Lakerholics

The Los Angeles Lakers are hurtling towards what could be a major turning point in franchise history on August 4th as that is the first date that LeBron James and the Lakers can negotiate a possible 2-year $97 million extension.

Without an extension, LeBron would become an unrestricted free agent next summer and the Lakers could lose him for nothing. Uncertainty over the extension has left LeBron and the Lakers in an uncomfortable limbo. Leary of losing LeBron next summer, the Lakers unilaterally handcuffed themselves by refusing to sign or trade for players whose contracts are longer than the one year remaining on James’ contract regardless of value.

The Lakers have had a excellent offseason. They hired a charismatic young head coach in Darvin Ham, adopted a more modern approach to the game, and used the draft and free agency to become younger and more athletic. Now comes the challenging part of the offseason as the Lakers need to trade Westbrook, Horton-Tucker, and their two available first round draft picks to get three or four legitimate rotation players who can shoot.

As August 4 approaches, the Lakers must make some big decisions. Right now, they’re in a lose-lose situation. Don’t make major moves and LeBron could leave. Make moves LeBron doesn’t approve and he still could leave. What the Lakers need to do is change the dynamic of the situation into a win-win situation. They need make the major moves to rebuild the roster to championship quality and remain confident James wants to stay a Laker.

That means being smart and being willing to take back a reasonable 2 or 3-year contract for a legitimate starter or rotation player who is a good fit as part of the return from a Russell Westbrook or Talen Horton-Tucker trade.

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1. Commit to Future with LeBron James

Let’s start by saying what everybody should know, which is LeBron has no intention of leaving the Los Angeles Lakers at this point in his career. So forget any ideas of LeBron demanding a trade or the Lakers pursuing one.

That doesn’t mean LeBron won’t pressure the Lakers as much as possible to surround him with a championship roster regardless of how difficult and challenging that might be, especially after the team traded for Westbrook. In the end, the Lakers must stay confident James is not going anywhere and focus their intention on making sure when August 4th arrives they’re ready to present LeBron with their best pitch why he should sign extension.

That means Rob Pelinka doing his job and making or setting the stage for major trades to complete the roster rebuilding job by adding three or four legitimate rotation players who are also elite 3-point shooters to the roster. What it doesn’t mean is Rob waiting for input from LeBron and Klutch on whom he should be pursuing. We saw how allowing LeBron James and Anthony Davis to push for a Russell Westbrook trade worked last season.

If that means the Lakers take back a little more annual salary in trade to get a player who is a better fit, then so be it. If it means the Lakers take back a rotation player on a reasonably valued three-year contract, then so be it. The worst thing the Lakers can do in the aftermath of last season’s disaster is to become hesitant, unconfident, uncertain, and afraid of making another mistake. Instead, they need to think clearly, act confidently and decisively.

As August 4th approaches, Pelinka needs to be able to present LeBron with a fait accompli when it comes to rebuilding the roster. Much like the Field of Dreams, Rob needs to build a winner to get LeBron to sign the extension

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2. Trade Westbrook for Multiple Rotation Players

The single most important task facing Rob Pelinka this offseason is he must find a way to trade Russell Westbrook and Talen Horton-Tucker for three or four legitimate rotation players who are also elite 3-point shooters.

The problem is the Lakers aren’t content just to improve the roster. Despite missing the playoffs last season, Los Angeles’ front office is still shooting for the moon and hoping to pull off an improbable Westbrook for Irving trade. They are simply not going to consider Plan B with Indiana, Plan C with Utah, or Plan D with New York until they are 100% sure there is no chance to trade Russell Westbrook to the Nets for Kyrie Irving and other shooters.

So far, the Lakers appear to have four possible teams who have interest in trading for Russell Westbrook. In order of preference, these teams are the Brooklyn Nets, the Indiana Pacers, the Utah Jazz, and the New York Knicks. The Lakers’ targeted rotation players include the Nets’ Kyrie Irving and Joe Harris, the Pacers’ Myles Turner and Buddy Hield, the Jazz’ Mike Conley and Bogdan Bogdanovic, and the Knicks’ Julius Randle and Evan Fournier.

