Unlike his two previous destinations as a free agent, Lebron James is not teaming up with an established All-Star (or two). However, he is looking forward to running the court with the young prospects the Los Angeles Lakers have recently amassed.
The Los Angeles Lakers present a different situation for LeBron James. When Lebron James took his talents to South Beach in 2010, he joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to form the NBA’s first ever free agency-based superteam.
Four years later, he teamed up with Kyrie Irving, then a two-time All-Star, and Kevin Love, who had played in the midseason classic three times. Now that Lebron has taken his talents to Venice Beach to play for the Lakers, he has put himself in a different kind of situation.
The Lakers haven’t had an All-Star since Kobe Bryant and his broken down corpse of a body was voted in during the 2015-16 season, the last of his storied career.
If you want to be technical about it, the Lakers haven’t had a real All-Star since the 2012-13 season, when Kobe turned back the clocks a bit and averaged a pretty dominant 27.3 points and six assists a game on 46.3 percent shooting before he tore his Achilles towards the end of the season.
The knock on Lebron’s impressive legacy is that instead of weathering the tough times and sticking with his incumbent team, he has packed it up and left at the first sign of trouble to team up with two young All-Stars. That’s not exactly what he’s doing now. Outside of him and their other acquisitions this summer, the Lakers are extremely young, inexperienced and somewhat unproven.
Yet, the so-called King is looking forward to playing with L.A.’s blue chippers. General manager Rob Pelinka and president of basketball operations Magic Johnson talked with Chris McGee and Mike Bresnahan of Los Angeles-area cable station Spectrum SportsNet. Among the topics covered, Magic recalled what Lebron said about soon-to-be teammates like Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and Lonzo Ball.
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"“LeBron is just one of the smartest basketball players I’ve ever met, along with Kobe, and Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, those type of dudes who … it wasn’t to sell the Lakers … he didn’t (need) to hear that. He already knew the team. Almost better than I did. He broke the roster down right in front of me. ‘Kuz likes to do this, so and so likes … oh I can’t wait, this guy is this.’ I was like, man, he knows the entire roster. Loves Luke’s system. He said Earvin, you know, I just want to come and be able to just play basketball and be me. And you have the type of roster I think that I think I can do that.”“Those are the types of things we talked about, but the thing that I was really impressed with was that he knew every single guy, their strengths and weaknesses on our team, and he was really excited about how the young guys performed last season.”"
There has also been talk about how Lebron has been studying how Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant moved their games into the low post as they started getting long in the tooth. According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst, he admitted to Magic Johnson that as he ages and loses his natural talent, he’ll have to make up for that by moving his game inside and using his immense size and strength to his advantage.
This is where Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram, as well as free agent signing Rajon Rondo, can help. Ball and Rondo are naturally gifted passers, especially in transition, and Ingram has shown potential as a secondary ball handler and playmaker. Lebron has always been a primary ball handler from day one, but by posting up and finishing fast breaks instead of initiating them, he can preserve his body and continue to play at an elite level deep into his 30s.
Ingram also made huge progress this past season as a scorer, putting up 16.1 points a game while shooting 47 percent and 39 percent from 3-point range. Kyle Kuzma displayed an unusually polished offensive arsenal for a rookie, and also averaged 16.1 points a game despite hitting the rookie wall hard between Christmas and early March.
For all the talk about trading one of them (or both) for two-way superstar Kawhi Leonard, they could also take another big step forward in 2018-19.
All this will not only help the Lakers come closer to winning their 17th world championship, it will also help improve Lebron’s longevity and keep him fresh for the playoffs.
Throughout his second stint with Cleveland and towards the end of his time in Miami, the talk was about how he had to do everything for his team: be a dominant scorer, handle the ball, dictate the tempo, get his teammates involved and be a defensive stopper. That’s too much for anyone, even the seemingly indestructible native of Akron, OH.
But now, Lebron at least has the opportunity to age gracefully, which will increase his chances of winning a title or two (or, who knows, three) with the Lakers. They already have a better supporting around him than what Cleveland was able to schlep together this past season. Their young talent can give Lebron the kind of support on both ends of the court that he hasn’t enjoyed in quite some time.
Next: 5 Reasons To Love The LeBron James Signing
My fellow Laker fans, get ready to watch some exciting and aggressive fast break basketball this season courtesy of our favorite team from the City of Angels. If you’re anything like me, you’re already looking forward to the possibility of meeting the Celtics in the championship series and outlasting them for yet another Larry O’Brien trophy.