Lakers Hot Seat: Who's Facing the Most Pressure with LeBron James in LA?

It's been just over two weeks since LeBron James shook up the NBA's balance of power by announcing he was heading to Hollywood, and already there are expectations.

On a conference call after the signing became official, President of Basketball Operations Magic Johnson told reporters it was going to take time for the new Lakers to reach their potential.

"I think the one thing that we have to, and the fans have to, be patient about is the chemistry on the court, because we're putting together basically all these guys will be new to each other, right?" Johnson said. "It's probably going to take us at least a month or two, probably closer to two months, to really understand how to play with each other and how to read each other, all those things."

If James' recent teams are any indication, Johnson is right. None of his teams—be they in Cleveland or Miami—have been dominant from day one, and most underwent big changes throughout the year, looking nothing by the playoffs like they did when training camp began.

In LeBron's 2014-15 homecoming season, then-Cavaliers general manager David Griffin altered the roster drastically in January, trading for guards Iman Shumpert and JR Smith from New York and adding center Timofey Mozgov from Denver shortly thereafter.

The following year, it was a deadline deal for veteran center Channing Frye, who played a major role in the Cavs' come-from-behind championship run over the 73-win Golden State Warriors.

In 2016-17, a January trade for sharpshooter Kyle Korver and the buyout-market signing of veteran point guard Deron Williams helped Cleveland reshape its roster ahead of a third straight Finals run.

James' final season in Cleveland saw the Cavs' biggest trade-deadline shakeup yet. General manager Koby Altman jettisoned Shumpert, Dwyane Wade, Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder and Derrick Rose and added four new rotation players: guards George Hill and Jordan Clarkson and forwards Rodney Hood and Larry Nance Jr.

Based on that precedent, and on the mismatched nature of the Lakers' roster, it's safe to assume the team that will take the floor when the playoffs kick off in April will look significantly different than the roster that exists in mid-July.

Outside of James, nobody is 100 percent safe, and there are no guarantees that any player—or head coach Luke Walton—will be in this by the time the LeBron era is over. Some are in more imminent danger of being cast aside than others, but it's on the table for everybody.

Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram

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Undoubtedly, the Lakers' two promising young forwards would be the players of interest in any trade for Kawhi Leonard or another star. However, the Lakers are in no rush to make such a deal. Both have so much untapped potential going into their second and third years, respectively, that it makes sense to at least try them out next to James to see what you have.

There's also something to be said for young legs, especially when James has been to eight consecutive NBA Finals and led the league in minutes per game in each of the past two seasons.

The Lakers didn't want to include Ingram in a trade for Paul George last summer, and thus far they haven't shown an eagerness to include him in Leonard trade talks with the Spurs. If the right deal presents itself, neither one is untouchable—the only truly untouchable player in the league is James.

But both should at least get a chance to play alongside James.

Luke Walton

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It probably doesn't matter that much whether James buys what Walton is selling. He's never been 100 percent on board with any coach in his career, from Paul Silas to Mike Brown to David Blatt to Tyronn Lue. Even Erik Spoelstra, who coached James in Miami and got arguably the best years out of his career, took time to get on the same page.

Pat Riley has admitted that James asked for Spoelstra to be fired in his first year with the Heat. Riley held his ground, and the relationship between James and Spoelstra proved to be fruitful, yielding two championships in four years.

Thus far, the Buss family and the Lakers' front office have backed Walton fully when his coaching has come into question.

Last season, after LaVar Ball's controversial comments to ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman claiming Walton had lost control of the locker room, Johnson reportedly called out one of Ball's associates behind the scenes and gave Walton his vote of confidence. James' four-year deal with the Lakers diminishes the leverage he held over the Cavaliers during his second tenure there, when he signed a series of short-term contracts.

Walton is going into the third year of a five-year deal, the first four seasons of which are fully guaranteed. He's going to get a shot at coaching the new-look Lakers. If they struggle, someone has to be the fall guy, and it's always easier to fire the coach than the players. But Walton should feel safe for the time being.

