Lakers Rumors: What LA should pitch to Klay Thompson in 2019

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The Lakers won’t be a terrible team anymore by then

All the Lakers have to do for this part of the pitch to be the easiest is to play to their strengths. Let Lonzo Ball develop into a great passer, have Brandon Ingram grow into a monster at small forward, and then hopefully Kyle Kuzma or Julius Randle can wind up being great power forward by the time the season ends.

Other than that, the focus in 2018 free agency should be landing a true center so that they can make Klay Thompson their focus a year from then. All of this talk about Paul George or LeBron James in the coming summer don’t make much sense if Brandon Ingram is supposed to be this cornerstone player that we talk about him like he is.

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I don’t expect Lonzo Ball’s early career struggles to last forever, and neither should you. This is absolutely just a bump in the road for the rookie, and he’s been through an awful lot of commotion the last two years of his life. Once he can establish a good enough boundary with his father and start playing for himself, it’ll go a lot smoother in Los Angeles.

Klay Thompson will find this scenario attractive because in Golden State they’ll have the continuous expectation that Durant and Curry will be the go-to players. In Los Angeles, Lonzo Ball can help push Klay Thompson over the top and vice versa.

Because Ball is not a shoot-first point guard, all of the shooting opportunities that would normally go to top guys in the league like Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, or even Stephen Curry will all go to Thompson instead.

This will all be a win for the Lakers especially when you consider that Thompson can probably still play the level he’s been playing at for another four or five years if he signs with Los Angeles in the summer of 2019.

Next: Who Should The Lakers Draft Next?

Whatever it takes to get to that point, the Lakers need to go all out to get there.

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