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The Lakers are the only team in the league yet to make moves in free agency and LeBron James and Anthony Davis have spoken honestly about it.
Last season’s LA team failed to make it past the first round of the playoffs and clearly needed a few more pieces to be deemed a legitimate contender.
LeBron’s agent, Rich Paul, recently told ESPN that LeBron was willing to take less money so the Lakers could reach the midlevel exception and sign an “impact player.”
But the team missed out on Klay Thompson, James Harden, Jonas Valanciunas and DeMar DeRozan and LeBron has addressed the situation.
“It takes two to tango,” LeBron told ESPN. “I think our front office, our coaching staff, they tried to do the job that they wanted to do or tried to get guys to come and it didn’t happen. And that’s OK. That’s part of the business. I’ve been in this business long enough to know that sometimes it happens, sometimes it don’t.
“So we don’t sit here and lie about or cry about it. We move on and Klay’s a great player. Obviously DeMar’s a great player. Valanciunas was one of those guys who ended up going to Washington, was someone that was in talks with us, but we move on to see how we continue to get better.
“I’m looking forward to this fall when I get back out there.”
It seems as though the Lakers are betting on Jarred Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent, who combined to play just 40 games in 2023-24, to be the difference-makers.
“We don’t know what we could have been if we had those guys, especially in the playoffs,” Davis said. “You know especially Vando because he’s a big part of what we do defensively. But, so we look at the lineup, and you know we come in ready to work.
“And last year is last year. We can’t say ‘Oh this is the same team.’ It could be a different result. For us it’s about coming in with the mindset of getting to work and seeing how it plays out.”
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