The Los Angeles Lakers took no action at the NBA trade deadline.
Once again, the Los Angeles Lakers did not make a move at the trade deadline.
Last season, the team entered the Western Conference Finals as the seventh seed and was expected to win the championship.Although they also won the in-season tournament, the NBA Cup, their batting average was one game above .500, leading them to the postseason finals. They are fighting for a chance to advance. The roster remained intact for 29 games.
Were the No. 9 Lakers just going to punt for the rest of the season against teams like Oklahoma City, Denver, Minnesota and the Los Angeles Clippers, who are nine games ahead of them in the standings?
Rob Pelinka, the Lakers' vice president of basketball operations and general manager, said no suitable contract existed during the quiet trade deadline period. “You can't buy a house that's not for sale,” he told reporters on the day the Lakers lost to Denver, when the team unveiled the first of three Kobe Bryant statues in the arena. told.
He wasn't convinced that the Lakers would give up the only first-round pick they currently have available in a trade for a little help. After the season, the Lakers will have three first-round picks to trade, which Pelinka said “really opens up access to potentially bigger swings.”
What did LeBron James think about all this? Pelinka said he spoke with James before the deadline and explained the market. “There were a lot of buyers. As everyone knows, when there are few sellers in the market and a large amount of buyers, prices are very, very bullish,” he said.
The Lakers still want to see how they perform with a healthy roster, but James still isn't sure how far the team can go in the playoffs.
“I don't know,” he told reporters. “We haven’t gotten to that point yet, so I can’t say anything.”
After last year's All-Star Game, LeBron James called this stretch run “the most important 23 games of my regular season career.”
James didn't have a lot of urgency after the Lakers' loss on Thursday with a roster that is currently 27-26.
There's been a lot of speculation about James' future with the Lakers, but even at age 39, he's still playing at an All-Star level. His decisions have an impact on the league, which is unusual at his age.
James delved into his “Cryptic Man” in recent days, posting an hourglass emoji (the hands of time are unrelenting) but refusing to explain what that meant, saying that he's not looking forward to the final season of his contract. He also refused to answer whether he would exercise the right to do so. Will he play in 2024-25 or become a free agent?
Reading James's tea leaves is interesting and infuriating, but it's one of those times when it becomes a fruitless exercise.
James has one year and $51.4 million left on his contract through the 2024-25 season. However, he can opt out and explore free agency. Not many teams will have that much cap space, and some teams will likely be excluded from making trade acquisitions once the new collective bargaining agreement rules take effect.
The pressure is on the Lakers to take advantage of what James and Anthony Davis have to offer. Since signing James as a free agent in 2018, the Lakers have made the playoffs in three of the five seasons, reaching the Western Conference Finals in 2020 in the coronavirus bubble, in 2021 when they were eliminated in the first round, and last season. fulfilled.
Some team would trade him now for success after five seasons. And the 2020 title was important. This is the Lakers' first championship since 2010, and they are tied with Boston for the most championships in history with 17.
But the Lakers aren't most franchises. Like Boston, the title is often the goal most seasons. They, along with James, have been true favorites twice, including last season, when they were swept by the champion Nuggets in the conference finals.
Even if James and Davis were All-Stars, it's hard to imagine the Lakers making it to the playoffs from the seventh or eighth seeds two years in a row. The Lakers rank 14th in defense and 20th in offense, which isn't enough to win a conference championship most seasons.
The Lakers tried to make a trade. They had multiple negotiations with Atlanta regarding Dejounte Murray, but no deal materialized. “In some cases, no action is better than an unwise action.”
that's the truth. The team didn't want what the Lakers had to offer, and the Lakers didn't want to give up what the team wanted.
What's next? Maybe the Lakers will be healthy enough to make a serious run into the playoffs. They plan to explore the buyout market for a scoring assist.
So what? All focus is on 2024-25.
James' option deadline is June 29th, and the NBA Draft will be held from June 27th to 28th. The Lakers would know what James' situation looks like heading into free agency, and they would also have a first-round pick to trade. Is it enough to improve the roster and compete in the talented and growing Western Conference? Will that be enough for James?
