Smh Jimmy Butler and Towns have been recruiting Kyrie Kyrie wanted to play with Butler in Chicago, now they're pulling him to MIN
and now I will admit, LeBron coming here is a possibility now. nice call winslow. I was wrong. I don't want him though. I dunno, just doesn't feel right or truly get me excited. I'd rather have a westbrook, pg, or cousins duo of some sort.
What's the LA appeal for LeBron? Not trying to be negative, but just curious....would the Lakers add another star to go along with him? Because the way the roster is currently constructed, LeBron isn't sniffing a title with the Lakers. I do hope it happens...love or hate him, I will always be on board with the best player in the world joining my favorite team.
Seems to be the plan since LAL is hoarding enough max cap space for 2, possibly 3 additions The dirty, little secret seems to be that, even if he stays in the east, LeBron isn't sniffing a title What the Cavs did this year isn't what I'd consider sniffing a title..they got to the finals, sure, but got their asses handed to them and there's no end in sight in regards to that Wherever LeBron goes, doesn't matter if he's in the east or west, he has to go through Oakland Durant raised the bar
Would be with another max player, like George, Westbrook, or Cousins. Another possibility is three guys take less than the max and you get three from the list of James, George, Westbrook and Cousins. If you get 3 and keep Ingram and Ball, then you really have something.
Best player on the most iconic franchise, he owns a mansion in LA area, his wife wants out of Cleveland, good place to end his career as he pursues post basketball interests. It's easy to imagine
If LeBron is truly leaving Cleveland, he's too old to waste a season in a place where he has no future. Broad scope, he gains nothing by staying in the east and going to the Finals again and again, getting whipped by the Warriors for a 3rd/4th/(5th?) time, so the second that this Kyrie news broke, Magic should've been on the phone with Rich Paul going over immediate El Chapo-like escape/trade plans for LeBron. Using the new relationship with LeBron's agent would be a good idea right now. Right now on paper, LAL is probably a 35-ish win team..add LeBron to the key pieces of this mix and we're more than likely nearing 50 wins and into the playoffs. So the more I think about it, the more a LeBron to LAL trade makes sense right now. He's not winning a championship this next season no matter who they trade Kyrie for. And with this Kyrie news it sort of gives LeBron yet another excuse to demand a trade. His FO has been in shambles this off-season, so he already had that excuse. But anyway, LeBron may as well join LAL now, work on the chemistry with the Luke/Zo/Ingram/Lopez/KCP/etc., go to the playoffs and get that experience together..maybe even get to the 2nd round and then build on that going forward into year 2 where the team will be even better. Wherever LeBron lands, even if it's not LAL, the odds of that team winning the championship in year 1 are not good, so he should just get year 1 out of the way immediately while having it be a constructive year where he's building toward a potential title run in the future with his next team. Just get out of Cleveland already if that's the way you're headed anyway..bite the bad PR bullet and keep it moving. If it's LAL that he picks, great, then he can recruit experienced all-star talent to join him with LAL after next season and they can really take off in what would be year 2 for most of the guys on the team. The LAL fanbase is a great one in terms of insulating it's stars from hate coming from the outside, so he'd be fine, especially since Gilbert is fumbling this off-season away. Anyway, the same guys should be untouchable in LeBron trade talks where he's demanding a trade, and he has a no-trade clause, so he'd control all leverage. Zo and Ingram = off limits, and by league rule KCP is off limits because he just signed and Lopez should stay as well, so that's the main core to start out with maybe a newly signed Rose at backup PG. Which is to say that I'd send Randle + Zubac + Deng + Clarkson for LeBron ASAP, and let Zubac represent the 1st round draft pick compensation/cheap talent as the rest of those guys are going to be high to semi-high priced after next season. All in 1 swoop, get LeBron and clear Deng's/Clarkson's money and Randle's impending $ raise as well.
