LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

we don't have to live an entire season of a farewell tour, so their is that.

I wish him well.

But we have to go young now. I'm intrigued by some of our young talent and actually wouldn't be opposed to playing a bunch of our young guys to see who we can develop while gathering some assets for further moves once we assess what we actually have. I don't think the cupboard is as bare as some think.

But I do agree that if either of Luka or Reaves is injured we will struggle.

 

Fischer's latest

 

I love LeBron, but I’m so glad we don’t have to deal with Rich Paul anymore I can’t stand that dude.

 

I mentioned this in the FA thread. His wording on wanting to play meaningful competitive basketball seemed like a shot at our plan for free agency this year.

I’m sure they said to him: we’re going to max Reaves and let everyone else go and try to get a RFA center for the max. At which point we can’t then bring you back for 10-20m and fill the rest of the team out with what’s left out of free agents.

Everyone knows RFA’s most of the time stay with their original team. So we could have been left with egg on our face. Plus letting great players go is never a good look and not going for cheap game changing players like Stewart/Claxton/Ellis etc that were all within our ability to sign.

That’s the feeling I have and what broke the camels back.

As for us, I don’t think the lakers FO really cared about Lebron coming back or not that much. Otherwise we would have played things differently. We got our main guy Luka and we’ll see if we can get a team around him. But not in a rush.

 

He truly is a Joker/Lex Luther level villain. How'd he know.

 

this is reasonable on both sides to me. we asked that he wait and see what we could do; he said i'll wait and see what everyone can do. and that's fine. i do think him making it everyone but us was a bit petty, but whatever. there's a chance that he's foregoing an opportunity to be in the best possible situation just because he wants to stick it to rob.

like imagine we DO get kessler or duren. lebron signs for the same vet min he's supposedly considering elsewhere (or, really, we just didn't sign mamu, and lebron takes room exception). is that team not better than what gs is going to be able to do? cleveland?

i don't care. he'll keep taking shots; we have to worry about us.

 

At the end of the day it boils down to this

 

Oh yeah, right…. I forgot the mandatory “You thought you was Kobe? They don’t love you like that.”

 

well if we pin this thread like the Kobe one, maybe we know how fans feel?

I archive this if it's me, but I'm petty as heck sometimes

 

Welp, that explains why LeBron left.

Walker + Sandro + Grimes + Sexton and then asking LeBron to take a paycut obviously wasn't going to sit well with him.

 

I mean Lebron signing for the minimum on top of these additions probably would make us more of an contender than him going to Cleveland or GS

 

Who?

 

We're likely better than any team he joins

 

Instead of Grimes and you added Ellis + Smart, LeBron at vet minimum would change everything for this current Lakers roster.

 

He is full of crap. It’s not about winning or he’d take a discount.

 

Time to lock this thread!!!!

 

well, if he's taking the minimum, that's not true, but i share the general sentiment. had he given us the same grace he gave everyone else, maybe approach the offseason slightly differently.

whatever, he's gone. very ready to move on.

 

I am excited (along with nervous) for the future but I’ll be damned if I’ll be celebrating the fact that he’s gone. I was hoping he’d finish his career here. We were awful when he arrived with no immediate end in sight. He decided to come here without another star immediately unlike previous stops (Miami, 2nd stint in CLE). I remember the day the signing was announced like it was yesterday. He brought us a championship. Helped us get through the pain of losing Kobe. It will always bother me that there was never a parade for 2020.

I am very grateful for him spending the most years of his career in one stop here. I think Rob could have done better during the LeBron/AD era than he did. Sure the Westbrook trade he likely had a hand in it. But not bringing in a center after winning a title with the Dwight/Javale combo was always perplexing to me. Losing Caruso for nothing.

The fact that he wouldn’t sign for the minimum with us is just odd to me also. With this current team plus Bron we’d be a contender. Right now, I think we’re still a little ways away.

Either way, it’s a new era, and I’m hopeful for the best.