The silence in Los Angeles is deafening—the kind of silence that precedes a tectonic shift in the NBA landscape. The Los Angeles Lakers, the league’s most scrutinized franchise, are currently one of the most impressive teams in basketball, sitting on a surprising 6-2 start with a top-five offense.

Here is the monumental, undeniable, and utterly devastating truth buried beneath the winning streak: they are doing it all without LeBron James.

The King is sidelined, but his team is not merely surviving; they are thriving. They have found identity, culture, and structure—the three pillars that have been missing from the organization since they raised the banner in the 2020 Bubble. And now, as the greatest player of his generation prepares for his return, an unprecedented and uncomfortable question hangs heavy in the air: Do the Los Angeles Lakers actually need LeBron James anymore?

The answer to this question, which is being whispered across the league and debated furiously on social media, will define the rest of their season, and perhaps, the twilight of LeBron’s record-breaking career.

The New Reality: Dominance Without the Crown

For years, the Lakers’ identity was simply LeBron’s team. Every offensive possession, every late-game decision, every locker room dynamic flowed from him. When he was gone, especially in the post-championship years, chaos reigned. But this season, under first-year head coach JJ Redick, the narrative has completely flipped.

The Lakers have navigated the third-toughest schedule in the league to start the season, securing quality wins against perennial contenders. They are winning primarily as a product of a cohesive system, not simply individual brilliance. They have transformed into an offensive machine, ranking in the top five league-wide.

The architects of this sudden, beautiful chaos are two players who have stepped out of LeBron’s shadow to claim the spotlight: Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves.

Luka Dončić, acquired in a move that promised to alter the franchise’s trajectory, has ascended to an unprecedented level of dominance. He is not just scoring; he is putting up video game numbers that defy belief. We are talking about an average of 41 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists per game. This isn’t a hot start; this is an MVP manifesto. Dončić is living in the paint, manipulating elite defenders like traffic cones, and getting to the foul line at will. His ability to control the entire offense, particularly as an elite high-pick-and-roll player, has given the Lakers a surgical, unguardable flow they’ve lacked for years. He’s scanning the court, locating the weak side, and delivering on-time, on-target passes for high-efficiency three-pointers, demonstrating a basketball IQ at the highest level.

And then there is Austin Reaves, the undrafted gem who has become a supernova. Reaves is not merely a solid contributor or a sidekick; he is playing like a legitimate franchise cornerstone. He is averaging 31 points and 9 assists per game, placing him in the top five in both scoring and assists across the entire NBA. This is All-NBA level production. He has shown the clutch gene, dropping 40 points in a game and hitting a game-winner on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves, a team that was previously undefeated at home. When Dončić sits, Reaves doesn’t just maintain the lead; he goes nuclear, ensuring the elite offensive production never dips.

Between these two young stars, the Lakers are averaging a combined 72 points per game, creating a two-headed monster that defenses have no answer for. Crucially, the system is maximizing the supporting cast:

Three-Point Eruption: The Lakers are shooting approximately 10 more threes per game since the Dončić trade and are fifth in the league in three-point percentage. They are generating open attempts from deep because defenses are collapsing so hard on the two creators.
Role Players Thriving: Jake Laravia and Rui Hachimura are putting up career-high numbers, playing way above their usual levels. Laravia is hitting catch-and-shoot threes and running the floor; Hachimura is averaging 16 points per game.
Depth Paying Dividends: The depth signings made by Rob Pelinka—DeAndre Ayton (providing needed rim protection and rebounding) and Marcus Smart (bringing veteran leadership and defensive intensity)—are paying massive dividends within this new, defined structure.

The Redick Revolution: Finding What Was Lost

The catalyst for this overnight transformation is first-year head coach JJ Redick. Since the 2020 championship, the Lakers have been defined by three major failings: a lack of identity, a chaotic culture, and no consistent structure. Every season was a messy cycle of roster changes, coaching drama, and injury woes.

Redick has quietly, systematically solved all three problems.

Identity: He has installed an aggressive, ball-movement-heavy, high-IQ offense with elite shot creation centered around Dončić and Reaves. It is a modern, efficient system.
Culture: Everyone knows their role, everyone is bought in, and everyone is contributing. The team is functioning as a legitimate, cohesive unit, not just as LeBron’s supporting cast.
Structure: He has established lineups that make sense, rotations that work, and a system that maximizes the talent of every single player on the roster, from the two superstars to the end of the bench.

The uncomfortable, almost scandalous, truth is that Redick did all of this without having to accommodate the high-usage, ball-dominant style of LeBron James. He built a masterpiece in the King’s absence, and that masterpiece is now successful, sustainable, and, most importantly, working.

The Looming Storm: The Unthinkable Analyst Prediction

Now, the storm is coming. Senior insider Shams Charania confirms that LeBron is not traveling on the Lakers’ upcoming five-game road trip, but team personnel believe his debut will be around mid-November, possibly November 18th against the Utah Jazz back at home. The return of the King is imminent, but instead of celebration, it is met with profound nervousness.

