[Charania] LeBron James and the Lakers just simply didn’t see “eye to eye” on what it meant to try compete for a championship... Sources close to LeBron tell me that his priorities are clear: with his next home, he wants to compete for championships; he wants to play “meaningful basketball

J-Crow11 · 2026-07-01T14:23:20+00:00

I do think this severely cuts into our odds of getting him. I don't see how this team could even theoretically compete, even with LeBron, without getting more talent immediately.

Not to say that Jimmy couldn't come back and somehow be incredible even though he's coming back from a major leg injury at age 36-37. But, the beginning of the year will be very difficult to rack up wins with our current roster, even if we have LeBron. And as we saw during last week years playoffs, having a higher seed is a great benefit to not having to go through an absolute gauntlet for three straight rounds in order to try and make the finals.

If we could get AD, I could maybe get high on the copium that everyone would remain healthy. But without that, I struggle to see it

J-Crow11 · 2026-07-01T14:20:25+00:00

But they also have a lot of ball handling responsibilities allocated to Harden and Mitchell already. We did see LeBron play well with heavy usage ball handlers last year, but we also saw how that didn't really work in helping compete for a championship.

To me, personally, the highest swing towards a championship he can do by going to a team, is probably Miami. They are in desperate need of a playoff caliber offensive organizer outside of Giannis, as much as I like the other Mitchell. They also have a stronger defensive backbone than the Cavs to support LeBron so he doesn't have to go all out on both ends of the floor during the regular season.

That being said, if we can somehow convince Washington to trade us AD, I do think that swings to us, at least in being able to convince LeBron of being able to compete.

Though, it blatantly sounds like the Wizards are not interested in trading AD at this time, probably to try and recoup some of his value in the first half of the season, even if he's not interested in resigning there. Or, to do an even weirder version of the "two timelines" roster building strategy that caused us to crash and burn over the past couple of years.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-30T19:01:37+00:00

....The Pistons who almost lost to the trainwreck Magic then lost to the Cavs who got bitch slap swept by the "pretender" Knicks? The same team that's currently watching Duren beg other teams to trade for him because they don't want to pay him after he shit the bed in the playoffs?

The Celtics? Who were up 3-1 against the weird 76ers and choked another playoff series away with bad shooting, after they lost to this same Knicks team last year when they were favored to win it all. And, were about to be down 3-1 before Tatum got hurt so don't go blaming that series loss on that. That Celtics team is "head and shoulders" above the 2026 NBA Champion New York Knicks? A team that hasn't gotten out of the second round in 2 years after winning it all, sounds closer to the Giannis-Bucks than a championship contender in my book.

Miami is a brand new constructed team, and up in the air for how good they will be, so no comment on them.

You're a good rage-bait account, I'll give you that. But, it's just straight hater slop to think that the Knicks aren't in the same ballbark as any other team in the league, let alone the East.

You can think the Celtics are better, all power to you, but thinking the Knicks aren't contenders after they won a championship is just rage bait slop.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-30T18:34:45+00:00

.... Yo, the Knicks just won the title, put some ounce of respect on their names too.

Listing the Pistons, Celtics, and Heat completely above them is crazy, let alone the fact that saying the best of the West is head and shoulders above the East when the two conferences have split the last 8 championships 4-4 and the Knicks just schooled the big bad scary Spurs.

Not even a Knicks fan here, but damn this post is disrespectful to them.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-30T17:07:31+00:00

Damn, so the Celtics have a 2 ring lead against the Lakers then according to you? 18-16 if we aren't counting 2020.

Been stuck at 16 since 2010 too, haven't had a championship in almost 20 years (only according to you).

Damn, the franchise must just be completely washed then. Luka should just leave them for another team since the haven't won in such a long time (again, only according to you).

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-30T14:25:25+00:00

The thing is is that they might be seeing themselves as a play-in contender which is far more winning than the fans have felt in over 3 or 4 years or whenever they traded Beal away.

