After leaving much to be desired in the last few years, the Los Angeles Lakers seem to have finally built a competitive team around LeBron James. The resurgence started last season, but it wasn’t enough to win the NBA championship.
That’s why Rob Pelinka stayed busy this offseason, making a number of moves to make the roster even better. Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Cam Reddish and Jaxson Hayes have all joined the purple and gold, who also managed to re-sign Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and D’Angelo Russell.
On top of that, the Lakers are reportedly giving Anthony Davis a new deal to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere anytime soon. Even so, it looks like they missed out on a player LeBron wanted to have as teammate this year.
Rumor: LeBron wanted Kyrie Irving at Lakers
According to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, LeBron James still tried to reunite with Kyrie Irving this offseason. The guard had been linked with the Lakers for a while, but he’s going back to the Dallas Mavericks for the upcoming season:
“LeBron was still pushing for Kyrie, as recently as this offseason… He’s made it very clear that he and Kyrie have made up… LeBron has really been very keen on potentially playing with Kyrie again. I would not be surprised if those rumors up again, closer to the trade deadline, depending on what happens at Dallas.”
James and Irving found success during their time together at the Cleveland Cavaliers, but they haven’t been on the same team since then. Who knows, maybe The King finally gets to have Kyrie in LA at some point.