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Lakers Notes: Davis, Green, LBJ-AD, Dwight

October 1st, 2020 at 8:11pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Good news for Lakers fans: All-NBA big man Anthony Davis wants his inaugural Finals appearance to be his first of many, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. Davis, who will most likely out of his $28.8MM player option for the 2020/21 season to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, is widely expected to return to the Lakers — especially in light of the team’s current Finals run. Davis had high praise for his fellow All-NBA Lakers forward LeBron James.

“You see the work and preparation LeBron puts in every day, and you understand why this is his 10th NBA Finals appearance,” Davis told Haynes. “He never stops. I plan to follow this motherf—er to hopefully nine more Finals.”

There’s more out of Lakerland:

Veteran Lakers swingman Danny Green, in the first year of a two-season, $30MM contract inked over the summer, had a stellar two-way performance during Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Helene Elliot of the Los Angeles Times discusses how Green has turned out to be the player that the Lakers hoped he would be when they signed him to his deal last year.
Lakers All-Stars Davis and James have enjoyed a unique bond during their first season together, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “We’re not jealous of each other. I think that’s the best thing,” James said ahead of a team practice today. “I believe jealousy creeps in a lot. And that is the absolute contrary of what we are.”
Lakers center Dwight Howard, who has been elevated from a bench role to a starter during the Finals, has struggled with depression during his tenure on the NBA’s Orlando restart campus, according to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. Some of Howard’s isolation-derived depression was alleviated when Howard’s son, David, was allowed to visit him at the Disney campus recently. Howard, an unrestricted free agent this summer, will probably be able to parlay his excellent on-court performance within a winning culture into a new NBA opportunity during the offseason.

Poll: Will LeBron James Win Fourth Finals MVP Award?

September 30th, 2020 at 12:05pm CST by Luke Adams

Only one player in NBA history has won more than three Finals MVP awards — Michael Jordan has six, having earned the award during each of the six championship series he won with the Bulls.

Lakers forward LeBron James, one of four players to have been named Finals MVP three times, has a chance to win the award for a fourth time this year against Miami. And the odds are in his favor.

As we noted on Tuesday, the Lakers are fairly heavily favored to win this year’s Finals. And James, who has been named MVP each of the last three times his team has won a title, is the odds-on favorite to earn the award again if the Lakers win this year. At BetOnline.ag, he’s listed at -165 for Finals MVP, meaning you’d have to risk $165 to earn a $100 profit on a winning bet.

If you expect the Lakers to win this year’s championship, James is the safe bet. He finished second in 2019/20 regular-season MVP voting, and is leading the Lakers in a number of postseason statistics, including 10.3 RPG and 8.9 APG.

However, LeBron isn’t the only superstar on his team. Anthony Davis has been the Lakers’ leading scorer during the playoffs, with 28.8 RPG on .571/.366/.810 shooting — all of those percentages are better than James’ shooting rates. And it’s Davis who is considered the anchor of Los Angeles’ stout defense, having finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting this season. So even if the Lakers win this year’s title, it could be Davis, not James, that takes home the Finals MVP award.

Of course, if the Lakers can’t defeat the Heat, the odds of LeBron earning Finals MVP honors fall off drastically. James received some votes for the award back in 2015, when he averaged 35.8 PPG, 13.3 RPG, and 8.8 APG in a losing cause. But even then, with no clear-cut choice on the Warriors, losing the series meant losing out on the Finals MVP award. Andre Iguodala, whose numbers (16.3 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 4.0 APG) were pedestrian by comparison to LeBron, received more MVP votes.

In other words, if you expect Miami to pull off the upset, it’s safe to assume your Finals MVP pick will be a member of the Heat, whether it’s Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, or someone else.

What do you think? Will LeBron make history by becoming the second player in NBA history to win a fourth Finals MVP award? Or will he be beaten out for this year’s award by a teammate – presumably Davis – or a Heat player?

Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

Lakers’ Jeanie Buss Talks LeBron, Front Office, AD, More

September 29th, 2020 at 12:37pm CST by Luke Adams

With the Lakers back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010, team owner Jeanie Buss told Sam Amick of The Athletic in a podcast appearance that MVP runner-up LeBron James has played a key role in “bringing this franchise back to where it should be” and that she’s extremely proud of the fact that he plays for the Lakers.

