LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

Actually we can add him without losing any young talent at all. And if he comes with George it's absolutely possible to win in those two years. Not to mention investing in LeBron is a better allocation of resources than basically any other addition outside of maybe Kevin Durant.

 

To rationalize it?

You guys are fighting your hardest to be irrational. The only good reason not to add LeBron is you hate him. Out of one side of your mouth these kids are good enough to compete without LeBron and the next we can't win a ring even with him.

I know where I stand. LeBron is a necessary evil to compete.

 

Well ideally (And what I'm advocating) is attaching assets to Deng in order to dump him so we can add LeBron and keep Randle.

Randle is increasingly making it impossible to simply dump him. Hopefully he gives us a shot to make moves before signing an offer sheet.

 

Actually yes the argument against LeBron is an emotional one.

I'll tackle your points one at a time.

1. "LeBron is in for a decline". Yes he is. I have not argued differently. LeBron will cease to be the best player in the league at some point during his contract. So he'll drop from the best in the league to one of the best. He'll drop from 1 to what 10? 12? Still 100% worth the investment to add a player of that caliber to a team that has no one on that level.

2. "The kids will be fine." That's the easiest point. Yes of course they will and I've been vocal agreeing with that. This merely speeds up the process. Why wait years to win when we can win now?

3. "We'll attract other FAs." Sure possibly. But when will we have this situation again? A situation where our young talent is underpaid, we have tons of cash, and are capable of making a massive leap in one off-season? When will itbbe so easy to add two FAs? Are we going to continue rolling over max slots year after year? And what FA is a better acquisition than LeBron? Kawhi maybe but we don't know if he's healthy and it's are we going to count on that happening? A bird in the hand and all that. I mean two years ago we couldn't get a meeting with DeAndre Jordan and now we're snubbing LeBron? That doesn't sound right to me.

And for the record (yet again) here are the facts:

1. LeBron would be a great use of our resources for dozens of reasons. He provides gravity, he makes us competitve, he would be a financial boon, and he'd attract FAs are the big ones. There is no one in FA that would be better for the team or brand of the Lakers outside of maybe Durant or Curry and they're not leaving.

2. If LeBron comes the likelihood of George increases dramatically. Right now the best argument for George to jump to us in FA is nostalgia which just isn't the best position for us to be in. You think it's a coincidence the FO cleared two max slots? We need the flexibility because George (or LeBron) is unlikely to make the jump alone. That was true years ago when we were talking to all those FAs , it's still true now. So if we want George, we should want LeBron to make sure the decision is easy. Believe me, I'd be extremely excited if all we did was exchange Pope for George, but I'm not willing to place the bet that George agrees.

3. I don't like LeBron. He's a narcissist and a boob. He's a necessary evil to get where we all want to go: #17. Nobody is as synonymous with competing in this era as LeBron and for that alone we should be open minded. Just because a guy is a **** doesn't he can't help us be successful

Also for the record, I'd be happy not talking about LeBron all the time. I'd like to just enjoy the kids more but he's brought up in every other thread with derision. I'm just balancing the scales. Not every Laker fan views LeBron as the devil.

Have a good one!

 

Why would Klay or Kawhi leave? Are we just planning on signing 1-year deals again? Klay has been vocal literally for his entire career about staying with the Warriors. Kawhi might have serious, long-term injury issues (mentally and physically) and I have yet to hear anything about him leaving.

 

Nostalgia is 100% the best argument.

The other arguments are fine, but they're far more Laker tinted than objective. Sure, he could see things the way we do, but there's an equal chance he simply enjoys playing in Oklahoma with Westbrook more than we assume.

I'm not discounting your arguments, but the best argument is still nostalgia. By the way, that's no insult. George wanted to play here this last summer before we were any good, so clearly nostalgia is/will be a factor. I'm just not going to rely on nostalgia, I'm going to make sure we're also competitive. So far the kids are doing a good job, but we can do more.