BEGINNING OF THE END for LeBron James & the Los Angeles Lakers? 👀 Windy GOES IN 😳 | Get Up

BEGINNING OF THE END for LeBron James & the Los Angeles Lakers? 👀 Windy GOES IN 😳 | Get Up

was free agency starting last night we’re going to do a free agency edition of winners and losers bobby Marks who are your biggest winners so far in free agency
well I think it’s got to be the Houston Rockets and certainly starting with Kevin Durant the trade but yesterday they go out and sign Dorian Finny Smith then they go out and acquire Quinn Capella that’s going to be part of the Kevin Durant trade that is going to be a seven teamer so when you look at what Houston’s been able to do over the last two weeks Houston is the winner for me so far they were already the the two seed in this year’s playoffs tim are they the are they the biggest threat to Oklahoma City right now
they are i think they are the biggest threat in the West oklahoma City you saw Denver uh use some big assets yesterday to get off money as opposed to getting better minnesota Timberwolves lost to Kale Alexander Walker to a team we’re about to talk about in a second that hurts them think Houston’s in great shape and could see a Kevin Durant return to OKC in the conference finals should be awfully awfully fun
wendy what do you make of Houston’s moves yeah I think obviously Houston has upgraded because they got Durant and now Finny Smith with some veterans but what makes Houston so interesting is that they still have more that they can do they’re very upwardly mobile whether it’s their individual players or young players getting better or if it’s another major trade that comes up over the next six months between now and February they they have not exhausted their supply of assets this team can still improve while also being a much better day on a much better team on opening night exciting times in Houston as everybody out west is chasing the champs tim who do you have as your biggest winners last night
well Bobby took the West Grow so I’ll take the East i’ll go with the Atlanta Hawks the Atlanta getting Alexander Walker as I mentioned before in free for agency yesterday you see him right here guy who could play on and off the ball terrific defender also a near 40% three-point shooter a perfect fit next to Trey Young for Atlanta they go get Chris Porzingis last week they make a tremendous draft night trade to get potentially a top five if not the number one overall pick in next year’s draft from the New Orleans Pelicans pelicans would go spend $16 million over two years on Cavon Looney yesterday that is only going to help Atlanta in their quest to get a very high pick next year the Hawks have gotten a bunch of guys who want to be there who have shooting perimeter defense this is a team I think is now top four in the East better than the Celtics who we see in these highlights better than the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta is on the rise in the east under new uh head of basketball operations on Salah and coach Quinn Snder
tell you who else has taken notice of the Hawks move is the betting markets we yesterday ESPN Bet had the Hawks with uh odds to win the title at 100 to1 and to win the East at 25 to1 today those odds are down to 25 to1 to win the whole thing and 9 to1 to win the East wendy what do you think of what Atlanta’s been doing
yeah obviously they’ve done a really good job over the last few weeks so I should point out they did lose Caris Levert yesterday a player that they they traded for last season and liked he went to Detroit um they also have to handle the contract extensions of a couple of their key players Trey Young being one of them and Dyson Daniels who was a transformational defensive player they acquired last year having said that they have put themselves in position where they’re still below the luxury tax and still have some maneuvering they could do with this roster jaylen Johnson is a player that if unless you’re a Hawks fan you probably don’t know about but America is going to start learning who Jaylen Johnson is he’s their best young player who’s going to mix with these role players and potentially be a real dynamic force in the East
by the way Graz you look at that list right there cleveland New York and Orlando and then Atlanta no Boston very weird seeing no weird life comes at you fast bobby what do you think of how things set up in the East right now
well I mean certainly I think you have to look at where New York is because they have you know they brought in they’re going to sign Jordan Clarkson but they still have the top se there’s top seven players under contract of course Houston was the best team last year and we’ll see where that Darius Garland injury is right now but just based on where New York is as far sometimes continuity is not bad we make a lot to do about what teams do in the offseason but it is okay to bring back your starting five what New York has done kind of need a coach though
i was going to say that would be there’d be a little more continuity uh if they had held on slightly
