Very uncharacteristically of me, I might have rushed to judgement about the Lakers a bit too soon in previous posts.
If Lakers are legit a team that will win in the mid to high 30s -- maybe even a fringe 8th seed as a ~40 win team -- you have to think that's more than enough for LeBron to join up out west. Everything keeps kind of falling into place for it:
-The further decaying of the Cavs roster
-Lakers actually showing they have some young pieces, even if not necessarily future franchise guys, enough to do regular season lifting for LeBron. Kuzma might be near his ceiling already but it looks like in a year or two he could be at minimum a 6th-7th man on a title team. Maybe even a low end starter. Same with Ingram.
-Super OKC experiment turning into a failure that's of no interest in the long term for Paul George
-A title window that would line up as the repeater tax is set to break up the Warriors in by the end of next season
By next year this is the lineup they could be putting this on the floor:
-Ball
-KCP/Clarkson
-George
-LeBron
-Re-signed Bird rights Lopez? I'm not sure if they have to jettison him to open up room for both maxes.
...With Kuzma and Ingram as pretty damn good bench pieces. That's a team that wins somewhere in the 50s. And if you can get away with sliding PG13 back into the SG slot:
-Ball
-George
-Ingram/Kuzma
-LeBron
-C
A real masterstroke would be trading for Cousins. Hopefully they would accept a package centered around Lonzo Ball given their dire guard situation, but Ingram is moved if necessary. KCP or Clarkson in the deal to match salary. Then you're rolling out:
-Clarkson or cheap, Mario Chalmers level PG
-George
-Ingram/Kuzma
-LeBron
-Cousins
With one of Kuzma or Ingram still coming off the bench. That team I think would fairly easily win 57-66 games a season, depending on rest for the vets. Would make for some great clashes with Boston in the finals starting around 2020.
