Weakest Move Kawhi To Lakers Or KD To Warriors?

[CWood21]

2 minutes ago, seminoles1 said:

LeBron (and every other superstar) uses teams for their advantage. He went to Cleveland because they had assets. When all those assets were used up, he went to LA. LA is out of assets, so unless they are winning in 2 years and still look like they'll be successful going forward, LeBron is definitely a flight risk.

At 36 years old?  Who is going to max him out?  He's not going to some small market team, so there's only a handful of teams who might interest him.

[J-ALL-DAY]

4 minutes ago, seminoles1 said:

LeBron (and every other superstar) uses teams for their advantage. He went to Cleveland because they had assets. When all those assets were used up, he went to LA. LA is out of assets, so unless they are winning in 2 years and still look like they'll be successful going forward, LeBron is definitely a flight risk.

If AD re-signs after this season then there is almost no chance LeBron leaves. Only way he will leave is if he wants to play five more years and wants to play his last season with his son. But that's WAY down the road and doubtful that he plays that much longer. LeBron is setting shop in LA for pretty much the rest of his life.

[seminoles1]

8 minutes ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

If AD re-signs after this season then there is almost no chance LeBron leaves. Only way he will leave is if he wants to play five more years and wants to play his last season with his son. But that's WAY down the road and doubtful that he plays that much longer. LeBron is setting shop in LA for pretty much the rest of his life.

Most likely, but most people thought the same thing about Cleveland.

If Davis re-signs and continues to be a superstar, then sure, LeBron is a Laker for the rest of his career. If Davis gets hurt, the fit doesn't work, they hate playing together, etc. then LeBron could easily leave.

LeBron wants LA to be his last stop, but he's not going to stay there if they have no shot of winning.

Edited July 9, 2019 by seminoles1

[seminoles1]

9 minutes ago, CWood21 said:

At 36 years old?  Who is going to max him out?  He's not going to some small market team, so there's only a handful of teams who might interest him.

Plenty of teams would max him out. Maybe not for 4 years, but unless LeBron is a much worse player in 2 years, he's getting a max deal from someone.

[J-ALL-DAY]

16 minutes ago, seminoles1 said:

Most likely, but most people thought the same thing about Cleveland.

If Davis re-signs and continues to be a superstar, then sure, LeBron is a Laker for the rest of his career. If Davis gets hurt, the fit doesn't work, they hate playing together, etc. then LeBron could easily leave.

LeBron wants LA to be his last stop, but he's not going to stay there if they have no shot of winning.

Did people really think Cleveland was going to be his last stop? As early as 2017 the rumors of him wanting to play in LA started. 

And besides, what makes you think he will want to go to another team if it doesn't work out in LA when he could have gone to two better situations last summer? If he wanted his best chance of winning, wouldn't he have gone to Philly or found a way to go to Houston? 

The days of LeBron chasing a ring are long gone. Obviously he will try to win in LA and now he has a chance to do so, but he's not going anywhere unless it is to play with his son. 

[Mox]

I don't think LBJ is going to leave LA.

[Mossburg]

14 minutes ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Did people really think Cleveland was going to be his last stop? As early as 2017 the rumors of him wanting to play in LA started. 

And besides, what makes you think he will want to go to another team if it doesn't work out in LA when he could have gone to two better situations last summer? If he wanted his best chance of winning, wouldn't he have gone to Philly or found a way to go to Houston? 

The days of LeBron chasing a ring are long gone. Obviously he will try to win in LA and now he has a chance to do so, but he's not going anywhere unless it is to play with his son. 

I think he chose the Lakers because he wanted to play for them AND he thought he could win, even if there were other easier to win situations. If the Lakers were a dumpster fire situation, I don't think it's a safe bet he'd sign there just because he wanted to be there.

I'm and AD fan, but seminoles is right. He's super injury prone and we no clue how he does on the biggest of stages. I think they match well together, and I wouldn't be surprised if AD will be the best player in the league starting next year, but there's still plenty of questions around him. Too many uncertainties to be certain about anything.

Edited July 9, 2019 by Mossburg

[J-ALL-DAY]

1 minute ago, Mossburg said:

I think he chose the Lakers because he wanted to play for them AND he thought he could win, even if there were other easier to win situations. If the Lakers were a dumpster fire situation, I don't think it's a safe bet he'd sign there just because he wanted to be there.

I'm and AD fan, but seminoles is right. He's super injury prone and we no clue how he does on the biggest of stages. I think they match well together, and I wouldn't be surprised if AD will be the best player in the league starting next year, but there's still plenty of questions around him. Too many uncertainties to be certain about anything.

Dude is making or producing movies left and right. He's getting a head start on his exit plan. I think he is okay if he never wins another ring. Legacy for the most part is set. Going from the Lakers to say the Clippers doesn't really do much for him in year 19. 

[Mossburg]

1 minute ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Dude is making or producing movies left and right. He's getting a head start on his exit plan. I think he is okay if he never wins another ring. Legacy for the most part is set. Going from the Lakers to say the Clippers doesn't really do much for him in year 19. 

That's where I'll say I don't want to assume I understand what he wants career wise. I think there's an underlying assumption that the Lakers can only be successful now when we say this. If that's not the case I don't think it'll be a real simple scenario of everyone just expecting him to do nothing.

[CWood21]

27 minutes ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Did people really think Cleveland was going to be his last stop? As early as 2017 the rumors of him wanting to play in LA started. 

