LeBron James is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. He is a great teammate, an expert on the court and astute in his business off the court. However, that doesn’t mean he’s perfect. Like Michael Jordan, he has had a poor track record when it comes to influencing personnel moves.
That should be a big red flag for the Lakers, who have been down this road many times before during LeBron’s six seasons with the team. They already made one of their two big decisions in June: choosing JJ Redick as their next head coach. They will also have to decide whether to select Bronny with the 17th or 55th pick in the draft.
James’ agent, Rich Paul, has insisted that his star client had no influence on the hiring and never endorsed Redick as his preferred candidate. That doesn’t pass the smell test.
Former Laker Carmelo Anthony he once called James the team’s general manager, just like Kyrie Irving. The agents have complained that players cannot sign for the team without their approval. His Former Cavs general manager David Griffin once said that “you’re not doing your job if you don’t talk to him about players.”
Every star has some level of influence on front office decisions, and James is certainly included in that group. But if Rob Pelinka is giving him too much of a role in decisions, then he is failing in his duty as a team manager. Redick could end up being a great coach for the team and Bronny could be a good role player. They would be rare victories on a very patchy LeGM resume.
LAKERS HIRE JJ REDICK
- Contract details
- Is Redick the right person for Los Angeles?
- Inside Redick’s ‘Pat Riley-type’ potential
- How Redick will change the Lakers
- Redick joins Coach K’s growing coaching tree
LeBron James’ poor track record as LeGM
The Lakers should learn from their past mistakes. Rather, it seems that history is doomed to repeat itself.
Listening to James about personnel decisions has taken the team from a championship roster in 2020 to where it is today. It was he who supposedly wanted the Lakers to trade for Russell Westbrook in 2021 instead of Buddy Hield. Westbrook’s tenure with the Lakers was, as expected, disastrous. The distance between the three stars of the team was terrible and James later he complained about the lack of shooting in the squad that was mainly his doing.
Hield would have provided that shot if the Lakers had followed their instincts. He has been one of the highest volume 3-point shooters in the league and made 40 percent of his 3-point attempts. More importantly, the Lakers wouldn’t have needed to trade Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and a first-round pick to get him. Hield’s asking price was reportedly Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell.
James would have compounded Westbrook’s mistake even more if the Lakers had listened to him again. He was reportedly upset that the team didn’t try to move on from Westbrook and trade its 2027 first-round pick to acquire a clearly declining John Wall during the 2022 trade deadline.
That would have ended even worse than his deal with Westbrook. Wall played only 34 games after that date and was quickly out of the league. Instead of pulling the trigger on Wall, the Lakers were able to somehow salvage that situation, picking up D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley on the line and getting the depth pieces needed to reach the Western Conference Finals .
James hasn’t been a particularly good evaluator of coaches either. He once tried to get Erik Spoelstra fired in Miami. It’s not easy to coach one of his teams: Redick will be the tenth head coach of his career.
Redick could be in an awkward situation due to his pre-existing relationship with James, according to a veteran and former teammate of the Lakers star, Udonis Haslem.
“If it’s J.J. [Redick]”It’s going to be a cynical locker room.” Haslem said on ESPN’s NBA Today show. “You’ll see guys who will say, ‘Is coach doing a podcast after the game with LeBron?’ You’re going to have a cynical locker room of guys who will look askance at everything JJ says because they’ll wonder, ‘Is it JJ’s message or LeBron’s message?’”
The Lakers could make things even more complicated if they select Bronny James later this month in the draft. With apologies to Luis Scola, Patty Mills and Aaron Wiggins, the 55th pick generally hasn’t produced rotation players. Using that pick on Bronny would be reasonable. But if the team trades for him or uses their 17th pick on him, then it would be nothing short of a disaster.
Taking on James is no easy task, but Pelinka and company are paid a lot of money to do it. They need to do their job or the team needs to find someone else to do it.
Just don’t ask LeBron for that next recommendation.
