Los Angeles Lakers: How to have a good off-season without Kawhi, KD or AD

The Los Angeles Lakers won’t get the big fish this summer, but they can still eat well

LeBron James passed Michael Jordan‘s scoring record last night and then got back to his new normal of hating basketball, doing this, just nights after doing this, both emblematic of the Los Angeles Lakers‘ season.

When sports fans endure as disappointing a season as Lakers fans currently are, it can be difficult to imagine the future except in extremes: either 1) the team fails to sign a truly worthy max player, and ends up overpaying for a non-all-star (like Khris Middleton and former Laker D’Angelo Russell); or 2) the team signs a megastar like Kawhi Leonard or Kevin Durant, and the existing guys coalesce to become more than the sum of their parts, or get traded quickly for Anthony Davis by a repentant Pelicans front office. Neither of these extremes are likely to happen.

The attention-shy Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard (both NBA Finals MVPs) are not going to welcome the omnipotent attention (and subtweets during any rough patch) that accompany playing with the King. Likewise, Klay Thompson isn’t likely to leave the Warriors, who will surely one day retire his jersey, unless they offer him an insultingly low contract.

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The most likely free agents the Lakers will target are Kyrie Irving and Jimmy Butler, and the only difference maker they can acquire via trade is Bradley Beal.

Irving’s questionable locker room leadership approach has been the subject of dozens of media profiles, and casual speculation throughout social media, as well as various nationally syndicated talk shows.

With his belated “mea culpa” to LeBron, and both of their teams struggling from a lack of cohesion and general happiness, it wouldn’t be crazy for Irving and LeBron to reunite. Is it likely? Not necessarily, but it wouldn’t be shocking.

The same can be said for Jimmy Butler, whose cantankerous attitude and role-minimalization in Philadelphia could open the door to him joining the Purple and Gold. While Butler reportedly didn’t want to play with LeBron last year, his motivations could change, especially if no other franchise offers him a full max contract (a heavy, heavy gamble by any franchise, considering Butler’s age, injury history and attitude).

The Lakers have exactly one max slot’s worth of cap space this summer, and if a better offer doesn’t emerge, it wouldn’t be crazy for the Lakers to make Butler their guy. His game isn’t a perfect fit with LeBron’s, but it would appear to be cleaner than his fit with the 76ers, as currently constructed.

If the Lakers could sign either Irving or Butler, and LeBron doesn’t make amends with the young teammates he has spent the past few months alienating, the franchise’s next move would be to swing a trade for the most compatible player not named Anthony Davis, Bradley Beal.

Beal is not a good enough first option to lead a team to the playoffs, and his tenure with John Wall proved he wasn’t quite a good enough 1B to get them over the playoff hump. In L.A., Beal would enjoy being a 2nd or even 3rd option behind an all-time great passer in LeBron, and Butler or Irving, both of whom draw more gravity in the halfcourt than Beal’s best teammate to date ever did. His exceptional shooting, and developing playmaking would help him fit in perfectly with any of these guys, and whatever peripheral players the then-capped-out Lakers would surround him with.

After John Wall’s season-ending surgery (but before his Achilles tear), the asking price for Beal was “something like two first-rounders a young asset and another player.”

Since Wall’s torn Achilles, the Wizards say Beal is off the table, but with their franchise staring down the upcoming $168M Wall contract, with no spectacular lottery picks upcoming, any move that saves cap and adds players who haven’t come as close to their ceilings as Beal has, has to be considered.

While the baby Lakers rejected by the Pelicans in proposed Anthony Davis trades certainly aren’t future superstars – or possibly even All-Stars – it’s important to remember that they won an inspiring 35 games in 2017-18.

While the relative worth and potential of Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma appears somewhat fluid, Josh Hart is clearly the worst of the three, but still a good shooter who played like a starting caliber guard in the opening months of the season. Trading for any three of these four young guys would be a defensible move, considering none but Ingram will be restricted free agents before summer 2021 – by which point Wall’s death-knell of a contract will have just two years left.

While a three-for-one player trade (or even four-for-one, if absolutely necessary) would leave the Lakers’ depth non-existent, this is something they appeared totally fine with when they held a total firesale for AD last month.

A big three of an aging LeBron James, and a still developing Bradley Beal, and Kyrie Irving or Jimmy Butler wouldn’t be a clear championship contender, but it also would appear to have a fighting chance against the West’s top teams like the Thunder, Rockets, Blazers, Nuggets and a once-again-mortal Warriors, if Kevin Durant were to leave this summer.

Simply put, the Lakers’ season have been a complete failure, due to the stalled progression from all of their young guys, and disinterest from LeBron. Adding two legit All-Stars in July would mark a big improvement, and a reason for a jaded fan base to once again believe.