Dan Favale: What babbling buffoon suggested we start with such a loaded question? (Me.) I refuse to answer such a trap inquiry. (I’m going to.) Forced to choose (I’m here under my own volition, actually), I have to roll with…yes. LeBron James has made his last NBA Finals appearance. There, I said it.

Signing with the Lakers was not a basketball play. Plenty of other teams are within closer proximity to an NBA title. If remaining on his Finals treadmill was the primary concern, he wouldn’t have headed West for any team other than the Rockets—and, in an alternate universe wherein Tony Parker didn’t ruin Kawhi Leonard’s life, maybe the Spurs.

Joining the Lakers effectively means LeBron has punted on the next two years of his career. Have you seen the dudes they signed after him? I didn’t even realize Lance Stephenson was legally allowed within ear-blowing distance of Bron. Trading for Leonard doesn’t matter. It will, at this point, cost the Lakers much of their depth—which, by the way, comes in the form of inexperienced, in-progress youth.

Conserving cap space for next summer is the smart ploy. The Lakers can, approximately, carve out $38 million in room after accounting for the kiddies and next year’s draft pick and then stretching Luol Deng. Finding an unwitting team to swallow Deng’s expiring deal—if they don’t waive him before then—opens closer to $50 million in space. They can sign a star, an impact player and still have the option of parlaying the tots into another A-lister. And as a deeper cut: If Kentavious Caldwell-Pope looks at a three-year stint in the aggregate, he can sign for Jeff Green money and re-enter free agency in 2020 when L.A. owns his full Bird rights.

Whatever permutation the Lakers take around LeBron won’t be enough, though. The Warriors exist. They’ll continue to exist after Kevin Durant or Klay Thompson or Draymond Green leaves. (Bet on it being Durant). LeBron knows this. Absconding to Hollywood without other stars in place equates to a surrender at the mercy of their window. And syncing up with multiple stars would barely move the needle. Again: The depth factor is real.

Maybe in three or four years, after winning an Oscar for his co-leading role in Trainwreck 4, LeBron will return to the Eastern Conference at the age of 37 or 38 and resume his domination. But by this point, the Celtics and Sixers and Jimmy Buckets-Kyrie-KD-KP-led Knicks will have something to say about that.

Beyond switching conferences, again, I just don’t see it. There will be too many superior roadblocks standing in LeBron’s way even if Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram explode—including up-and-coming western superpowers like the Nuggets and Jazz and any team Tom Thibodeau isn’t coaching. This isn’t to say LeBron won’t play meaningful games again. He will. But the Finals? Nah. Not with the relatively blank slate to which he’s now willingly tethered himself in Los Angeles. Regardless of how much more breaks right for the Lakers, the path back toward the NBA Finals runs through too many more established juggernauts.

Adam Fromal: Right off the bat, I’m eliminating any possibility of falling into the cop-out trap. I won’t talk about how James will inevitably go the mercenary route late in his career, teaming up with whichever squad drafts LeBron James Jr. so he can form a super-loaded team and coast his way to one more title before beginning that full-time Hollywood career. Once he’s nearing 40, he’d be perfectly justified taking a one-year minimum contract with a preeminent power so he can add to his jewelry collection.

If that bothers you, blame yourself. We’ve done this to players by making rings the only barometer by which casual fans can possibly evaluate historic forces. Karl Malone and Gary Payton sought a title with the Lakers in 2004. Plenty more have since then (and before, as well). James shouldn’t have to be an exception because ring-chasing is somehow beneath a man boasting a resume of this caliber.

But that’s not in the spirit of this discussion because it has literally nothing to do with the current Purple and Gold. So for all intents and purposes, I’m pretending only a Finals appearances earned with the Tinseltown residents solves the original question. And the answer is still a positive one because of how fortuitously everything is lining up for 2019—an admission you’ve already made by pointing out the $38 million in possible cap space.

