LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
LeBron James will be turning 36-years old this season and while most players who are that age are in the final few years of their career, James looks like he could play for another 5-8 years if he wanted to. He not only led the league in assists last year, something he had never done in his career up to this point, and passed the late, great Kobe Bryant for third on the NBA’s All-Time Scoring List.
Last season, LeBron James averaged 25.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 10.2 assists, while shooting 49.3% from the floor, all while saying he took a back seat to Anthony Davis, allowing him to be the leader of the Lakers moving forward.
Whether you want to believe it or not, LeBron James is not only still playing at the high-level he played at when he won his last MVP in 2012-13 with the Miami Heat but may be even better now than he was then.
LeBron is definitely the best passer in the entire NBA and as the game has turned into more of a three-point shooting league, he has quietly been improving from beyond-the-arc as well.
While LeBron James is not the type of three-point scorer that James Harden and Stephen Curry are, LeBron is more than capable of knocking down three-pointers and shot 37.0% from deep during the Lakers’ recent postseason run.
If LeBron James continues to play at the high-level he has been playing at as he continues to inch closer to 40-years old, it will be really hard to make the case not to give him the MVP award over the course of the next few years and if he leads the Lakers to another top seed in a crowded Western Conference, he may very well earn MVP honors for the 2020-21 NBA season.
