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I know LeBron would never buy it, but just imagine for a second that JJ convinces him to go for Sixth Man of the Year.
The team’s clicking. LeBron coming off the bench to ease the load on Luka and Reaves (and Smart, to a lesser extent), playing around 20 MPG: that would be nuts.

It’s not going to happen. But it would be awesome and, IMHO, really smart.

lebron and bronny riding the bench together lol what a beautiful site that would be

I'm dead serious, even not as naïve to think it has a hope in hell to happen.

LBJ reading the other team's offense/defense from the bench, along JJ. I don't see any downsides, for real.

Tell him it's something Jordan never got and this will put him ahead of Jordan in the goat debate lol

Rubios wrote:I know LeBron would never buy it, but just imagine for a second that JJ convinces him to go for Sixth Man of the Year.
The team’s clicking. LeBron coming off the bench to ease the load on Luka and Reaves (and Smart, to a lesser extent), playing around 20 MPG: that would be nuts.

It’s not going to happen. But it would be awesome and, IMHO, really smart.

I think that if there is a NBA superstar in the history of the game who could buy that role (especially at 41), that's LeBron James.

You can accuse him of many things but certainly not of having been an egoist guy who plays only for himself and doesn't trust his teammates.
And I think that with Luka who's basically been his favorite player in the league over the last few years (and reciprocally, LeBron was Luka's idol), there's almost no chance you will see an egos war at some point.

I just read an interesting article (it's in French but you can easily traduct it in English if you need) about how LeBron will fit in that Lakers team when he returns and what he can bring without disrupting its chemistry:
https://trashtalk.co/2025/11/06/lakers-quel-role-pour-lebron-james-a-son-retour/

He'd play more than 20 a game but I think it's more likely they'd make AR the 6th man.

Biff wrote:He'd play more than 20 a game but I think it's more likely they'd make AR the 6th man.

At this point of his career and with Luka out there, I don't think LeBron will care if he starts or not games.

What he will definitely care is if he is playing down the stretch (i.e. in the money time)

You start him and pull him early(ish) in the first. Stagger him and Luka until crunch time.

6MOY is actually one of the only accolades he doesn't have, that's how I would start to pitch that idea to him

It's not going to happen. And it's not to do with ego or whatever, but to do with getting warmed up, and then sitting and going cold.

You start him, even if you pull him a few minutes in while you stagger Luka, Reaves and LeBron until crunch time.

Has there ever been any true starter outside of Ginobili to accept a bench role? It's not simply not really a thing in the NBA.

lambchop wrote:Has there ever been any true starter outside of Ginobili to accept a bench role? It's not simply not really a thing in the NBA.

Jason Terry. Won 6th man of the year playing 34 minutes off the bench, third most minutes on the team. His quote about it was "I don't care if I start as long as I get to finish". Was considered the #2 option to Dirk in 2011 despite coming off the bench and was pretty much always their 2nd leading overall scorer who had nights where he could just go off

lambchop wrote:Has there ever been any true starter outside of Ginobili to accept a bench role? It's not simply not really a thing in the NBA.

Naz Reid, he could probably start for about 1/3 of the teams in the league, but signed for a smaller contract than he could have gotten elsewhere and a 6th man role.

even if it was a proven statistical best option, lebron would never do it

too demeaning for him

lambchop wrote:Has there ever been any true starter outside of Ginobili to accept a bench role? It's not simply not really a thing in the NBA.

Ginoboli was never a true starter.

I love how Rui can never move to the bench. It has to be either AR or LeBron. Famously Kyrie came off the bench in 2016 so Iman Shumpert could start.

Yuri36 wrote:

Rubios wrote:I know LeBron would never buy it, but just imagine for a second that JJ convinces him to go for Sixth Man of the Year.
The team’s clicking. LeBron coming off the bench to ease the load on Luka and Reaves (and Smart, to a lesser extent), playing around 20 MPG: that would be nuts.

It’s not going to happen. But it would be awesome and, IMHO, really smart.

I think that if there is a NBA superstar in the history of the game who could buy that role (especially at 41), that's LeBron James.

You can accuse him of many things but certainly not of having been an egoist guy who plays only for himself and doesn't trust his teammates.
And I think that with Luka who's basically been his favorite player in the league over the last few years (and reciprocally, LeBron was Luka's idol), there's almost no chance you will see an egos war at some point.

I just read an interesting article (it's in French but you can easily traduct it in English if you need) about how LeBron will fit in that Lakers team when he returns and what he can bring without disrupting its chemistry:
https://trashtalk.co/2025/11/06/lakers-quel-role-pour-lebron-james-a-son-retour/

I think some people will disagree about this

You can’t pay that kind of money to a sixth man and expect to win..

Sixth man is a completely overrated position.

20 mpg is criminal underuse. I would love for him to come off the bench but more in a ginobli role where he still plays 30-33 mpg.

TheNG wrote:

Yuri36 wrote:

Rubios wrote:I know LeBron would never buy it, but just imagine for a second that JJ convinces him to go for Sixth Man of the Year.
The team’s clicking. LeBron coming off the bench to ease the load on Luka and Reaves (and Smart, to a lesser extent), playing around 20 MPG: that would be nuts.

It’s not going to happen. But it would be awesome and, IMHO, really smart.

I think that if there is a NBA superstar in the history of the game who could buy that role (especially at 41), that's LeBron James.

You can accuse him of many things but certainly not of having been an egoist guy who plays only for himself and doesn't trust his teammates.
And I think that with Luka who's basically been his favorite player in the league over the last few years (and reciprocally, LeBron was Luka's idol), there's almost no chance you will see an egos war at some point.

I just read an interesting article (it's in French but you can easily traduct it in English if you need) about how LeBron will fit in that Lakers team when he returns and what he can bring without disrupting its chemistry:
https://trashtalk.co/2025/11/06/lakers-quel-role-pour-lebron-james-a-son-retour/

I think some people will disagree about this

Yup.

But I sure hope they go to him and say they’d like him to come off the bench. That’d be perhaps the great week of leaks ever.