I don't even really like LeBron that much, but I love LAL and that feeling is just greater than whatever I feel for LeBron. He can help LAL win and that's that for me. Sold. But one of the main reasons I want LeBron on the team is because Dr. Buss would've wanted LeBron with the Lakers. Nobody can deny that. It's a Dr. Buss move 110%. And Magic learned at the knee of Dr. Buss, so it's only right that he wants LeBron as well. Another reason is..you have a bunch of LeBron lovers/Laker haters in the media and they'd have to transition to Lakerism and that'd be fun to see. Another reason? It'd be a hell of a start for this FO in terms of rebuilding it's standing among the players. Another reason? The rest of the league actively participated in fucking over LAL with the new CBA and CP3 trade veto, obviously setting LAL back for years and if LeBron wants to lead the vengeance tour, cool with me..like the mother of dragons in ep. 1 of this last season of Thrones, " shall we begin? " Yes, we shall. And may the reign be loooooong. In fact, if LeBron wants to recruit his buddy CP3 to join him with LAL, even better. I'm not against CP3 joining, even though we now have Lonzo, because Lonzo is 19yrs old. We cannot expect LAL to truly compete for a championship with a couple 19-20-21yr olds playing extra-heavy minutes. They just aren't ready to do that physically and won't hold up over the length of a NBA season 100+ games. Of course you'll have your people out there complaining " how are LeBron/Zo/CP3 going to share the ball? ", but that doesn't matter. They all have supreme basketball IQs, and if LeBron and CP3 ever had real plans of playing together, they were going to have to learn how to play with one another anyway. Luke's system is a ball movement/weakside action system anyway, so it keeps everybody involved. If they want to win, and they do, they'll make it work. Plus, it'd be fun to take CP3 to the conference finals, what the Clippers could never do..another thing to wave around in Clippers' fan's faces. And LAL was reportedly considering signing or trading for Dwyane Wade as well this off-season before signing KCP, so bring Wade in as the 6th man for the mid-level exception, cool..the more guys we can get that know how to play the game, the better. Durant and GSW raised the bar, so LAL has to meet their shrewd standard. I'd rather LAL take extreme measures to win than to turn their nose up at certain guys that can help and lose. Because fuck losing. If LeBron has to deal with some hate..what's new? Where I stop is the idea of adding Melo to that mix..we can't go full banana boat and we already have Kuzma and Nance anyway, so if George is ultimately added to that + LeBron, we're set at forward. Melo has to finish up at home in DC or something..maybe LAL would see him in the finals one day and they can get together and do a banana boat ride in DC after the Wiz get swept. So get LeBron now, and then George and whomever else later. Doesn't even have to be LeBron + 2 other max guys. Can be LeBron + 1 max guy + a couple high end role guys, like maybe re-sign KCP and Lopez for the price of 1 max guy and create more depth/cover more bases.
Unless Avery Bradley is maxed out with DET, I could see him being an option as well if KCP moves on And Avery Bradley can play ball LAL tried to trade for him, but DET obviously ended up with him and KCP fell to them instead Bradley one of those former Pelinka clients
All this Lebron and Kyrie coming out West with Menlo wanting to join Harden in Houston sounds like a time warp back to the 2000's after Jordan and the Bulls broke up. The NBA championship was won in the Western Conference Championship, and meeting the Nets or Pacers was like playing a pre-season game. I wonder if this will cause Gilbert to pout like a child again and ask the NBA to punish the West teams. Gilbert is his own worst enemy. Can't understand how he made so much money.
Good point Shaq, Kobe and Duncan landed and that was that Yet another reason to want LeBron..taking Gilbert's golden goose Nobody deserves to lose more than Gilbert..well, maybe Jim Dolan, but the list is short
The Lakers often heard something that made them hang up. Johnson said “everybody” inquired about second-year forward Brandon Ingram. “Anybody that called us wanted him,” Johnson said. “We said, ‘No thank you.'
Sean Deveney of The Sporting News spoke to one NBA scout who said that while the passing was to be expected, the rest of Ball’s game was just as impressive: “Look, the passing we knew about. His ability to see the floor and create easy baskets, we knew about that. I was impressed with the other things. He is an excellent rebounder. He’s worked on a post game, too. He can post up smaller guards. We did not see that much. He has tremendous body control when he drives, he can finish off-balance. Love the passing ability, but I loved the other parts of his game.” “NBA defenses are going to be a lot more aware of his deep passes, too. I don’t know how often he will be able to throw those 50-footers. So he will have a lot to learn against better defenders, but so far so good with him.”
to this point it looks obvious he is waaaaay more than what i saw at UCLA but of course he's playing w men now
Been reported that some believe LeBron and his camp actually leaked Kyrie's trade request Also being reported that LeBron doesn't want to get involved in CLE's actions going forward with Kyrie, doesn't want to be tied to what's going on with Kyrie or the state of the FO, but of course Kyrie's camp is saying LeBron is why Kyrie wants out in the 1st place Smh This, BTW, is nothing compared to Kobe VS Shaq If LeBron and Kyrie waged this sort of war for 6 or so years, and Kyrie were say on the level on Durant, then there'd be a legit comparison Bleacher Report needs to drop a special edition Game of Zones..too much is going on from Zo/LAL to Kyrie VS LeBron and then all the player movement with CP3/George/Butler
According to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, the "worst kept secret in the NBA" is LeBron's desire to play for the Lakers when he becomes a free agent next season.