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LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

Discussion in 'Lakers Discussion' started by therealdeal, Jun 8, 2017.

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JSM - Lakers Legend -

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I was thinking of another scenario where Bronny sleep walks until the draft so they can Austin Reaves it. If he goes in the second, Klutch and Bron maintain complete control of where they all end up.

JSM, Feb 21, 2022

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Has anyone asked if Bronny even wants to play with his dad?

Azndude2190, Feb 21, 2022

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Azndude2190 said: ↑

Has anyone asked if Bronny even wants to play with his dad?
Click to expand...

Is anyone asking if he's even good enough to play in the NBA? I've heard he isn't. It's LaGelo II.

OX1947, Feb 21, 2022

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SmoothOperator said: ↑

Another amusing thought that just popped into my head is what if the Lakers trade Lebron this summer, and then drafts Bronnie James in 2024. LeBron would come for the vet minimum lol.
Click to expand...

Brilliant!!

Wino, Feb 21, 2022

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OX1947 said: ↑

Is anyone asking if he's even good enough to play in the NBA? I've heard he isn't. It's LaGelo II.
Click to expand...

Lebron’s just going to strongarm a team to draft and play him with promises of him then signing with them in FA.

Punk-101, Feb 21, 2022

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A 2nd rd pick for Bronny, and James on a vet min? Hell I'll take that deal. Teams buy and sell 2nd rd picks all the time. Pftt..we only owe New Orleans this upcoming draft pick and the 24 pick. It's only pick swaps left. I don't get all the fuss over the subject. The kid will start out in the G league anyway, unless he grows another 6 inches or so.

Slick2021, Feb 21, 2022

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Rich Paul called SAS about the Houston report

JSM, Feb 21, 2022

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Marc Stein: Beginning of the end for LeBron in LA?

Dramatic drawn-out chalk toss before the opening tip? Check.

Halftime huddle with Michael Jordan after taking his place among the 76 starriest players in league history? Ditto.

Game-winning fallaway J from the right wing to seal victory in the All-Star Game less than an hour's drive from where he grew up? Count it.

It all came together Sunday night for LeBron James. Events transpired so perfectly that Karl-Anthony Towns and Draymond Green were caught on TNT's microphones afterward joking about how it was the exact sort of evening that makes fans wonder if the NBA really does have a scriptwriting division.

Sometimes you just get the storybook ending.

Just make sure that you've also noted everything else that happened during James' All-Star Weekend homecoming, because the real gravity lies within much of what led up to the fairy tale finish. Almost every word out of his mouth in Cleveland, until a glorious game day for LeBron and Akron-born Stephen Curry, sounded a lot like the beginning of the end of his time with the Los Angeles Lakers.

It doesn't take a great deal of detective work to deduce that James' recent spree of praise for GMs far removed from Lakerland, namely Oklahoma City's Sam Presti and the Los Angeles Rams' Les Snead from an entirely different sport, was LeBron's way of calling out vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka for the Lakers’ inaction at the trade deadline.

James is clearly unhappy with the Lakers' inability to fortify the roster before the Feb. 10 trade buzzer and seems to believe that applying pressure to management like he always has, through thinly veiled press-conference statements and social media posts that he knows will be endlessly dissected, is going to bend the Lakers to his will in the offseason.

Don't bet on it.

James seems to forget that the Lakers just consented to doing it his way coming into this season. With disastrous results.

I still have issues with the Lakers' shabby treatment of coach Frank Vogel across the past 2½ seasons. Letting Alex Caruso walk to Chicago because of luxury-tax concerns when the Lakers have revenue streams most rivals can't even dream of was an indefensible mistake. Yet there is little Pelinka can do now about the state of the roster. He has such limited options to make sweeping changes to the Lakers' 27-31 disaster of a team largely because they gave up so much to trade for the player James decided he wanted last July.

Perhaps Russell Westbrook becomes marginally easier to shuttle off after this season, when he will be down to the final season of his contract, but Westbrook's 2022-23 salary will still be a whopping $47 million when he (duh) exercises his player option. The Lakers' best options for a future Westbrook trade partner, meanwhile, are unlikely to appear significantly different than they did at the deadline. Would a deal for Houston's John Wall or a cluster of undesirable contracts from the Knicks thrust these Lakers back into the title mix?