At this point, expecting a Kawhi Leonard trade would be foolish. Why should the Lakers give up any of their current assets for a player who’s been so heavily linked with Los Angeles that he’s still a near-lock to arrive in free agency next year? They can instead evaluate the youngsters’ strengths and weaknesses and rap skills alongside James during a season with capped upside. Lance Stephenson, Rajon Rondo and JaVale McGee aren’t dethroning the Warriors, but they’re also only on the books for a single season and have no bearing on future plans.

So what happens when the Lakers ink Leonard next summer and don’t have to sacrifice Lonzo Ball (a strong fit next to James who becomes a perfect sidekick if he rediscovers his UCLA shooting numbers), Brandon Ingram or Kyle Kuzma in order to do so? What if they poach away Kevin Durant or Klay Thompson from the Dubs, weakening their primary competitor while strengthening themselves in the process? What if Kemba Walker decides he wants to be a part of the next superteam? As we’ve seen in the Bay Area, some players are willing to take discounted deals in order to make the impossible, well, possible.

This exact scenario doesn’t have to unfold, but the realistic possibilities are endless. After all, the Lakers’ season will go one of two ways.

If Ball/Kuzma/Ingram/Moritz Wagner explode to prominence and convincingly look the part of future All-Star candidates, they’ll only add to the appeal of playing with LeBron Freaking James and wearing a Los Angeles uniform. Lakers exceptionalism isn’t dead yet, and that means discounted deals are inevitable. If they don’t, they’re still young enough to be shopped around for the missing part of the Lakers’ Big Three—also comprised of James (obviously) and a big free-agent signing (Leonard is most likely, but we can’t rule out Durant).

Beating the Warriors remains a Sisyphean task that requires near perfection, but that team is only getting increasingly expensive. We’ve never seen an owner willing to shoulder immense luxury-tax costs in perpetuity. The reign must end at some point, and no one is more suited to grab the reins than a Los Angeles-based squad armed with James, young talents and plentiful cap space.

Adding to that core after a year in which the four-time MVP plays in the right jersey is far different than attempting to expedite the rebuilding process during an offseason that must first feature him coming aboard. We have to think about all four seasons contained within his new pact, and you never know how quickly a dynastic force can come crashing down when it’s already existed for a full contract cycle.

Favale: Value can be found in the Lakers’ fluidity. Their cap situation is something LeBron never enjoyed with Cleveland or Miami. Perhaps looking at the rigidness of their roster structures each time he began anew has instilled some sort of appreciation for the optionality the Lakers promise him now. Kudos to James for that. Like, seriously.

Here’s my thing: Is Lakers exceptionalism really alive? Did LeBron pick them because they were the Lakers, or because they are in Hollywood with a lean-ledger outlook? For the sake of this argument, let’s assume the Lakers lore played into his decision. Great. Grand. Fine. Are free agents really tripping over themselves in the future to play with an aging LeBron? Kyrie Irving already forced his way outside LeBron’s shadow. Paul George didn’t even give the Lakers a meeting before re-upping with the Thunder. Kawhi Leonard might actually, potentially, possibly prefer the Clippers over being a purple-and-gold pawn on LeBron’s chessboard.

This has nothing to do with doubting the four-time MVP’s hold on the rest of the league. It wouldn’t surprise me if age-36 LeBron is still the best player alive. But his transcendence is a magnet for drama and speculation and general instability. Only so much of the latter gets kiboshed with his three-to-four-year commitment. For all he does, for all he will continue to do, for all the careers he’s made and saved and repurposed, LeBron is organically, inevitability grating. And whereas that didn’t matter when his twilight wasn’t even on the verge of being on the brink of entering the horizon, it matters now. His prestige is no longer hypnotic. Not to his peers. Which, honestly, kind of sucks. But it also means building around him via free agency, on the back of his stature among coequals and marquee hangers-on, is far from a bankable venture.

Fromal: Maybe James no longer holds as much sway with large swathes of the NBA, which is reasonable when he’s such a demanding teammate who commandeers the proceedings in a way that doesn’t always allow for his running mates to prioritize their strengths. That still surprises me, to be perfectly frank. It remains baffling that a player as talented as Paul George didn’t want the opportunity to suit up alongside a GOAT candidate. Leonard, as you astutely observed, may even fit under this umbrella, too.

