Lakers Rumors: Magic Johnson will address team to address trade talks
Recent Los Angeles Lakers rumors involve Magic Johnson, who is reportedly flying to Philadelphia to talk with the team about the recent trade chatter.
In the last two weeks, there have been a ton of Los Angeles Lakers rumors. A majority of those rumors involved the New Orleans Pelicans and Anthony Davis.
When Davis informed the Pelicans that he would not be signing the supermax extension, Lakers rumors quickly picked up that Davis would force his way there.
With the trade deadline now behind us, Davis remained with the Pelicans, but there was some damage done in Los Angeles. Leading up to the trade deadline, there were a number of reports about the Lakers different trade proposals. Included in almost all of those proposals were young players.
Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma were apart of plenty of those talks. It seemed to rattle the youngsters, as the Lakers got destroyed by the Victor Oladipo-less Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night.
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Los Angeles went to Indiana and had the travel advantage, but you wouldn’t have known it. The Pacers won the game by 42-points, the largest defeat for a Lebron James led team. The trade rumors seemed to have broken the team, as all of the chatter was distracting the team.
However, once the deadline passed Thursday afternoon, it was a burden lifted off the shoulders of the players on the team. The Lakers put together an incredible comeback against the Boston Celtics, picking up a one-point win.
It was an impressive performance as James and Rajon Rondo helped push the young players across the finish line. Now, Magic Johnson wants to make sure there are no more issues and that everyone can focus on the court.
According to Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times, Johnson will be meeting in Philadelphia to talk to the team, addressing the Davis trade rumors. The goal is to have an open dialogue with the players so everyone can air their grievances.
"Sensing that the Lakers have been weighed down by the persistent trade rumors over the last few weeks, Magic Johnson, the Lakers’ president of basketball operations, plans to meet with the team this weekend in Philadelphia, according to two people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.Johnson will listen to every player who wants to speak, hoping to have an open dialogue with his team so they can all move forward together, one person said."
This is an excellent move by Johnson. It was clear that the players were distracted leading up to the trade deadline as virtually every player other than James and Tyson Chandler was involved in trade talks.
Giving everyone a chance to talk about what happened should help get everyone back on the same page. Before injuries and trade talk derailed this team, they were in fourth place in the Western Conference. There is obviously talent and potential on this team, now it is time to start developing and realizing it.
The trade talks will pick back up in the offseason when Davis is once again shopped. However, that is not something the team should be worrying about at this time.
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They have 27 games remaining in the season to make a playoff push. It is now or never for this current group of Lakers to figure things out and make that late season push.