Is LeBron James now the NBA’s best third option?

Each week during the 2025-26 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.

Last week: The list of NBA title contenders is longer than you think

Fact or Fiction: LeBron James is the NBA’s best third option

You know what’s fun? Watching film of Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James. Seeing him carve up the Miami Heat’s zone defense from the jump was chef’s kiss.

He’s so freaking smart and so freaking strong — and so freaking talented — that he can still make an incredible impact, even at 41 years old, when he’s a step slower (and lower) than he was when he was working as a perennial MVP candidate for a couple decades.

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He’s playing different now, mostly as a third option. He once was, of course, always his team’s leader in usage, facilitating nearly every possession one way or another. Even earlier this season, he was orchestrating the second-most plays on the Lakers, trailing only 27-year-old Luka Dončić, and the gap was not as sizable as you would like it to be.

After all, (and I don’t know if we mentioned this but) LeBron is 41 years old. It seems only natural that you would want to increasingly take the ball out of his hands and give it to Dončić, an MVP candidate in his prime, or Austin Reaves, another in-his-prime star.

But it’s not always that easy. This is LeBron James, who for 20 years controlled every aspect of his career, including about a third of his team’s possessions — the load of a superstar. It was as if he needed to hear the criticism that the Lakers were performing better without him, and they were, in order for him to accept a role as a tertiary option.

The Lakers began a recent nine-game win streak with three victories without James, running their performance in non-LeBron minutes to +0.6 points per 100 possessions. Meanwhile, they had fallen to -0.4 points per 100 possessions with him on the court.

James has flipped that on its face in eight games since returning from a left elbow contusion, as the Lakers have outscored opponents by 8.5 points per 100 possessions in his 35 minutes per game on the court, and they have been outscored by 5.4 points per 100 possessions in his 13 minutes a night on the bench. What prompted a change?

Well, for starters, James has completely committed to the bit as a third option.

As Dončić’s usage has risen to near-historic levels, LeBron’s usage has fallen from 27.1%, similar to ball-dominant stars like Paolo Banchero, Kevin Durant and Jalen Johnson, to 20.3%, akin to Payton Pritchard, VJ Edgecombe or OG Anunoby. Or league average (19.9%). That’s right: LeBron James is being used as a league-average player.

And it’s going great. Mostly because Dončić is playing incredible as a ball-dominant superstar, and when he’s doing that we have seen him lead a team to the NBA Finals.

You know what helps? Having Reaves and James, two more brilliant ballplayers, as second and third options, respectively, and having them in that order, specifically.

Consider what Reaves can do as a secondary creator, playing off of Dončić, and then have your mind blown by what James can accomplish as a third option. Remember: He is now mostly being guarded by a defense’s third option, too. As that happens, he can usually work his way onto Indiana Pacers center Jay Huff on the perimeter or Detroit Pistons wing Javonte Green in the midrange or Miami Heat guard Davion Mitchell in the post. It’s fascinating watching him still create mismatches, only off the ball now.

After all, LeBron James, the cutter, is lethal.

LeBron James, the screener, is deadly.

And LeBron James, the release valve, is a monster.

Just for fun, here are a few more minutes of LeBron doing cool, complementary stuff:

He can still get downhill. He’s still a god in transition. And he can still isolate in the right spots. But he is at his best now — or, more importantly, the Lakers are at their best now — when James is leveraging the weak side of a defense so focused on Dončić and, to a degree, Reaves. James is constantly putting pressure on the defense without the ball.

If you thought, You know what would be cool? LeBron James being LeBron James, only as a third option, chances are he did, too, in his brief three-game stint on the bench. If there is one thing he has learned in his 23rd season, it is this: He can trust Dončić and Reaves as basketball intellectuals on his level who will reward him when he does all the necessary work off the ball to bend a defense — cutting, screening, spotting up, etc.

At his peak, his effort on the ball was always noticed, but his effort off of it often went unrewarded, and one fed into the other. He wanted what was best for his offense, and all too much it was him doing everything, until he learned to trust Dwyane Wade, Kyrie Irving or Anthony Davis as creators on his level, and that is when he did his winning.

Well, something similar is happening now in Los Angeles, only for the first time in his career James is ceding control of the offense to two teammates, both Doncic and Reaves. When he finds trust in someone, it usually works out pretty well for his team.

We will see what becomes of LeBron James, The Tertiary Option, after this season, when he becomes a free agent, but this is what the rest of his career should look like — and who knows how much longer he could keep this up as a role player. Yup: LeBron James has found a role as a third option, and as it turns out, he’s the league’s best at it.

Determination: Fact.You taking LeBron or Chet Holmgren (our top third option entering the season, who has been more of a second option for the Oklahoma City Thunder this season)? Closer than you thought, right? When in doubt, go with the G.O.A.T.