Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on LeBron: "Just watching the games, it just looks like there's no basketball over there. It's just playing pickup. It's hard to watch sometimes. So from me to him, just get the team together, and I just want to see that spark in him again."

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"Right now, LeBron is thinking for everyone instead of just being LeBron," Frye said. "And it's just like, damn. You just want to see him be able to just -- I don't want to say relax, not relax -- but to be sort of one-dimensional. Do you need him as point guard? Do you need him as off guard? Where do you need him? And he does that.

"Not like, 'Hey, LeBron ... we just need you to do a little bit of everything.'"

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who teamed up with James to win a title with the Lakers in 2020, said that the more shooting you put around the four-time MVP then, the less he looks for his own 3-point shot. Not that James hasn't improved from the outside as his career has progressed, but even with him making a personal-best 2.9 triples per game last season on a respectable 35.9% clip, he shot 79.6% on shots at the rim.

And James ended up taking 448 shots beyond the arc versus 397 shots around the iron last season.

"The spacing was great," Caldwell-Pope told ESPN before the Oct. 26 Lakers-Nuggets game about his time with James in L.A. "The spacing gives driving lanes for Bron and AD, where Bron didn't like to shoot as much 3s. So it gives him driving lanes, and when he does see the help, he's a tremendous passer and he would find us."

Like Frye, Caldwell-Pope said he hopes James is set up to be the best version of himself as he goes through the twilight of his career.

"Just watching the games, it just looks like there's no basketball over there," Caldwell-Pope said. "It's just playing pickup. It's hard to watch sometimes. So from me to him, just get the team together, and I just want to see that spark in him again. I don't think I see that spark in Bron. So, hopefully, he can get it back."

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