Lakers: Magic Johnson Explains Roster Decision That Doomed LA
The last two days have been chock-full of Lakers legends making headlines. First, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar critiqued LeBron James on Sunday. On Monday morning it was his former teammate's turn to make some waves. In an appearance on ESPN Get Up, Magic Johnson talked about the cascade effect of the Lakers deciding not to sign DeMar DeRozan in free agency this summer.
"DeRozan wanted to play for the Lakers. When I got the call from his agent, I called the Lakers and said, 'Hey, he wants to come home'. DeRozan could've been a Laker instead of a Bull. We could've made that deal. But then, when Russell and LeBron and them started talking, that's when they nixed that deal and went with Westbrook."
Back in January, DeRozan said that signing with the Lakers was "an option" and he was even willing to consider taking a pay cut to team up with LeBron and Anthony Davis.
According to Magic, it was more than just an option. The former Lakers president of basketball operations walked through what he believes the rest of the roster could've looked like with DeRozan instead of Westbrook.
"I think with DeRozan, and then you had a chance to keep the role players, Caruso, KCP, all those guys, who are our best defenders, they left. That's why we were a bad defensive team."
The Hall-of-Famer then made quite the claim while he was knee-deep in hypotheticals.
"If you sign DeRozan, you only trade Kuzma for Buddy Hield, we would be playing in the Western Conference championship this year with those two guys."
As most basketball fans know, it's not quite as simple as Magic made it out to be. Navigating the salary cap to have all of the players Magic listed on the roster would have been quite challenging. Cap expert Eric Pincus characterized it as not "mathematically sound".
Regardless, it proves that Magic is just like every Lakers fan right now. He just wishes the team would've done some things differently this offseason.