“I hope he plays for many, many more years. But whatever his term is with the Lakers, he has forever left his mark on this team and this organization and on me,” Buss said of LeBron. “He is somebody that I treasure, and I will protect. I have just enjoyed watching him play and nurture along his teammates and bring out the best in them. He really is the most unique person in the league today.”

Buss’ lengthy conversation with The Athletic touched on several more topics, including some past dysfunction in the Lakers’ front office, the team’s hiring of Frank Vogel in the spring of 2019, the trade for Anthony Davis, and much more.

The discussion is worth checking out in full, but here are a few more highlights from Buss, via Amick:

On prior front office dysfunction and how the Lakers addressed it:

“There were too many voices (in the room), too many leaks, too many people talking and not being on the same page. And so we took the offseason to shore those things up. We like to collaborate together, to be on the same page. It doesn’t mean just a bunch of people agreeing for the sake of agreeing. We like to hash things out, debate, just work through. So yes, the people that I rely on, that I trust — Rob (Pelinka) leading our front office, Kurt Rambis being an adviser, Linda Rambis who I’ve worked with for over 30 years. These are the people that I trust, and then bringing on a coaching staff that reflected those beliefs and that level of collaboration.”

On the scrutiny the Lakers faced following Magic Johnson’s surprise resignation last spring:

“We knew that when Magic stepped down from his position with the Lakers that — (and) while I’m still not exactly clear why (he stepped down), and why it had to be that day — we knew that the outside world would be questioning everything that we were doing and that we just kind of had to let it roll off our backs and just do the work. And we knew that that takes time.

On the acquisition of Anthony Davis:

“It was difficult. I think, probably for me, the hardest thing in this business is trading away players. … (But) it was really the right thing for us to do, because when you have somebody like LeBron James, and where he is in his career, you’ve got to go all in.”

On the Lakers filling out the rest of their roster in 2019’s free agent period:

“(It) was a little odd just because decisions were being, you know, kind of stretched long. But I think we recovered well from the delay. And you know, the roster that Rob Pelinka put together, really you’re now seeing what the vision was, because it is a versatile team that can go big, can go small, and that doesn’t really show until you’re in the playoffs. Well, we hadn’t been in the playoffs for so long it was really hard to see what the vision was and where we were going. But now that we’re in the playoffs, you can see how the versatility of the lineups (works). And that’s really a testament to our front office being led by Rob Pelinka.”

And-Ones: Olympics, Playoff Pay, Coronavirus, J. Young

September 28th, 2020 at 8:54pm CST by Luke Adams

With the start and end dates for the 2020/21 NBA season still very much up in the air, USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo is having a hard time planning for next year’s Olympics in Tokyo, as Chris Sheridan of BasketballNews.com writes. Colangelo tells Sheridan that Lakers forward LeBron James and other U.S. stars have conveyed interest in participating in those Olympics, but haven’t been able to commit to anything due to the uncertainty of the schedule.

“I was told the NBA season would start in December, and then it was Christmas, and then after January 1, and that keeps pushing the schedule for me,” Colangelo said. “The NBA season typically takes 170 or 171 days to complete, so that creates a conflict on paper.”

The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to begin on July 23, with qualifying tournaments for the final four spots in the men’s tournament set to tip off on June 29. If the ’20/21 season runs deep into the summer again, it will compromise the availability of NBA players for Team USA and other countries, but Colangelo remains hopeful that many of those players will be able to participate.

“If the (NBA) season conflicts with the Olympics, I might have 14 non-playoff teams to choose from, but then other players will become available as the NBA playoffs progress,” Colangelo told Sheridan. “The problem is that the ICO has a rule mandating an early submission of a 12-man roster. But with a pandemic, the hope would be that you’ve got to set aside outdated rules. I assume people will be reasonable and come up with some kind of a program that works.”

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

The winner of the NBA Finals between the Lakers and Heat will earn $5,791,041 of this year’s league-wide playoff pool money, notes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. The losing team will divvy up a $4,399,686 share.
The NBA, which is hoping to play games in teams’ home arenas during the 2020/21 season, sent a 32-page manual to clubs outlining the cleaning and disinfecting protocols to “reset” those arenas, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Former Pacers guard Joe Young is returning to the Chinese Basketball Association for the 2020/21 season, signing a deal with the Beijing Royal Fighers, as Nicola Lupo of Sportando relays. After spending three seasons in Indiana from 2015-18, Young has played for the Nanjing Monkey King in China for the last two years.

