HOW LIKELY is it LeBron James could become a NEW YORK KNICK? 👀 Lakers NOT ENOUGH? | Get Up

HOW LIKELY is it LeBron James could become a NEW YORK KNICK? 👀 Lakers NOT ENOUGH? | Get Up

talk some basketball because all week everybody’s been telling me the Lakers are going to sign a center and yesterday they did. They agreed to a two-year deal with 2018 number one overall pick DeAndre Aton. He’s going to slide into the starting center slot, a position that was exposed in LA’s first round playoff loss to Minnesota. And the odds makers uh not overly impressed. Uh Lakers were 10 to1 to win the West before 8 and sign and today they have moved all the way up to uh 9 to1 uh still behind Oklahoma City, Houston, and Denver. So again, all week last week, the week before, the Lakers are going to sign a center. The Lakers are going to sign a center. They did. What’s it all mean? I mean, what it means is that the Lakers got a talented big man, Dan, that can give them some depth inside. Gives them a starter, a guy who’s going to be a productive player. But the question is, is he going to be an impact player? And that very much is an open question. DeAndre Aton helped the Phoenix Suns get to the finals in 2021, but he has been a guy that’s typically been more of a potential player than a reality player in terms of driving winning. It’s why he just got bought out of the Max contract he was on, and it’s why there’s a lot of indifference about him signing with the Lakers. However, with Luca Donuch and LeBron James, this is a chance for him to reset the narrative about his career. He has the talent to be a hugely impactful player for them. The question is, can he? That is very much open for debate. Lakers obviously needed the help and still need some help that we’ve been talking all week about LeBron James situation in LA. He opts into his contract, the final year of his contract on Sunday. And then a minute later, we get a statement from his agent indicating that he wants to see what’s going on in free agency and and what the team looks like before uh he knows if this is the best place for him long term. So, what does the Eightton deal mean about the LeBron situation? It means that they’re going to now assess whether or not this roster, which is the to the words of Rich Paul, is championship caliber. They needed a center. They had to get one. They almost didn’t even get because if Miles Turner doesn’t go to the Bucks, Eightton might end up going to the Bucks. So, there’s a lot a lot of dominoes that had to fall here. But I think it’s still an assessment period though for Rich Ball and LeBron James to look at this Lakers roster where it is right now with Jake Laravia and the addition of DeAndre Aton and say is this a team that in the West they can compete for a championship because that was their words to compete or or Rich Paul’s words to compete for a championship. I don’t know if the Laker roster is there. Bobby Marks, what do you think uh LeBron and Rich Paul are after in all this? And how do you size up the way the week has gone and what effect that’ll have on ultimately what happens with LeBron?
Well, what’s interesting is is Dan, when you put that odds up, you would have thought based off Rich Paul’s statement that the Lakers would have been 10th on on that list as far as teams to win in in the Eastern in the Western Conference here. They’re they’re still fourth, right? That’s a team that finished third in the Western Conference last year. And although they lost in in that game, a lot of us had projected them to go pretty far in the playoffs here. So, this is still a pretty good Lakers team and they had one of the better centers on the market. If DeAndre Aton was a free agent and before the buyout, he would have been probably the second best center in free agency behind Miles Turner. So, it’s an it’s an upgrade. We’ve been talking about getting them a center. I think now the big thing is now what’s going to be the next move for this Lakers team because that depth in that back court is awfully thin.
Yeah, Tim McMahon. Uh what when you look at next moves the Lakers, there’s a lot going on with the Lakers right now. Some of it has to do with putting together the best possible team for this year and some of it is bigger picture. When you’re looking at the Lakers and the way they’re operating right now, what stands out to you? I mean the priority is the bigger picture and the bigger picture is Luca Dantage. is eligible to sign an extension next month. How does he feel about this? How does LeBron feel? That’s not the priority. It’s a potential headache, but it’s not the Lakers priority. It’s about Luca. It’s about trying to instill confidence in him that they can build a contender here, that there is a bright future in LA. And DeAndre Eaton may or may not be part of that. To this point in DeAndre Aton’s career, he’s been a talented doofus. Right? There’s a reason this former number one overall pick, who’s an immensely talented, athletic, chiseled sevenfooter, has been dumped by two franchises. Now, this is a golden opportunity for him to come in and prove he’s willing to do the dirty work. He’s willing to do the kind of things necessary to thrive with Luca Donic. But again, it gets back to Luca Donic is the center of the Lakers universe and the priority moving forward. Well, you always see talented doofuses go to LA and just lock in. You always see that
at no point, as anyone said, the Lakers had a need to fill at doofus. But, uh, I guess here here we are. Listen, what what what Tim said was, uh, LeBron’s not the priority, but it’s a potential headache. Like, this is this is out there and it’s out there because Rich Paul put it out there. So, we’re we’re not making too big a deal of this. This was this was brought up. But isn’t the fact that Luca is the priority part of the issue? The Lakers are looking toward a future that probably doesn’t have LeBron in it. How do you think this all plays out this summer?
