2026-27 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

I'm just hoping he doesn't go to the Spurs. A Wemby/LeBron team will be a nightmare. What if Boston underperforms and Spurs trade Fox + 4 first rounders for Tatum? Now you have a huge problem on your hands.

Hope he gets sent out to the East.

 

Completely agree. He’d be the missing piece for them providing leadership on and off the court.

 

feel like more than one source has reported this.

 

SA's the obvious choice, but i don't think he's going just for the ring. like when he came here, everyone thought there were better situations for winning (and there were), but he wanted to be here. i think he wants to be in cleveland.

 

I agree. I think it could have been done amicably but also from BOTH sides.

Rich Paul, that little weasel, was trying to get Reaves trading from behind-the-scenes throughout the season. Remember when this idiot kept trying to imply that the Lakers should trade him for JJJ?

You think if LeBron told Rich Paul to tone it down and keep quiet, that would happen? It was a souring relationship to begin with. I do think a lot of it happened with the AD trade and one of the issues with that is LeBron and AD are represented by Rich Paul. If AD wasn't managed by one of LeBron's closest friends and agent, then the Lakers would have included LeBron into the decision-making process of everything.

The outlier here is Rich Paul and not LeBron, IMO. The guy just seems like a weasel and the Lakers have respect for LeBron but NOT Rich Paul, who doesn't seem to be a negotiator in good faith, leaks news, and knows how to spin the narrative. How unprofessional is it for an NBA agent to start a podcast talking about other players on the team that should be traded....? This guy is just a vulture and the Lakers could not trust him with their plans moving forward or that idiot is going to go out and try to ruin it.

 

Man, Lebron is a diva, but this is a lot of copium on your end, and endlessly trying to justify Rob's shortcomings as a GM and the constant poor decisions.

You'd expect a competent GM to know how to deal with Lebron after 8 years, obviously, he didn't; there was not much communication with the Front office, and seems the relationship was already extremely sour.

We had the leverage that no other contender could pay him more, and apparently pissed him off enough that he didn't want to hear our plans.

 

Actually I'd say after 8 years, the front office knew exactly what they were dealing with and decided to build around Luka and move on from a 42 year old who is currently trying to hold up the free agent cycle.

 

I’m all for the youth movement. Cam Carr. Yall know that’s my guy. Kessler. Kaminga Luka Reaves Grimes. Let’s do it. Adou Thiero.

I just think things could’ve been done better with Better communication. And as stated Lebron would fit perfect with this team as he slots in as the perfect four next to Kessler with 3-Ds all over the court.

 

no one was going to build around Lebron, Lebron would be a nice finishing piece to allow us to contend, basically get 1 last year of a Top15/20 player that was still our best playoff performer this year.

this was overwhelmingly the general opinion on this forum that we should try to retain Lebron for a big pay cut; pretending otherwise is dishonest

 

Exactly refused to

Exactly refused to meet.

 

I said that weeks ago. He would be the old head to put them over the top.

 

And what if LeBron didn't like the idea of Walker, Grimes, Sandro, and Sexton?

What if LeBron wanted the Lakers to retain Rui when the Lakers didn't feel like they wanted to go towards that direction?

You're not hearing everything internally. You're hearing what has been released publicly from both the Lakers and LeBron's side.

It's entirely plausible that at the end of the day, they spoke and amicably decided that they should part ways together.

It'd be foolish to assume LeBron wasn't considering leaving regardless. Rich Paul said if Knicks didn't win the title and if LeBron didn't leave the Lakers, they would be automatically the team LeBron went to. There's about 7-8 teams listed by Paul that LeBron is considering going to. Lakers was just an option for LeBron... it didn't work out for whatever reason.

I think it's a combination of things that soured the relationship and quite frankly, who cares at this point? Are we going to keep crying about LeBron for the eternity of this upcoming season? It's done and gone. And if this season is a dud, you can come back here and complain. For the time-being, if this team becomes an elite top team in the NBA without LeBron, are you going to still complain? Obviously not... so let it play out.

 

Very good point. Probably worried their Kessler plans would get out and get leaked. We pushed a narrative it was Duren when really it was Kessler. Rich Paul has been very unprofessional. I don’t think it was Rob LeBron. I just think the Lakers wanted out of the buisness of Rich Paul.

 

Lebron not saying where he will sign is exactly why I think it's best moving on without him. Even if your less talented the drama and the shadow of his soon retirement was a big cloud. I like Lebron but it was time for him and Lakers to split. At no point should he regret leaving Lakers because it's something he should have done about 3 years ago.

 

To fully move forward with a different culture they had to split. JJ is cool but never accomplished what LeBron was able to accomplish. JJ also took on a coaching job with next to no experience.'it's safe to say LeBron had very little respect for JJ.

 

That’s why they did a podcast together?

 

It's like you have a story and you come up with a narrative to support it. Why am I left feeling like no matter what happened, you would spin it to support your narrative!??!