Lakers Notes: LeBron, Davis, Kobe, Vogel

September 27th, 2020 at 9:59am CST by Arthur Hill

After a disappointing first season in Los Angeles, LeBron James is taking the Lakers to the NBA Finals. James was brilliant in Saturday’s close-out win against the Nuggets, posting 38 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists for his 27th postseason triple double. He ended any hopes of another Denver miracle with 16 points in the final quarter, including nine straight in the closing minutes to put the game out of reach.

As teammates and opponents marveled at how James is able to keep his game at such a high level at age 35, he talked to reporters, including Bill Oram of The Athletic, about the criticism he took last year and how it inspired him.

“I heard all the conversations and everything that was said about why did I decide to come to L.A. — the reason I came to L.A., it was not about basketball,” he said. “All those conversations, just naysayers and things of that nature. I understood that, with the season I had last year and my injury, it just gave them more sticks and more wood to throw in the fire to continue to say the things that they would say about me. But it never stopped my journey and never stopped my mindset and never stopped by goal.”

There’s more Lakers news this morning:

The offseason trade that brought Anthony Davis from New Orleans enabled L.A. to quickly transform from missing the playoffs to being the best team in the West. Davis, who also stood out Saturday with a 27-5-3 line, turned out to be the perfect complement to LeBron. “This is the reason why I wanted to be a teammate of his and why I brought him here,” James said (Twitter link from Michael Scotto of HoopsHype). “I wanted him to see things that he hadn’t seen before in this league. To be able to come through for him meant a lot for me personally.”
A season like no other for the Lakers included the tragic death of franchise legend Kobe Bryant in a January helicopter crash. James took time Saturday to remember Bryant, writes Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. “He sent me a text right away and said, ‘Welcome, brother. Welcome to the family.’ That was a special moment because at the time, Laker faithful wasn’t (fully in on me). A lot of people were saying, ‘Well, we might not want LeBron at this point in his career,’ and, ‘Is he right? Is he going to get us back (to the Finals)?’ So to hear from him and get his stamp of approval, it meant a lot. I don’t ever question myself, but when it’s coming from Kobe, it definitely meant a lot.”
Frank Vogel only became the Lakers’ coach after they missed on their first two targets, but he turned out to be an ideal leader for the team, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Vogel said the mystique surrounding the franchise made him want the job. “For me it was just, they were the cool team out West,” he said. “I didn’t really leave the East Coast, I didn’t travel much as a kid or anything like that. So, it was like a foreign country thinking about California. And they just had palm trees and sunshine, just had a flair to them that was celebrity like, you know? And the way their team played represented that. It was a show on the basketball court, it wasn’t just a sporting event.”

Lakers Notes: Howard, Davis, LeBron, Rondo

September 26th, 2020 at 6:52pm CST by Arthur Hill

After several years of bouncing around the league, Dwight Howard is one win away from getting back to the NBA Finals for the first time in 11 years. He told Dave McMenamin of ESPN that the Lakers realize it won’t be easy to get rid of the Nuggets, who overcame a pair of 3-1 deficits on their way to the Western Conference Finals.

“They’re going to give us their best shot. They’re not going to let up,” Howard said. “They’re a really good team, very well coached. We understand that. We’re one step closer to our dream, so we’re not going to take our foot off the gas. I think we’re going to bring more intensity than we brought before. We have a well-experienced group of guys on our team, even coaches. We understand how important this series is and this game is and that we should treat it like a Game 7 with our intensity and our effort and just play as hard as we can.”

It has been an incredible journey for Howard, who is on his fifth team in the past five years and had to go through a training camp tryout just to earn a roster spot. He is averaging 7.1 points and 5.2 rebounds in 11 playoff games and moved into the starting lineup for Thursday’s Game 4.

