One old and the other thin! How much future does the Lakers have?

Before entering the new season of 2025, the Lakers' focus dual cores, James and Doncic, one of them chose to lose weight and reshape their bodies, while the other seemed to gradually retreat from the team's core position to the second line. On the surface, this team seems to be gradually improving, but even if the main players are in excellent form, if the team lacks clear leadership and chemistry, then their future prospects may still not be worthy of prominence.

For the Lakers, the biggest news this summer should be Doncic's successful weight loss. Judging from the video after he lost weight, at least he showed faster maneuvering speed and ball-holding flexibility.

As the core of the new era, Doncic has comprehensive skills and excellent football players, but in the past, he has always been slightly distorted due to his size, which has often easily exposed his fatigue in high-intensity confrontations, especially in the playoffs. Because of these factors, this slimming move allows him to participate more effectively in defensive rotation and conversion offense.

In contrast to Doncic, James's age. As a historical star, James' on-the-scene efficiency and football maker are still able to gain an advantage, which is an irreplaceable part of the Lakers' current, but the decline in age and physical fitness is also a reality that cannot be ignored.

From a less optimistic perspective, even though Doncic completes a slimming transformation this summer, there are still some obstacles for him to truly lead the Los Angeles Lakers at this stage, mainly because James is still in the core position of power in this team.

Even if Doncic has the top ability of a modern ball-handling forward, in a special environment like the Lakers where superstar culture accounts for a considerable proportion, he is destined to be the senior vice behind James, rather than the real number one coach at the tactics and team system culture.

At present, the Lakers' tactical operation is still centered on James. Even though he grows older and his average playing time is declining significantly, he still occupies an absolute first voice in game decision-making, ball rights allocation and tactical dominance. Under this structure, any superstar with ball-control attributes must make the first requirement in advance, which is to learn to adapt to James' system, rather than establishing a self-offensive model.

From this part, this happens to conflict with Doncic's playing style attributes. Since entering the league, he has been given the role of the first core main controller in Dallas. Whether it is tactical launch or the last attack on the offensive end, it is basically operated and arranged with Doncic as the core.

In short, Doncic is not the second star like Clay and Holiday who can be content with roles such as those who can play off the ball and make up for the defense. His greatest value lies in organizing the entire team and controlling the offensive rhythm of the game, which happens to be highly overlapping with James' Lakers role. Once the two coexist, there will be a significant mutually exclusive effect in achieving a clear division of labor.

If the running-in effect is excellent, it will naturally be able to achieve a 1+1>2 effect. From the opposite perspective, it can instead lead to problems such as stagnation of the team's offensive or ball rights conflict, thereby weakening the team's overall offensive efficiency.

To sum up, for the next stage of the Lakers, Doncic's weight loss choice is obvious enough. At least he is ready to enter the next stage of his career. He is no longer just collecting personal data and honors, but truly moving to the championship-level team leader.

But it is undeniable that James still occupies a considerable role in the Lakers, and the team is still in a situation where "it seems luxurious on the surface, but it actually has an internal friction crisis". A little carelessness will not only limit Doncic's style and leadership development, but also directly delay the Lakers' reconstruction and transformation progress.

For this cooperation between the old and new ball-holding team, it is still difficult to make people feel optimistic at present. It is not even ruled out that it will eventually be a 1+1