Lakers following Heat’s blueprint to build super team
MIAMI — The Lakers are the Heat.
Or, more to the point, these Lakers stand to be what the Heat were in 2010.
With this, curiously, yet another moment in NBA time when LeBron James is mulling options beyond Cleveland and when another NBA star is looking to get away — with a third piece positioned to form a Big Three.
No, it won’t be as simple to get LeBron, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George together as it was for LeBron, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade to come together with the Heat in 2010.
But it is possible. And workable. With one Lakers icon (Magic Johnson) attempting to repeat what another (Pat Riley) did for the Heat in July 2010. Start with LeBron. Shortly after Udonis Haslem mentioned Thursday at the Heat’s youth camp that LeBron had visited with him and Wade in Miami during the Cavaliers’ playoff run, sparking talk of a Heat reunion, an agent called with the basic message of “stop it.”
“LeBron is going to the Lakers,” the agent, whose work previously had been tied to LeBron’s whims, said. “He’s not putting all that work into his house there not to live in it. And all his guys are living there now, too.”
Fair enough. Of course, only LeBron knows.
And then came word of Leonard’s Friday trade demand.
Yes, the Spurs are under no obligation to deal, not with another year left on Kawhi’s contract. And that’s where many point out that the last thing San Antonio would do is trade him within the conference.
But then consider that Leonard can become a free agent in a year. So could the Celtics, already facing Kyrie Irving’s 2019 free agency, afford dual such risks? Could the 76ers afford to deal draft picks and Dario Saric and then see Leonard walk in July 2019? The last thing the 76ers can afford is a turn back to the Process.
Meanwhile, the Lakers do have pieces in Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma, at least as a starting point.
Beyond all of that, if a trade for Leonard is consummated with matching salaries, the Lakers would have cap space for George even after signing Leonard (particularly if a trade can be struck with Cleveland, similar to the Heat’s sign-and-trade for LeBron in 2010, with no need for matching salaries due to the Lakers’ cap space).
So LeBron, Leonard, George.
Similar to LeBron, Wade and Bosh, who, like it appears with Kawhi at the moment, felt he needed a change.
This is what teams such as the Lakers do, this is why they exist, this is why Magic Johnson was brought back and Mitch Kupchak was forced aside after failed bids to bring the Lakers to this type of moment.
The path is tried and true: Be bad (as the Heat were prior to 2010, as the Lakers have been recently), work the draft to develop assets (remember, Michael Beasley was flipped for the cap space that turned into Mike Miller; with the Lakers now with the ability reroute Lonzo Ball elsewhere if needed) and covet cap space above all (which the Heat made the focus almost as soon as the 2006 champagne stopped flowing).
A Lakers team with LeBron, Leonard and George could prove to be an intriguing counter to the Warriors. Instead of trying to beat Golden State at its own game, sic perimeter defensive dogs like LeBron, Leonard and George on Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.
As for the Heat, the consolation of no LeBron or Leonard at least would be an Eastern Conference without the challenge of either.
All the while rekindling memories of what was in South Florida.