'I don't have much time left,' James says after making career-high nine 3s

Nearly 21 years ago, when 19-year-old LeBron James arrived in the NBA, he carried a lot of expectations from different people. Some were realistic, some were not, but few would expect him to make nine triples at 39 in his 21st NBA season.

However, that was his performance against the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City, on Sunday. Only one of his attempts from downtown didn't go into the hoop as he dropped 40 points for the Los Angeles Lakers.

But, when asked how long he plans to continue to play in the league after the game, James said, "Not very long. I'm on the other side, obviously, of the hill. I'm not gonna play another 21 years. But not very long. I don't know when that door will close as far as when I'll retire. But I don't have much time left."

For anyone who has been following James' games for more than a year, it's hard not to notice that his opponents always chose to leave him (relatively) open outside the 3-point line as a regular part of guarding him. Nonetheless, he has averaged 2.2 triples at career-high 41.6 percent per game so far during the 2023-24 campaign.

"It's still surprising," Anthony Davis said of James' shooting. "Like I said, the way he was shooting them, the runout in the left corner on their side of the floor, I mean, he's one-twoing into it, he's hopping into it, he's fading. I mean, he was doing everything tonight from the 3-point line. … It was masterful just to sit here and watch that. He got us separation."

Even though he's the first and only player in NBA history to surpass 40,000 points in his career, James was the scoring champion only once in the 2007-08 season. Many still tagged him as an epic playmaker who has one of the most complete set of offensive skills. He surely is, but that doesn't mean he is also a heavily underestimated as a scorer, who has so far averaged 27.1 pointer per game in his career.

Of course, James' style of attacking has been evolving since he became an NBA player. Early in his career, he had one of the best combinations of size, power and athleticism in basketball history. No one had ever seen anything like this and had no idea how he should make the best use of his talent. Neither did even James himself know that. That's why he looked unstoppable offensively during most occasions, but he was not playing in the right way. He is a 2.03-meter-tall forward with explosive athleticism, but that didn't justify making him play like a classic swingman who shot too many two-point long jumpers in those years.

James' first major change came in 2008 when he began to cut the quickness and height of his jump shooting. On one hand, he continued to put on more and more weight, which enhanced his power advantage, but made it more difficult to keep balance when he pulled up to shoot. On the other hand, he was learning better and better in exploiting screens set by teammates, which gave him more time to adjust and maintain the same shooting form.

In the 2012-13 season, James shot over 40 percent behind the arc, in the middle range in total and in two-point long jumpers. The Heat secured 27 consecutive wins, the second-longest winning streak in league history, during the regular season before winning the title.

Having begun to lose weight in 2014, James went through some ups and downs with his jump shooting, but his offensive efficiency continued to grow in general, mainly because he conformed to the trend of cutting mid-range jump shooting and increasing triples as well as charging the rim in his attacks. He could still make those fadeaway shots, but two-point long jumpers made less than 10 percent of his shooting choices this season.

James has a $51.4 million player option this summer. He has multiple options including retirement, staying in the purple and gold on deals that range from one to three years for as much as $164 million, or joining another team for a little bit less money.