With the NBA season fast approaching, TSN.ca takes a look at the big storylines around the league heading into a campaign filled with intrigue in both the Eastern and Western Conferences. Today, we look at the challenges facing LeBron James as heads to Hollywood to try to resurrect the Los Angeles Lakers.

One of the enduring adages about Hollywood is that actors really just want to direct.

We’ve seen that with the likes of Clint Eastwood, George Clooney and, most recently, Bradley Cooper when their successful acting resumes have afforded them the opportunity to step behind the camera in addition to staying in front of them.

As LeBron James approaches the Tinseltown phase of his career, he, too, will have the chance to both star and direct in an ensemble piece that he hopes is more of a stirring drama than a slapstick comedy called, “The 2018-19 Los Angeles Lakers.”

Turning 34 in December, James has little left to prove.

A four-time MVP, James has taken eight straight teams to the NBA Finals, winning three of them. He brought his near-hometown Cleveland its first championship in nearly 70 years in 2016 before opening a school for underprivileged kids in his actual hometown of Akron, Ohio this past summer. He’s a cultural icon who transcends sports and has become one of the most famous figures in the world.

Heading into his 16th NBA campaign, James’s move to the West Coast is a natural one considering his ventures outside of basketball. He will be starring in Space Jam 2, a sequel to the 1996 Looney Tunes movie with Michael Jordan. His SpringHill Entertainment company has a number of productions already underway or in the pipeline, including Shut Up and Dribble (its name derived from Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s now infamous critique of James’s political leanings),  a Showtime documentary series looking at the activism of NBA players, that premiered last week.

But there is that matter of basketball and, from that perspective, James’ decision to join the Lakers is an interesting one.

It would, perhaps, be unfair to categorize these current pre-LeBron Lakers as moribund, but for the Lakers’ normal lofty standards, they were mostly irrelevant. Sure, rookie power forward Kyle Kuzma was a pleasant surprise and fellow freshman Lonzo Ball brought along with him father LaVar and his love for stirring the pot, yet this was a team that missed the playoffs for a fifth straight season. The halcyon days seem like eons ago.

The arrival of LeBron was supposed to herald the return of Showtime. Like with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade with the Miami Heat, visions of a Hollywood Big 3 with LeBron as its anchor danced in the heads of fans and – if we’re being honest – Lakers executives alike.

Yes, the young core of Kuzma, Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart are already capable NBA players and have the potential to be even better, but they aren’t headliners. They aren’t stars...at least not yet. If the Lake Show were coming back, it was going to need capital-N Names alongside LeBron’s on the Staples Center marquee.

Surely, lifelong Lakers fan and Los Angeles kid Paul George would be on his way. He was a free agent and the chance to don the purple and gold and link up with 14-time All-Star James would be far too difficult to pass up. As it turns out, it was surprisingly easy for PG13, who decided to re-sign with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Well, what about Kawhi Leonard? In the midst of a dispute with the San Antonio Spurs about treatment for a quad injury that kept him out for almost all of the season, Leonard made it very clear that he’d like to move on. Born in LA, Leonard would also jump at the opportunity to join the team he watched as kid. Of course, the Spurs don’t care an iota about a feel-good story that won’t help them iota and traded Leonard to the Toronto Raptors.

A new Big 3 wasn’t coming to the Lakers. But that didn’t mean new additions to flank LeBron weren’t on the way. There were – they just weren’t as flashy and not as impactful as George or Leonard. Oh, and stranger. They’re much stranger.

The crew assembled by Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka to surround James is filled with NBA curiosities.

There’s JaVale McGee, the former Shaqtin’ a Fool mainstay, who reinvented himself as a frontcourt roleplayer on two straight Golden State Warriors NBA Title-winning teams and could start for a team that is very thin at centre. The mercurial Lance Stephenson goes west, already a journeyman at 28, whose most famous moment in the Association came whilst guarding James during the 2014 Eastern Conference Finals when he decided to blow in LeBron’s ear. A former All-Star, Rajon Rondo became more famous for his petulance than his play, but his strong showing in the playoffs last spring for the New Orleans Pelicans make the 32-year-old diminutive point guard an interesting addition to the Lake Show. Then there’s Michael Beasley. The second overall pick a decade ago, Beasley finally gets the chance to play with James after he was dealt by the Heat to faciliate the signing of James and Bosh in 2010. While he’s never reached the heights that were prognosticated for him coming out of K-State largely due to his love of weed, the eminently quotable Beasley has emerged as a dependable roleplayer, averaging almost 14 points a night last seaon for the New York Knicks.

James and Luke Walton know that this crew of Lakers aren’t going to strike fear in the hearts of the Dubs or Houston Rockets atop the Western Conference, but in what should be a wide-open fight for the remaining playoff places, the Lakers should be right there in it. In James, the Lakers have the best player in the game and even as he is exiting his prime years, he’s still capable of willing a lesser team on to victory on his own like he did with an exceptionally ordinary Cavs team last season. This team in LA doesn’t have a player the calibre of a Kevin Love, but the squad surrounding James talent-wise is likely no worse than what he had in Cleveland.

Obviously, the young players on the Lakers have no winning pedigree, something that James has now become unaccustomed to in a teammate, but that shouldn’t stunt their growths. Swingman Ingram made great strides last season – often as the Lakers’ primary offensive creator with Ball missing 30 games due to injury – and could thrive as a secondary scoring option behind James. Kuzma, who averaged 16.1 points a game a season ago, will start from the bench with James around, but his offensive punch will be crucial to the second unit alongside Beasley. Ball, who is still recovering from knee surgery and will have his minutes limited in the early going, will also shift to a bench role with the arrival of Rondo. Ball was key to the Lakers emerging as a respectable defensive unit and will likely command more playing time as the season progresses. Of concern in the backcourt, though, is that neither Ball nor Rondo possesses a reliable outside shot.

While the Lakers should be firmly esconced in the playoff picture and maybe even fight for homecourt advantage in the first round, it’s important not lose sight of the bigger picture when it comes to this team. Even if the current supporting cast for James is underwhelming, it was never only about this season. Moneywise, the Lakers have the ability to add two max deals under the cap and will be major players in free agency next summer when the likes of Leonard, Jimmy Butler and, perhaps most enticingly, Kevin Durant will be available. Even before then, if a star becomes available for trade during the season, the Lakers should be able to offer an attractive package of young players and picks to facilitate a deal.

This Lakers team remains a work in process and there’s a very good chance what you see when the season kicks off won’t be the some club that heads into the playoffs. Still, the intent to return to the Showtime days is clearly on display and the arrival of James puts that plan into action. Maybe not just yet, but in the very near future, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will be ready for their closeup.