Lakers Rumors: Latest Buzz on LeBron James, DeMarcus Cousins and More
It's approaching panic time for the Los Angeles Lakers.
What seemed a given this offseason didn't unfold, with Paul George choosing to agree to a long-term deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
That means the hometown kid decided to shun the hometown, immediately bringing up a sense of terrifying deja vu that the Lakers are once again going to be used more as leverage than an actual destination for the NBA's top free agents.
But all is not lost—at least not yet. And with so little cap space to go around, Lakers fans can take solace in the fact it will all be over sooner than usual.
The LeBron James Saga
LeBron James isn't expected to take long with his decision after opting out of his deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It's mostly because James doesn't have a ton of options. Besides a return to the Cavaliers or joining the Lakers, he's looking at the Houston Rockets' inability to afford him.
But again, the Lakers have to stress cautious optimism only. The last two notes about James' stint on the market go in two different directions pretty quickly.
First, ESPN's Brian Windhorst appeared on SportsCenter and said "everything is lining up for [James] to go to the Lakers." Meanwhile, "the Cavs have been in the dark," according to The Big Lead's Ryan Glasspiegel. But two later reports suggest the Cavaliers had one of the first chances to talk to James:
Those tweets, plus the impossibility for George to team up with James in Los Angeles, don't make for the greatest outlook. There's no chance he will team up with good friend Chris Paul, either—not after the star point guard agreed to re-up with the Rockets, according to Wojnarowski.
This almost leaves a sense that the Lakers have to find a way to make a trade for Kawhi Leonard. Otherwise, James could simply retreat to Cleveland. Either way, Magic Johnson and the front office don't have a ton of time because it has always sounded like James wants to iron this out before Wednesday.
Paul George Chooses Security
Maybe everyone should have seen this coming.
George decided to ink a four-year deal worth $137 million with a player option, going against the grain both in where he chooses to play and in the structure of his deal at a time when everyone from Kevin Durant down takes short-term deals with options so they can hit the open market and maximize earnings.
But George clearly wanted long-term security, a mindset perhaps shaped around his prior horrific leg injury. It sounds like he had known about the decision to stay for a while too because Russell Westbrook flew for eight hours to get to the party where George made the announcement:
Remarkably, there is good news in here for the Lakers. George isn't necessarily indicative of how all major free agents will look at the Lakers. He's in a unique situation given his injury history, getting traded to a team with two stars and the apparent friendship with those players:
Granted, it stinks to miss out on a 28-year-old superstar who averaged 21.9 points, 3.3 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game last year on 40.1 percent shooting from the floor.
But as Lakers fans surely knew, James and George are far from the only plans the team has during the open market.
DeMarcus Cousins, Backup Plan
Everybody seems to have forgotten about DeMarcus Cousins.
That is odd considering he is a 27-year-old center who averaged 25.2 points, 12.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game last year on the open market who isn't a lock to return to his New Orleans Pelicans.
The Lakers have thought about it at least, which has started to become more apparent as free agents started turning away from Los Angeles:
While it has been widely presumed Cousins would re-up with the Pelicans and keep the good thing going next to Anthony Davis, he possibly has meetings set with both teams, per Marc J. Spears of ESPN:
The Lakers get a win even if Cousins only inks a one-year deal. He's the best traditional big man in the game, and his numbers last year were in line with career averages or better even though he was still adapting to sharing the floor with Davis.
Cousins might go for a short-term deal to prove he can stay healthy, as he's only played in north of 70 games once over the past four seasons, appearing in 48 last year. He's still the best big man in the game and would be an obvious lure for James, who has said the same thing, as Cleveland.com shared:
Sliding Cousins into one of the max slots is a big step in the right direction for the Lakers, no matter how it gets looked at. Maybe it encourages James to join. Maybe it doesn't. Either way, it helps a young core win more games and gives the front office something to point at for the next trip to free agency.
For the Lakers, it might just take one big domino's fall to open the floodgates again. And Cousins, unless he pulls a George, could be just the beginning.
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