Antawn Jamison: Lakers Can't Recruit on 'Banners and Past Championships Anymore'

Any success the Los Angeles Lakers may have in the future will be founded upon LeBron James' presence, but using past accomplishments and the L.A. market to convince players to join James isn't enough. 

Lakers front-office scout Antawn Jamison acknowledged to Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype on Wednesday that L.A. can't rely on Hollywood glamour on the free agency trail:

"It's all about winning. I think in the past, especially when I played, it was more about the destination and the market. But these guys can play in Alaska and still have unbelievable marketing and sell just about anything. Now, these guys are like, 'Look, we love L.A. We're there in the offseason. But I want to know if we can win.'

"That's why the Buss family and Magic [Johnson] and Rob [Pelinka] are doing what they're doing. We get it. We can't [recruit] off of the banners and past championships anymore. And instead of talking about putting more banners up there, we need to do everything possible to actually put more up there. ... When you have LeBron James on your team, it makes it that much easier."

Jamison retired from the NBA in 2014 with the Los Angeles Clippers, but he played one season as a Laker in 2012-13. He also played one season with James in Cleveland.

The 2009-10 season Jamison spent playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers was James' last in Cleveland before he left in free agency for the Miami Heat—the first of three NBA-altering decisions he has made in free agency. Jamison was present in the Lakers' front office when the franchise landed James this past summer.

"I played with him and he just makes everybody better," Jamison told Kennedy. "It was great to get that news and know he's going to be part of the organization. We're finally together for, hopefully, more than a year and hopefully we can make some noise."

This season, the Lakers have produced mostly white noise. While L.A. aggressively pursued New Orleans Pelicans All-Star center Anthony Davis before the trade deadline, nothing came from it other than discord within the Lakers' current roster. 

Since the trade deadline passed on Feb. 7, the Lakers are 2-4 with damning losses to the Atlanta Hawks, Pelicans (without Davis) and Memphis Grizzlies.

With 22 games remaining—including another matchup with New Orleans on Wednesday night—the Lakers are three games back from the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. L.A. currently occupies 11th place at 29-31. This is the latest into an NBA season that a LeBron-led team has been under .500 since 2004.

It goes without saying that the Lakers need to add more prominent pieces around James. Perhaps the hope heading into this season was for James to be able to take the current young core into the playoffs, but that is looking increasingly unlikely.