The reason for the anxiety was articulated with brutal, devastating honesty on a recent national broadcast by analysts Kenny Smith and Kendrick Perkins.

Kendrick Perkins, never one to hold back, dropped the atomic truth bomb that shook the basketball world: “When LeBron comes back, he’s going to have to take a backseat to the best duo in basketball right now, and that’s Austin Reeves and Luca Donic.”

Let that sentence sink into the annals of NBA history. A respected analyst just declared that LeBron James, the all-time leading scorer, a four-time champion, and arguably the greatest player ever, must accept a subservient role on his own team.

Kenny Smith followed up with the core basketball issue, which cuts to the very heart of the conflict: ball dominance.

Smith explained that the two players who have found the most success in LeBron’s absence—Dončić and Reaves—are both “playmakers, not play finishers.” A “play finisher,” Smith noted, is a guy who waits, gets the ball in a dunk spot, and finishes the play. A “playmaker” needs the ball in his hands to create, needs touches, and needs rhythm.

The Lakers currently have two elite playmakers who are thriving because they control the offense. When LeBron returns, they will have three.

Smith’s million-dollar question echoes through the Crypto.com Arena hallways: “Can you have three guys on the same team be creators?” He used the example of Nicola Jokic, stating that you cannot have three players of that high-usage, ball-dominant nature on the same roster. There are not enough possessions, not enough ball movement, and not enough touches to keep three high-volume creators happy and effective.

Someone has to sacrifice. Someone has to take a step back and become the play finisher. And according to the experts, that someone is LeBron James.

A King at the Crossroads: Ego, Age, and the Undefeated Father Time

The expectation that LeBron must take a backseat is jarring because it flies in the face of his entire career and his nature as an athlete. LeBron James does not do “taking a backseat.” He has always been a ball-dominant, high-usage player who controls the offense. That is the engine that has driven four championship teams. Asking him to become a glorified facilitator or a spot-up shooter is asking him to fundamentally change who he is as a player in his 23rd season.

The dilemma is exacerbated by the irrefutable clock of Father Time. LeBron turns 41 next month. He is in his 23rd, record-breaking season. As we saw with Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, every all-time great eventually has to accept a reduced role. The question is whether LeBron will accept it willingly, or if the process will tear the team apart.

Coach Redick is in an impossible position. He is a first-year head coach who has achieved the impossible—he maximized a chaotic roster and built a system that is currently a top-five offense. Now, he faces a choice:

The Tradition: Hand the keys back to LeBron, blow up the 6-2 system, and risk disrupting the flow and chemistry that has made Laravia, Hachimura, and others thrive. This reverts the team to the unstable, heliocentric model of the past.
The Unthinkable: Sit the King down and say, “I know you’re the greatest, but right now, Luka and Austin are carrying us, and you need to fit into what they’re doing.” This risks an ego clash that could crater the entire season.

The consensus is clear: the Lakers are a better, more functional, and more efficient team right now when the offense runs through Dončić and Reaves. The numbers back it up, the wins back it up, and the eye test backs it up. But history is littered with examples of teams that fell apart because egos couldn’t coexist—the 2004 Lakers with Shaq and Kobe, or the early days of the Miami Heat before they figured it out. The Lakers are dangerously close to becoming another cautionary tale.

The Fork in the Road: Implosion or Immortality

The decision the Lakers make in the next few weeks will define their entire season. They are standing at a fork in the road, with two wildly different futures looming.

Scenario 1: The Implosion Fear If LeBron refuses to adjust, insists on his 35-minute, high-usage, ball-dominant role, the team’s structure will collapse. The supporting cast will regress, the offensive flow will stall, and the 6-2 start will be rendered a temporary mirage. The Lakers will find themselves back in the mess of the last few years, a team of championship talent marred by chaos. The King will have destroyed the very realm he was meant to protect.

Scenario 2: The Unstoppable Vision This is the championship formula, but it requires unprecedented sacrifice. Imagine a scenario where LeBron James embraces a reduced role—say, 28-30 minutes per game. He comes off the bench as an elite “super sub” or, if he starts, he acts as an elite facilitator, focusing on off-ball movement and defense for the first three quarters.

The Facilitator: He becomes a secondary playmaker, leveraging his passing genius to feed the catch-and-shoot threats (Laravia, Smart) that Dončić and Reaves create.
The Closer: He saves his energy and usage for the final six minutes of the game, coming in with fresh legs to close out contests. Imagine a team where Dončić and Reaves carry the offense for 36 minutes, and then the greatest player of all time comes in to administer the final, decisive blow. This requires LeBron to do something he’s never done before: prioritize the team’s system over his personal legacy.

The Lakers have built something undeniably special. Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves are playing at an All-NBA level. JJ Redick has given the franchise the identity, culture, and structure it desperately needed. They are winning without LeBron James.

When the King returns, the fate of the entire organization rests on a single, monumental choice: Will LeBron James sacrifice his throne for the good of the team’s success, or will the ego of a legend destroy the dynasty the Lakers have built in his absence? Can the King accept being a Prince? The biggest story in the NBA has just begun, and the world is holding its breath.