he helped create.

“LeBron wants to compete for a championship,” Paul told ESPN. “He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we’ve had for eight years with Jeanie [Buss] and Rob [Pelinka] and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career. We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive, and want what’s best for him.”

The key part of that statement was: “He wants to make every season he has left count.”

LeBron is in win-now, win-at-all-cost mode for the 2025-26. He doesn’t want to waste any time. He is saying this through his agent Rich Paul.

The Lakers also want to win now, but they’re also preparing for the future. The Lakers and their new majority ownership group headed by Walter are now in full control of the situation, and this is making LeBron and Klutch Sports uneasy. They have never felt this way throughout LeBron’s career.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who knows LeBron better than anyone, suggested that the Lakers are treating LeBron as an expiring contract, which is quite remarkable for someone of LeBron’s caliber. Windhorst said there weren’t any substantive negotiations with the Lakers before James exercised his $52.6 million player option and there were no substantive talks of a contract extension.

Windhorst said: “The Lakers and LeBron, whoever wants to spin their side of the story, I’m not sure what happened, but the Lakers and LeBron did not have substantive discussions about extending his contract, which every team that LeBron’s been on for 20-something years has wanted to have substantive conversations about extending his contract. And what happens to expiring contracts in the NBA? They’re viewed as trade pieces.”

If the 2025-26 season is indeed LeBron’s final year with the Lakers, the past seven years have been a major win for both sides. The Lakers won an NBA title in 2020 and won the inaugural NBA Cup. The Lakers became relevant again after some down years after Kobe Bryant retired. The marriage between the Lakers and LeBron was worth it. And for LeBron, the move to L.A. was a huge success. He was able to carve out a legacy in L.A. He was gifted the opportunity to play with his son, Bronny. He won a title and set the all-time scoring record wearing a Laker jersey. It was a resounding success.

If this is truly LeBron’s final year as a Los Angeles Laker, both sides should be at peace. It was fun while it lasted but now it’s time to move on.

The Lakers are thinking of long-term investment, and the long-term investment starts with Doncic. They can use LeBron’s salary slot to sign players in the 2026 offseason. The Lakers are going about it the right way. They’re not absorbing contracts and signing expensive free agents just to appease LeBron.

Pelinka is operating on a new future timeline. His job is to keep the books to save the team’s salary slot in 2026 and 2027 and prepare for any scenario. L.A. needs to keep that slot open for someone like Giannis, who has yet to sign his extension with the Milwaukee Bucks, and Jokic.

Giannis’ current deal has a player option in 2027 which Giannis could opt out of. If Giannis opts out, then the Lakers can position themselves in the Giannis sweepstakes. It’s a similar situation with Jokic. Joker has three years left on his current deal with the Denver Nuggets, but he has a player option in 2027. If things go sideways in Denver, Jokic can opt. If that happens, the Lakers can position themselves in the Jokic sweepstakes.

A Luka-Giannis pairing or Luka-Jokic pairing would be something the new Lakers ownership group won’t hesitate to pull the trigger on a massive move.

Mike Brown has won more than 60 games the past two seasons, but could lose his job. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

In case you haven’t heard, LeBron James can opt out of his Cleveland Cavaliers contract on July 1 and become an unrestricted free agent. James holds the future of several people in the Cavaliers organization, including head coach Mike Brown. But after the 94-85 loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 6 that knocked Cleveland out of the 2010 playoffs, James didn’t exactly give Brown a ringing endorsement.

James did not mention Brown’s name once during his postgame news conference but, if you read between the lines, he hinted to Cavs management that he needs a better bench jockey to help him win an NBA title.

“It’s all about winning for me, and I think the Cavs are committed to doing that. But, at the same, I have to give myself options to this point,” James said. “I think Boston, first of all, had a great game plan. Their coaching staff gave them a great game plan. They tried to keep us on the perimeter as much as possible. They have a lot of veteran players who’ve been in a lot of postseason games and they all just bought into their system, and it worked for them.

“We had opportunities to win the game, to win the series, but we didn’t execute for 48 minutes. You don’t do that against a very experienced team.”

When Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer asked LeBron about the Cavs’ game plan and how Brown handled the defensive matchups and the rotation, he made Windhorst repeat the question as if he wanted to gather his thoughts and carefully choose his words. Once the question was re-asked, James said: “Well, I think we had good game plans going into the game. I think sometimes we could have made some better adjustments throughout the course of the game. But for the most part, we had a game plan we try to go out and execute it. Did it always work? No. Did it work sometimes? Yes.”

“Tonight was a game where we fought hard. But when you turn the ball over as much as we did and give up 27 points off our turnovers, it is very difficult. I think tonight we left it on the court and we have nothing to hang our heads.”

The key statement that stood out was “we could have made some better adjustments throughout the course of the game.” That is a direct shot at Brown and his inability to make the proper adjustments during a game.

Eric Snow, James’ former teammate and current NBATV studio analyst, said he noticed a different LeBron James in the last three games of the series. “It looked like something was bothering him,” Snow said.

Brown’s decision to keep Antawn Jamison on Kevin Garnett is what ultimately killed the Cavaliers in the series. Doc Rivers pointed out that that was the matchup the Celtics focused on when the series began, and Brown wasn’t able to take away Boston’s No. 1 option. Garnett clearly had a huge advantage over Jamison, but for some reason Brown stayed with Jamison way too long and didn’t use Anderson Varejao and J.J. Hickson enough to combat Garnett in the post.

And to start Game 6, Brown’s big move was to put Shaquille O’Neal on Garnett, which totally backfired. The Celtics immediately put O’Neal in pick-and-pop situations and Garnett got open looks and hit his five first shots.

Brown also mishandled his rotations and changed his substitution pattern midway through the series. Windhorst wrote on his blog after Game 4 that the Cavalier players were unhappy with the way Brown has changed some of their roles and O’Neal was frustrated over not playing in the fourth quarter.

In Brown’s defense, he had the difficult task of reorganizing his roster for the playoffs with the return of O’Neal and expanding Jamison’s role, which meant someone was going to be left out. Zydrunas Ilgauskas barely played in the first round and got spot duty in the conference semifinals. Hickson, who started 73 games during the regular season, played a total of nine minutes in games 4, 5 and 6. Varejao was the backup power forward all season, but was moved to backup center for the playoffs because Brown felt compelled to keep Jamison on the court.

It’s tough to fire a head coach who has won 127 games the past two seasons, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. The Cavaliers had the best record in the NBA the past two years, but failed to make The Finals twice. The players, including James, appear to have lost faith in Brown, whose inability to lead a very headstrong squad will ultimately cost him his job.