At 37, James can still produce statistically like no one ever has at his age. He will almost certainly register the 1,828 points he needs to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the leading scorer in league history, which will glisten on his résumé like another championship ring. Yet James, in his 19th season, also needs more help than ever to contend for championships. The Lakers surrendered almost every last trade asset they had to flank James with Anthony Davis and Westbrook. It’s simply not enough given Davis' perpetually iffy health combined with Westbrook's clunky fit and ongoing decline.

The Lakers will be able to trade multiple future first-round picks in the summer, after they were limited to featuring a 2027 first-rounder in their recent trade offers. The problem: They still lack players other teams covet to package with those picks. James can seethe about the Lakers' fruitless deadline all he wants, but it doesn't make Pelinka's hand any stronger.

It's equally fair to wonder how much he's alienating the Lakers in the process. Pelinka has the unwavering support of Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and is firmly entrenched as a pillar of the club's four-pronged brain trust alongside Buss and the power couple of Kurt and Linda Rambis.

For all of the justified credit James deserves for hauling the Lakers out of the worst period in franchise history, steeling them through the tragedy of Kobe Bryant's death and delivering a championship after a hard-to-believe six straight seasons out of the playoffs, continued shots at Pelinka might not be so swiftly forgotten.

Remember: This is an organization that has cut ties completely with Lakers icon Jerry West, who has a legit claim to Greatest Laker Ever status when you combine his playing achievements with his front-office work. James and agent Rich Paul, for all the perceived control they wield, are still outsiders when it comes to the Lakers' power dynamics. If West can be cut off, rest assured LeBron can, too, if he can no longer lift the Lakers out of mediocrity.

Big decisions await for all these parties in August, when James is eligible for a two-year contract extension worth nearly $100 million. Without an extension, James becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 2022-23 season. Would it be better for the Lakers to work with James on a trade rather than re-sign him to such a pricey deal when the LeBron-centric Lakers are repeatedly landing nowhere near the league's elite?

Another fair question.

James made a Lake Erie-sized splash on Saturday with his disclosure to The Athletic's Jason Lloyd that "the door's not closed" on a third stint with his home-state Cavaliers. One more fair question for the kid from Akron: Is he so sure that the Cavaliers want him back for a last dance?

After being reminded constantly that their franchise hasn't reached the playoffs without LeBron in uniform since (gulp) 1998, Cavaliers team owner Dan Gilbert and president of basketball operations Koby Altman preside over the league’s surprise squad this season, led by a youthful trio they've drafted/acquired/developed: All-Stars Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen and rookie sensation Evan Mobley. It would take some serious public-relations stones from Gilbert and Altman to turn away the greatest Cav of them all if James indeed tried to maneuver his way onto the new-age Cavs, but I’m convinced both of them would have serious reservations about a reunion if they dared to speak freely about the concept.

James and Paul all but ran the Cavaliers during LeBron's second stint from 2014-15 through 2017-18. The run produced four consecutive trips to The NBA Finals and the first championship for any major sports franchise in Cleveland in 52 years, but it also included a final season that saw James, as freshly recapped in a piece Monday by my longtime former ESPN colleague Brian Windhorst, essentially staging a midseason strike to force the trades he wanted.

I have serious doubts about the Cavaliers' willingness to sign up for that sort of marriage again when they're building their own thing quite impressively. They'd have to balance the lure of a renewed title bid, by adding James' old head experience to such a promising on-the-rise core, against fears he'd try to overrun the place anew. How Clevelanders would truly feel about a remarriage is another substantial question mark, given James has bolted twice and just went out of his way — yet again — to spell out to my pal Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times in this great piece about his hometown: "There's no disrespect to Cleveland. But when you're from Akron, you're not from Cleveland."

On top of all the recent potshots, who knows what sort of chaos and discontent looms for the rest of the season with the Lakers in legit danger of missing the playoffs? We'll soon find out how much juice James still has left at Crypto.com Arena once those extension talks, previewed nicely here by Bleacher Report's Eric Pincus, commence.

For all the fanciful talk of playing alongside his son Bronny James in his final act — which I totally get as a father because I would likewise do just about anything to be around my 18- and 15-year-old sons much more than they let me these days — Bronny won't be draft-eligible until June 2024. Dad has loads to figure out before then. And he’ll likely be doing so without the level of influence he is accustomed to exerting.

