LiAngelo sucks. Sorry but Lonzo is not good enough for him and his 2 PPG dad to be holding the Lakers hostage to sign bums. Unless it is an absolute deal-breaker for LeBron, if I'm the Lakers I try to deal Lonzo for whoever can better support LeBron immediately. If LeBron and George are coming, the Lakers do not have time to sit around waiting for Lonzo to develop.
Also I feel bad for small market teams who have no other choice than to rebuild through the draft. I was excited about the Lakers trying this since it feels a lot better to root for a homegrown team than one you just buy through FA, but oh well. Better than watching the Warriors win again.
Oh, they are going to win again. They had an off year, especially in the playoffs, and still Won the NBA Finals in a sweep. I bet they play better next year, no matter where Lebron goes. The good news is they should have real competition. 1. Celtics 2. Rockets 3. Where Lebron Goes 4. 76ers, hopefully another team or 2 from the West too.
To no one’s surprise, Melo opts into his final year on a team he’s unhappy being on, further validating the belief he’s not interested in winning just his own stats/money. Enjoy your last payday, Melo. What team is going to sign him next year knowing he isn’t a bench or role player.
What a joke that Dwane Casey won Head Coach of the Year award. Brad Stevens should have been COTY. You can't be telling me a guy who gets smoked 0-4 as the #1 seed. can't win a game in the 2nd round, then gets fired is picked over a guy who nearly got to the Finals despite missing his 2 best players. They must be looking at regular season only, which is a flawed system if true. If you're only looking at the regular season, then just announce the picks right after the season ends. Don't do it after the playoffs end and then tell us "Well, we only consider the regular season!".
It is regular season only. They don’t announce the awards till after the draft as to not overshadow the playoffs and the draft and to keep the league trending during what would be a dead week between draft and free agency. It’s all marketing.
I can see it because the Raptors had the best record in franchise history. They just got snuffed out by Lebron. I think firing him was a bit of an over reaction. The Cavs were not a bad team, they just were not on the Rockets/Warriors level.
Supposedly Stephen A Smith is reporting that LeBron was texting back and forth with KD to go together in LA and a few minutes ago he just said that LeBron was spotted in South Beach with Riley and Spoelstra
I don't think Miami Heat have the pieces or the cap space to make it attractive enough for him. He is probably just meeting with them out of respect for Riley, Spo, and Wade. Lakers still the favorites with Philly second.
LeBron to the Lakers is an absolutely self sabotaging move. There is nothing LeBron could do, at this stage of his career, to ever be viewed comparable to any of the great Lakers — Kobe, Magic, Shaq, Kareem, and I’d even say guys like Worthy, Scott, Horry and Thompson would all be viewed as more important Lakers than LeBron,
ESPN reporting that Paul George is staying with OKC for 4 years at $137 million. Chris Paul has also agreed to a four-year $160 million contract to stay with Houston. Wonder how that affects LeBron to LA?
Indirectly I think it will impact the market for Kawhi Leonard who is saying the same things now that George said last year. I can see teams taking a chance on Leonard resigning despite what he says about wanting to go to LA. Will LeBron sign with the Lakers if he is not joined by either Kawhi or PG? If so, he must really want to live in LA because he doesn’t catapault the Lakers into Warriors or Rockets territory, and maybe not even on par with the Jazz.
This is bad news for LeBron to LA. Why would he want to come to the Lakers to be the #3-#4 seed in the West? If this is how it plays it out, he's much better off staying in the East or joining the Rockets. Also, LeBron and Kawhi + what the Lakers have is about a #3 imo. They needed that 3rd player like George to join them to compete with the Warriors and Rockets.
MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN, what are you talking about? My boy Lonzo is all Lebron needs to win a Championship! He already won MVP this year and lead the league in scoring and is the #1 point guard. NEVER LOST! NEVER LOST! Add LaMelo and LiAngelo to the Lakers mix and you got yourself a damn dynasty. NEVER LOST!
Yeah, I don't see any other way to look at it. I suppose if Kawhi goes he might want to give it a shot, but I agree with you that ultimately he'd probably end up in the same place he has been, only now losing in the conference finals rather than the NBA finals. I get the feeling that the Rockets (i.e., Chris Paul and James Harden) don't want him, for both personal and basketball reasons. I'm not sure that Danny Ainge does either. It seems to me that Philly is the best possibility - they would be Cleveland-like (reasonable path to the Finals), and I think he would get far more credit if he brought them a championship than he would get in either Houston or Boston. And if he did go to LA, and they did win a championship, he still wouldn't break into the top five of favorite sons there (Magic, Kareem, Kobe, West, and Shaq would be ahead of him for sure, and people like Baylor and Wilt would be more associated with the team than he ever would be). Is that what he wants? Does he seriously think his post-career entertainment aspirations would be affected very much by postponing a move to LA to after he retires?
Lebron will go to the place where he has the best chance of winning a title. He doesn't care about being perceived as an all time Lakers great or getting credit for playoff runs / wins. He just wants to win more titles. I can't see the Lakers thing happening, that team is horrible even if they trade for Leonard. He'd have a far better opportunity joining the Sixers or Rockets, but not sure the Rockets can afford him after giving Paul that huge contract.
Damn I couldn't have been more off with my comment. Maybe Lebron already knows Kwahi is inbound? Strange.