It also means that the Lakers need to be more flexible and realistic when it comes to taking back contracts that last beyond LeBron James’ contract. Refusing to take back any player contracts longer than one year is dumb. While the Lakers would love to free up cap space to sign Kyrie as a free agent next season, there is no way they’re going to be able to trade Russell Westbrook without taking back reasonably valued multi-year contracts.

Whether LeBron signs and extension or not, the Lakers must trade Russell Westbrook to one of the above four teams because there is no way in the world LeBron James wants to play with Russell Westbrook next season.

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3. Sell LeBron on Finishing His Career with Lakers

There was a reason LeBron James wanted to join the Los Angeles Lakers and nothing that has happened in the four years he has worn purple and gold has changed that at this point. LeBron is destined to retire as a Laker.

The legacies of LeBron James and the Lakers are already strongly intertwined by his accepting the mantle from the great Kobe Bryant and then leading the purple and gold to their league best 17th championship. While injuries ended two of his four seasons with the Lakers, LeBron has cemented his place in Lakers history as Kobe’s rightful successor. That’s a bond that will always be there for both Jeanie Buss and LeBron James.

Part of the job of convincing LeBron to sign the extension is reminding him of his deep ties with Kobe and the franchise and inviting him to develop a friendship and relationship with Jeanie going forward just as Kobe did. Jeanie Buss and the Lakers have always been a star driven franchise and one of the reasons LeBron wanted to be a Los Angeles Laker was he saw and appreciated how the franchise treats its superstars like Kobe Bryant.

The Lakers should also strengthen their relationship with LeBron James by helping him achieve two of his personal goals: to play on the same team with his son Bronny and become an NBA team owner when he retires. The Lakers could promise to set aside a draft pick for Bronny or to look to trade for him if he is drafted and to help LeBron get an opportunity to buy into the Lakers the next time one of the minority owners wants to sell.

Rob needs to remind LeBron that his best opportunity to win more NBA championships, expand his legacy of greatness, and surpass Michael Jordan as the GOAT is to sign the extension and continue his career as a Laker.

Let’s start with the assumption the Los Angeles Lakers will need superstar Anthony Davis to remain healthy and have a career best season to have any chance at winning their league best 18th NBA championship this season. 

With Father Time limiting 38-year old LeBron James, the Lakers realize any future championships are going to need superstar Anthony Davis to make the proverbial next leap and take the baton as the best player on the planet. Darvin Ham, the Lakers’ new coach has said as much: “I would say he’s (AD) the biggest factor,” Ham said. “I’m looking forward to him having a huge year this year. I know the way we’re going to play is going to benefit him.” 

Ham’s strategy is to replicate the offensive and defensive schemes the Bucks used to win the 2022 NBA championship with Brook Lopez playing the five, Giannis Antetokounmpo at the four, and Khris Middleton playing the three. Right now the Lakers’ plan is to start Damian Jones or Thomas Bryant at the five, Anthony Davis at the four, and LeBron James at the three. The big weakness in the plan is that neither Jones or Bryant are Brook Lopez.

While the Lakers still hope to be able to trade for Kyrie Irving, there are strong arguments to be made that the smartest move Rob Pelinka could make right now would be to trade for Myles Turner and Buddy Hield.

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1. Trading for Myles Turner Will Help Anthony Davis Stay Healthy

After winning the 2020 NBA championship in the bubble, the Los Angeles Lakers and their fans thought superstar Anthony Davis was on the verge of taking the baton from LeBron James as the best player on the planet.

Unfortunately, the last two seasons featured Davis and James both taking major steps backward with multiple injuries that limited the games they played with the team losing in a first round exit and missing the playoffs. While much blame for the last two seasons has to go to injuries, the Lakers front office also did a poor job constructing the roster around LeBron and AD, leading to their playing a position up against bigger players last season.

