Before LeBron James exercised his option and his agent, Rich Paul, made his cryptic statement, Paul gave both the Lakers and Luka Doncic a heads-up.

If LeBron James wants to add to his NBA championship ring collection, which features one fewer than the late Kobe Bryant and two less than Micahel Jordan, then he must seriously consider splitting from the Los Angeles Lakers.

LeBron is the master of offseason passive-aggressive statements to get his team to spend. This is more of the same.