GET UP | Brian UPDATE on Los Angeles Lakers’ offseason move aims to secure LeBron James’ legacy

GET UP | Brian UPDATE on Los Angeles Lakers’ offseason move aims to secure LeBron James’ legacy

here Yeah So LeBron has a contract option deadline over the weekend He’s got $53 million for next year Very different than what he appeared to do last year Last year Randy he opted out of his contract in this same situation and offered the Lakers that he would take a pay cut if they could go out and find some free agents to spend some money on that he would reduce his salary The Lakers did not He signed a contract with this option in it And now it look the signs look like he’s going to opt in James Harden has a different situation He also has a deadline over the weekend but it’s for just 36 just 36 million which was viewed as a discount but he’s just had a spectacular season making the AllNBA team for the first time in 5 years the All-Star team for the first time in three He probably is due a raise and I’m sure he will work out something to stick with the Clippers but he does have that option decision left to execute over the weekend Free agency effectively begins on Monday A lot is going to go down before that That’s Brian Wor very latest for us on Sports Center Thank you Brian We have our free agency special with Tim Bontemps and I on Sunday 5 to 7 p.m Eastern all across ESPN radio and CC waited 8 minutes um during the conversation with Bonmps if you missed to go back on the app or wherever podcast are found to listen to it in full to ask about his squad the Lakers and not just because he was a fan of the Lakers but they are pretty damn relevant And their player um who I think you guys have heard of his name is LeBron uh James if you’re Oh thank you for clarifying Yeah I had to instead of LeBron Jones No LeBron James He has a player option for $52.6 million that he has a deadline as to what to do with it on Sunday So there’s an extension that’s a possibility that you could extend off of that You could decline sign a new deal all kinds of options that he would have but a decision has to be made on LeBron’s future by Sunday and how he’s going to operate If he declines that extension and does not I’m sorry if he declines a player option and it’s not immediately reported that he signs a new deal we are going to be in a chaotic state of wait a minute So you’re telling me he’s technically an unrestricted free agent now none of us are expecting him to leave No but that moment you want you want a chaotic explosive summer The thought even for one moment could he leave becomes that Oh and there’s more August 2nd Luca is extension eligible Oh and by the way um ESPN’s Dave McMenan reported that Austin Reeves has turned down a 4-year 89.2 million extension with the Lakers Why well because the extension would be way greater next year and he’d be paid like the second best player on a on a title team or a big time team Is he a second best player maybe not And if he’s not then maybe you have to move him this summer There is kind of your state of the Lakers CC as a Lakers fan How do you take this all in and what do the Lakers need to do to become contenders here well the Lakers got to get more size in the front court right they’ve got to figure out how to do it Not a ton of assets in that way to go out and and get a center via trade So the question is now are you willing to park company from some of the guys that you have on the team that are in roles that you deem that you need in order to contend in the Western Conference right are you looking to trade somebody that’s in your top seven teams are reluctant to do that But in order to get something you got to give up something And the question now arises what is that something is it moves within the margins is it guys like Ruy Hachimura um Dorian Finny Smith that he ends up being there i I I don’t know the answer to that question but the Lakers have to look long and hard at everything because they’ve got to sell Luca Don that this is the place for him long term and and and if you’re going to do that then you can’t sit on your hands this summer So I think the clarity that Rob Pelinka needs is going to start with being able to get the LeBron James situation put to bed But then after that you’ve got to look at the rest of your roster and think about what you need to move on from in order to bring back the players that you need to complement Luca and to allow your team to contend Yeah this is an incredibly consequential period for the Lakers because not only do you want to make moves that can maximize the finite amount of times that time that you have left with LeBron James as a centerpiece to everything that you do but as you mentioned you’re trying to convince Luca that he should stay there long term And I don’t know if those minor inside the margins type moves are going to be enough to satisfy both of those And it’s going to be very fascinating to see how the Lakers put together this puzzle and what ripple effects it will have moving forward The number one name that they’ve been linked to so far has been Andrew Wiggins of Miami That has been a rumor by way of trade Um I would link them personally without any reporting to the Portland Centers and DeAndre Aiden and Robert Williams But he’s not Robert Williams Well a question that has never been asked in the history of sports radio is about to be asked Are we not talking enough about LeBron James go on What tell me what he’s doing next year Tell me how he’s how he’s situating