At some point, LeBron James has to age. He has to. But in 2019-20, his age-35 season, he finished second in the MVP voting, averaged double-figure assists for the first time in his career and won his fourth title.

With a 27-year-old Anthony Davis by his side, it looks like LeBron could compete for a few more titles. A dynasty may be in the making.

It's not guaranteed, though. NBA championships never are. If the King's decline happens more rapidly than anticipated, and the Los Angeles Lakers are unable to top the league again, this team could join a group of others that had a shot at a dynastic run but couldn't make it happen.

Jerry West's Los Angeles Lakers

When Jerry West hung up his sneakers in 1974, he, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor were fourth, first and 12th all-time in career win shares, respectively.

All three were together in two different trips to the Finals. West appeared in two more with Wilt after Baylor's retirement, and he had four with Baylor prior to Chamberlain's arrival for the 1968-69 season.

The only title the Lakers had to show for that run came in 1972. Thanks, Bill Russell (and, to a lesser extent, Walt Frazier).

There was an average of just 12.2 teams per season during West's career. That's a big part of why he faced the Boston Celtics in 38 Finals games. As good as Russell's Celtics were, though, that trio and Gail Goodrich were nothing to sneeze at.

The individual legacies of West, Baylor and Chamberlain are all obviously safe, but it's tough to look back on that era without feeling like L.A. could've had more championships.

Bill Walton's Portland Trail Blazers

Arvydas Sabonis, Vlade Divac and Nikola Jokic rightfully get a lot of credit for the evolution of playmaking 5s in the NBA. Bill Walton came long before any of them, and he was a game-changing defender, too.

During the 1976-77 season, Walton made his first All-Star team and averaged 18.6 points, 14.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 3.2 blocks and 1.0 steals. He was even better in the playoffs, leading the Portland Trail Blazers to the organization's only championship.

Prior to that campaign, health was a major concern for Walton, and it almost derailed his career after 1977. He ran a gamut of injuries that impacted his feet, ankles, knees and back.

Walton managed just two postseason games in Portland's title defense (which ended in the first round). And he wasn't able to get back to the postseason until he won a title with the 1985-86 Boston Celtics.

Without the intervention of injuries, Portland may have had the next Bill Russell (only Walton was a more efficient scorer). And on a team with multiple other All-Stars like Maurice Lucas and Lionel Hollins, that would've been enough to compete for more titles.

"If you talk to people who have been around the league, they'll tell you that if Bill Walton would have been healthy for a longer period, he might have gone down as the best center ever," longtime Portland Trail Blazers play-by-play man Bill Schonely said, per Portland Monthly's Casey Jarman.

Walton had the size, talent and skill to be the face of a dynasty, but his body had other ideas. Instead, that '77 Blazers team lives on as more of a folktale than a juggernaut.

Dr. J and Moses Malone's Philadelphia 76ers

The 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers didn't just win the title; they left absolutely no doubt about who the best team in the league was.

After a 65-17 regular season, star center Moses Malone predicted "Fo', Fo', Fo'." In other words, three sweeps through the playoffs. And he was close. The Sixers went 12-1 on the way to the title.

And though the best years of Julius Erving were behind him (1982-83 was his age-32 season), other members of the core were in or on the verge of their primes. Malone, Andrew Toney and Maurice Cheeks were all on the right side of 30, and Charles Barkley's arrival was just a few years away.

Establishing a dynasty in the 1980s would've been a Herculean task for just about anyone, though. Starting in that 1982-83 campaign, Philly averaged just over 51 wins per season and still had the third-best record in the league over that stretch.

The Los Angeles Lakers of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Boston Celtics of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish were at the peaks of their powers then.

Only five franchises—the Lakers (46 Finals games), Celtics (31), 76ers (16), Houston Rockets (12) and Detroit Pistons (11)—made Finals appearances in that decade.

