The Los Angeles Lakers are gearing up for the regular season, which is now less than a week away. This year is expected to generate plenty of headlines, especially with Luka Doncic’s body transformation, LeBron James possibly entering his final year, and Austin Reaves playing in a contract year. Still, the goal for James remains the same.
“LeBron wants to compete for a championship,” Rich Paul told ESPN. “He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we've had for eight years with Jeanie [Buss] and Rob [Pelinka] and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.”
Recently, it was revealed that the Lakers were among the teams that missed out on Bruce Brown in free agency.
“Brown spent those two years playing for Indiana, Toronto and New Orleans, but often thinking about Denver, envisioning a chance to return. He stayed active in a group chat with teammates. He kept a compilation of his 2022-23 highlights saved on his phone. He sat court-side at a playoff game between the Nuggets and Clippers ‘to prove a point that I wanted to be back,’ he said recently at a local private event hosted by Jackson Family Wines. He followed through on that point by taking the Nuggets’ offer amid interest from other teams, including the Lakers and Suns, league sources told The Post,” The Denver Post’s Bennett Durando wrote.
Brown would have been a major addition for the Lakers, but things didn’t work out that way. He ultimately took less money to return to Denver. The Lakers then signed Marcus Smart after Brown chose Denver — a move that, so far, hasn’t looked great.
The Lakers are still expected to be among the Western Conference’s top teams, but Brown could have been a game-changer. Now, he’s back with the Nuggets, the team with which he won an NBA championship.
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