his contract Is he going to sign for more years is he going to do a one plus one i’m just assuming it’s going to be a oneplus one cuz it’s year to year now with Bron Okay Is he waiting to play with Bryce that’s possible Who’s going to be a freshman at Arizona that’s possible Wow I I don’t know the answer Is Bryce good i have no idea He’s bigger physically than a better prospect than Bronny Yeah but that also may mean he wants to stay longer because he may contribute longer to Arizona for all we know We don’t know We have no idea As I said are we not talking enough about LeBron James arguably the second greatest player of all time who has a contract deadline on Sunday and no one is exactly sure what happens from there But see that’s why I think the clarity around his situation is going to be critical for Rob Pelinka in terms of what he’s willing to do who he’s willing to part ways with versus who he’s not willing to move on from Right So do you think they make moves i think the LeBron James situation gives you more clarity about how you need to proceed with Austin Reeves right i think it gives you more clarity in terms of the caliber of player that you’re going to go after to give you some help at the center position right i mean you’re reluctant to move on from a guy like Austin Reeds if you know that this is going to be the last year for LeBron James So I think that’s the part where Rob Pelinka has got to get some insight from Braun and his camp before he figures out what the plan is for this summer But it’s obvious that the Lakers have got to do something And again I don’t know what that something is but you’re looking at guys like Rui Hachimura Dorian Finny Smith uh Dalton Connect as potential assets that you can use in addition to that future first round draft pick in order to bring back the caliber or player that you think you need to contend in the Western Conference especially with some of the centers that the Lakers are going to have to face off against Percent chance LeBron’s not on the Lakers next year Zero Same Zero You won’t even put it at one No A half No 0.1 No No 0% chance Zero His business and his son are there 0.0 Mike Tanabam ESPN NFL front office insider will join host next time to work with Tim Bonmp’s ESPN NBA reporter hoop collective podcast and he will be a part of the free agency show that we have on Sunday night here on ESPN radio 5:00 to 7:00 p.m Eastern time Bon and I will be hosting Very much looking forward to it Yeah he better wear a back brace because he’s probably going to be carrying you the whole time So okay Off to a good start here I was going to say are we sure that Chris and Michelle aren’t around on Sunday okay we’re off to a wonderful start I was going to promote the story you just contributed to on ESPN.com about Ace Bailey but uh no Um All right Tim let’s talk about that because after night two of the draft night one is still the story line You and Jonathan Gavone combined on a story about Ace Bailey What do we know about what he told the teams in the top five of the draft well I am looking forward to Sunday to be totally clear And uh yeah the the situation with Ace Bailey is interesting He told at least one team in the top five that uh he was not interested in playing for them and would not report to to them if they did draft him And obviously the Utah Jazz drafted him with the fifth overall pick and they were not the Washington Wizards who were the sixth pick and were the team that I think Ace Bailey was hoping he would eventually wind up with And that is why we are in this sort of weird interregnant period now where there’s not really like typically teams around the league will be having press conferences today and tomorrow for their first round picks to celebrate them uh being with their new franchises and they’ll hold up their jersey They’ll be excited about being there and it’s not exactly sure when the Jazz will do that with Ace Bailey and sort of what the next steps will be Now the Jazz would say and I think fairly that because they host the first summer league of the summer uh their training camp for summer league starts pretty early and so they tend to give their guys a little bit of grace period to get their stuff together and get out there in time to get started for that Um but like if Ace Bailey isn’t in Utah by say Monday and we start next week and this situation is sort of still in a holding pattern or worse um it will start to become a pretty interesting story to follow again particularly because the Jazz host the first summer league of the summer and you know they would love to have their first round pick one of their two first round picks Ace Bailey out there starring for their summer league team and if he’s not and there’s this cloud hanging over it um that’s certainly going to put a bit of a different spin on what their offseason will look like Tim which move that we saw during the draft this year will have the biggest impact on what plays out this summer with player movement free agency etc That’s a good question I I’m not sure Candy if there’s a single move I would point to that would necessarily point in that direction in terms of this summer What I would say for next year is that the Atlanta New Orleans trade um where the Hawks move back 10 spots to allow the Pelicans to move up to get Derek Queen uh the big man from Maryland Um but also cause the Pelicans to give the uh to give the Hawks the an unprotected first round pick for either the Pelicans or the Bucks whichever team finishes