The Balls

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If there were any chance that Lonzo Ball would get traded anytime soon, it was severely diminished Friday when the Lakers announced the 2017 No. 2 overall pick had undergone arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. General manager Rob Pelinka says Ball is expected to be fully recovered by the start of training camp.

During the Finals, James spoke of wanting to play with other smart basketball minds, and Ball is that. His shooting is still a question mark, but he's an uncommonly good rebounder for a point guard and an above-average defender at the position, not to mention his playmaking ability. There are plenty of qualities James would like in a teammate, and like with Ingram and Kuzma, they seem determined to try it out.

Of course, it's not Lonzo who's the reason for most of the trade speculation—it's his father, and the question of whether James has the patience to deal with the possibility of LaVar saying something controversial about him on the radio.

The truth is, James probably couldn't care less. He's been the most powerful figure in the NBA for the past decade and dealt with media circuses that dwarf anything the Balls could bring about. Just as the Lakers brass backed Walton over Ball in their dispute last season, there's no question they would do the same for one of the greatest players of all time, who is the most important free agent the franchise has signed since Shaquille O'Neal in 1996.

If Lonzo is traded, it will be for basketball reasons, not because James is losing any kind of sleep over his father's wrestling-heel persona.

Lakers' Newly Signed Veterans

Most of the Lakers' post-James signings have been head-scratchers: Rajon Rondo for $9 million, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for $12 million, Lance Stephenson for $4.5 million and JaVale McGee for $2.3 million. But while the basketball fits next to James are not great, the usefulness of their contracts is obvious.

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All four players signed one-year deals, allowing the Lakers to essentially punt their cap space until next offseason. That's when the pool of free agents will include not only Leonard but also Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson, Kemba Walker, DeMarcus Cousins and maybe even Kevin Durant.

Having one-year deals at these middle-tier numbers on their books can also come in handy for the Lakers at the trade deadline. If a star such as Leonard or Butler becomes available, the Lakers will be in a position to include any of these players as contract filler along with one or more of their young prospects to make the salaries match up.

Taking back a series of expiring contracts is much more palatable to other teams than taking back the two years and $36.8 million remaining on Luol Deng's onerous contract (more on him in a minute), which is the only other way to make the money work in trading for a big star.

Whether they're traded in the middle of the season or allowed to walk next July for more cap space, it's hard to imagine that Rondo, Caldwell-Pope or Stephenson are in the Lakers' plans beyond this year.

Luol Deng

At the 2018 trade deadline, Johnson openly laughed at the notion that the Lakers would ever be able to move Deng's contract, which stands as one of the biggest albatrosses to come out of the infamous summer 2016 cap spike. It's not going to get any easier to move Deng this year without attaching a first-round pick or one of their coveted young players.

After starting for the Lakers in the opening game of the 2017-18 season, Deng did not appear in a single game for the rest of the year. He could not be any less a part of the team's long-term plans—this much has been obvious since the day he signed that deal.

As the Lakers attempt to maximize their flexibility ahead of what is expected to be an active free agency next summer, softening Deng's year-to-year cap hit is a certainty. It would be a surprise if they don't eventually waive him under the stretch provision, which allows them to spread out his salary over twice the remaining years on the contract plus one, rather than pay it out in real time.

The most logical way to do this would be to wait until after Sept. 1, which will allow them to eat his full $18 million salary for the 2018-19 season and then spread out the final year's $18.8 million over the following three years, for an annual cap hit of just $6.2 million per year through 2022. Deng was never going to be in the Lakers' big-picture plans regardless, but the addition of James increases the probability they will be in the running for major free agents next summer, and they'll need all the cap space they can create.

Theoretically, the Lakers could wait until next offseason to stretch Deng. But both parties are fully aware that he doesn't have a long-term future in Los Angeles, and cutting bait before the start of training camp would allow him to explore signing with another team.

Perhaps Tom Thibodeau, who has been faithfully reassembling the early-2010s Bulls in Minnesota, would bite. Either way, by the time the Lakers are contending, Deng will not be in the picture.