Lakers Rumors: LeBron James’ camp reportedly “prefers a coaching change”!
By Ronald Agers
LeBron James is on his way to causing chaos to yet another franchise!
LeBron James is not the best player in the world. Sorry, he is not. No matter what he says to the contrary, but I will tell you he is the most polarizing player in the world.
No, check that. In sports.
The construction of this roster was set up for disaster the second LeBron’s contract was put in the computer system.
Why? Two reasons!
One. The man wants to play with veterans that he trusts in crunch time and two, the franchise must do it at all costs.
Here’s the rub nobody has mentioned so I’ll do it here. The Lakers are building for the future. Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka spent 18 months clearing the books for flexibility for future moves. The plan is to get a superstar for the future when LeBron James slows down. Was Paul George supposed to be the guy? Sure, but sometimes things don’t work out. There will be no trades in the two weeks coming that will bring any players with extra years and salary coming back.
Look at Cleveland right now! The books are so bad from all the moves that James wanted to construct the roster that they are begging anyone to take J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson and those ridiculous contracts. For all of the complaints people have for Dan Gilbert, he had a blank check for three of the four years LeBron was there. I hope he is enjoying the NBA Finals trophy because he paid a really steep price.
The Lakers are not going to. Trust me.
He has a huge part in the Lakers struggles from the start. First off, he had to be committed to the defensive end. Something that he did not do at all at the beginning of the season and sparingly overall.
How about that playing off the ball plan the Lakers had during the offseason? Oh, that lasted about a month? He was back dominating the ball among other things.
Brian Windhorst’s take on the situation…
"The scouts also have noticed that when James is running the point, he rarely looks toward the bench to receive playcalls from coach Luke Walton. Even when he has seen them, the scouts say, he ignores them and runs the play he prefers. Walton has adjusted, and now when James is running the show, Walton will typically just let him call the game. This probably shouldn’t be considered a slight — it’s just James being James."
Well, coaches being shown the door applies in this narrative as well.
Now, this. You see there are very few options that the Lakers have in ways of trades based on the business plan of the Lakers front office. The young players are banged up in Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram‘s stock has fallen faster than the bitcoin!
No superstar for LeBron? Let’s go to the backup plan; change coaches!
Sure LeBron James will deny involvement in the rumor. He’ll say that it was people in his camp. Okay, but LeBron James is a businessman with an empire that is approaching a billion dollars. You don’t think that this guy knows what is going on at all times with his people?
You can see the passive aggressiveness with the rehab of his injury. More reports come from his agent Rich Paul than from Luke Walton at times. A huge red flag was when Paul told ESPN that LeBron James was not going on the last road trip.
Then Luke Walton seemed out of the loop in this quote about his rehab before the last road trip.
"“He didn’t do the up-and-down stuff,” Walton said of James’ activity during the shootaround. “He did the half-court shooting and passing.” “[James] does a lot of [running] when we’re not here. I don’t know the [exact] amount of running he’s doing. I just know he seems to be in good spirits. He’s got another test tomorrow to get some more information on it.”"
Communication issues about injuries? You be the judge!