James could retire within two or three seasons with the Lakers. The Lakers are also looking for a successor to James. Who will be the Lakers' outside leader after James' retirement? At the moment, Russell has been traded, and he has been ruled out. And Reaves doesn't seem to have the ability to be an outside leader, as his physical gifts are easily limited by the opponent's targeting, and he also has a clear weakness on the defensive end. Looking at the last few games, we have become more and more aware that the Lakers want to focus on developing Christie.

In today's game against the Trail Blazers, Christie scored 28 points on 5-of-9 shooting from beyond the three-point line. This is a new career high for Christie, and Christie's overall performance in recent times has been very good, contributing more than 15 points in almost every game. We can clearly see that Christie has increased his self-confidence since he entered the starting line-up, and he is slowly starting to open up. He's a very good defensive player in his own right, and the offense seems to be slowly being developed these days.

Everyone was talking about the right thing for Pelinka to re-sign Christie in the offseason, when many thought it was a mistake made by the Lakers to offer him a four-year, $32 million extension. But for now, it was a smart choice for Pelinka. Christie is only 20 years old, and from his personal technical point of view, he has no obvious weaknesses, and his skills are not particularly refined, but he seems to be able to do a little bit of everything, and this kind of player has a lot of room for improvement. Under Redick's tutelage, his progress will be meteoric.

After James retires, the Lakers must elect an outside leader, Reaves' ceiling seems to have been sealed, and Christie now seems to have the potential to become an All-Star. His style of play is also more appealing, because Reeves' style of play is prone to disgust, and frequent fouls can affect the perception of fans. And Christie's style of play is somewhat like Kobe's style of play. A small part of the reason why the Lakers renewed his contract may be because he is somewhat similar to Kobe, both in terms of appearance and personal play. So many fans are very much looking forward to Christie's growth, if Christie can become a star, then he is likely to capture a lot of fans, because many fans will transfer their feelings for Kobe Bryant to him.