And besides, what makes you think he will want to go to another team if it doesn't work out in LA when he could have gone to two better situations last summer? If he wanted his best chance of winning, wouldn't he have gone to Philly or found a way to go to Houston? 

The days of LeBron chasing a ring are long gone. Obviously he will try to win in LA and now he has a chance to do so, but he's not going anywhere unless it is to play with his son. 

Does LeBron leave if Kyrie Irving doesn't ask to be traded?  I certainly don't think he does.  Cleveland dried up fast once Kyrie Irving was dealt to Boston.  For the first time in what appears to be a long time, LeBron has a young star to pair with who should be under contract for the foreseeable future.  Once Kyrie Irving was dealt to Boston, who was the co-star for LeBron?  Isaiah Thomas' corpse?  Kevin Love wasn't keeping LeBron in Los Angeles, especially on an an aging roster devoid of picks and young players to flip for more proven players.  Anthony Davis is a LOT different than Kevin Love.

[J-ALL-DAY]

24 minutes ago, CWood21 said:

Does LeBron leave if Kyrie Irving doesn't ask to be traded?  I certainly don't think he does.  Cleveland dried up fast once Kyrie Irving was dealt to Boston.  For the first time in what appears to be a long time, LeBron has a young star to pair with who should be under contract for the foreseeable future.  Once Kyrie Irving was dealt to Boston, who was the co-star for LeBron?  Isaiah Thomas' corpse?  Kevin Love wasn't keeping LeBron in Los Angeles, especially on an an aging roster devoid of picks and young players to flip for more proven players.  Anthony Davis is a LOT different than Kevin Love.

There were rumors of LeBron to LA before Kyrie requested his trade. In fact, Kyrie was getting applauded for being one step ahead of LeBron since it was likely LeBron was going to leave and Kyrie was going to be stuck with a one dimensional team built around LeBron. 

I just think folks completely forget just how long the LeBron to Lakers rumors went on for.

Edited July 9, 2019 by J-ALL-DAY

[CWood21]

1 minute ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

There were rumors of LeBron to LA before Kyrie requested his trade. In fact, Kyrie was getting applauded for being one step ahead of LeBron since it was likely LeBron was going to leave and Kyrie was going to be stuck with a one dimensional team built around LeBron. 

I just think folks completely forget just how long the LeBron to Lakers rumors went on for.

Up until a few days prior to him signing with the Lakers, the Lakers were considered a darkhorse.  We were talking about Philadelphia as his next destination.

[seminoles1]

16 minutes ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

There were rumors of LeBron to LA before Kyrie requested his trade. In fact, Kyrie was getting applauded for being one step ahead of LeBron since it was likely LeBron was going to leave and Kyrie was going to be stuck with a one dimensional team built around LeBron. 

I just think folks completely forget just how long the LeBron to Lakers rumors went on for.

Those rumors weren't there in 2014, 2015, or 2016. Just like there aren't rumors now.

LeBron definitely has stakes in things outside of basketball, but he still has a stake in his playing career. If the Lakers aren't doing anything, then he's not just going to shrug and be like "Oh well."

As for people thinking it was his last stop: yes. He had won his titles, talked about the long process of bringing Cleveland a title, brought up all the good will he wanted to do for the community, etc. Obviously not everyone believed it, but it seemed like a pretty solid long-term commitment from a soon-to-be 30-year-old.

[J-ALL-DAY]

10 minutes ago, CWood21 said:

Up until a few days prior to him signing with the Lakers, the Lakers were considered a darkhorse.  We were talking about Philadelphia as his next destination.

Absolutely not. Lakers were the damn favorites for from the first day of the season. 

From June 15, 2017:

Quote

On Wednesday, Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski said on his podcastthat James' championship in Cleveland in 2016 had "liberated" him to leave again and that many people thought he was "likely" to pursue one of the Los Angeles teams.

Quote

"Not only is there no guarantee he's coming back, I'm not sure there is an expectation he's re-signing there. I think within Cleveland and around the league they feel that he is very much in play to leave again and likely head out West to one of the two LA teams. The Lakers could very well be a target.

Please....PLEASE let's not do this where LeBron picking the Lakers came out of left field. NO, it was talked about right after the finals loss to the Warriors....The same summer Kyrie requested a trade. And LIS, he got applauded by some since he was thinking of the future of the Cavs without LeBron. 

[J-ALL-DAY]

Just now, seminoles1 said:

Those rumors weren't there in 2014, 2015, or 2016. Just like there aren't rumors now.

LeBron definitely has stakes in things outside of basketball, but he still has a stake in his playing career. If the Lakers aren't doing anything, then he's not just going to shrug and be like "Oh well."

As for people thinking it was his last stop: yes. He had won his titles, talked about the long process of bringing Cleveland a title, brought up all the good will he wanted to do for the community, etc. Obviously not everyone believed it, but it seemed like a pretty solid long-term commitment from a soon-to-be 30-year-old.

Why would there be rumors of him leaving BEFORE he won a ring in Cleveland? After he won though? That's when they started. My prior post shows an article from June 15, 2017 that is talking about LeBron leaving to the Lakers...Guys like Woj, Peter Vescey and others were talking about it THEN. Certainly it wasn't just something that happened because Kyrie left and he had no one left in Cleveland. No, the rumors were there before that.