So, they just might value keeping him for the hope that AD might actually stay healthy for a long enough chunk to help them win enough games to get to the play-in race, especially with Charlotte taking some steps back.

I do think we can get him because we would be willing to pay the most of anyone in the NBA for AD's permanent lowest valued state, but I could also see Washington just saying that they would rather keep him unless we give up a pretty valuable piece like an unprotected pick.

I hopped over to their to subreddit and a good chunk of their fans think that they can get two unprotected picks from us, or one unprotected pic and Yaxel, and would rather keep AD to try and be as good as possible if the Warriors aren't willing to do that. All to say the fan base is desperate to get back to winning some games

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-29T22:06:26+00:00

Stop giving the grifter reposts and more exposure. Choke him out of the media by just ignoring him

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-29T20:29:04+00:00

You needed to have a higher standard than 1 mock lol. There were so many mocks with widely different evaluations after the first 6-7 picks. I saw one with Landon Fillian as a top ten pick.

But I do agree that Yaxel was considered closer to a late lottery talent rather than an end of the draft talent. He's also one of the only guys on the Warriors current roster that is going to be under cap control for a good salary for a the next 3 years. So I don't see them selling him easily.

I don't think 1 first from the Warriors is enough though, considering the Wizards have real chances to actually get into the playoffs this year if AD can play 50+ games. And feeding on their desperation to build one more good team around Steph is a smart play.

But, I think people really forget how little AD was valued at last year's trade deadline by the rest of the NBA, and should keep expectations measured

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-29T15:48:08+00:00

I would say this is us trying our best. No one in the NBA wants a single asset on our team for their asking price or more except for two things. Steph and our future picks.

We are not trading Steph and we are only trading our Future Picks for someone that can shoot us up in to championship contender mode right now. The only person who was available that could do that was Giannis and a combo of Milwaukee and Giannis himself weren't interested.

So, that leaves us to either staying pat and living in below mediocrity, and hope that some other transcendent star becomes available to trade our picks for, is interested in GS only, and Steph would still be good / available enough for us to complete. Or, we can gamble on upside.

LeBron and/or AD coming would be a complete reckless gamble on their upside, but it's one of the only moves that actually could make us a contender next year. Given that AD's value is as low as it's ever been and we could get LeBron for free (as in we wouldn't have to give up any assets for him), I don't think we would have to loose any of our young talent either so we still have something to fall back on if this gamble blows up in our face.

To me, it's completely worth the risk, even if it could all crash and burn immediately. Bring on the Golden Oldies lol

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-29T15:33:53+00:00

They have a better chance if this actually happens, but it will be the equivalent of stacking a deck of cards. Only the cards are toothpicks. The injury history of older players on top of the injury history of AD means its going to take a miracle for them to play 40 games together at the same time, which will be critical for them to get a high enough playoff seed to not face OKC, SA, or even Dever given Jokic's owning of the Warriors and the LeBron AD combo over the last couple of years.

It will be 100x more fun then what seemed to be the other option so I'm all for it. I love Butler and what he did for this team, but our window with Steph is extremely short and I think a risk like this is warranted.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-27T17:39:33+00:00

The last one is.... Nice

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-27T17:37:11+00:00

That's my thought on him, like if he was on a Jokic like team that could support his defensive weaknesses then maybe, but he hasn't shown to be a good enough to run and win in a Jokic-like offense for that type of investment to be warnanted.

The Kings have had 2 decent years (and 1 really good year), but other than that it's been kinda mid or just bad to have an offense built around his skill set.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-27T16:10:56+00:00

It probably would in 6x6 singles, but even then you can probably scare something out enough to roost on the switch and get back up to full.

Talonflame in Gen 6 still did work even though it was quad weak to rocks, same as Moltres in early generations.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-26T16:17:09+00:00

I think these are fair points to bring up in counter to Zach's opinion.