to that wendy Wendy uh it’s winners and losers we got to hit you on who you think your biggest losers are so far in free agency
well with the asterisks it’s only been one day i have to say the Lakers did not get better yesterday um they lost Dorian Finey Smith as we talked about earlier and they replaced him with Jake Laavia jake Laavia is an interesting young player but he is a backup dorian Finey Smith is a starter level wing jake Laavia is a backup level wing and then they were unable to get a center which was their number one priority since they traded Anthony Davis this team has needed a center they have known since February they needed a center and they did not get one on the first day of free agency and several came off the board including Brook Lopez now I will be very interesting to hear about how interested the Lakers were in Brook Lopez because he took a one-year guaranteed contract to be a guaranteed backup with the um with the Clippers in here in Los Angeles when the Lakers had a starting job open for him and you know I’m not sure why the Lakers didn’t prioritize him they’re not trying to sign a center to be their their the guy in their franchise center for the next seven years but they need a guy to start on opening night and right now they have no centers on the roster and they’ve used a significant chunk of their available money again to sign Laravia when they could have ressigned Dorian Finny Smith and still had all of that other exception light to them so they’ve got some some work to do over this next two to three days to shore up their team
he says “Everybody knew they needed a center here i I don’t even cover this league and I knew they needed a center because I’ve been listening to you guys i get the alert from Sham’s Jake Laravia i click on it oh he must be a center no he’s not so what does that mean about the Lakers they couldn’t get one last night
it means they don’t have a starting quality center and they might not have one this season again like if you look Bobby Mark sends out a list every night of the best free agents available during free agency i was looking at it this morning and at each position most of the good players top level starter level players are gone the only guy that’s even a starter level player potentially at center is DeAndre Aton he would not be a very exciting option if the Lakers go get him he just got bought out by the Portland Trailblazers former number one overall pick i’m also not convinced he’s going to sign with the Lakers so if he isn’t there all of a sudden you’re looking at the Lakers seeing all these options go off the board as a potential starter they could maybe make a trade for one but again we spent yesterday talking about all the options the Lakers have to get better to try to keep up with these teams in the West we saw we’ve seen Houston get better oklahoma City is obviously still way ahead of the pack and it’s hard to see how they’re going to get better and again it is kind of amazing that ever since they got Luca Don you talked about him getting a center we’re now almost six months later they still don’t have one i tell you what else we spent a lot of yesterday talking about was this uh Rich Paul’s statement following LeBron opting into his contract Bobby uh for next year talking about how he wants to pursue championships and hoping the Lakers can build something that can help him do that uh if they have struck out so far in free agency for the most part they still don’t have a center what does that tell us about the future of LeBron in Los Angeles well I mean it certainly it doesn’t look great when your second best player or your first best player you know is putting immense pressure on you to try to go out and add pieces to the offseason here especially for a player in the last year of his contract remember there’s no player option next year this is an expiring contract for LeBron James here i I I do think it will be interesting on day two if DeAndre Aton is that guy does that move the needle at all i think we also have to pay attention to the trade market here with the Lakers when they were aggressive last February them being aggressive again as far as what they have to offer here but the LeBron James situation is certainly something to follow based on where he is in his contract where this Lakers team potentially could be and where this Lakers team stacks up among other teams in the Western Conference it’s interesting Wendy because you know we’ve talked about how this is going to be building around Luca for the future now uh and everything’s focused on that but they’re still sitting there with a $53 million LeBron James on their roster on their payroll this year so does this start to look like it’s the beginning of the end for LeBron in LA
