In a recent interview on Danny Green‘s podcast, Josh Hart said he felt that LeBron James and fellow Rich Paul client Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were the only untouchables when the Lakers tried to deal for Anthony Davis in February (hat tip to Christian Rivas of Silver Screen and Roll).
Caldwell-Pope had the equivalent of a no-trade clause because he signed back-to-back one-year contracts and would have lost his Bird rights with any team that dealt for him. Even so, Hart described the experience as disruptive.
“It was just different because guys feel like, ‘All right, we rocking together,’” Hart said. “Beginning of the year, we rocking together and then we had the injuries and A.D., who’s obviously with Klutch, so it’s like, ‘All right, we don’t know what’s going on with this one.’ So it’s just different.”
There’s more today from Los Angeles:
- Former Celtics great Paul Pierce isn’t surprised that James’ first year in L.A. turned out poorly, telling Steve Bullpet of The Boston Herald that James chose the Lakers for reasons other than basketball. “Based on the roster, this was an after-basketball decision,” Pierce said. “They had an opportunity to make the team better, but based on how the team was when he went there, that wasn’t about basketball.” Pierce also claims that LeBron never fully won the acceptance of Lakers fans.
- James was on hand to watch Jarrett Culver‘s pre-draft workout, tweets Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times. Coming off a magnificent performance in the NCAA tournament, Culver is in the mix to be selected by the Lakers with their No. 4 pick. “He was just kind of sitting back and watching,” Culver said of James. “You know, you’ve got LeBron in the gym. That’s amazing to have as a young kid like me. After the workout, he just told me to keep working.”
- More embarrassing stories continue to lower the public perception of the Lakers’ front office, writes Mark Heisler of The Orange County Register. This week’s look inside the organization by ESPN’s Baxter Holmes uncovered more charges of nepotism and cronyism, along with a picture of Magic Johnson as an abusive executive.
The best way to win a team over is to win. LeBron unfortunately sets such high expectations that anything but a conference finals probably was going to be a let down.
Jeannie Buss needs to sell this team. terrible owner. being the daughter of the greatest owner in professional sports unfortunately hasnt helped her at all. time to go Jeannie. you’re garbage, your front office is garbage, you’ve turned the Lakers into the Raiders. nice goin
Sometimes I wonder about social media…..does it make you feel good to call some garbage?
*someone garbage
She could probably kick his ass!
mmm yea probably. now lets get back to reality. she does NOT know what she’s doing . she hired Magic, then wouldnt support his decisions. now she takes advice from Linda Rambis among other mom basketball advisors. this is a trainwreck. she needs tonsell
Jeannie hasn’t done anything wrong other than hire Magic in the first place. Was that a mistake yes, but to act like she is garbage is just a BS narrative people like you feed themselves. She was smart of anything to give Magic a reality check and not fire Luke. Magic was the ego maniac ruining the team not her
I was looking at the Lakers’ contracts and I don’t see any possibility for salary matching if they brought in Anthony Davis via trade. Would renouncing FA rights to players like Rondo and Pope and trading draft picks be enough to make it work if they’re both under the cap?
You don’t need to match. We have salary cap room that can be used for the difference
Sorry…you are correct though, you have to renounce those other players. I’d keep Bullock spot as long as you could in case you want to sign him after over the cap, Muscala is $9.5M hold, so I’d release that. #1 draft picks don’t count against the cap, meaning you can go over the cap to sign them.
You could also sign and trade KCP I believe, but that would set a hard cap.
4th pick to Spurs for Demar DeRozen. Who says no? There has to be better than a CP3 face saving play out there.
The Spurs and the league both say no.
The #4 and what?