Do LA Lakers even want LeBron James?



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What an incredible summer start for the Los Angeles Lakers after an incredible season.

How to go up a record of 37-45 after the landing James Lebron the summer before? Well, your president of basketball operations told the media that he was resigning before announcing to anyone in the organization, all right before the last game of the team of the season.

And then? Returning the coach that the outgoing president wanted to dismiss, but would not have done so.

And then? Decide not to hire a replacement for this outgoing president, but to effectively promote the general manager who helped preside over this nightmare and who only has two years of experience in the NBA front office.

And then? Choose a candidate at the end of a coaching search – one with a championship as a coach, the other with the Lakers, the other with a excellent relationship with LeBron, somehow the ideal candidate for the situation – then reduce the contract offer and lose it. That's what the Lakers did with Tyronn Lue.

Do the same Lakers want to James Lebron? It does not look like that.

The Lakers – the most famous and one of the most decorated franchises in the NBA and all American professional sports – have completely collapsed under the pressure of higher expectations.

The apparent clash with Lue was about the length of the contract, which is another way of saying that slaughtering was reduced to potential severance pay. Coaches and their agents prefer longer contracts, knowing that relatively few coaches succeed beyond three years with a single franchise. If you work with a four or five year contract, you guarantee an income over a longer period, protecting you when you are inevitably fired. Candidates for coaching training can usually get a five-year contract, sometimes with a team option after four years, even without experience. Luke Walton signed a five-year contract. This means that the Lakers will pay for two more seasons, unless it is offset by the fact that he gets another job. Read is always paid by the Cavaliers. That's how it works: if you have the resources, you hire a coach for a longer agreement and you pay them to go when you want to move the bench.

The Lakers have the resources to play this game, right? Right?

Rather than give Lue his five-year contract and cross future bridges when they arrive, Los Angeles wanted his contract to end at LeBron's scheduled end. Clearly, this frustrates Read: he's not trying to be the designated LeBron whisperer. He wants to coach the Los Angeles Lakers, probably for a longer period than LeBron.

Here is what really looks amazing: if the Lakers were really focused on paying Lue only until the end of LeBron's current contract, did that mean they did not believe LeBron would stay in LA at all? beyond his current contract? Of course, LeBron stayed in Miami for four years and his second stay in Cleveland lasted four years. He signed a four-year contract with the Lakers. But should not you at least pretend that you can convince him to finish his career in Los Angeles? He moved his young family to Southern California. His non-basketball businesses are in Los Angeles. From a personal point of view, it seems dedicated in the long run. Do not the Lakers believe that? Do not they believe in their own ability to be a good host and not to chase him away?

If so, it becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, no?

The Lakers send bad signals to the best player they have known for decades. They proved they did not really believe in Lue, which LeBron will notice. They indicated that they did not think LeBron would stay past the 2021-22 season, or deserved to rely on it. They continue to behave like a lottery team, not like a title team, who … hey, at least they are honest with themselves.

LeBron must ask himself at this point if the Lakers even want it. Things were a lot easier when they could lose 60 games a year in peace.

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