I mean, if you’re talking about what the likeliest scenario is, I think the likeliest scenario is that LeBron James and Luca Donic are playing together in September in Los Angeles because there’s not really a good logical option for LeBron James to do other than that. If he had wanted to truly explore the studio space and see where if he wanted to play somewhere else, he had a very easy way to do that, which was to opt out of his $52.6 6 million contract on Sunday. The fact that he did not do that, that he opted in, that he took the money, means that he’s stuck in a situation now, or I shouldn’t even say stuck. He’s in a situation now where he’s under contract, he has a no trade clause. It’s very difficult to trade him. And that to me leads to all signs pointing towards him and Luca remaining partners on a team that could still be very good. Sounds simple, but as we know, it it isn’t always as simple as it sounds. We’re going to have more on this as we move along, but we’re going to come back to the east coast now because a month after the stunning firing of coach Tom Thibido, the Knicks appear ready to hire his replacement. According to ESPN’s Sham Shirania, New York expected to hire two-time coach of the year Mike Brown, who’s a coach who has a history of elevating teams in his first year. He’s had at least an 8- win improvement in his first season in three of his four head coaching gigs gigs, including an 18- win improvement in his first year with the Sacramento Kings just two years ago. Now, the Knicks won 51 games last season. Pretty awesome uh season. Allan, you’re very familiar obviously with this Knicks team. Is this the right hire for them?
Well, it’s the right hire for right now because you needed somebody with experience. She needed somebody that has coached at a high level, has coached star players, have had success, he has a resume. All those things are very important for the Knicks right now because what he walks into is the expectations of not just having a good season. The expectation is, especially when you look at the landscape of the East and how things have changed since the Knicks were eliminated from the Eastern Conference Finals, is that it’s no longer about, hey, just do the same thing they’ve done, which is back-to-back 50- win seasons, reach the Eastern Conference Finals. Now it’s more. Now, to me, the expectation is the NBA Finals. And can Mike Brown deliver? Of all the coaches that they talked to, he was the guy with the resume and experience to do that,
right? That’s right. The expectation is the NBA Finals. And his expectation is NBA Finals right away. Bobby, is is this I mean, the pressure on this new coach that the Knicks have hired to deliver a championship in short order. What do you make of the hire? Well, I I like to hire and I I hope Knicks fans look at the whole body of work of Mike Brown and not how it ended in in in Sacramento there as far as a guy who won coach of the year with the Kings, won coach of the year with Cleveland, was on that Golden State staff that won multiple championships here, and he is he is certainly established here. It it is a rarity where you walk into a situation where it’s a win now team that has championship goals. Usually, it’s it’s that’s not the case here. And when and where you look at this Knicks team, they are the probably one of the favorites in the Eastern Conference. McMahon, is this I mean, when you say championship goals, obviously they got close to the finals. Is this a team you think has what it takes to deliver on its championship goals? Well, Mike Brown is certainly an accomplished coach and a a good hire here, but he definitely steps into a finals or bust type of situation. That’s the expectation of the ownership of the front office. It’s finals are bust for them. A conference finals appearance for Tom Thibido was not good enough for him to keep his job. So, it it’s a deal where there’s talent. It’s a wide openen Eastern conference due to the misfortune of some of the other uh franchises, primarily the Boston Celtics, the Indiana Pacers. And he has a chance here. There’s also a a ton of pressure, but Mike Brown is is not a guy who’s going to be swayed by that. He’s coached LeBron in Cleveland where the spotlight was bright. He’s coached in LA. He’s going to be confident in his own skin, able to handle that scrutiny. But yes, it is a finals or bust situation because that’s what the front office and ownership created.