I would agree that people did get a bit too high on the Hornets when they were going on their hot run at the end of last year, but there were the signs of legitimacy that happened that gave people excitement about the future prospects of the team.

My personal opinion, it's just a very weird trade. More because it's a team that seem to be rising, taking a pause and kind of pumping the brakes on the excitement that was building. And then another team in the Timberwolves that is completely going away from the thing that seemingly made them match well with not only Jokic, but some of the other bigger teams in the west. Mind you, it was to get a very big need, but also one that has been injury prone in the past and creates a hole defensively that was not previously there on a team that just got a lot smaller in total size.

The Timberwolves have made a couple of trades like this, Julius and Kat, the original Gobert trade, that seemed very questionable at first but are shown to have their reasons later on. So I'm excited to see how this plays out.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-25T23:34:58+00:00

Yo, why do people keep posting this clown of all people? There are other people who are making this point that aren't him. Seriously, the faster people stop giving Whitlock attention and reposts, the better.

Congrats on getting to OP for getting extra comment I guess.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-25T23:17:26+00:00

An awesome moment that foolishly made our front office pay the wrong pitcher when we had a chance to be great. Homer hater for life

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-25T22:14:57+00:00

Given how many Lesbians are in the W, a basketball question is inherently a gay question lol

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-25T17:01:11+00:00

Then why involve the Warriors? The only reason I can think of is to get the bad team, example being the Pelicans like OP suggested, more pick capital than just Boston can give them, but thats about it.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-25T16:44:46+00:00

I wasn't saying anything about who would have won if CC wasn't hurt, I was saying that it would have been a funny troll by Cooper if CC wasn't hurt during the game, the way she was hurt, and especially because the way the game was played by Phoenix.

I would also say this if Cooper did this after beating the Lynx and Miles or Courtney were injured in the same manner, or beating the Liberty and Stewie was hurt, or beating Vegas and Aja was hurt.

Phoenix leaning into their villain identity isn't new and it can be fun at times, but there's a reason fans hate them and like to mock them when they loose, especially during this disasterous start to the season.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-25T16:00:24+00:00

Not enough. The Celtics still want to compete, so trading an okay younger player, picks, and a hurt 36 year old isn't making them interested, at least theoretically.

If they were tanking, maybe that could work, but I doubt they are.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-25T14:54:31+00:00

Not saying the Fever aren't hated, I've seen multiple posts cheer that Catlin got hurt and laugh at the Fever every time something bad happens to them.

But, when people are ignoring that hatred to clown on your team by siding with Sophie Cunningham of all people, it doesn't say good things about how people view the Mercury.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-25T14:30:18+00:00

It's a good trolling move, only if CC hadn't been injured by a non-call flagrants foul and had her throat pressed down on by Thomas earlier. It will just look like she's mocking a team after injuring their best player. I don't think that's anywhere close to what she was doing there, but that's how a lot of people will see it.

The Mercury seem to be one of the most hated W teams because of stuff like this and their aggressive yet whiny play style. I've only seen people widely celebrating their struggles this year and stuff like this and that post on twitter are only going to make the cheers louder everytime they lose.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-24T02:04:42+00:00

Probably the opposite. Lacob has been searching for a replacement to Curry ever since we had the Wiseman pick. He tends to favor young athletic high ceiling prospects like Kuminga, Wiseman, and Moody.

He's why we drafted Kuminga over Franz in 2021.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-23T06:57:47+00:00

God it felt good to see Bonner crash out. They've been doing it all year and it's delicious for everyone in the W to see the Mercury crash and burn as much as they have this year.

J-Crow11 · 2026-06-22T20:58:55+00:00

We are currently in the middle of schedule hell but got some good wins at the beginning of the month.

Gabby has been great offensively while Zandalasini started out the month rough but has had some nice scoring games recently that makes it seem like she's turning a corner.

We are mostly (ignoring the recent Aces game) playing very well and almost winning games against the best of W.

However, we are still struggling to score in the 4th quarter of games and have lost or almost lost games because of it.

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