The Lakers won a much-needed championship in the Disney World bubble with James at the forefront in October 2020, but three of his four seasons in purple and gold have been marked by injury, tension and a spot far lower in the standings than his bosses anticipated. The Lakers have to be asking themselves: Should LeBron, at this stage of his career, be dictating terms to us just because other teams let him?

Sometimes you get the storybook ending. Yet even an all-time great like LeBron Raymone James would be wise to remember that, in unforgiving Hollywood, very often you don't.
Click to expand...

JSM, Feb 21, 2022

#16988

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Slick2021 said: ↑

A 2nd rd pick for Bronny, and James on a vet min? Hell I'll take that deal. Teams buy and sell 2nd rd picks all the time. Pftt..we only owe New Orleans this upcoming draft pick and the 24 pick. It's only pick swaps left. I don't get all the fuss over the subject. The kid will start out in the G league anyway, unless he grows another 6 inches or so.
Click to expand...

The fuss is over the quotes LeGM made through Klutch about not being happy.
All of the Bronny stuff has been common knowledge for awhile now.

FrontOfJersey22, Feb 21, 2022

#16989
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JSM said: ↑

Marc Stein: Beginning of the end for LeBron in LA?
Click to expand...

Great read

pika1708, Feb 21, 2022

#16990
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JSM said: ↑

Rich Paul called SAS about the Houston report

Click to expand...

Hmmmmm. Who to believe? Oh, the drama.

FrontOfJersey22, Feb 21, 2022

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If Lebron bails after next season and THT is still around, we have 73 mil cap space. I'm assuming we will have Austin Reeves on the books too. Hopefully, Rob can do a lot better than the bags of money he just threw at THT. Some available players are:

First Tier:

Nikola Jokic
Bradley Beal (has PO this summer may very well opt out to resign)
Kyrie Irving
Khris Middleton
James Harden

Second Tier

John Wall
Myles Turner
Andrew Wiggins
Draymond Green
Bojan Bogdanovic
D'Angelo Russell
Caris LeVert
Nikola Vucevic (32 by then)
Christian Wood
Jerami Grant
Kemba Walker
Steven Adams

Third Tier

KCP
Brook Lopez (old)
Al Horford (old)
Jae Crowder (borderline old)
Danilo Gallinari (old)
Kevin Love (old)
Larry Nance Jr
Harrison Barnes (31 then)
Eric Bledsoe
Kelly Oubre
Dillon Brooks
Derrick Favors

Alcindor, Feb 21, 2022

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Marc Stein article from Monday afternoon

https://marcstein.substack.com/p/be...ampaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=direct

The Rock, Feb 21, 2022

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Anybody got access to the Athletic? Just posted a few mins ago

From Jason Lloyd's article last Saturday

Lebron's exit plan in motion

https://www.forbes.com/sites/morten...oundation-for-lakers-divorce/?sh=3303f9da15b3

This is what James does. He barrels through an organization, puts them on the map for a few years, wins them a championship or two, and leaves after depleting their entire asset trove. The teams are left picking up the pieces, often having to spend years rebuilding, with little maneuverability.

Is it a trade-off most teams are willing to live with given the ever-eluding championship?

For the Cavaliers, a small-market team that without James would most likely still be chasing their first title, it's absolutely worth it.

For the Lakers, one of the most historic and accomplished franchises in the history of sports, probably not. Especially if James also drags their reputation through the mud in the meantime.

After all, why should the Lakers' front office accept full responsibility for this season, when James was a driving force in building the team in the first place? It's one thing to turn the blind eye if you're on the path towards a championship, another if you're four games under .500 and aren't even guaranteed a playoff spot.

James' inability to take ownership of his own misjudged decision, while intentionally turning the Lakers front office into scapegoats, is something that should lead to a high-profile divorce in the summer.

Of course, the front office and ownership are far from blameless, having signed onto the Westbrook experience willingly. Criticism should fall at their feet for that. Instead of playing to James' whistle, they should have had the guts to stand up and tell The King no.

They should have told him his evaluation of Westbrook was off. They should have told him it would make a bad fit. They should have told him he has never flourished with that archetype of player before. And if they somehow agreed with James’ assessment of Westbrook, that too deserves criticism.

That falls on them.

But for James to keep pushing this narrative of front office incompetence, which is a blatant attempt at him coming out smelling like roses, is presenting the public with a gross misinterpretation of the course of events.

The best road forward for all is to acknowledge the Westbrook experiment failed, and for both sides to come together and start over for next season.

