The Lakers got the news Tuesday that nobody in the organization wanted. LeBron James is leaving in free agency, per ESPN’s Shams Charania, and he’s taking his talents somewhere else for the fourth time in his career. That stings. But the Lakers don’t exactly have time to sit around and feel bad about it.
They’ve still got Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves under contract. That’s a pretty good place to start. And now the front office has to figure out how to build around those two guys without the safety net of LeBron’s playmaking and experience. It’s a different kind of challenge, but not necessarily a hopeless one.
The sign-and-trade option is very real
Here’s the thing about LeBron leaving. He could just walk. But if he wants to help the Lakers get something back — and if his new team wants to clear cap space — a sign-and-trade is absolutely on the table. The Lakers should be pushing hard for that, especially if Cleveland comes calling.
James has been linked to the Cavaliers all week. That makes sense. He’s got history there. Two stints, two championships, a whole lot of emotional weight. And if Cleveland wants him back, they’d need to make the money work. That’s where Jarrett Allen enters the picture.
Why Allen makes sense for both sides
Allen is exactly the kind of big man Doncic has never really had in his prime. He’s a monster on the offensive glass. He finishes everything around the rim. And on defense, he’s a legitimate rim protector who can clean up a lot of mistakes on the perimeter. For a Lakers team that just lost its best player, getting a 24-year-old All-Star caliber center would be a pretty solid consolation prize.
Doncic has played with good big men before. But none of them were as consistently impactful on both ends as Allen is right now. Imagine the pick-and-roll possibilities. It’s easy to see why Lakers fans are already spitballing this one.
Cleveland would still have a killer lineup even without Allen. Think about it: LeBron, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and James Harden. That’s four guys who can all create offense. But the Cavs would obviously prefer to just sign LeBron outright and keep Allen. Nobody gives up a young center for nothing unless they have to.
NBA free agency officially opens Tuesday evening. By then, we’ll probably have a much clearer picture of where LeBron is actually going and whether the Lakers can turn this loss into something that actually helps them long-term. Losing LeBron hurts in the short run. But building around Doncic and Reaves with a guy like Allen in the middle? That’s not the worst pivot in the world.
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