LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

There’s our favorite move and shot for him to jack up.

 

Ouch. Lol

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ne-USYlbypM

Hopefully His three ball stays on point cause he's our best shooter as things stand.

 

Or when your leader won't shut the f*** up and just focus on what he's been hired to do.

 

"that's why i'm pushing for...a...kyrie irving...trade...?"

 

Well in his defense all Kyrie has to do is make open layups and not throw the ball out of bounds down the stretch and he’s already improved over Russ. Lol

 

Uh Lebron, you pushed for the worst trade in the history of professional sports this side of Dirk Nowitski for Robert Tractor Traylor. But what do I know. I airball layups, can't guard a stature, and shoot shots off the top of the backboard just like... nevermind.

 

The idea that we could possibly trade Westbrook for a superstar PG that fits seamlessly next to Lebron and AD, PLUS an elite shooting roleplayer is honestly insane.

Pursuing that deal should have nothing to do with Lebron. If your goal is to try to win a championship next season, it is a no brainer regardless of how much Lebron does or doesn’t want the deal. Sending out draft capital to maximize our current window does NOT necessarily equate to mortgaging the future on behalf of Lebron.

Letting the protection status of the future picks that we’d have to include in the deal be a dealbreaker, and therefore running it back with Westbrook, would be a terrible move. Doing so would seem less of a calculated basketball ops decision, but moreso of a “cut off your nose to spite your face” move aimed at the power struggle between the FO and Lebron’s camp.

Of course we should try to use our leverage to maintain as many of the picks and/or keep them as protected as possible. But to reject the trade on the basis of the picks if push came to shove, would mean that even with Kyrie you have so little faith in this roster’s ability to compete next year, you have resigned yourself to not winning again in the Lebron era, and are also expecting us to be terrible in 2027 and 2029. That would NOT make me feel better about the present or the future.

I don’t understand how you would be so willing to run it back with Russ and punt this season “without batting an eyelash”. My eyelashes would definitely be batting. Punishing Lebron for his role in bringing in Westbrook shouldn’t factor into the calculation of a Kyrie trade right now.

 

yeah. I think for the most part this is where I’m at with the whole thing. I’m not a Kyrie guy and have concerns, but he is a step up over Russ and if we can bring in Harris and/or Curry we’ve addressed a number of issues.


we’re not guaranteed a title with Kyrie and a couple of shooters but at least we’ve got a shot if we can finally get some good luck with injuries.

I know we won’t win with Russ.

I am okay with us negotiating the best deal we can but bringing back Russ is a nonstarter for me.

 

lol, and how is that? we already don't control our picks until 2025. so we'd have 2026 and 2028 (which couldn't be traded now). all for a guy who could change his mind again and walk in FA. or worse: take a huge extension and basically do what he's done in his last two stops.

am i taking crazy pills? has nobody paid attention to what irving has done basically since he came into the league (and certainly since he won the title with lebron). the dude's a loose cannon. there's a reason he's available, and there's a reason there's not a bidding war.

but the biggest issue for me is that i think lebron's cooked as a superstar and so maximizing his window is of no importance anymore. we got our ring. we need to think about building around AD or just blowing it up. and not controlling your picks for a decade helps with neither of those.

i'm fine with the FO standing firm in negotiations here, and i understand why bkn is trying to milk us. we've made some awful trades in the past few years, why shouldn't they benefit, too?!

if we can get kyrie with either one pick or two heavily protected picks that turn into 2nds, i'm in! take all the salary; ain't my money, and that cable deal should be worth something, dammit. getting outspent by the clippers is embarrassing--and make no mistake: it's why they're in better shape than we are. but that's a separate rant.

anyway, i just think in people's rush to get rid of russ, we're getting into grass-is-greener stuff, much like how we think AD is the only star player who ever gets hurt.

 

And not watching the team wouldn’t even be “spoiled Laker fan” for me. I’d just honestly rather do something else even if it’s just Going to bed instead of staying up until 1 watching the west coast games.

 

I definitely think we’re all being impacted by the desire to get rid of Russ but in our defense it was the least likeable and worst playing Laker team most of us have ever seen.