However, this isn’t a universal truth, and that’s what allows for the revitalization of Lakers exceptionalism. It’s not that the Hollywood jerseys retain that much appeal in a league where superstars can develop organically in smaller markets (see: Antetokounmpo, Giannis), but the combination of their pull and James’ magnetism is rather powerful. That allure just works better on younger players who grew up watching James torch the league…which is actually a good thing as he attempts to attract talents in the coming seasons.

We saw this in Cedi Osman’s Instagram message thanking James for their mutual time in Northeast Ohio. We saw it in the enthusiasm displayed by Lonzo Ball after the 33-year-old made his free-agency decision—”My whole life I’ve been watching him, saying he’s my favorite player and then just to have the opportunity to be able to play with him, it’s really crazy.” And we’ll see it again, because temptation does exist for younger contributors with a chance to suit up alongside a living legend—maybe the living legend.

Perhaps this doesn’t manifest itself in 2018 additions, but we’re still looking at the full length of James’ contract with the Lakers. And the deeper we move into the future, the more ready the youngsters who grew up idolizing a certain small forward are to contribute toward a Finals push.

Favale: Putting the finishing touches on a picture-perfect 2019 or 2020 offseason doesn’t leave them enough time to win the Western Conference. That initial season will be lost—and by “lost,” I mean put to bed before the NBA Finals—while the Lakers forge the requisite chemistry. They’re not working with an all-time doozy like the 2016-17 Warriors following Kevin Durant’s arrival. Anyone who joins James will be more than a superstar accessory. They’ll be a necessity. And essentiality isn’t borne into concert. It is a process.

James doesn’t have that kind of time. The Warriors aren’t just abdicating their throne, even if he does. Durant may have wandering eyes, but again, they don’t need him. And lest we forget, other superpowers are on the come-up in Denver and Utah and, inevitably, somewhere else. The Lakers need at least two other headliners, along with credible depth, to keep pace. Yet they cannot get one without forfeiting rights to the other. The odds of both Lonzo and Ingram breaching the superstar threshold before Los Angeles flips one or both for the entrenched sidekick James will demand—and he will eventually demand him—by 2019-20 are not especially high.

It’s at this either-or impasse that Lakers Exceptionalism and reflexive faith in LeBron come undone. Nothing about their on-court marriage is a given, least of all its capacity to not only survive time, but improve with it.

Fromal: I’m willing to bet that if the offseasons vault into picture-perfect territory, we can reasonably count on James opting in (or out and re-signing) to that fourth year of his new contract. He has the luxury of time in this scenario, and I’m making you cave on this point since I’ve already willingly—and in unprompted fashion—abdicated the ability to count on a departure to a superteam forming in the Eastern Conference. Land one stud in 2019, count on growth from the up-and-coming incumbents, make a play in 2020 free agency, and the Lakers can still have 2020-21 to build up synergistic relationships before making the Finals push in the closing portion of this pact.

And it’s those up-and-comers who we’ve overlooked to this point. Focusing on Leonard, Durant and other established studs is easy, but it’s largely come at the expense of the players to whom James already has access.

FiveThirtyEight’s CARMELO projection system forecasts Lonzo Ball as a future All-Star earning 6.7 wins above replacement during both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 campaigns, and the confidence interval reaches all the way to an eye-popping 15 WAR (more than the 13 WAR James himself earned this year). Better still, that’s not yet baking in the inevitable shooting improvement we’ll see as he gains comfort at the NBA level; already, we’ve witnessed a 17-game stretch in which he fired away seven times per game from beyond the rainbow and connected at a 42.9 percent clip. The numbers don’t treat Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma as favorably, but they have more defined roles and have already shown flashes of immense upside in important areas.

James has multiple paths toward playing on top-tier teams, gaining stronger supporting casts through either internal improvement or external additions. Maybe one specific route doesn’t yield guaranteed Finals contention, but the wide-ranging wealth of possibilities makes it rather difficult to bet against the one player who has consistently proved impervious to doubt.

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