Magic Johnson is widely considered to be the greatest point guard in NBA history. The Los Angeles Lakers legend retired as a five-time champion, three-time MVP and three-time Finals MVP.
While his brief stint as the Lakers president of basketball operations was not as successful, he was able to bring LeBron James to the franchise and set the team up to win their 17th title in franchise history the year after his departure. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer recently appeared on "First Take", where he revealed that he warned the franchise about parting ways with another player acquired during his tenure.
"The thing that hurt the Lakers the most was losing (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) and then we're watching the other guy for Oklahoma City right now in (Alex) Caruso," Lakers legend Magic Johnson stated Thursday. "They were out best on-ball defenders and I told (the front office) that. I said, 'listen, if you're going to lose KCP, you got to keep Caruso'. But they signed Talen Horton(-Tucker) to that $9 million instead of giving it to Caruso and that's come back to bite the Lakers."
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Johnson added that Los Angeles needs to figure out who will play defense if they want to contend. He also suggested that the offense needs to move more instead of Luka Dončić dominating the ball.
While Caruso played a key role on the Lakers 2019-20 championship winning team, he was allowed to leave in free agency after the next season. The decision to let him walk for nothing has not aged well as Los Angeles has struggled to replace his defensive production.
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