The Lakers released a statement stating that the Sixers had sought their permission for floor leader Ben Simmons to speak with team president Magic Johnson, Dave McMenamin of ESPN tweets. Philadelphia emailed the Lakers in November, according to the statement, asking if Simmons could speak with Johnson about his Hall of Fame career. Lakers GM Rob Pelinka subsequently told Sixers GM Elton Brand that Johnson could only do that with Philadelphia’s written pre-approval. That was the end of the matter, the release adds. The league has launched an investigation to determine if any communication between the parties violated league rules.
We have more on the Lakers:
- Guard Josh Hart received a PRP injection to treat tendinitis in his right knee, according to a team press release. Hart will be re-evaluated after the All-Star break, the release adds. Hart didn’t play in blowout losses against Indiana and Philadelphia and only lasted eight scoreless minutes against Boston.
- Lonzo Ball isn’t considered a defensive specialist but the Lakers have missed him at that end of the court, Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times notes. The Lakers’ defensive rating is the third-worst in the league in the nine games since Ball was sidelined by a severe ankle sprain. “He allows us to switch a lot,” Lakers coach Luke Walton said. “If they want to run any pick and roll minus the center, the 1-5 pick and roll, we can just switch it. And we feel confident Lonzo can guard most of the other players there. We have Lonzo picking up full-court the other team’s points guard. He’s great at instincts, getting deflections.”
- Trading young center Ivica Zubac to the Clippers to ‘rent’ power forward Mike Muscala doesn’t make much sense, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report argues. Zubac could have been an inexpensive, long-term contributor for the Lakers, Pincus continues. He would have been a restricted free agent with a modest cap hold of $1.9 million. Muscala’s cap hold is $9.5MM and he might not be any more productive than Zubac would have been the rest of this season.
- LeBron James claims the reason he drafted Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis for his All-Star team had nothing to do with recruiting, according to another Ganguli story. “That’s all part of the speculation that continues to drive our sport,” he said. “It’s all good and well and dandy, but for me I picked according to my draft board and I picked according to who was the best available.”
Magic loves tampering
Oh absolutely that’s why they told Philadelphia they could not without written consent*SMH*
None of this makes sense. Why would Magic even want to help a player on another roster? Why would Philly want one of their best players to forge a relationship with a guy running a rival oeganization?
Because he’s the goat as an oversized distributing pg and has always been willing to share with others like Isaiah Thomas and others
That may not actually be the case. Elton Brand said in an interview on the radio that this came up months ago and he said no the. So for Magic to still be bringing it up now knowing they were NOT given permission months ago may be considered tampering.
Lakers doing things by the rules but yet the NBA still is going to try to find a way to screw them.
Still have no clue why they traded Zubac away. Was it necessary in order to dump Beasley? Geez.
They probably didnt want to have his money on the book next year. They are planning on signing another max player
Trading Zubac was stupid
Sure was.
Ball is an excellent perimeter defender. People are just figuring that out.