The Lakers continue to be a disaster of a franchise, most recently botching the hire of Tyronn Lue as their next head coach.
After reports indicated the two sides were in process of working on a deal earlier in the week, things fell apart on Wednesday after the Lakers reportedly made a low-ball offer to Lue and also tried to force him to add assistants to the staff they recommended. The Lakers will now shift their attention to other candidates, which include Mike Woodson, Lionel Hollins, and Jason Kidd, but the question of whether they’ve done further damage to the relationship with LeBron James by not getting a Lue deal done remains.
LeBron has insisted he won’t involve himself in the coaching search, and if anything the Lue fiasco proves that. Still, he can’t be too happy with how it all went down, amid reports the Lakers were worried about the perception of LeBron calling the shots if they did hire Lue. After the Lue news broke, ESPN brought Stephen A. Smith on the air live from Oakland and, as expected, he brought the spice.
Not only did he offer insight into why the Lue talks broke down, but he said there are some who have asked Jeanie Buss to consider trading LeBron now that the Lue deal fell through.
'Some people close to Jeanie Buss are telling her to trade Lebron james." – SAS pic.twitter.com/K9XcuxjItu
— John Ledesma (@JohnnyNBA) May 8, 2019
Smith turned out to be very right about the Lue details, and it’s very possible he’s right that there is someone in the Lakers front office or Buss’ circle of friends pushing her to deal James. It’s also important to note that doesn’t mean she will entertain that thought at all, but it does indicate the level of chaos in the Lakers building right now.
None of this is a good look heading into a critical summer where there were already questions about their ability to land a big free agent. An inability to land the top candidate for the job over a bad offer and refusing to cede control won’t make free agents really feel great about your franchise, and on top of that you’ve risked further damage in the relationship you have with your superstar player.
