LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

Possible. My post was referring to the "LeBron is still trying to run everything " narrative.

 

Which is laughable but you still aren't getting the joke. The dude is going to be 41 years old this season. Some of you guys are running with the red herring here. He's about to be 41! His influence is SUPPOSED to be over. Respect no, influence..um yeah? Lol..why is that supposed to be some grand shocking revelation? Who in the hell, is making decisions based off of, what the 40 year old dude, is talking about? As long as he's still playing at an All NBA level, I'm sure they are going to want him on the team. The other part of the story is just clickbait.

 

LeBron has an ego. He's not retiring without a farewell tour and it'll probably be the biggest one in any sport for a player.

IMO, the only way he stays with the Lakers is if they win a title. The issue with having LeBron on your team during his retirement year is balancing championship odds versus focusing on LeBron's retirement.

It's a tricky situation. When Kobe retired, the Lakers basically ceased the entire season to making sure Kobe retired gracefully because they knew they had no chance. Lakers can't offer LeBron that... they can win right now with Luka.

I feel LeBron could still compete and make a huge impact on a title contending team... will be interesting to see how he handles his retirement.

 

Depends on his body. I don't think he likes losing so many seasons to injury now after all the work he puts in

Last year he looked great and then the groin happened and he just wasnt the same. Lot of people don't like Lebron but he clearly doesn't like not being able to play well

 

We've already gotten a taste of it in 2023 when LeBron was being celebrated for all time scoring record, and AD was pissed and wanted them to focus more on winning games. There was Westbrook drama too, so it was a turbulent regular season that ended 43-39 in 7th in the play in. But Westbrook was traded that year, the new team came together, closed out the regular season 10-2, beat Memphis and Golden State in the playoffs, and made the conference finals before losing to Denver.

So I guess what I'm saying is that, there could be a lot of spectacle during LeBron's retirement season, but they should still be able to make a postseason run and contend if the team is good enough.

 

If Bron took any discount here or didn't sign deals that only benefit him, he would have won more rings here

 

Very possible, but we'll never know

At some point a player has to choose the $ or winning a championship

 

Oh yeah like when specifically? What players are we talking about?

We might have won more rings, if we were willing to spend more money too.

 

How many guys were getting rings, taking big paycuts? This is an interesting topic.

 

Absolutely. Was just following Wino's point that the FO would look bad if he won a ring elsewhere after taking a paycut. He didn't do it here, so I don't think the FO would look bad for something he didn't do here and would benefit us.

 

Again who took these paycuts and won these chips? When...Who? Or is this just a theoretical musing?

 

Duncan

 

20 years ago.

 

Is that it, Nowitsky and Duncan once each? Did the Spurs win the title that year? Am curious what % was given up of each's salary those years.

 

duncan won at least one ring after he had taken his paycut. dirk didn't. malone didn't. i think this is slick's point, but i'm not sure i get why it matters. the point is whether you put your money where your mouth is.

and the other slick point is that owners don't always do that, either. and that's true. we let like 20 million just evaporate because we didn't want to pay as much taxes after we excised russ.

but again, this is deflection to me. it's about what you want. if you want the money, fine. but you can't say that the most important thing is titles and then be unwilling to work out contractual stuff to make it more likely.

so you can point to dirk doing it and it failing, but this doesn't matter to me. there's a reason dirk will always be a folk hero in dallas, and it's because he said he wanted to compete, and he sacrificed his cash to do it.

all that said, i'm not sure i can point to the exact thing lebron could have done. like, i guess we could have signed valanciunas last year if he took the cut he said he would (which i've always doubted would happen for reasons i've pointed out elsewhere--mostly that he was banking on dlo opting out), but i don't know if that was going to get us a ring.

my annoyance is when he's demanding the franchise hamstring the future for meh upgrades while he wouldn't do anything on his end. you look out for your interests, ok. the franchise will look out for its own. and trading for like, demar derozan's corpse using half of our assets ain't it.

 

I think that is why he is playing out his contract. IMHO, the Lakers either want him to take a pay cut or go play elsewhere. And guess what ..... he will have to take a paycut to go anywhere else. I think the Lakers want him to see his market value and then say, we will offer you what you can get elsewhere AND give you that chance to win a ring. He might go elsewhere to try to win one but if he does, a good portion of him leaving will be because of his ego. I am good with however it ends. It is between him and the Lakers FO. I can see many sides to the issue and don't really care how it works itself out. The ONLY thing that would bum me out is if we sold out Luka's future for a couple of final seasons with Lebron' farewell tour.

 

Given that we got Luka, yes I think adding Valanciunas would have been enough to get us a ring. Then again, I think that Ayton or Mark Williams or any half decent center would have been enough. Last year was ripe for the taking. Houston wasn't ready, Denver was worse than currently, and OKC barely pulled it off due to other teams' injuries. So, yes, I think that would have been enough.

Now, we couldn't know last summer that we would be getting Luka...but even then, Valanciunas or Klay or whoever might have been enough. Because, again, the title was right there for the taking last year. The team we had with AD before the Luka trade might even have been enough.

 

maybe. though ironically, lebron got hurt in the playoffs anyway. which is another reason not to go whole hog into the lebron timeline.

 

Hey guyz, I'm going to work out at 4:49 AM. Plz pay attention to me!!!!