LOS ANGELES — LeBron James, already the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, has added another milestone by becoming the first player to reach a 23rd season. The unprecedented longevity now comes with visible signs of wear: sciatica sidelined the Los Angeles Lakers star for the first 14 games of 2025-26, and with his 41st birthday less than two weeks away, his statistical profile looks markedly different.
A scoring dip unlike any he has faced
James is averaging 17.6 points per game, down 6.8 points from last season. Among the 47 players who averaged at least 20 points in 2024-25, no one has experienced a larger drop. The slide includes an eight-point outing that snapped his NBA-record streak of 1,297 regular-season games in double figures.
The only other player to score more than 10 points per game at age 41 was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who posted 10.1 in 1988-89, but Abdul-Jabbar’s decline had been gradual. James had produced at least 25 points a night for 20 straight seasons before dipping to 24.4 a year ago.
Efficiency and volume both trending down
Data from GeniusIQ shows that for the first time since the service began tracking in 2013-14, James is underperforming his expected effective field-goal percentage. He is also handling the ball far less than ever:
- Usage rate: 24.2%; it would rank 47th league-wide after finishing 14th last season.
- Ball-handling time: 4.32 minutes per 100 possessions, down from 7.56.
- Drives: 8.0 per 100 possessions, compared with 14.5 a year ago.
- Isolations: 7.1 per 100 possessions, down from 11.4.
- Picks as ball handler: 10.7 per 100 possessions, a 59% drop from 26.2.
Even with fewer chances, he remains effective when he does initiate offense, ranking in the 83rd percentile on isolations and the 92nd percentile when using screens.
Shooting slump expected to correct, role change likely to stay
James’ true shooting percentage stands at 53.9%, on pace for his lowest full-season figure since his rookie year. He is shooting 62% at the free-throw line (career 74%) and 29% from three-point range after hitting 37% over the previous five seasons. GeniusIQ pose tracking shows no significant biomechanical changes, suggesting the shooting woes could ease, as has happened in several past mid-season slumps.
However, early-season trends in usage rates and play types typically hold, indicating the reduction in touches is likely permanent. Of the nearly 1,000 games in GeniusIQ’s database, James has logged fewer than five pick-and-roll possessions just five times—three of them this season.
Rotation choices underline a new hierarchy
In the seven games James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves have played together, head coach JJ Redick has not used James without at least one of the other two on the floor. Those three share the court for 90% of their available minutes, but the alignment has produced a minus-10 point differential in 132 minutes this season and a cumulative minus-32 in 695 minutes dating to last year, according to Cleaning the Glass. Their defensive rating in those minutes is 120.5, and their offensive rating is 118.3—identical to the Spurs’ ninth-ranked attack.
Conversely, lineups featuring Doncic and Reaves without James own a plus-15.3 net rating and score 122.9 points per 100 possessions in 585 minutes.
For now, the Lakers remain 18-7, but the franchise’s three-star formula is relying more on Doncic and a surging Reaves while James adapts to the steepest statistical adjustment of his Hall of Fame career.
Source: ESPN