Last season, an undersized Lakers front court struggling to stay healthy, with Davis playing center 76% of the time but missing 42 games to injury while James played center 50% of the time while missing 26 games to injury. While it’s hard to pin Davis and James’ injuries to playing up a position, there’s no question the undersized Lakers lost any positional size advantage they once had and were destroyed on the boards and points in the paint.

The Lakers biggest weakness right now is not having a starting quality modern center who can fill the role Lopez filled for the Bucks. Trading for Myles Turner would go a long way to preserving Davis and James.

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2. Trading for Myles Turner Will Create Spacing for Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis’ dream is to play the three, where he can face up and use his point guard handle and quickness to beat his defender off the dribble and attack the paint for easy layups, dunks, floaters, and step-back jump shots.

The key to optimizing Anthony Davis’ skillset is making sure he is getting the ball where he has a clear advantage over his defender. The reality is he is better off playing in space as a stretch four than in the post as a five. Since the Lakers traded for Davis, they have failed to pair him with a modern center like Turner, who could not only create space for him with his 3-point shooting but also allow him to roam more as a help defender.

During the three seasons Davis has played for the Lakers, the only time he was paired with a stretch five center was in 2020–21 when he played 30 games and 471 minutes with Marc Gasol and posted an 11.1 net rating. Marc Gasol shot 41% on 2.3 3PA per game during that season. To compare, Myles Turner shot just 33.3% on 4.4 3PA per game while Damian Jones shot 34.5% on 0.5 3PA per game and Bryant shot 28.6% on 1.6 3PA per game.

Bottom line, neither Jones or Bryant have enough 3-point gravity to create needed spacing for Anthony Davis and LeBron James. If the Lakers want spacing for AD and LeBron, then they need to trade for Myles Turner.

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3. Trading for Myles Turner Will Give Lakers Elite Rim Protection

Turner has averaged 2.3 blocks and 0.7 steals per game over his seven seasons with the Indiana Pacers. He led the league in blocked shots the last two seasons, posting 2.8 blocks last season and 3.4 blocks the previous year.

When you combine Turner’s and Davis’ stats, they have 5.3 blocks per game last season and 5.0 blocks per game the previous season. No duo on the same team in modern pro basketball history has averaged over 5.0 blocks. The combination of Turner and Davis would enable the Lakers to put a lid on the basket when both were on the court and have elite rim protection for 48 minutes per game by making sure Turner or Davis was on the court.

While the value of centers in the NBA is at an all-time low because teams can play them off the floor by going small, the Lakers with Anthony Davis on the roster are the perfect NBA team to start Myles Turner at stretch five. The versatility of having Turner and Davis to anchor the defense would make the Lakers the toughest defensive team in the entire league, which is the key to the purple-and-gold winning their 18th NBA championship.

Myles Turner on the roster gives the Lakers the ability to play big or small with a lethal jumbo lineup to go with their deadly small-ball-on-steroids lineups with Anthony Davis at center that was dominant in the bubble.

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4. Trading for Myles Turner Lets Anthony Davis Be Wing Stopper

The biggest advantage of trading for Myles Turner to play center full-time would be freeing superstar Anthony Davis to become the Lakers’ lock down wing stopper on defense, filling the team’s need for a big wing defender.

There’s no question Anthony Davis can guard all five positions at all three levels of the court: in the post, in the midrange, and beyond the arc. Trading for Turner finally allows the Lakers to best utilize superstar Anthony Davis. With Turner playing the five, LeBron James and Anthony Davis can then play the three and four. The problem is the last thing the Lakers want is for 38-year old LeBron James to be chasing after wing scorers off of screens.

