Lakers Rumors: Soon to be Cleveland Cavaliers West, the guards

The Los Angeles Lakers are quickly turning into the Cleveland Cavaliers of the Western Conference when LeBron James reigned there. These are some guards who have been involved in Lakers rumors that would continue the Cavaliers west trend.

We are closing in on June 30th 6:00 PM EST when Los Angeles Lakers rumors will come to a head. What’s going on you ask? The NBA free agency bonanza starts where teams start (officially) going after players on the GM’s dream sheet. Realistically free agency won’t start until Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard make their decisions on what they want to do for their respective futures.

As for the Los Angeles Lakers, the future is strictly based off their salary cap or what is left of it. Unless you have been under a rock, the Los Angeles Lakers finally closed the book on negotiations trading Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and the 4th pick in the NBA Draft along with future draft picks to the Pelicans for Anthony Davis.

Sure the Lakers got their superstar, but they gave up a whole bunch to get him. The goal was to land another superstar to play with LeBron James and Anthony Davis and go from there.

The only problem is according to reports, Rob Pelinka and the rest of the front office skipped a few steps in a rush to get Davis in the fold. Then there are others like Bill Oram of The Athletic that don’t.

"The most important objective for the Lakers was to secure Anthony Davis and not lose him to the Celtics or some other team. That would have been the ultimate catastrophe. So, they took care of priority 1A, which set the FLOOR for their offseason. So now they have both Anthony Davis and at WORST the $24 million in cap space. Upon the time they agreed, they still had time to massage the mechanics of the deal if necessary and further incentivize a delay with cash or second round picks or whatever. Dumping Jemerrio Jones/Moe Wagner/Isaac Bonga in advance would also seem imprudent. If you need their $ to sign Kyrie, then it makes sense to sacrifice them. If not, and you’re trying to build out a roster, these are young players on team-controlled contracts who the team has worked to develop."

Now ESPN’s Brian Windhorst is reporting that the Lakers MAY NOT have the $24 million dollar cap space that is widely believed. With Reggie Bullock‘s contract with a cap hold of about $4 million dollars, the team will have to take that into consideration as well.

Jeanie Buss gave Pelinka a vote of confidence at the NBA Awards.

https://twitter.com/ShowtimeForum/status/1143313896008278016

Lake Show Life has covered the Lakers front office to exhaustion (staff as well as fans) on the mystery of who is actually is in control of the Lakers going forward. Many have put in their two cents on the way the Lakers front office is being run.

LaVar Ball had his opinion around the trade deadline on FS1. Like it or not, as it turned out the next couple of months, he actually was right.

Lakers rumors started to shift on draft night when they made a deal with the Orlando Magic to jump into the second round to draft Talen Horton-Tucker.

It really wasn’t about his talent as opposed to who he was associated with.

I did a piece around the trade deadline about the mission statement changing from the youth movement to a team that LeBron James was comfortable with. I called it “LeBron’s corporate takeover”. 

With Kyle Kuzma the only holdover from the young core and possibly Isaac Bonga, Moritz Wagner and Jemerrio Jones being shopped for cap space for a potential third star, the Lakers will be chasing cheap veteran talent. These players are either looking for certain situations family wise, looking to stay in the league or trying to join the LeBron James “I want a ring” program.

There have been rumors of the Lakers looking at Kemba Walker, Kyrie Irving and most recently D’Angelo Russell. If the front office can make the numbers work, the rest of the roster will be loaded with veterans in minimum contracts.

My partner in crime on the Lake Show Life staff, Andrew Stevens III wrote a piece about the option of LeBron James just taking over control of the organization.  It’s articles like these written in advance that is now being talked in mainstream media now.

Lake Show Life will be doing a three-part series on how to build this squad in the image of LeBron James on a shoestring budget. The one thing that Ryan Hollins says is true, LeBron James knows the blueprint and the Lakers will have to execute.

Part one will be getting guards on the roster. Let’s see who the Lakers fans realistically will see next season.