There’s more on the Lakers:

Anthony Davis has “minor soreness” after suffering an ankle sprain, but has been cleared to play tonight, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Cavaliers forward Kevin Love, a former teammate of LeBron James, believes the Lakers’ star is motivating himself through a perceived slight in the MVP balloting, according to Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. “LeBron always lifts his play in the playoffs, and I think those 16 first-place votes that he got (for MVP), he just used that,” Love said. ““He’s like, ‘I probably wouldn’t have won it. But I deserve more first place votes,’ which I believe is true.”
Rajon Rondo‘s playoff experience has been indispensable as the Lakers navigate the postseason, James tells Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “He’s played at the highest level, and he’s someone that we can trust,” James said. “… When you can have guys that have been in the moments and can understand and also be able to make adjustments on the fly, and know that you can count on them down the stretch, it just makes the team and you individually feel so much more confident in the outcome. Ever since he got back from injury and we saw this playoff run, he’s been exceptional.”

Western Notes: Jazz, Howard, Pelicans, LeBron

September 20th, 2020 at 5:03pm CST by JD Shaw

The Jazz could greatly benefit from bolstering their bench next season following a seven-game defeat to Denver this postseason, Ryan McDonald of The Deseret News writes.

Utah has a core of Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Bojan Bogdanovic and others under contract for next season, though several bench players such as Jordan Clarkson and Emmanuel Mudiay are set to enter unrestricted free agency.

“I can’t tell the future,” Clarkson said. “I know I had a great experience here, great time here. I love my teammates here, so definitely see what happens. You know, it’s kind of my first time actually going into a free agency. Definitely a whole new experience for me.”

The Jazz hold Clarkson’s Bird rights and can offer him more money than other interested teams, with the 27-year-old averaging 15.2 points per game off the bench this season. It’s clear Utah will sport an impressive starting group next season, but the team’s ability to maintain (or improve) its depth will be vital toward achieving success.

“We’ll see how they come back once they get away and hopefully improve and reflect,” executive vice president of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey said when the team’s season ended. “We had a very successful G League season and we think a lot of those guys can provide internal solutions.”

Here are some other notes from the Western Conference tonight:

Lakers center Dwight Howard demonstrated his “dark side” in Game 1 against the Nuggets, Sam Amick of The Athletic writes. Howard finished with 13 points, three rebounds and two blocks in his 16 minutes of play, controlling the game on both ends. “As soon as I step onto the court, I’m gonna let him know that I’m there,” Howard said as part of a larger quote, referring to his solid defense on Nuggets star Nikola Jokic.
William Guillory of The Athletic addresses a number of topics related to the Pelicans in his latest mailbag, including which free-agent veterans could help the team and whether the franchise should trade Jrue Holiday. New Orleans finished with just a 30-42 record and failed to qualify for the playoffs this season. The team hopes to reload next season with a core consisting of Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson and others.
Jackie MacMullan of ESPN.com explores how to “stop” Lakers star LeBron James, discussing the subject with players and coaches who have eliminated him from the postseason in the past, such as Tayshaun Prince, Bruce Bowen, Stan Van Gundy and Jason Terry. “He’s an all-world playmaker — one of the best I’ve seen,” former Warriors guard Shaun Livingston said. “That’s his separator. By that point of his career [against Golden State], he almost always made the right play at the right time with the right efficiency.”

Lakers Notes: Howard, James, Rondo, Davis

September 19th, 2020 at 4:54pm CST by Arthur Hill

Dwight Howard barely played against the small-ball Rockets in the Lakers‘ last series, but he may be in the starting lineup for Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Howard’s impact in Game 1 has coach Frank Vogel considering a change. During seven minutes in the second quarter, the veteran center had two blocks, two steals, and drew five fouls. He also boosted L.A.’s energy and physicality, Slater notes.

Howard started the second half in place of JaVale McGee and got Nuggets center Nikola Jokic to commit an important fourth foul, stifling Denver’s comeback hopes. Howard finished with 13 points in 16 minutes and was plus-14 for the game. Vogel won’t announce his Game 2 starters until the league requirement of 30 minutes before tipoff, tweets Mike Trudell of Spectrum.

“I had a chance to get there once and always promised myself if I had a chance to get back there, I’d give my teammates everything I got and lay it all out on the line,” Howard told Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, referring to his loss with the Magic in 2009 in his only NBA Finals appearance.

