Lakers Rumors: LeBron James not a fan of team’s roster construction
Recent Los Angeles Lakers rumors will surprise some people, as LeBron James gave a surprisingly, brutally honest answer when asked about the Lakers’ roster construction.
A lot of the recent Los Angeles Lakers rumors floating around have centered around the head coaching position. Soon, those Lakers rumors will be changing toward construction of the roster.
With another trip to the NBA Lottery guaranteed, the Lakers will have a chance to add another young player to the fold in June. Following that, Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka will be doing their best to add a second star alongside LeBron James in free agency.
Los Angeles has enough cap space to sign a second max contract free agent, but the jury is out on whether there are players who want to sign with them. They could go down the trade route, revisiting talks with the New Orleans Pelicans for Anthony Davis.
Whatever route they choose, there is a good chance that the 2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers look much different than the 2018-19 version we saw this season.
The Lakers failed to put a roster around James that he could successfully lift to a playoff berth. Yes, they were in fourth place in the Western Conference after they defeated the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day, but they still weren’t being talked about as true contenders in the conference.
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Johnson and Pelinka took a different approach to build this roster. instead of surrounding James with shooters to spread the floor, they added who they thought were tough-nosed, playmaking, defensive-minded players.
They landed on JaVale McGee, Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson and Michael Beasley. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was also re-signed. Hindsight is 20/20, but there was a strong chance that free agent group wasn’t going to cut it even before games were played.
These were the moves that immediately followed James being signed. Naturally, people believed James had a hand in this. He has proven to have some influence over everything from roster management to the coaching staff. However, from the sounds of it, James was not pleased with the roster that was put around him.
In a recent talk with Dave McMenamin of ESPN, James was asked about the roster construction of the Lakers. James’ brutally honest response will probably shock some people, especially those that are convinced he was pulling the strings on these moves.
"What did James think of the Lakers’ grand experiment? How did he view the idea of prioritizing playmaking over shooting.“That experiment?” James said of the roster construction for his first season in L.A.James stared out onto the court for a moment, turned his attention back to the conversation, pursed his lips and stuck out his tongue as he trumpeted air out of his mouth, making a raspberry sound.“THBPBPTHPT!”"
Well then. That isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement for the front office duo known as “Maginka”. Usually, professionals go out of their way to paint things in a better light than they may be. James decided against that route, not even offering up words for his assessment of the experiment they tried.
The front office tried to fix their mistake at the NBA Trade Deadline, acquiring Reggie Bullock and Mike Muscala to improve the 3-point shooting, but it was too little too late.
Next. Trying To Make Sense Of The Lakers' Roster Construction. dark
Johnson and Pelinka better have something up their sleeve this offseason. If James begins getting restless, there won’t be too many people left to direct his ire toward if Luke Walton is already relieved of his duties and the roster is turned over again.