higher up in the lottery standings or in the the overall draft standings um that could wind up being quite easily a top five pick in the draft It could be the number one pick in the draft Next year’s draft is deeper than this year’s draft which is already a good draft Um I was with Jonathan Gavone after the draft last night said next year’s draft should be great So for the Hawks to get a option like that in the draft when they already traded their picks the next couple years a couple years ago to get to Jonte Murray and to get Chris Asporzingis uh this week I think the Hawks are probably the biggest winner of the whole week And I I think in terms of like stuff to look forward to from the draft I think that is the thing we’ll be talking about all next season is where that draft pick winds up because it could it could wind up being an incredibly consequential deal Tim we keep speculating on Giannis and his future but if he were to stay in Milwaukee what do they need to do to make sure that they put a contender around him uh it is funny to say if he were to stay in Milwaukee Michelle because he is under contract for I believe the next three years at this point So I think people should assume at least for now that he’s going to be in Milwaukee And that that is the real question is what can they do to put a contending team around him The Bucks believe they can be a homec court advantage team in the West In the in the West that would be and Jason Tatum out with these Achilles injuries because obviously one of their best players Damian L also out with zone Achilles injury Um and the Bucks don’t have a lot of draft picks They don’t have a lot of flexibility to try to add to what is a pretty threadbear roster outside of Giannis Now having Giannis alone gives you a chance to be a top four or five team in the East especially with all these other injuries But um that is to me going to be one of the biggest questions to watch over the next two to three weeks is starting on Monday night when free begins What can the Bucks do to freshen up this roster around Giannis and can they put themselves in a position where they’re good enough to be a contending team in the East next year i think that’s going to be a difficult task I think a lot of teams in the league would argue it’s going to be a difficult task but they believe they can do it and they’ve typically been very aggressive in the past and I expect them to be again the next couple weeks and we will see what that ultimately looks like We’re talking with Tim Bonmp ESPN senior NBA writer hoop collective podcast ESPN.com We’ll be all over ESPN television get up first take etc And most importantly of course our free agency special Sunday night 5:00 to 7:00 p.m Eastern here on ESPN radio Tim just for clarification uh purposes the Ace Bailey just back to that for a second Do we know for a fact that Utah wasn’t the team he told that he didn’t want to go to or is that a possibility that Utah was the team he told them that he didn’t want to play for uh I would say it’s unclear um at this point where that sits And and look I I would say it’ll be clear when um when Ace Bailey shows up in uh shows up in Utah right or does it so um you know I think at this point it’s just a wait and see because again like this could end up being a sort of a funny little story if he shows up sometime in the next couple days and he’s there and he plays right if this becomes a thing where he’s not there at all for summer league then you know obviously it takes on a much different tone right then we have the biggest story going on in the NBA if that happens Obviously uh on the latest Hoop Collective podcast available on the ESPN app wherever podcasts are found you guys discuss the Celtics Jaylen Brown Derek White Uh they have not been moved There’s no indication they are going to be moved Is that off the table off the table for now or to be determined Um I I I don’t know if it necessarily fits exactly in one of those buckets perfectly What I would say is that I would not expect the Celtics to move either of those guys I think if they do move either of those guys it’s because they’re going to get a ton of assets in return for them in a deal Um so I you know as we’ve seen this summer the Celtics have to the Celtics had to save a lot of money They’ve already saved in the deal setting out Porzingis and Drew Holiday $250 million off next year’s payroll luxury tax bill Now they’re in a situation where they have a much more manageable financial situation and they can make decisions based off of what the basketball ramifications of those decisions are So I would say that if you see one of those two guys traded which I again I would not expect it’s going to be a trade where you’re going to look at it and say “Man the Celtics really got blown away with a deal and decided to do one for either guy.” Um so I think that’s where it sits I however would expect that if you’re asking me what the most likely outcome is I’d say the pretty heavily most likely outcome is Jason Tatum or Jason Jason Tat will be on the team But Jaylen Brown and Derek White will be on the Celtics roster on opening night in October Tim I don’t know how this is under the radar because we’re talking about one of the most visible franchises in all of sports but this is a consequential offseason for the Lakers especially with their top take this long to get a Laker question on the show The record on any show Eight minutes Wow Terrible job Yeah But but Tim in all seriousness h how does