Lakers Rumors: How LA can survive the worst case scenario this summer
By Keith Rivas
Leave LeBron James off their list entirely
Before the die-hards freak out by me saying the Lakers should avoid signing one of the best players we’ve ever seen in free agency, hear me out. While James will be older by the summer, age is not a legitimate reason, in my opinion to stay away.
Rather, they have enough on the table to learn from by looking at other teams to know that more than one superstar isn’t always the answer. Take, ironically, the Oklahoma City Thunder. It took a little longer than it should have for them to figure out a good system to work with, and now they’re more a question mark than anything else.
Surely, having LeBron James as the main attraction isn’t a bad thing. He’s done a terrific job of owning the spotlight in his time with both Cleveland and Miami.
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Putting too much hope in a James signing is dangerous for two more reasons.
The first one has to do with the young core, again, and this is more about team identity than anything else. You’ll have Lonzo Ball as a sophomore star, hopefully, and Kyle Kuzma will be stepping up to the plate as well.
Do the young Lakers really want LeBron James to take something like that away from them? James is going to be good for a handful of seasons more, at the least. By then, at least speaking for Ball and Kuzma, they’ll be potential All-Star starters in one of the more intriguing places to play in the association.
On top of that, assuming a George deal gets done before the summer, they’ll already have to work on chemistry with a guy that will be on his third team in as many seasons.
Secondly, they need to address the issues mentioned in the previous slide if they want to actually contend with this young core. Getting James isn’t going to be cheap, even if they have all sorts of cap space, and it’d be better for the Lakers for the long term to worry about their center and shooting guard positions.
Paul George is a star enough, don’t you think?
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It really comes down to want versus need, and the hope here is that the Lakers go wisely with the latter.