Charles Barkley on LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Summer Storylines

TNT "Inside the NBA" is on summer break but is not afraid: Charles Barkley is in mid-season form, ready to form his cut badysis on LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard and the other biggest off-season newsmakers. 19659002] Frank commentator and Hall of Fame player, who spent last week in his homeland of Alabama, has reserved his deepest skepticism for the NBA's biggest targets: James and his new Lakers [19659002] would stay in Cleveland, "Barkley told The Crossover in a telephone interview on Friday." I'm looking [the move to L.A.] strictly as a business decision. He is down on his career. He wants to be a big Hollywood mogul. He will drive every day on the beach instead of crossing the snow. … [The Lakers] are not even close to a high-level team. They are 5 or 6 in the best case. "

After James' landing, their best goal, with a $ 154 million contract, Lakers chairman Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka had to settle -up plans as they reshaped the Supporting actors of James Paul George, long rumored to have interest in the Lakers, quickly re-signed with the Thunder.Lady, unhappy with San Antonio, was also considered a commercial target of Los Angeles before Being eventually sold to Toronto

without other brand stars, the Lakers chose to sign a series of veterans for one-year rentals: Rajon Rondo ($ 9M), JaVale McGee (2, $ 4M), Lance Stephenson ($ 4.5M) and Michael Beasley ($ 3.5M) This strategy has preserved Los Angeles' ceiling space for 2019, but coincided with Brook Lopez's departures and Julius Randle, while potentially introducing complications for a list which includes a host of promising young people.

From the Barkley's opinion, LA's approach will create significant problems for coach Luke Walton due to the identity of the list of players

"It's an impossible scenario for Luke, "he said." He has LeBron who will do things his way. He has those young kids who are probably in awe of LeBron. He has these older guys who will try to look for attention. I do not think Lance and Rondo are going to be the ninth or tenth on the bench and keep quiet all year. They will want retouching.

The main long-term risk of this approach, he argued, was to delay the growth of recent draft picks such as Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart. I do not like what [the Lakers] do, "continued Barkley, during a promotional interview for his new contract with Panini America. "It's going to take away their young core.They have good young players.You are trying to set up Lonzo, Ingram, Kuzma.With everything going on, I do not know if it's a good environment for these kids. "

In contrast, Barkley praised Spurs trade of Leonard and Danny Green to the Raptors for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and He qualified the 7-foot Poeltl player as" one of the best the most underrated players of the NBA "and flatly rejected the idea that San Antonio would have exchanged Leonard for LA under any circumstances.

"The Spurs have been the model franchise for the past 20 years," said Barkley. "They were not going to negotiate probably the second best player in the world [Leonard] to play with the best player in the world [James] Why would you trade him and then play against him for the five to next ten years? That would be just stupid. "

The East, meanwhile, is preparing to be less predictable at the top after James' departure and Leonard's arrival. After reaching the conference finals in 2017 and 2018, the Celtics are considered the favorites to reach the 2019 finals because they will welcome stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward with end-of-season injuries.

According to Barkley, the Celtics should not be in their first final appearance since 2010.

"Everyone is ready to concede the East Conference to the Celtics – everyone needs to step back ", he said. "It will not be easy work, Brad Stevens has his hands full, if people think that Kyrie and Hayward are coming back and [Jayson] Tatum and Jaylen Brown will just stand back and let these guys do all the shooting, the people are crazy. "

By adding Leonard," probably the best player in the East is healthy, "Barkley argued that the Raptors are now legitimate challengers to win the game. ;East. Toronto won a franchise record of 59 games last season before replacing longtime coach Dwane Casey with head coach Nick Nurse for the first time this summer. Leonard, who is 27 years old and is entering a contract year, is expected to become the best individual player in the history of the franchise so he can fully recover from a quadruple injury that l? limited to nine games last season.

that they were and that Kawhi Leonard is staying there, "he said. "I'm biased – it's probably my favorite city in the world: Toronto – hopefully he'll fall in love with [Raptors president] Masai [Ujiri] up there." They'll have a very good team. "[19659016] Kevin Durant “/>