Yeah, there’s no question it’s finals or bust when you fire a coach, when you make the conference finals for the first time in 25 years. But for the Knicks and their fans, I think the hope here, and I’m not saying this is how it’s going to go, is that this goes like it did 30 years ago, is for the Yankees when they hired Joe Tory, who had not won a playoff game in his career, had coached three times before, was 53 different teams before, was 55 years old at the time. All same things that apply to Mike Brown other than the playoff wins part. And he came he came in as a bit of an if an indifferent hire after Buck Shoalter was fired. And Buck Shoalter was a guy that was very popular and it got the Yankees back into the playoffs. So obviously if the Knicks can have that kind of success, they’ll be thrilled. But more than anything, this is about the Knicks have to win. There is no Well, if they get to the second round, they have time. They can sort things out later. If they don’t make the conference finals, that’s a failure. And if they don’t, if they don’t even get there, then who knows what’s going to happen in New York.
But it’s New York. There’s plenty of patience. You know, by the way, ease right into it, right? No, it’s not it’s not going to be like that at all. I mean, the first the first two or three game losing streak, they’ll already everybody will talk. It’s amazing
in the media here, not so much. But nationally and the fan base, there were torches and pitchforks out for Tom Thibido from the start of the season, this past season all the way through to the end.
Yeah. And it’s in the conference finals apparently for good reason.
Right. But think about it.
He was on Mike Brown struggles early. You know what people will say?
That that Tom Thibido should have should have never been fired, which is an amazing turn of events because everybody that the momentum was towards that, but that’s what Mike Brown is facing right now.
By the way, nothing indifferent about the Joe Tory hire. It was Clueless Joe was the tabloid headline and obviously that worked out pretty well. We’re back on Get Up and the Lakers have added their starting center signing DeAndre Aken to a two-year deal yesterday. The question all week has been, will the Lakers moves be enough to keep star LeBron James satisfied? Yesterday on First Take before the eight and deal went down, Brian Windhorst had this to say about LeBron’s future. My conversations over the last three days have crystallized that the Lakers are essentially viewing LeBron as an expiring contract. And that may sound like a tossoff statement, but that’s not insignificant. LeBron has never been an expiring contract. Quite literally, never in his 23-year career over the nine contracts he’s signed over all the different teams he’s been on. And what happens to expiring contracts in the NBA? They’re viewed as trade pieces. I’m just unlocking the door because I’m not as convinced as before as is of its impossibility.
Just unlocking the door. Forever and ever. This will be what people see when when Wendy says stuff like that. But uh but look, you can you can tell me all you want and I believe you like the most likely outcome is LeBron’s on the Lakers this year. But
it doesn’t seem like anybody can get it to 100%. No. Right. Like there’s still something hanging out out there. And when you hear Wendy, who earlier in the week was pretty solid on that’s where he’s going to be, leave the door open a little bit, what do you think? Do you start imagining him on other teams? Yeah, of course you do. Which one? You have to. Well, first of all, like when you when you again, I go back to the statement that Rich Paul said when he talked about wanting to have a team that can compete for a championship when he wants to play for a championship. And as Wendy said, there’s only one year right now, so this could be a farewell tour. So, put all that stuff together and you have to think where is the fastest, easiest path to the NBA finals for LeBron James. It’s the place he has avoided his entire career. That’s right, everybody. It’s right here in New York. Oh, boy.
I want to see I dare him. I double dog dare him. I like if you really really believe in all the words you’re saying right there, the one place that you know you could go, all you have to do is say it. Sing it if you want. Like Sinatra, New York, New York. If he does that, that’s a gigantic narrative that, you know, he loves. They all that like they love being part of the story and it’s a place that you could say if he comes here, there is a path to the NBA finals. And let me remind everybody, this New York franchise, the Knicks, it’s more than a half century since they won a championship. He has four. He’s not going to catch Michael Jordan with six, right? But a lot of people think if you win one here, it’s like equal to two.
So just think about that. If you want the best story possible, because I’m all about the story.
Yeah.
LeBron to New York is the best story.
This is what I’m talking about. Why Why did it take you till Thursday to get here? We’ve been sitting here all all week listening to voices of reason. What do you think? What do you think about Allan? What?
