I have never been a fan. I have been counting down the days til his retirement. I despise him for his influence on the super team culture, the NBA has evolved too. He takes teams hostage, manipulates rosters for his personal gain, then leaves them in shambles. I know he has gotten rings at all three destinations, so many will say it was worth it. Cleveland was destroyed after he fucked them off with “the decision” (which is another reason for my disdain lol), and LA is a dumpster fire, that will take a decade to fix. Sorry to vent lol
I’m not sure a team can win with Lebron being their best player anymore unless he’s surrounded by guys who can cover for him defensively. He barely puts any effort out on defense just floats around often losing track of his man.
Blazers have an Alpha. We need a bettuh Beta. Fuck no on Lebron. I'd maybe trade picks and backups for Davis.
Maybe Nurk and Davis splitting time helps both stay healthier, and each provides insurance for the other.
That's a lot of money tied up in the center position when we have needs at soooo many other positions.
Unless you buy into him making the roster decisions which to me is the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard. I hate it when people say it about Dame and I hate it when they say it about anyone else. If an ownership group can't tell a player that they have experts working on roster building every day of the year and that the player needs to trust them, then there's something really wrong there. Sure you can consult your star player but it needs to be really clear that the players are concentrating far too much on their own game, making things work with their current roster and other business ventures to not be able to be convinced that the people that do nothing but roster build for their team are the best people to make the final decisions.
This thread has turned into the absurd. LeBron is still one of the top players in the game, he just had a really horrible team around him this season. If our pick lands in the most likely spot which is seventh, I would easily include that in a package for LeBron. In fact, like I've been suggesting we do for a while now, I would trade a second rounder... not our second rounder this year but that late second from Memphis or the future Detroit second and/or cash to get the conditions taken off of the pick we owe Chicago, so I could send the Lakers our 2025 first rounder too. pick 7, 2025 first rounder top 4 protected, Bledsoe, Hart and Winslow for LeBron James. I would then trade the Pelicans pick, assuming it conveys, for Grant. I would draft a backup center with our second rounder, I would use the TPMLE to get a veteran backup guard. Dame, Ant, Grant, LeBron, Nurk, Nas, 2nd rounder C, TPMLE, ring/LeBron chasers and a young guy already on the roster pops and gets in the rotation as well. We would win it all. I don't know if that would be enough for the Lakers but I would also do it if we landed the 3rd or 4th pick and Jabari and Paolo were already gone... I don't think I'd include the future first in that situation though. The Lakers get a really solid shooting guard in Hart, Winslow would start for them at the three or four with how busted their roster is, they'd be able to draft an immediate starter with whatever pick we sent them. That's a lot of holes filled and would make them a lot more competitive than they were this year. Russ would also likley contribute a lot more with Bron gone.