 

still a bad defensive team, and again, kyrie's record indicates he likely misses much of the year for one reason or another.

as for bringing him back, the only other choice is sitting him. fate dealt us a s*** hand this offseason, and i don't think we can pay russ to sit at home until he goes out there and shows that a new coach doesn't change him. and that's likely. and then he sits and we wait for some other team that has bad injury luck and/or a disgruntled star and we have two unprotected picks and russ to upgrade the roster.

or we just have a clean cap sheet heading into next year and can move on from the klutch era.

 

lol, i already took that train. i stopped watching in january last year. it was brutal. i don't want that for a full decade. i'll deal with a year of junk to not have that for a full decade.

as ox said earlier: at least the mediocre 90s laker teams were fun to watch and were trying hard.

you don't trade for kyrie to inject your team with the infectious spirit of pure basketball joy.

 

Guess I'm taking issue with the semantics. Would you frame the AD trade as us mortgaging our future for Lebron? When I see "mortgage the future for Lebron" in this context, I think "bad short-sighted move that makes no basketball sense but Lebron is holding us hostage into doing". I didn't think that of the AD trade, I wouldn't think that of a Kyrie trade.

I can understand objections to a Kyrie trade that are based around Kyrie's unreliability. But objections based around the fact that Lebron wants Kyrie and we need to push back against Klutch, not as understandable IMO.

I disagree about Lebron's window. Sure Lebron can't put a weak team on his shoulders and singlehandedly carry them to the promised land anymore. But a trio of Lebron, Kyrie, and AD with a decent supporting cast would have just as good a chance as winning the title next year than anybody else IMO.

If the thinking is that Lebron is too washed to the point where we'd have no shot despite how good his surrounding cast was, then I'd rather just blow it all up and trade him already. Get some prospects/picks for Lebron, sit Russ at home to let him expire or wait to see if his expiring contract can yield more assets in a deadline trade, see what Ham can do with a young supporting cast around AD.

But being on board with a Kyrie trade, but then haggling over the protection status of one of the picks and letting the deal die at the 5 yard line, only to run it back with Russ and Lebron? That would be the worst middle ground. We need to commit to trying to win a championship in these final years with Lebron, or blow it up and start rebuilding around AD.

Punting this season would be a half measure. And based on who was apparently around Pelinka/Bron/Ham at one of the summer league games, I'm hopeful that our brain trust understands that we can't have any more half measures.

 

AD was a 26 year old superstar just entering what should be his prime and coming off some great seasons. the talent we gave up and the future picks were all set to occur during this prime. easy call. kyrie is probably exiting his prime, coming off some very tumultuous seasons, and a trade would involve picks that extend well beyond our current window.

it's about a) not bidding against ourselves and b) not sacrificing flexibility 7 years out.

maybe. for all the pessimism about AD, lebron's missed a ton of time with us, and some of his injuries have been old-guy troubling, imo. add in that he decided to stop playing defense, and i'm less sure. kyrie gives us a puncher's chance at best, imo. which is something considering nobody in the west is super scary aside from full-strength gs and lac. still, though. to give up all flexibility going forward, i want more than a puncher's chance.

we can't ship lebron unless he asks, which he might.

but did anyone say we were ever that close. the fans wanted it to be that close. the press seemed to want it to happen, but it seemed to me like bkn and the lakers were just kind of feeling each other out.

i wouldn't be surprised if no offer of any sort has been formally made from either side.

i also wouldn't be shocked if we had actually offered the house and were just rejected (for now).

we don't actually know what's being discussed, exactly.

i'm not sure going to camp as is is "punting", but i see why someone might say that.

to continue the earlier football analogy, i don't think we were anywhere near the goal line. i think we had a three and out at our own 35 and punted the trade talks for a while. maybe they score on us (kyrie and kd stay, they win a ring, we cry) or maybe we get the ball back with excellent field position (we get irving for less closer to camp or later in the season, or we make a different move altogether ).

 

Guess he really wanted to play with DD over Russ