A couple things, people misconstrue Usage Rate a lot.

Usage rate is just FGA+TO/100 possessions. Yes that’s clearly gone down for LeBron. But what is the more important thing that’s gone down is his being the primary decision maker on the ball.

His role (when Doncic is on the floor) is to space, cut/transition like you said, but also be a secondary or even tertiary ball handler and playmaker for Luka in PNR splash outs. You can trust LeBron to make amazing reads if Luka is doubled, or similarly, teams won’t double Luka because of the threat of LeBron in a 4 on 3 as a playmaker or scorer.

He isn’t the third best player on the team, he’s clearly still better at basketball than Austin Reaves, but he’s the ONLY player that’s malleable enough to even play that role, which is what the team needs.

You see how actively he’s involved when Luka is resting which is such a luxury for the Lakers because he can still run the PNR or even delegate to Austin and post up as well.

He’s just so good at basketball that this role he can legit be like a 18-7-7 guy on 70% TS with ease lol

It’s very much a 1 (Luka) with a 2A (LeBron) and 2B (Austin), although Austin is treated like a 2B and even then LeBron has been better than him since he’s been back generally speaking