LeBron James would have hesitated to join the Lakers without another star already in place

With just a few days before LeBron James is facing a deadline to withdraw from his contract with the Cavaliers and enter an unrestricted free agency, the rumor is in full swing, especially with speculation about the proximity that he might have join the Lakers. Maybe it should not have been a surprise to see a report Wednesday that James could go to Los Angeles and wait to see what other NBA star joined him, quickly followed by another one. report claiming that the MVP four times was "hesitant" to engage with the Lakers without having the badurance that the team had already received high-level help.

This help would probably come in the form of Kawhi Leonard or Paul George – or, ideally, both – but there are other possibilities, including Chris Paul, James' longtime friend. All of these players have their own important decisions to make, although Leonard's situation is the most complex, as he is still under contract with the Spurs for one more season.

However, the Lakers probably can not wait until 2019 to acquire Leonard and James, although this is not out of the question, and they might not even be able to wait for the weekend to accelerate trade negotiations with San Antonio. According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Brian Windhorst and Ramona Shelburne, "the pressure is mounting" on Magic Johnson and his front-line team with the Lakers to reach an agreement with the Spurs by Friday's deadline for James' exercise the contract clause that would allow it to strike the free market.

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Citing league sources, ESPN described James as "hesitant" to engage in Los Angeles before he could land another elite player, and the urgency of 39 Acquire Leonard has grown with the speculation that George might choose to avoid his own opt-out clause and stay with Thunder for another season. Originally from southern California, George has long been thinking of getting a chance to join the Lakers, but his stay in Oklahoma City may have questioned him after leaving Russell Westbrook and Co.

James, however, may be trying to dissuade George from staying. A recent report from Mark Heisler of the Orange County Registry included this quote from a source identified as General Manager for an Eastern Conference Team: "LeBron does what he does: call players on other teams that he wants to play. "

This proactive approach was quoted in a report Wednesday by Sean Deveney of the Sporting News, before the trio of ESPN reporters looked into, in which a league leader said that James and his camp "were doing enough to researches to suggest that he would be ready to take "The executive pointed out a similar dynamic that was played" in Cleveland four years ago "when James publicly declared that he would leave the Chair for the Cavs, after which The latter team made a successful trade for Kevin Love.

If James and George were to retire and join the Lakers, who have the salary cap space to sign two top-level free agents, this could potentially allow the team the luxury of waiting for a year for Leonard to play his contract, or at least give him more weight in negotiations with San Antonio. Johnson said on Tuesday that he was seeing his team's plan to attract superstar talents as "a thing of two summers", meaning this offseason and the next, telling reporters, "You have to give us the time."

Meanwhile, James's eldest son, LeBron James Jr., also has two summers to go before he enters high school, and the possible site of those formative years has become a part of the agency conversation. free. That's because "Bronny", a highly respected basketball player in Ohio, is very "likely" to enroll in a prestigious Los Angeles high school, according to a TMZ report. Sports Wednesday even though it's apparently not done "

James already has two homes in Los Angeles, so there are many reasons not related to basketball to think that he might well decide to take his considerable talents there. This could play into the patient strategy that Johnson claims, but the Lakers may have to put their chips in the center of the table much sooner than they would like, if they want to make Friday's decision of James a lot easier.

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