Shaquille O’Neal recently told a fast-talking paparazzo that he’d “heard” Kobe Bryant was coming out of retirement to play with LeBron James and the Lakers. This was almost certainly a joke, but as a pretext for silly-season speculation—and a cucumber season blog from one horrifyingly bored blogger—it’ll do just fine.…
However in the bag Lakers fans might be for young Lonzo Ball, LeBron James joining the Lakers is the first unambiguously positive thing to happen for that organization since Kobe Bryant retired after the 2016 regular season. They’ve been operating in a state of increasing irrelevance since they won their last title,…
In a move that is both delightfully absurd and absolutely no surprise, the Los Angeles Lakers signed free-agent forward Michael Beasley today. It’s delightfully absurd because everything about Beasley—his mystic wisdom master personality, his microwave offense and avant-garde approach to defense—is kind of absurd, and…
The Lakers are going to be much, much better and more fun than they were last season, but they’re not going to beat the Warriors. This hasn’t stopped team representatives from getting a little chesty, first by suggesting that their new-look roster of weirdos surrounding LeBron is actually an uncanny replica of…
Josh Hart and Collin Sexton had what looks like a decent duel in the semifinals of the NBA Summer League tournament last night. Hart went off for 37 points and nine rebounds in the Lakers’ 2OT win (nothing is more conceptually absurd than Summer League overtime), while Sexton had 27 points for the Cavs. The Lakers may…
Overall, being the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers seems pretty sweet. Even apart from, like, getting to be a very rich person in a sunny and gorgeous town with great food and sweet beaches, it’s a good job: At any given time something like half the NBA’s best players seem like they’re either actively…
At this point, the relationship between Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs seems irrevocably broken, and the only thing left to settle is whether the Lakers wait for him to hit free agency or the Spurs take a cut-rate deal to get something back in return for their superstar. ESPN’s Spurs reporter, Michael Wright, recently…
The blueprint for a successful LeBron James-led team has been pretty well-established over the course of the last few seasons: Surround him with as many shooters as possible and wait for him to get them wide-open shots. So it was definitely odd to see the Lakers, fresh off convincing LeBron to join them, go out and…
It’s undeniably wack that the Warriors, with the signing of DeMarcus Cousins to a one-year, $5.3 million deal on Monday night, have managed to assemble an entire starting five that, when healthy, could run the Eastern Conference All-Stars off the court. But what makes the earthquake of the Cousins signing a little…
The Lakers have LeBron James. Good for them. They now also have a handful of guys who seem like ideal targets to absorb LeBron’s ire.
The biggest surprise from yesterday’s NBA news is not that LeBron James chose to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, a destination that’s been on his radar for at least a year, but that he committed to them for a full three years, plus a player option for a fourth.
LeBronWatch has ended: LeBron James will sign a four-year, $154 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. Klutch Sports Group, which sounds like a Macedonian gag news site but is actually the agency founded by LeBron’s pal and agent Rich Paul, broke the news. The announcement has a blatant disregard for hyphens:
Paul George took exactly zero meetings and wasted no time whatsoever before agreeing to a four-year max contract worth $137 million to stay with the Oklahoma City Thunder Sunday morning. This went down in a fun way: Russell Westbrook left a family vacation in Hawaii to fly back to Oklahoma City and host a party for…
Are you ready for breaking LeBron Watch news that will absolutely BLOW YOUR NUTS OFF UNLESS YOU HAVE ALREADY WISELY FIGURED OUT THAT THINGS WERE ALREADY HEADED THIS WAY? Good, because I have such news. Now listen, I know my track record predicting things is, uh, not exactly sterling here. But tonight I ride through…
The race to sign LeBron James is heating up, and we’ve never had more information to share with you here at LeBronWatch. We’ve already discovered that LeBron is destined to be a Laker, thinks Houston is garbage, will play for the Knicks with Paul George, will probably end up a Nugget, will stay in Cleveland and bring…
It’s curious how passively worded this ESPN report from Wednesday was, as if “pressure is mounting” all by itself, rather than being applied by anyone:
LeBron James has until Friday to decide whether to opt in to the last year of his contract with the Cavaliers, or decline it and become an unrestricted free agent. As previous LeBronWatch entries have noted, LeBron plans to sign with the Lakers, Cavaliers, Nuggets, and Knicks next season, and he will not come within…
If, sometime between now and Friday, Paul George opts out of next season with the Thunder, he’ll become the NBA’s second-hottest free agent. How should a team entice such a player? The Los Angeles Lakers, likely front-runners in the pursuit of George, have devised a pitch as inspiring as a pre-flight airplane security…
Welcome back to LeBronWatch, your premier source for news about where LeBron James will be playing next season. LeBron has until Friday to decide whether or not to opt out of his contract, though opting in is no guarantee that he won’t still engineer a trade elsewhere. As of now, we know he’s planning to leave…
This afternoon, more or less every basketball reporter simultaneously reported that Kawhi Leonard wanted out of San Antonio. The coordination of reports from Jabari Young, Chris Haynes, and Shams Charania suggests that the “league sources” behind this know what they’re talking about, and want everyone else to know it…