There’s more on the Lakers:

Vogel said LeBron James should be ready for Game 2 despite hurting his ankle Friday night, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN. James rolled the ankle when he stepped on Jerami Grant‘s foot.
Rajon Rondo put up seven points, nine assists and two steals in 22 minutes in Game 1, but the attitude he brings to the court is more important than his numbers, observes Helene Elliott of The Los Angeles Times. “His impact’s always measured in swag with our team,” Vogel said. “He elevates the group’s confidence every time he’s on the floor.” Rondo, who has a reputation for raising his game in the postseason, passed Michael Jordan on the career playoff assists list Friday night and is closing in on Kobe Bryant. He has been a difference maker since returning from a fractured right thumb that caused him to miss all the Lakers’ seeding games and the first-round series with Portland.
Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report talks to several anonymous team executives about whether Anthony Davis is the best teammate James has ever had. Davis is in his prime at age 27 and has been a perfect complement to James since being acquired from the Pelicans last summer.

LeBron James Expresses Frustration With MVP Voting

September 19th, 2020 at 12:12pm CST by marksuleymanov

After a decisive Game 1 win over the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals, Lakers forward LeBron James was asked about finishing as the runner-up to Giannis Antetokounmpo for the 2019/20 NBA MVP award.

The four-time MVP did not mince words about the results, taking particular exception with the final tally.

“Pissed me off. That’s my true answer,” James said, per ESPN. “It pissed me off, because out of 101 votes, I got 16 first-place votes. That’s what pissed me off more than anything. You know, not saying that the winner wasn’t deserving of the MVP. But that pissed me off. And I finished second a lot in my career, either from a championship, and now four times as an MVP.”

When it comes down to sheer impact, James has been in the MVP discussion nearly every season of his NBA career. Statistically, James had another dominant year in 2019/20 as he led the league in assists (10.2 APG) while averaging 25.3 PPG and 7.8 RPG for the Lakers.

Additionally, the Lakers made the playoffs for the first time since 2013 and were the Western Conference’s first seed for the first time since 2010. Ultimately, it was Antetokounmpo who took home the honors for the second year in a row. The Greek Freak also joined Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players to ever win Defensive Player of the Year and MVP honors in the same campaign.

“I’m not going to sit up here and talk about what the criteria should be or what it is. It’s changed over the years since I’ve gotten into the league,” James added. “Sometimes it’s the best player on the best team. Sometimes it’s the guy with the best season statistically. Sometimes … I mean, you don’t know. You don’t know. But you know, Giannis had a hell of a season; I can definitely say that.”

Lakers Notes: LeBron/Buss Dinner, WCF, AD, Lineup

September 18th, 2020 at 4:53pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Near the end of a rocky first season together, Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and All-Star LeBron James sat down for their first dinner together at Wally’s Beverly Hills in March 2019, alongside James’ agent Rich Paul and Lakers executive Linda Rambis. It was here that the foundation was laid for this season’s relatively drama-free Lakers run in 2019/20, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.

“We’re committed to you and we’ll come out of this on top,” Paul told Buss during the dinner, according to a conversation with Shelburne. “We’ll come out of this different than what the world sees. Let the people who talk, talk. We just gotta do the work.”

Shelburne notes that forging this more personal bond helped stabilize the club.

There’s more out of Los Angeles:

The Lakers’ competition in the Western Conference Finals, the Nuggets, have earned the respect of Los Angeles’ marquee player, after coming back twice from 3-1 deficits in the 2020 playoffs, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “It takes a lot of energy, effort, a lot of desperation to be able to come back from a 3-1 deficit,” James said after a team practice today. “They did it twice. So the respect level is out of this world for what we have for this ball club.”
Lakers stars James and Anthony Davis have instilled a hardworking mindset that has proved effective this season among their teammates, per Mark Medina of USA Today. “They’ve been the rocks and heart and souls of our team all year,” power forward Kyle Kuzma said of LeBron and AD. “If we don’t do our jobs, they don’t have the success that they have.”
Los Angeles is ready to make lineup adjustments against the Nuggets to best handle Denver All-Star center Nikola Jokic, according to Tania Ganguli of the LA Times. Frank Vogel appeared to indicate that he’ll return to playing centers JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard, who got minimal run during the Lakers’ more speed-oriented attack against the Rockets during the semifinals. Forward Markieff Morris, a solid three-point shooter, started at center in McGee’s stead during most of the Houston series. “In terms of how much we’ll use our centers, I don’t want to get too much into detail, but obviously we’re gonna be the L.A. Lakers, who we’ve been all year,” Vogel said. Starting center McGee is currently on the first year of a two-season, $8.2MM contract with the team, while reserve Howard is on a one-year veteran’s minimum deal.