ESPN NBA Insider Brian Windhorst on LeBron (and Bronny’s??) Lakers Future | The Rich Eisen Show

ESPN NBA Insider Brian Windhorst on LeBron (and Bronny’s??) Lakers Future | The Rich Eisen Show

Let’s revisit the Lakers again because it just seems like they are on a little bit of a treadmill after winning the inseason tournament with a couple of games in Vegas that made us all think well there it is that’s it we could see that maybe uh from April through June as

Opposed to just two games maybe over two months that’s possible uh but it just seem to be on on a treadmill where they’ll win a couple and then just go back to the same old same old where we’re wondering where where the where the championship quality is Brian and

What what what is going on there and how does that affect LeBron’s U Future yeah they um they’re a little bit maddening I can imagine for their uh for their Executives because you know the team that they put together at the end of last season like they defended like

Crazy they were the number one or two defensive team after the trade deadline last year and some of the offense some of the players they brought in also could do some things offensively and you know they were like man like that’s a team like like a concept of having two

Future Hall of Famers LeBron and AD and a defensive first team like I’m not saying they would ever move into like you know leading Contender to win the title but like that’s something that you can do some damage with and then you watched how they played in the inseason

Tournament and it wasn’t just the games in Vegas Rich they crushed in that tournament LeBron turned it up they had the you know because we had to pay attention to scoring differential because that was the tiebreaker yes the Lakers were the scoring differential Leader by like 50 points not 50 they

Were the Leader by 50 points they dominated that whole event and so if you’re their front office you’re saying this is our team we defend we get ad and LeBron playing well but we are now 40 plus games into the season and I think ad has missed four or five games

LeBron’s missed maybe three they haven’t had injuries to their Stars those guys have been there and they’re not getting the the wins and you know in the last um you know couple of weeks they’ve actually even gotten some really good play from D’Angelo Russell who’s been a guy who’s been a disappointment this

Year they resigned him instead of like letting him walk and maybe trying to go find another uh guard they resigned him and he was in a terrible slump was out of the starting lineup he’s come back into the starting lineup over the last couple weeks and been awesome put up some huge

Performances and they’ve had a very favorable portion of schedule and they’re still basically 500 so you know I think they’re a little bit stuttered by the you know by the thing that they that their team is operating in the in significant way like they wanted to and it’s not producing results when that

Team has produced results in the past so I there’s not an easy answer here and when you ask about LeBron you know like LeBron is 39 years old he has an option in his contract and his son might be in the draft um I think there’s a good

Chance his son is GNA come to the draft uh he has said he wants to play with his son these are all facts um I I I really can’t see um LeBron not being in La that said he has never been on a one-year contract with the Lakers he has always

Extended I think he’s been there six years and he’s extended his contract he’s signed three different contracts he’s extended repeatedly he is clearly leaving that option there not because necessarily wants to leave but because I think he just wants to have flexibility wants to see what happens and you know

That’s a reality that the Lakers have to Grapple with um they you know regardless of what Lebron’s contract is he’s 39 you know when he retires or moves on whatever he’s not replaceable like yeah they’re the Lakers people are going to want to play there he’s a unreplaceable resource

So like even if he would signed a contract for five years they still would have the pressure of dealing with the 39y old who they need to try to take advantage of well and and I I guess there is I mean let’s just go there I the way

That they handle Kobe’s end of his career and and how that kind of you know cap strung them on occasion but they wanted to have Kobe there and you you know um I’m wondering if they’ll do the same thing with LeBron although I don’t know how much longer LeBron wants to

Play is it just one year with this kid I mean is there anything to inform all this because that not only informs what they do at the trade deadline it’s what they do in the draft it’s what they do for next year and and who knows Brian I

Mean that’s big yeah there’s a there’s a ton of unanswerable questions there you know um one the Lakers don’t even know if they’re going to have their draft pick this year um there’s this weird um thing that the pel an have the Pelicans have the option and I think the deadline is

Like June 1st or something like that the Pelicans have the option of either taking the Lakers pick this year or next year and obviously it’s going to depend on where the Lakers pick ends up like are they going to miss the playoffs and be a lottery team or they gonna get

Lucky in the lottery it’s unprotected by the way uh even know if it if it gets a lucky if the Lakers miss the playoffs and it gets Lottery luck the Pelicans can take it um so I don’t even know like forget about whether or not you think

The Lakers should draft bronny James or anybody should draft bronny James the Lakers don’t even know as they operate today whether they’re going to have a draft pick in this year’s draft so that’s that’s one complication second complication is I do think that LeBron could play multiple more years in the

League um and also he’s under contract for 50 million the his option for next year is 50 million five- Z I know the man is wealthy but $50 million is not nothing so you know maybe he wants to play with his son but maybe his son gets

Drafted by a team that says yeah LeBron you can come play here but we’ve got 10 million that’s what we’ve got like they don’t have you know salary cap space is he honestly going to leave that kind of money on the table to move I can’t see

That but you know I don’t know um maybe Brian James doesn’t get drafted at all maybe maybe the best thing for bronnie is to go to a team where he can develop not a team with LeBron on it where he would you know there would be a totally different set of circumstances there

There’s a ton of different things all I can tell you is the lake Lakers are are are coming in under expectations right now LeBron is 39 LeBron has an option in his contract the Lakers don’t know whether they’re going to have their draft pick I don’t know what’s gonna

Happen with bronnie James whether he’s in the draft or not and if he is in the draft I don’t know where he’s going to take him I don’t know how strong and important is from to play with LeBron Jr in 2425 these are all unanswered questions and that was what makes this

Kind of a fascinating thing to watch no doubt so just to put a point on it based on what you said it’s possible it could come down to LeBron staying with the Lakers comes down to the Lakers drafting bronny because that’s what’s obviously and it makes total sense that LeBron

Would want to do that before you know moving on to the next part of his life in a weird way rich I I I know that this sounds counterintuitive the better bronnie plays at USC the harder it might be to play with him and the reason is

Because if he like was had like a brilliant season this year and like he becomes because you know Jonathan gavone who’s at ESPN our our guy who who evaluates draft picks like he’s awesome at his job and like go look at his mock drafts he like nails the mock drafts

Maybe not a a year out but certainly in the you know and he was he thought that Brony before his terrible uh event last summer he thought Brony could be a lottery pick well if brony’s potentially a lottery pick it’s the Lakers might not have a shot at him if Brony looks like

More of a project and he slides into the second round it becomes much more feasible for the Lakers to acquire him and frankly if he doesn’t get drafted at all which I think he’s going to get drafted but like if he doesn’t get drafted at all Lakers could

Just sign him so in a strange way obviously LeBron wants Brony to have a great season at USC but it if Brony goes later in the draft it becomes easier for the Lakers to acquire him and this becomes a cleaner process it’s counterintuitive but it’s one of the other facets that’s just fascinating

About the situation and yet they may not have a draft pick to use on him because of the Anthony Davis TR first round is that is that is that is that what that’s from the Pelicans that’s what wow okay that’s right talk about a wild scenario oh my goodness Brian but

There’s lots more basketball to be played catch the rich eyes and show every single day on the Roku Channel 12 to3 Eastern for free

ESPN NBA Insider Brian Windhorst and Rich Eisen discuss LeBron James’ future with the Lakers as his career heads down the home stretch.

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