The Lakers' top offseason priority is to bring LeBron James back.

They want LeBron back on whatever terms he wants, which is something ESPN’s Dave McMenamin explained on the Rich Eisen show this week. (Los Angeles can offer LeBron up to three years and $164 million, no team can offer more than three years due to the over-38 rule.)

"The Lakers intend to have LeBron James come back on any term that he wants to, whether that be a one-year, two-year, three-year deal, whatever. They'd love to continue to have LeBron James in the purple and gold until he calls it quits, whenever that may be."

That is a basketball decision — he was the Lakers' best player, their primary shot creator and is still playing at an All-NBA level in his age 39 season. More than that, he was the barometer of the team's energy — when LeBron turned on his jets for part or all of a game, the level of play of everyone else on the team rose with him.

This is also a business decision — LeBron helps fill the Crypto.com Arena seats, sells sponsorships, brings in television audiences and is still the biggest player brand in the sport. Whatever the Lakers pay LeBron, he is more than worth it in the money he generates for the club.

If one of the terms of LeBron returning is drafting his son Bronny James, the Lakers are open to it reports Shams Charania of The Athletic.

The Lakers would not use their No. 17 first-round pick on Bronny, that would be far too high for a player scouts told NBC Sports has potential but is not yet NBA-ready and would need years of development (the Lakers want to trade that pick for a player who can help now). The Lakers also have a No. 55 pick and could move to get another second-round pick.

Is that what is best for Bronny and what he wants? Those are the real questions he and his family/representatives need to answer. He could spend time developing with an NBA team (meaning games in the G-League), or he could use the transfer portal to go to another college and grow his game there with more run, and maybe more in his traditional point guard role he didn't get to play at USC next year.

The takeaway from this is that if LeBron really wants it to happen, the Lakers will move heaven and earth to make it so and keep him in the fold. It's why Tyronn Lue's name keeps coming up in Lakers coaching search discussions when he is still under contract to the Clippers — that's LeBron's guy. (If you think Steve Ballmer and the Clippers are going to let Lue out of a contract so he can coach their in-city rivals, you probably think birds aren’t real either.) LeBron isn't going to be hands-on with this coaching search, but you can be sure the Lakers wouldn't
hire anyone he gave a thumbs down to.

LeBron has historically used this free agency leverage to get changes he wanted to see in an organization and while he may be more hands-off now than in the past, the Lakers are keenly aware of trying to make him happy.