Getty LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lake reacts to the bench in front of Luke Walton during the first half against the Los Angeles Clippers.
LeBron James hurt his groin on Christmas Day, Lonzo Ball isn’t wearing Big Baller Brand sneakers anymore, Carmelo Anthony and Zach Randolph never filled a roster spot in LA and Anthony Davis was never traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James injury is more complex than what has been initially reported, I’m told.
Per Lakers source: “LeBron could ‘rush back’ and return at the end of January. But he could very well be out until the end of February, or even longer.”
That was the soundtrack of the 2018-2019 Los Angeles Lakers season.
Come summer, the team may look completely different even with their head coach, Luke Walton.
Walton might already have a job lined up at UCLA.
“I think there’s some forces that want to see that happen,” NBA insider, Ric Bucher told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
“I mentioned his dad, Bill, obviously being a legend at UCLA and I’ve been told that he wants that to have happen; whatever sort of leverage or influence he has in making it happen. I also have heard that Bob Myers, another UCLA alum, close friends with Luke, he wants to see that happen as well.”
Why the big Luke Walton Parade?
“I think some of it is like everybody respects Luke as a coach,” Bucher tells Scoop B Radio.
“Especially those that are close to them and have worked with him and obviously his dad for a multitude of reasons. And it feels like he’s getting a raw deal from the Lakers and that he deserves better. And I don’t know whether the UCLA job is deserving of better, but, and maybe they see it as, ‘it’ll give Luke a little more time to evolve as a head coach,’ because nobody I’ve talked to, even, you know, people close to him, are saying, ‘you know what, he’s just done an unbelievable job’, they think he’s a good coach, they think he’s been put in a difficult situation with a combination of young talent that’s not ready to play at the level that LeBron is and ready to meet those expectations, and then, you know, acquiring a guy like LeBron James who has expectations.”
“They put Luke [Walton] in position to fail,” Charles Barkley told me.
As for Anthony Davis:
Demps told Magic this is what he wanted:
✅Lonzo
✅Kuzma
✅Ingram
✅Zubac
✅Hart
✅KCP
✅2019 unprotected FRP
✅2020 FRP swap
✅2021 unprotected FRP
✅2022 FRP swap
✅2023 unprotected FRP
✅2019 and 2021 2nd round picks
Lakers said: 👎🏽✌🏽✌🏽✌🏽✌🏽✌🏽✌🏽
“You can’t be in the middle, you got to be trying to develop those young guys or you got to be trying to win in the [NBA] playoffs. They put [Luke] in a bad situation and it’s unfortunate.”
The Los Angeles Lakers are in 11th place in the NBA’s Western Conference, mathematically the Los Angeles Lakers won’t be making the NBA Playoffs this season.
Luke Walton gone in LA? If Walton were fired, Mark Jackson is a likely candidate. So is Jason Kidd. I asked a credible league source this afternoon whether they thought Kidd would be a good fit.
They told me: “it would be great” and “anything is possible.”
“They put Luke [Walton] in position to fail,” Charles Barkley told me recently.
“You can’t be in the middle, you got to be trying to develop those young guys or you got to be trying to win in the [NBA] playoffs. They put [Luke] in a bad situation and it’s unfortunate.”
That logic sounds about right to Bucher, too.
“That’s tough for any coach to be able to meld all that,” Bucher told Scoop B Radio.
“So, you know, whether it ultimately happens, especially at the collegiate level, there are a lot of forces at work. Somebody had suggested that he would also, you know, if Arizona made a change, and obviously that’s where he played, that they they’d want to go after him or the other part I’ve heard is that Sean Miller, for all that he’s done, you know, they’re not looking to get rid of him, even if stuff came out and he had to take like a year’s leave, they would rather do that than just kick Sean Miller to the curb, he’s just, he’s been way too successful there. So, and I haven’t talked to Luke about this, you know, as far as his aspirations, how much, if he bounces from the Lakers, wants to jump into something else, wants to jump into the college game. I don’t know what his desires are, so I tried to, as much as I could, craft that tweet in the right frame, which is, it would be there, there are people that are trying to create that opportunity for him, should he have to or want to take advantage of it.”