Could Mavs Take Advantage of ‘Burning’ Lakers with LeBron Blockbuster Trade?
When LeBron James made the decision to go to the Los Angeles Lakers, many already knew it was mostly for non-basketball reasons. If it hadn’t have been, he would’ve chosen a team that was already a title contender at the time.
The trade for Anthony Davis after James’ first season in L.A. was supposed to set the franchise up for success for years to come. The Lakers were fortunate enough to captured a championship when the NBA had to move its 2019-2020 season to the Orlando Bubble, but aside from that, the James-Davis tenure has been somewhat underwhelming due to injuries and other bad roster moves.
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“Where smoke surrounds LeBron James, there is always fire, and the Los Angeles Lakers are burning,” writes Yahoo Sports’ Ben Rohrbach.
“Whenever James has been dissatisfied in his career, whether he tells us directly or lets anonymous sources do the informing, whispers become louder right before a momentous change reverberates around the NBA. We have seen James spin this cycle through Cleveland, Miami, back to Cleveland and now in Los Angeles.”
Whether or not James ‘made his own bed’ or not — which is us mainly referring to the Russell Westbrook trade James pushed for that has turned out horribly — the 37-year-old legend is running out of time to add more championship hardware to his résumé. To do so, it’s looking like James will have to leave the Lakers, either in 2023 free agency or maybe even this summer via trade.
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Is this a splashy trade situation that Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison could take advantage of in the offseason? Before you roll your eyes too far back into your head, let’s just look at some of the facts here.
*LeBron James will be on an expiring $44 million contract after this season is over. At this point in James’ career — and make no doubt, he is still great, but Father Time remains undefeated for a reason — how many teams will be willing to mortgage the future with a huge trade package for what could be just one season of James’ services?
*The Lakers have little to no roster flexibility. Could the Lakers make trades in the offseason that don’t include James? Sure they could, but they aren’t going to get anything in return that would them over the top. Westbrook is considered a negative asset, and Anthony Davis might not be too far behind him with his continued health issues and the fact that he’s making roughly $42 million per year though the 2024-2025 season.
*The Mavs have watched Luka Doncic perform at an All-NBA level for three years now, despite not having any other star power around him. Given Doncic and James’ mutual respect for one another, and James’ admiration for Mavs coach Jason Kidd, perhaps this could be the perfect situation to get Luka a true co-star while also taking a burden off of LeBron’s aging shoulders as well.
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Making a hypothetical trade in situation is tricky, because again, an opposing team isn’t going to want to empty the asset cabinet for potentially one season of an aging superstar — even if it is LeBron James — but maybe the Lakers would be interested in the Mavs’ 2027 first-round pick if they also have plans of eventually chasing Doncic in free agency later down the road.
A Dallas trade package of Spencer Dinwiddie, Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber and that 2027 first round pick seems about right as far giving the Lakers something of value in return without completely ‘giving up the farm.’ The Lakers could potentially be stuck between a rock and a hard place if James, who has a no-trade clause in his contract, decides he wants to team up with Doncic, a player he recently gushed over at the All-Star break and compared to himself.
“Absolutely. There’s no question,” said Harrison in an exclusive 1-on-1 interview on our Mavs Step Back Podcast when asked about whether moving on from Porzingis this season was partly about looking for bigger moves later on.
“We’ve been saying it gives us depth and flexibility, and the flexibility comes in different ways. Not just with your roster, but with potential moves down the road.”