I mean, look, as much as a Knicks to LeBron the Knicks story would be fun, it it is very difficult to see it happening for a variety of reasons. One, LeBron has a no trade clause. So, you have to make a deal that satisfies LeBron and the Knicks and the Lakers. That’s going to be difficult to do on many levels. Two, again, I will remind everyone, LeBron James could have been a free agent and chose to play for any of the 30 NBA teams and he opted into his $52.6 million contract.
$52 million.
That that is correct. He wanted to get his $52.6 million. Once you take the money though, it makes it very difficult to get him anywhere, let alone to a Knicks team that is right up against the Second Apron. They can’t take on extra money. It’s very hard to move stuff around. So, as much as it would be fun to happen, I do not see it happening with LeBron coming to the Knicks.
Difficult, Bobby. But if LeBron were to make it known that he wanted to do something like this, if we’re living in the world that Allan Han has beautifully created for us here where LeBron wants to go to New York, some let the Lakers know. How would that how would that possibly work?
Well, who invited Allen to the show? I mean, we were smooth we were smooth sailing the first three days here. No, I’m kid. I’m I’m kidding, Alan. Um, listen, I would say it’s a lot easier to do this in the offseason than during the regular season because rosters are are are expanded to 21 right now. And certainly something like this would be complicated because of all the moving parts. I I would say this, anything is possible in the CBA. You just have to be creative and you have to be you have to expand it. But when you’re looking at the Knicks roster, really the only player that works would be Carl Anthony Towns. Because when you’re looking at everyone else, we get into all these complicated CBA rules when it be aggregating contracts and the Lakers inability to take back more money because they’re hardcapped at the first apron here. So when you look at all those semantics, really it’s just towns for I know Allan League is killing me. It used to be fun. You you can make trades. It was all possible, but you’re right. the rules do.
But here, but here’s the one thing that I keep I keep on going back to that Rich Paul statement on I guess it was Monday. And in that statement, it said to win a championship, right? The trade market, and I know I said on Monday that there was no market for him. And I say that there’s no market for him because I go back to that statement. If you’re going to make a trade, you are trading away two or three core pieces of your roster. And what that roster looks like right now is going to be much awfully different. If with a LeBron James on your roster, it’s probably going to be even more diminished than what it what it currently is.
If the goal was truly to win a championship, Yeah. he wouldn’t have opted into his contract because he isn’t winning a championship with the Lakers. And it’s very difficult to get LeBron off the Lakers to a team where he can win a championship.
And let me quickly be clear.
Yeah. I just want to be clear here, but what I’m what I’m saying is really more about LeBron and less about the Knicks. It’s not the Knicks pursuing him. It’s LeBron saying, “If I want to go somewhere, that’s the place I want to go.” And I’d be curious to see if he would ever do it.
McMahon, do you agree with that? Like, if LeBron did want to go somewhere to win a championship, do the Knicks make sense? I mean, the easiest path is to go east, so it makes sense. Knicks, we could talk about Cavs if we want to continue to to kind of live in, you know, fairy tale land, but Bontimps, as much as it pains me to say it, is right. LeBron opted in when he did that. He prioritized finances, $52.6 million, over flexibility. Now, maybe he’s going to get to a point where he says, “I got my cake and I want to eat it too. Give me a buyout so I can go wherever the hell I want.” I would say, “Why would the Lakers give him a $50 million whatever it ends up being in the negotiations going away present?” I think it it’s probably going to require a buyout for any of these scenarios to be realistic possibilities just because why would you give up a guy like Carl Anthony Towns part of your foundation moving forward for what probably is going to be a ringchasing retirement tour.
That’s right. Right. If if you put LeBron on the mix as currently constructed, sure it makes a lot of sense. But that’s not if there was a trade, that’s not what would be happening. Uh so yes, we will continue to live in this fantasy world.

Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon, Bobby Marks and Alan Hahn join Dan Graziano on Get Up to discuss offseason storylines around the NBA after a wild start to free agency.

0:00 Deandre Ayton joins the Los Angeles Lakers
2:01 How this affects LeBron James
3:50 Have the Lakers shifted their focus?
5:55 New York Knicks expected to hire Mike Brown
7:45 Finals or bust for the Knicks?
10:40 “Viewing LeBron as an expiring contract”
11:45 Where else could LeBron win a championship?
12:31 LeBron to New York?
14:41 Bobby’s insider thoughts

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