John Stockton and Karl Malone's Utah Jazz

John Stockton and Karl Malone were both full-time starters for the Utah Jazz from 1987-88 to 2002-03.

Over those 16 seasons, the Jazz led the league in winning percentage, simple rating system (point differential plus strength of schedule) and effective field-goal percentage. They were tied for third in playoff wins and made two Finals appearances.

Unfortunately, the duo may be best known for its losses in those two Finals against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Despite being perhaps the league's most consistent team for nearly two decades, the lasting image of this group is, for many fans, Jordan's follow-through on the winning jump shot in Game 6 of the 1998 Finals.

Setting aside the late 1980s and the rest of the 1990s, Stockton and Malone had those two chances against MJ, plus another five years after his retirement.

Of course, they were advancing in years, but the Jazz still averaged over 50 wins per season during that post-Jordan vacuum. Numbers and accolades also suggested they should compete for a title.

Malone was the 1998-99 MVP with averages of 23.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists. And over the first three seasons after Jordan's retirement, Stockton's plus-11.3 net rating was the best in the NBA (among players with at least 1,500 minutes).

With those two legends, head coach Jerry Sloan and role players like Jeff Hornacek, Bryon Russell, Andrei Kirilenko and Mark Eaton, there must be some alternate universe in which this organization boasts a dynasty.

The Big 3 Boston Celtics

Few superteams in NBA history came together as quickly and brilliantly as the 2007-08 Boston Celtics.

After going 24-58 in the previous season, Boston acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to play alongside Paul Pierce. And the reaction was understandably excited.

"The Boston Celtics are back," ESPN's Bill Simmons, a noted Celtics superfan, wrote at the time. "Repeat: The Celtics are back. Even if we had to give up two top-seven picks and the best young low-post player [Al Jefferson] in the league to get there."

While similar offseason hauls often take plenty of time to coalesce—think about the 2010-11 Miami Heat, or even the Pierce-and-KG-led 2013-14 Brooklyn Nets—Boston's Big Three came together instantly.

The Celtics went 66-16 and posted the 12th-best simple rating system in league history. They allowed a preposterous 8.6 fewer points per 100 possessions than the league average. And, of course, they beat the Los Angeles Lakers to secure the championship.

There was plenty of regular-season success after that. The Celtics averaged just under 50 wins per season over the five years between the title and Pierce's and Garnett's move to Brooklyn. The Lakers and Heat were the only teams with more playoff wins in that half-decade.

But the trio only won the one title. Allen left for the Heat before the 2012-13 season, and age was clearly starting to work against Garnett and Pierce.

Just a few years earlier, in the summer of 2008, multiple titles felt like a safe bet for one of the game's most storied franchises.

KD, Russ and Harden's Oklahoma City Thunder

On June 21, 2012, the Miami Heat routed the Oklahoma City Thunder to end the Finals in just five games. The series wasn't terribly competitive, but it was hard to imagine any team in the league having a brighter future than OKC's.

The Thunder featured Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. All three were under 24 years old. And if they could just lock in Harden, they would almost certainly compete for multiple titles.

In exit interviews following the season, Harden said "a dynasty is being built." Four months later, OKC traded him and some salary-matching fodder to the Houston Rockets for Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin, a 2013 first-round pick that was eventually used to select Steven Adams and two lesser picks that became Alex Abrines and Mitch McGary.

Of course, Harden, KD and Westbrook all went on to win MVP awards. From 2012-13 to 2018-19, they were first, third and fifth, respectively, in wins over replacement player.

Hitting on three consecutive first-round picks like that is next to impossible. The Thunder did it. And then they broke the trio up after three years.

"How would our hypothetical great-great grandkids comprehend that trade?" The Ringer's Bill Simmons asked (h/t Dorian Craft of USA Today's Thunder Wire). "Three future MVPs made the 2012 Finals, all 23 years and under, they never played together again, and it happened because OKC wanted to avoid the luxury tax."