LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

This and what @vasashi17 said.

I understand the not wanting a "mercenary ring" (I love the terminology by the way), but that's not what it would be in my opinion and my ideal scenarios. There are, the way I see it, completely plausible scenarios where we can add LeBron and George while keeping Ball, Ingram, and Randle. We've struggled for 4 years with Julius through some truly awful times and now we're finally at a point where he's playing at a borderline All-Star level. I want him here and there's ways to make that happen. We've got our homegrown kids in Ingram and Ball as well. Adding two stars would just essentially be the same thing we've always done: when we're ready we add a great piece and we make our run. We added Chamberlain. We added Kareem. We added Shaq. We added Pau. In an alternate universe where there's no NBA reasons we added Chris Paul and Dwight Howard.

This is the Lakers' legacy. That's what I'm seeing from this.

 

So basically my personal preference/opinion is wrong. Not sure how that can be, but ok. Repeatedly said it was only my top preference, explained why, never said it was the best or smartest option, never said I wouldn’t have it any other way. Also, Shaq became ours, for 4 years he fought and battled for us before finally gettitg the title, and again, with guys we drafted like Kobe and Fisher. Pau was not ours, but like I said, Kobe, Odom, Bynum, and a bunch of key bench players were. Pau is the Paul George of that scenario, a star I’m more than happy to add. I’d be more than happy to pick real’s option E, LeBron, PG, Randle, and almost all our young core. I don’t see why not wanting to trade our entire team to have LeBron, PG, and Davis is so wrong. It’s just my preference/opinion. That was the point of the poll, I assumed there was no “wrong” answer. We’d be lucky to get even one of these guys by the way, Lakers fans are getting super greedy with these scenarios.

 

If I said you were wrong I apologize. I don't think any of us are wrong, we're all just fans with different opinions.

Hopefully we're not all disappointed this summer and we all get something that we want out of all this.

 

Here's Pincus agreeing with a lot of the anti-LeBron crowd. Not a lot of actual information and the quotes he gets are actually more in favor of the "pro-LeBron" argument, but he still puts in writing a lot of the fears many of you have.

 

I’m not sure you did, but it’s no big deal either way, I threw the laughing emoji in at the end for a reason, this is discussion, it’s not that serious. I should have addressed this post at least, but not really the others because I didn’t feel like repeating myself word for word.

Paul George is the star add here, never said I was opposed to PG, and not sure how my post made it sound like I was against adding a star or 2 stars. No, he isn’t Wilt, or Shaq, but he’s probably better than Pau. Again, never said I didn’t want to add a star or even 2 stars, said personally I wouldn’t add 2 stars, then trade everyone for AD. I don’t believe it’s possible to keep BI and Ball in a trade for AD, I think it would take both to get him. If both could be kept and we could trade for AD to add to LeBron and PG, I do that in second, and I said that in my original post. Lastly, your final example is bad, because I hated Dwight Howard with a passion, rooting for him made me sick, and I was so happy when he didn’t stay. I gate Chris Paul too. I don’t want just any star, sometimes the price of my soul isn’t worth it, just my preference, some guys I can’t get on board with. Rooting for LeBron will/would be extremely difficult, but if I have to do it I will.

 

I don't think it's a bad example, it just looks bad in retrospect. At the time Kobe was still Kobe. We were only a couple years removed from our championship contention, but the spark was obviously gone. Had we gotten what were supposed to get: Kobe, Paul, and Howard I think things would have looked far different for us. I think we're back in the Finals again and Kobe ages far more gracefully. Howard turned out to be a complete idiot and of course things went sour, but I think there's an alternate timeline where the Lakers look like real competition again. Howard/Paul get you to the playoffs, Kobe gets you to the Finals. Kobe might have gone out with 9 Finals appearances and maybe one more ring.

Either way the point is that the Lakers add to their pieces when they're ready to make the run either by design or by chance, that's how we operate. We actually agree on Davis. I'm skeptical he's even available anyway, but if we have to trade most of the youngsters to get him, I think we're missing the point. What intrigues me so much about the two max guys added this summer is what it means for our kids. They get plenty of time to grow and develop and by the time LeBron retires and Paul George is in his mid-late 30s, our young kids are ready to take the step forward themselves which coincides with their contracts coming up too.

 

Sorry, I should have said your last example is “bad for me” or “doesn’t work for me”. The example was fine, it just made my point to me more than yours. Dwight Howard was a disaster. No real harm done with that one though as he left, and all we lost was a finished Bynum. Nash was the real disaster, as we are still paying for that trade. In the end I don’t think we’re really saying anything all that different, I even said your option E would be my top choice, but they didn’t make that a poll option, so suddenly I was an insane fan for choosing option C.

 

Nah I think we're definitely on the same page for the most part. I completely understand the homegrown argument too. It's difficult watching guys that we've been invested in go elsewhere. I would choose A with a heavy heart, knowing that watching Juilus in another jersey would be miserable. However, watching a lineup of Ball/George/Ingram/LeBron/Lopez with Hart/Kuzma/Cleveland Pick off the bench and probably a decent veteran or two would ease the pain. I think that team is likely still a Top 3 team in the NBA easily, maybe 2nd best overall.

I truly hope Magic and Rob have their creative minds working right now. Trade for Paul George. Find a way out from Luol Deng. Let's do what we have to so that we keep Ball, Ingram, and Randle as well as add two max guys (and hopefully Kuzma and Hart too although I could see them being moved if we have to).

 

...just to add that Abdul-Jabbar "suffered" for four years as well. Missed the postseason in 1976, swept by Portland in 1977 and lost twice to Seattle 1978-1979. Then Johnson, Cooper, Worthy and co. arrived.

 

That's cool.

That's like me saying "I don't even want to hook up with Scarlet Johannson".

 

I don't want to derail this thread or be seen as objectifying, but maybe you're looking at a different Scarlet Johannson than I am.