Part of the allure in Lakerland is that James won’t have to work as hard. Johnson studied video of various stages of James’ career to have an informed discussion about how they would and should lighten James’ load as a Laker.

And yes, part of it was that Johnson saw the problems Houston gave Golden State in the Western Conference Finals.

“Because they had multiple guys who could break the defense down,” Johnson said.

Easier baskets in transition—“We all have great defensive minds,” JaVale McGee said of himself and fellow veteran newcomers Rajon Rondo and Lance Stephenson—often via Lonzo Ball’s knack for rebounding and outlet-passing will fill Staples Center with the sound of James’ fast-break freight train roaring down the tracks.

James wants to play more like the young Lakers have, running and riffing without getting tired because of the front office’s mandate for no more than 8 percent body fat.

James is more of a kid-at-heart goofball than you would think given his global icon stature. Those close to James have no doubt that he will revel in the mentoring role—in part because it will be so much fun for the not-yet-old dog to be around so many eager pups.

James conveyed some of that to Johnson and Rob Pelinka in his meetings with the Lakers’ front office.

“LeBron made it clear to Earvin and me that it was one of the things he was so excited about,” Pelinka said. “We all know when you’re hanging around youth, it’s exciting. I keep thinking it’s going to add fuel to his rocket pack, just to be around young, energetic guys who play fast and play hard. There’s an innocence to being able to shape them and mold them.

LeBron James and Brandon Ingram embrace during Summer League

“I think a player at LeBron’s career stage, it’s going to be really incredible for him to feel like he’s giving back to the game and helping shape these young guys. He didn’t necessarily have that experience the way the Cleveland team was built. So we purposely wanted this team to be built very differently than the past one he has played with. I really think the youth is going to be a mutually beneficial thing.

“Bring joy back to him, being around the young guys, shaping their careers. And then of course the influence he’s going to have on making those guys better. We’ve seen that here before with Magic shaping a team, with Kobe shaping a team. Now it’s LeBron’s turn to have a blank canvas to put his imprint on the DNA of this team.”

It can work both ways: James raising the bar so the young Lakers’ basketball IQ can pass postseason tests, James operating freer and easier than when he looked like a sweat-soaked Northeast Ohio factory worker singlehandedly laboring so the company was getting something up out of the smokestack.

Of James’ field goals last season, 43.3 percent came after he held the ball for six or more seconds. That’s a higher rate of ball stopping than top point guards Damian Lillard (42.2) and John Wall (41.5), and it marked a huge jump from the 34.2 percent average of James’ previous four seasons.

There’s logic in James controlling the ball to make those genius basketball decisions, but there has to be a happy medium: James’ brilliance is all the more dangerous when the defense isn’t overloaded with five men in the box waiting for him to carry the ball.

It should be noted that James ran the end-around once before, turning away from isolation ball in Miami and evolving the modern game well before the Golden State Warriors did. The 2012 Heat won the NBA championship with their “pace and space” invention and undersized Chris Bosh at center.

The Lakers now want to create their own style that is not dependent on Golden State-level three-point splashing. A lot of it will revolve around James as a basketball savant, and the Lakers’ perimeter shooting will improve just from James’ elite decision-making efficiency.

LeBron made it clear to Earvin and me that it was one of the things he was so excited about. We all know when you’re hanging around youth, it’s exciting. Rob Pelinka

“If you really study LeBron, and Rajon Rondo and the way he plays,” Pelinka said, “these guys are so smart at creating angles and passing. The shooting windows for our other players are going to be bigger.”

James will do what he does, but the Lakers’ game will also be the purest Lakers incarnation of up-tempo Showtime this century has seen—with James willingly relinquishing some creative control. After all, Hollywood is supposed to have other great showrunners.

James is fully aware the Lakers can offer him this. Part of his elevated way of thinking the game is being a basketball junkie: watching and thus digesting an unhealthy amount of NBA action, sometimes more than one game at the same time. The Lakers have usually played at a later time slot than James, making it easier for James to take in Brandon Ingram’s diligent drives and Kyle Kuzma’s running hooks and appreciate the Lakers ranking second last season in fast-break points.

“He looks at the entire landscape of the NBA,” Pelinka said. “He looks at trades that have been made, he looks at how teams draft players, how they develop them, the style of play.

“I’m sure he evaluated all those things. For us, he was particularly excited about our young core, the toughness that they played with, and the fact that we have (salary-cap) flexibility to build something special.”

James told Johnson he admired the Lakers’ speed of play, but also how the young players looked ready to level up as professionals.

“He was big on that accountability and discipline and playing the game the right way,” Johnson said. “That’s what he liked about our players.”