it it does appear that that’s the case and I don’t think you want to be overdramatic about it he’s 40 years old it’s the beginning of the end whatever team he was going to be on but I I would say that LeBron clearly came to a crossroads after the Lakers uh traded for Luca Donuch they they started to move in a different direction very clearly and very understandably so he was at a crossroads unfortunately he has made his decision which road to go down because on Sunday he picked up his player option and so what it looks like here is he wants to be able to make sure he has the 53 million and also consider himself still at the crossroads that’s just actually not reality because of the challenges of trading for a $53 million player and because of the challenges of what the Lakers need to do with their roster today and into the future him switching teams at this point is very prickly and very challenging what the Lakers want is LeBron excited to play for them come October but he has taken away a lot of his options by picking up that option so we can watch how this plays out but I don’t see how the Lakers aren’t focused on getting a center and building up their team and anxious about having LeBron and Luca as their two cornerstones for the 2025 26 season
252 26 season like LeBron’s going to be on this team in in all likelihood right like this is we’re talk we’d say beginning of the end we’re talking about a year from now right
yeah a year from now because again to Brian’s point LeBron James opted into this $ 52.6 million contract right this is a situation where if he wanted to be a free agent if he wanted to test the market if he wanted to see if he wanted to go somewhere else he had the opportunity to do that on Sunday he chose not to do that he chose to get the money and now we’re in a situation where not only does he have this giant contract not only is it hard to trade guys with big deals like that in the new NBA he’s also got a no trade clause which means that he has to approve any trade and that is an extremely difficult thing to make work so yeah at the end of the day it’s very hard to see any scenario than LeBron James being on the Lakers by the way that’s the best scenario for the Lakers not only because they have LeBron James on their team but because they currently have a completely clean cap sheet for the 26 off seasonason and they can go to Luca Donuch and say “Hey what do you want to do how do you want to build out this team?” And to Brian’s point this is now Luca Donuch’s franchise and that’s the direction the Lakers have to look going forward
a game of NBA fact or fiction whether you do or not we’re going to the Bucks have done enough to convince Giannis to stay fact or fiction
i’m going to say fact Dan and I look at Bobby Portoris Torian Prince uh Gary Trent Jr um Kevin Porter Jr the band is back for another year there’s still another move out there can they go out and get a center to fill that void but I do look at what they’ve been able to do and kind of bring this group together as fact that keeps Giannis happy all right if I said the Lakers have had the worst off season of anyone in the NBA fact or fiction i’m going to say fiction and I’m going to give the Lakers a pass right now because I know there’s still work to do we’re only one day into uh into the off season here i look at what New Orleans has been able to do and I know they’ve been a punching bag here but to to move up 10 spots and then for center and then sign Kevin Looney to a two-year $16 million contract I’m going to put them in that category all right one more the Dallas Mavericks have had the best off season in the NBA is that factor well I’m going to I’m going to use a new word I don’t think even belongs faction right we’re going to go kind of hedge my bet there as far as where Dallas is i think Houston for me but I like what Dallas has done cooper Flag of course uh D’Angelo Russell getting him there they are a threat in the Western Conference but they got to get Kyrie Irving back healthy there’s two possible answers in fact or fiction it’s fact or fiction bobby Marks makes his own great
and you said you basically said fiction cuz you said it’s actually Houston but but it’s all right we’ll go with we’ll let you go with faction uh you’re you’re getting up early
i’m going on four hours sleep Dan i’m going on four hours sleep
he was he was on the six o’clock call like he’s a machine right now so we’ll give we’ll give Bobby uh a break but when when you look at what the Mavericks are up to I mean it feels like it’s going a lot better for them than it’s going for the the team that they traded Luca Donuch to uh during the season wendy are we at a point where it’s time to ask like did the Mavs maybe win that trade