The smarter move is to have James and Davis swap positions. Let the younger Davis be the bigger wing defender the Lakers desperately need while allowing the older and slower LeBron to save energy at the four. Basically, trading for Turner enables the Lakers to move Davis to the three to take advantage of his elite 1-on-1 individual defense while keeping 38-year old LeBron James at the four to prevent more wear-and-tear.

Dedicating Anthony Davis to become the Lakers wing stopper would plug a major hole in the Lakers defensive strategy and would enable AD to make the leap to replace LeBron James as the Lakers #1 player and top superstar.

With the draft, free agency, and summer league in our rear view mirror, the Lakers’ Russell Westbrook trade strategy is finally unveiled: Plan A is Kyrie Irving and Joe Harris. Plan B is Buddy Hield and Myles Turner.

The good news is the Lakers apparently now have a viable backup trade partner in the Indiana Pacers willing to trade Buddy Hield and Myles Turner for Russell Westbrook and both of L.A.’s available first round picks. The Lakers have offered a package of picks including one first round pick. The Pacers have countered they want two first round picks and will reopen negotiations if the Lakers increase their offer to two first round picks.

Conjecture is the Lakers still prefer Kyrie and a shooter from the Nets over Buddy Hield and Myles Turner because championships are won by superstars and Kyrie is a superstar while Buddy and Myles are role players. They’re also going to need LeBron to sign the 2-year extension when he is eligible on August 4th. Trading for Kyrie would likely guarantee LeBron signs the extension. Who knows if he would sign for Hield and Turner.

Besides wanting a backup in case they cannot complete a Westbrook for Irving trade with the Nets, the Lakers want to create leverage with the Nets by letting Brooklyn know they may lose their only Irving trade partner. Obviously, the big question right now is how long should the Lakers be willing to wait for the Nets to finally agree to trade Kyrie Irving and either Joe Harris or Seth Curry to the Lakers for Westbrook and Horton-Tucker.

August 4th could be a key date as that’s when James and the Lakers can open negotiations on a possible 2-year extension. Right now, James and the Lakers can’t discuss or negotiate the extension or be guilty of tampering. Once James and the Lakers can legally discuss his extension, they can determine whether to continue to wait for a Kyrie Irving trade or take the bird in hand and close the deal with the Pacers for Hield and Turner.

Still unknown is whether the Lakers will be willing to trade both of their available draft picks. Right now, Jeanie Buss has said they will only do that for a deal that returns them to championship caliber, like trading for Kyrie. When you weigh all of the pluses and minuses, you can make a good case that trading for Hield and Turner could ultimately be a smarter move both in the long and short term for Rob Pelinka and the Los Angeles Lakers.

In the end, this is LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, which means shooting for the moon and waiting as long as it takes to get Kyrie Irving, and not settling for second best until there is no chance of getting him.

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Dr. Jerry Buss, who built the Los Angeles Lakers into one of the most successful sports franchises in the world must be rolling over in his grave watching daughter Jeanie forget what made the team worth over $5 billion.

What made Jerry special was he understood pro basketball at its best was simply entertainment and the main key to the business succeeding was to build teams with the star power to attract fans and win championships. The 17 championship banners and 11 retired jerseys of former Laker stars like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant hanging in the rafters are why the Lakers are worth over $5 billion.

While Jerry Buss was often a reckless gambler, he always knew winning solves everything in professional sports so he never allowed himself or the Laker to become complacent or less aggressive. Winning was the only goal. Unfortunately, Jeanie seems to have forgotten that lesson as reports now say the Lakers at this time are unwilling to sign free agents or take back contracts in trades longer than the one year left on LeBron’s contract.

Trying to execute a complete offseason rebuilding of the Lakers roster is challenging enough without having to do with your hands tied behind your back and your feet hogtied. Jeanie Buss must see the forest instead of trees. Investing in the present is investing in the future when it comes to LeBron or any other NBA superstar. LeBron is here today in many ways because of how Jeanie treated Kobe, which is exactly how she should treat LeBron.

