Los Angeles Lakers: Surrounding LeBron James with vets isn’t the answer
The Los Angeles Lakers should not be surrounding LeBron James with aging veterans.
In the past, any team that had LeBron James on its roster – the Cleveland Cavaliers or Miami Heat – would almost entirely base their offseason plan around finding the right veteran players to surround the best player in the world with.
Not only would that philosophy result in giving LeBron the best chance of winning a title the next season, but it would also help said veterans in their attempts of winning one more championship ring before retirement.
And as the Los Angeles Lakers move toward that same philosophy to close out their free agency shopping, it’s an extremely flawed plan for this version of LeBron.
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The Lakers, after the acquisition of Russell Westbrook, hunted in free agency for bargain veterans. And they landed a few – Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Wayne Ellington, Trevor Ariza, Rajon Rondo, and possibly DeAndre Jordan next (it has been rumored that the Lakers would be interested if he gets bought out by the Brooklyn Nets).
But an argument could be made that this is a mistake that the Lakers are making to round out their roster.
For the lack of a better analogy, LeBron is the veteran now. And he should be surrounded with players that resemble his old self more than players that represent what he’s quickly approaching during the (expected) last few years of his career.
And we’ve slowly begun to hear the narrative change as of late; before it would be mocked when the media suggested that LeBron didn’t have enough help. Now, it’s a factual statement – LeBron, at his advanced age, might not have enough help to get the Lakers back to championship contention.
But that’s not a knock on LeBron. Instead, it’s the simple context of where he is at this point in his career.
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The Lakers can assemble the greatest collection of veterans to surround LeBron heading into this season. But that’s not the answer in how to give him the best chance of winning another title.