The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly considering trading LeBron James. If it happened, it would be one of the worst mistakes in franchise history.
After a disappointing 2018-19 season for the Los Angeles Lakers, things have become extremely dysfunctional for the once storied franchise.
With the Lakers missing the playoffs for the sixth straight season, it has become chaotic in Los Angeles. On the final day of the regular season, the Lakers had their president of basketball operations resign during an impromptu press conference. While that certainly wasn’t a good look, it was even worse when Magic Johnson didn’t tell anyone he was doing so.
After Johnson resigned, the Lakers then parted ways with head coach Luke Walton. This was a move that was expected when the Lakers fell on hard times, but their moves following haven’t been good.
Without pursuing a new president of basketball operations, the Lakers were going through the process of interviewing potential replacements for Walton with people that really didn’t have any experience on the matter.
Of the candidates that they interviewed, Monty Williams and Tyronn Lue were the two front-runners. Williams ended up going to the Phoenix Suns, and it was pretty much anticipated that Lue would be going to the Lakers when they decided to stop interviewing people.
However, the Lakers and Lue weren’t close on contract demands, and now the Lakers are back to square one in their coaching search. Amidst all this chaos came a report from Stephen A Smith that the Lakers are considering trading James. Here’s what he had to say.
This would be a monumental mistake for the Lakers. If it weren’t for the injuries, the Lakers likely would have been a playoff team this season. James was playing at an MVP level before getting injured on Christmas Day, and the Lakers were the fourth seed in the Western Conference.
However, the injury to James essentially ended the Lakers’ season, as they suffered more injuries and didn’t have the firepower to keep up in the Western Conference. While the Lakers might have had a disappointing season, trading James is by no means the solution.
James is still one of the best basketball in the league now, and is one of the greatest of all-time. The Lakers signed James over the summer to be their savior, and trading him after one year would be foolish.
Trading away one of the biggest stars in the game just after signing him would send an awful message to potential free agents for years to come. The Lakers really struggled to pursue elite free agents like LeBron to come to Los Angeles in recent years, and trading the one that finally came would be ridiculous.
Hopefully these rumors are just smoke and the Lakers aren’t actually considering trading LeBron. After years of rebuilding, the Lakers would be in a really bad situation if they traded away one of the top stars in the league.