Unless the Lakers dysfunction is an inspired scam designed to befuddle competitors and create illusive leverage, the Lakers and LeBron James are now at a standoff that’s paralyzed the franchise during a critical offseason. James’ camp seems to be saying show us you can build a championship team and we’ll sign the extension. The Lakers appear to be replying sign the extension and we’ll then go all-in to build a win-now championship roster.

Who’s right and who’s wrong is not as important as the right outcome, which is LeBron James signing the 2-year extension on August 4th and the Lakers then making the long-term sacrifices to win now with LeBron.

Despite herculean efforts to find a path where Westbrook would work, the wheels of that bus are now spinning wildly out of control and threatening to derail any hopes of Russ and Lakers running it back for a second year.

While Russ has not formally requested a trade from the Lakers, he fired his longtime agent Thad Foucher over ‘irreconcilable differences’ for not agreeing with what appears to be his decision to finally request a trade. Foucher took the unusual step of going public about why he no longer will represent Russell Westbrook, recommending Russ “stay with the Lakers, embrace the starting role and support that Darvin Ham publicly offered.”

Obviously, Russ is not happy with the constant news on the Internet that LeBron and the Lakers are actively trying to trade him for Kyrie Irving, including teams demanding an unprotected first round pick to dump him. Despite praise and support from new Lakers’ coach Darvin Ham, Westbrook clearly has no interest in changing how he plays at this point and becoming “a pit bull on defense” and “guarding at a championship level.”

With Russ apparently now ready to demand a trade, the fantasy that the Lakers and Darvin Ham would somehow keep and convince Russ to change his spots, sacrifice his stats, and embrace being an elite defender is dead. 

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How Does Russ Demanding Trade Affect Lakers’ Pursuit of Kyrie?

Anyone watching James and Westbrook consciously avoiding each other at the Las Vegas Summer League last week fully understands that Russell Westbrook is done with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Forget Russ suddenly realizing he needs to change how he plays the game if he wants to enjoy success over the remaining years in his career. Despite an honest and sincere effort by Darvin Ham, Russ is too prideful to change. He’d rather ignore warning signs and blame the disappointing last season on Lakers’ head coach Frank Vogel not utilizing him properly and LeBron James and Anthony Davis not sacrificing or being able to remain healthy.

Needless to say, Russ responding in this fashion will eliminate any possible return as an active member of the rotation next season, which means the Lakers now must either find a trading partner or waive-and-stretch him. Like it or not, Russ is one of those superstar players a team does not want sitting on the bench if unhappy or disgruntled. The Lakers now know for sure that Russell Westbrook cannot be on their roster next season.

The Lakers can no longer keep alive the fantasy that Westbrook could be a productive part of the team for next season, which means they need to move quickly and decisively to trade him for Kyrie Irving whatever the cost.

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What’s Most Lakers Can Give Up in Westbrook for Irving Trade?

Russell Westbrook and Talen Horton-Tucker are two players whom are poor fits next to superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis and should be traded this offseason for three legitimate rotation players who are good fits.

Assuming the Lakers do not want to increase annual salaries or take back contracts longer than 1-year, this trade that includes two unprotected picks should be the Lakers best offer to the Nets for a Westbrook for Irving trade. 

This is the most likely trade since Jeanie Buss does not want to pay more in salaries or incur more in luxury taxes than they did last season when they missed the playoffs but still had the fourth highest payroll and tax total.

Assuming the Lakers were willing to increase annual salaries and take back contracts longer than 1-year to upgrade the shooters being acquired along with Kyrie, this should be the Lakers best offer for a Russ for Kyrie trade.

Harris and McDermott both can play the three in addition to the two and McDermott has even excelled as a stretch four last season. They’re a major upgrade over Curry and Richardson and can be easily moved if needed.

The Lakers dump Russ, THT, and their 2027 and 2029 first round picks and get back three dead-eye guards who shoot over 40% from deep, including Irving who won an NBA championship in Cleveland with LeBron in 2016.