no no i mean the the Lakers ended up winning 50 games they obviously had a disappointing uh crash in the first round um they they their outlook they have two star players their outlook this year is significantly better than Dallas is i I do think what Dallas is trying to do which is to try to build a deep team that’s based on defense is the path forward i I I like you know in theory the way they’re structured um you know and getting Cooper Flag is transformational i mean Cooper Flag potentially is a is a generational player we don’t know for sure but everything points to that being the case and you know when they made the trade Cooper Flag was not in their thinking whatsoever so the Mavericks are in a pretty good-looking position here over the next few years but saying that that’s a result of them winning the trade i would I would not agree with that um you know the big thing for Dallas is getting Kyrie healthy um their pos their guard play is going to really depend on that and by the way we have come very far in recovery from ACL injuries i have no doubt that he’s going to come back and be a key piece for them but they’re going to start the season with D’Angel Russell their starting point guard and you know D’Angel Russell’s output has been you know shaky you know he’s basically been a journeyman for a reason so um if I was a Mavericks fan I would be very excited about Cooper Flag i would be very excited about the defense that my team was building but I would not claim any sort of victory in losing Luca Donuch i don’t think many Mavericks fans would
i would say no Mavericks fans would the uh the NBA is about getting stars and Luca Don is one of the five best players on the planet pretty easily and he’s not on the Mavericks anymore and the idea that because they got extraordinarily lucky and got Cooper flag in the lottery although Nico Harrison seemed the general manager of the Mavericks seems to keep indicating that this is part of the grand plan that you know I think you said the other day that the fans are starting to see the vision for what they’re doing in Dallas i guess the vision was to have a 1.8 8% chance
and win the lottery
and win the lottery and then you have Cooper Flag on your team but no I Yes the Mavericks have a decent amount of talent we’ll see what happens with Kyrie Irving if he can come back healthy they could be an interesting factor in the Western Conference but they should still have Luca Don
we have D wood here because he’s the voice of the Laker fan uh here on our program when you look at this from the Lakers end everything that’s going on in Dallas obviously they got lucky with the lottery but I mean in terms of of the Lakers how do you feel like I mean are you disappointed in how things have shaken out since they made that deal
i mean listen you know I’m not disappointed in in trading for the top five
players would you like would you like to send Luca Dodgers back to Dallas absolutely like absolutely not like when I look at when I look at the Lakers I think we’ve taken a step backwards
we’ve taken a step backwards i look at the teams in the West that’s gotten better okc is OKC and they still got a bevy of of you know assets that they can that that they can use to improve their team the Houston Rockets have gotten better i mean the the Dallas Mavericks has gotten better you know through the Coop you know Cooper drafting Cooper Flag you know the Los Angeles Clippers have gotten better and here we are the Los Angeles Lakers we’re just we would be just lucky to get the number three seed that we got in this past postseason so I think we’re slipping back and not only that but it just feels you know ominous to me that this is pro this might this probably going to be LeBron’s last year with the timeline that the Lakers are on right now i don’t see the Lakers win winning anything this year i I’m just not in a great place as a Lakers fan yeah it it seems like it’s We’ll see what else happens the rest of the offseason but it does feel windy like their options are running out you want to put a final word on this for us well I think what they’re probably gonna end up doing is overpaying in a trade here for for a player to be their starting center and you know that’s not the end of the world depending on the parameters of it and Luca Donuch is is an elite player who was injured for most of last season it was his worst of his last five seasons you you haven’t if you’re a Lakers fan you haven’t even really seen the real Luca Donuch yet lebron is coming off of a second team allNBA season he’s still arguably a top 15 player in the league they’ll find me two team a team out there with two top 15 players the the Lakers are not desperate whatsoever they just had an ownership change that is going to potentially totally change the the infrastructure in their organization i am not going to sit here and have a bad feeling about the Lakers for one second i will tell you they’re not doing a great job of filling out their roster on July 1st but let’s see where they are on July 10th but this pity party is ridiculous i’m I’m not going to waste any time with it
who’s having a pity party all right hey Dan Dan Dan I would real Dan I would say this it’s It’s okay to say that the Lakers won the trade but Dallas is in a better position right now i think you can go that way
fair enough so faction it is uh the NBA creator period

Brian Windhorst, Bobby Marks and Tim Bontemps join Dan Graziano on Get Up to react to the first day of NBA free agency.

0:00 Winner: Houston Rockets
1:42 Winner: Atlanta Hawks
4:22 Loser: Los Angeles Lakers
7:10 LeBron James’ future
10:07 NBA Fact or Fiction
12:03 Dallas Mavericks or Lakers won the Luka Doncic trade?

✔️ Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

#ESPN