As it stands, however, that seems optimistic. Way too optimistic.

James' avoidance of his own responsibility, combined with the Lakers' need of coming off as being an in-control historical franchise, is ultimately going to crash. More than likely, it'll lead to James playing in new colors next season.

For the Lakers front office, reading the tea leaves will be crucial. James is signed through next season at $44.4 million and is currently not in possession of a no-trade clause, which means the Lakers have full control over his destiny, should they wish to trade him.

Of course, that conversation isn’t for now. And any trade would likely happen in dialogue with James and his people as to appease everyone. That said, James’ pressure on the Lakers, and his refusal to take responsibility of his own role in this season, isn’t exactly a strong sign of a continued working relationship.
Click to expand...

Last edited: Feb 21, 2022

The Rock, Feb 21, 2022

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Why do we allow Bron to dictate every turn? Trade him this off-season for a stud (with a few years on their contract) and a bunch of draft picks.

Otherwise he leaves and we get nothing in return.

John3:16, Feb 21, 2022

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Alcindor said: ↑

If Lebron bails after next season and THT is still around, we have 73 mil cap space. I'm assuming we will have Austin Reeves on the books too. Hopefully, Rob can do a lot better than the bags of money he just threw at THT. Some available players are:

First Tier:

Nikola Jokic
Bradley Beal (has PO this summer may very well opt out to resign)
Kyrie Irving
Khris Middleton
James Harden

Second Tier

John Wall
Myles Turner
Andrew Wiggins
Draymond Green
Bojan Bogdanovic
D'Angelo Russell
Caris LeVert
Nikola Vucevic (32 by then)
Christian Wood
Jerami Grant
Kemba Walker
Steven Adams

Third Tier

KCP
Brook Lopez (old)
Al Horford (old)
Jae Crowder (borderline old)
Danilo Gallinari (old)
Kevin Love (old)
Larry Nance Jr
Harrison Barnes (31 then)
Eric Bledsoe
Kelly Oubre
Dillon Brooks
Derrick Favors
Click to expand...

Out of first tier, the only big name that seems a possibility is The Joker.
Out of the second tier group, Wiggins is interesting because he’s rounded out his game, but if he’s still playing well, the Dubbs won’t ever be hurting for money.

FrontOfJersey22, Feb 21, 2022

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If Lebron is gone then so will AD. It would be time to sell high on the big 3 and collect draft picks. ^ I don't want any of those guys for a max salary. Develop the picks + try to sign 1 or 2 star through FA or try to acquire stars who are 1 year away from leaving (ala AD).

The Rock, Feb 21, 2022

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i'm not sure i agree with forbes that lebron's summer exit is probable. that seems like click-bait speculation to me.

remember: even with his no trade clause, that team has to pony up 40+ million in cash in trade (no cap space squad is in the running if he wants to compete for a title next year). unlikely that someone has that much useless junk, as we found out in the westbrook trade. so, the only mistake we can make now is doubling down on the westbrook failure and further emptying our assets.

yes, we should have not done that trade. but it's over. and i love that we didn't do anything dumb at the deadline to make it worse. let lebron gm himself somewhere else if he wants. recent history suggests we might win in this scenario.

abeer3, Feb 21, 2022

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The Rock said: ↑

If Lebron is gone then so will AD. It would be time to sell high on the big 3 and collect draft picks. ^ I don't want any of those guys for a max salary. Develop the picks + try to sign 1 or 2 star through FA or try to acquire stars who are 1 year away from leaving (ala AD).
Click to expand...

don't think that's a guarantee. AD doesn't possess a NT clause, right? and he's got two full years left. we could send him to siberia (sacramento) to finish out his prime. yikes. i think klutch will want to play nice with us. hell, they might deliver us stuff so we don't ship AD.

abeer3, Feb 21, 2022

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abeer3 said: ↑

don't think that's a guarantee. AD doesn't possess a NT clause, right? and he's got two full years left. we could send him to siberia (sacramento) to finish out his prime. yikes. i think klutch will want to play nice with us. hell, they might deliver us stuff so we don't ship AD.
Click to expand...

Or we put Lebron/AD in the same multi team deal this summer even if they're not going to the same team. Best way for Lakers to get at least 2-3 up and coming players + multiple draft picks. Klutch gets a say in which team they want those guys to go as long as they drain the other team of their assets in return to us.

The Rock, Feb 21, 2022

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