Rob Pelinka how do you expect Rob Pelinka to proceed with what the decisions that the Lakers need to make this off seasonason how do you think this is all going to play out i mean in all seriousness it is kind of amazing We we got it took a little while to get there because there is a lot of stuff going on in the league because it is Danny a really interesting off season for the Lakers You have LeBron James on Sunday has to decide whether to pick up uh or decline his player option for next season you have on I believe August 2nd Luca Donuch has to decide whether he wants to extend his deal for a couple of years or whether he wants to wait um he could extend after that too but whether he wants to wait and see what happens over next year and uh you know wait until he hits free agency next July Um and you have the Lakers again like all these other teams in the West looking up at the Oklahoma City Thunder and going “How are we going to catch up to these guys right?” And the first step there is they have to find a center Obviously the Mark Williams trade from back in February is not on the board He’s since been traded to Phoenix So what are the Lakers going to do to make their team better between now and a month from now are they going to go get a guy in free agency are they going to go make a trade um you know Austin Reeves has declined his own extension uh because he could get paid a lot more money next summer Um so they do have Dorian Finny Smith as a player option for next season What is he going to do he has an interesting decision to make Um they have $60 million that they can expire in contracts they can move around a deal So the Lakers obviously had a nice year last year Yes they lost in the first round but they made some real strides forward Finished at third in the West was better than I expected they would do Obviously the Luca trade was a complete black swan event over the course you know the course of issue of the league Um you know and so now going into this summer it is going to be a very important summer for them And it is going to be very interesting to see what they do because they got a lot of holes to fill if they want to catch up to the teams at the very top of the conference And you know they have limited ways to fill them on top of the fact that you’ve got you know this thing hanging over him on August 2nd which is what is Luca going to do and as you said Rob Pink has a few weeks to try to show him the team is in a good enough place and he should want to commit to it for the next few years Tim let’s go to the other coast It’s also a consequential offseason for the Knicks In your opinion who should their head coach be i mean it’s hard to say exactly who their head coach should be at the moment because you know I can’t really get in their heads and tell you exactly what it is they’re trying to do um in terms of what they’re looking for in a head coach But you know it is interesting that they moved on from Tom Pivido a month ago basically and we still don’t really have a good sense of where the search is going to go and you know really any sort of timeline on what the Knicks are going to do Um as I’ve said a few places if the Knicks Well really all that matters at this point Michelle is that the Knicks get this hire right If they take until Labor Day to hire a coach and they make the NBA finals next year no one’s going to care If they hire a coach tomorrow and they lose in the first or second round of the playoffs everyone’s going to want everyone’s head in at MSG and here in New York So that it to me it’s less about you know when than it is who it is And there isn’t an obvious candidate sitting out there right now that you that checks all the boxes the Knicks would want to fill That’s why they went and asked all these sitting head coaches about the job It’s why the process has taken a while and it’s unclear exactly when it’s going to conclude Tim Bontam ESPN senior NBA writer Check out his latest story with Jonathan Gavon ESPN.com about Ace Bailey his future the pick of course of the Utah Jazz And listen to him Hoop Collective also Sunday He and I will host our free agency special 5:00 p to 700 p.m Eastern here all across the country on all of our ESPN radio station SiriusXM80 Thank you Tim Appreciate it Anytime guys Thanks for having me and see you Sunday Evan All right There’s Tim Bontam A lot to dive into Gave us some nuggets about the Lakers the Ace Bailey It’s not off the table that the Jazz were the team that he said I don’t want to play for which is crazy No one has been on the record to my knowledge saying no it wasn’t the Jazz Mhm And he’s still not there And Tim said “Right now this may be something or maybe nothing But if it comes to next week and he’s still not there or Monday and he’s still not there when they start their practices for the summer league oh it becomes a big something.” Then it’s it’s almost like I want to buy the tickets for the summer league even more if he’s not there And I can do that I know [Music] [Music] Foreign speech Foreign speech Foreign speech Foreign speech Foreign speech Foreign speech [Music] Foreign speech Foreign speech Foreign speech My mommy [Music] Ow Oh god [Music] I think I think it I don’t know Bye Foreign speech Here they come [Music] The might look Get you there A little What do you think [Music] [Music] [Music] okay What are you doing [Applause] see okay Go How is she get I think we

GET UP | Brian UPDATE on Los Angeles Lakers’ offseason move aims to secure LeBron James’ legacy