LeBron James has done all he can to help the Los Angeles Lakers on the court, but a mistake he made this past offseason could be a major contributing factor in the team’s disappointing 2021-22 season.
According to former Lakers executive Magic Johnson, LeBron’s pursuit of Russell Westbrook kept the franchise from acquiring now-Chicago Bulls star DeMar DeRozan.
“The blame that he’s gotta take is the fact that DeRozan ended up in Chicago and not with the Lakers,” Johnson said during a recent appearance on ESPN’s Get Up.
.@MagicJohnson says the Lakers could’ve had DeRozan, Hield and Caruso instead of Westbrook 👀
“If you sign DeRozan, you only trade Kuzma for Buddy Hield, we would be playing in the Western Conference championship this year with those two guys.” pic.twitter.com/hZ7DdPhWu1
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) April 4, 2022
Johnson explained that DeRozan’s agent called him last offseason and informed him that the All-Star forward wanted to join the Lakers for the 2021-22 season. Johnson then called the Los Angeles organization and told the front office that DeRozan, who played his college ball at USC, wanted to “come home.”
“We could have made that deal, but when Russell and LeBron and them started talking, that’s when they nixed that deal and went with Westbrook, and he became a Laker instead of DeRozan,” Johnson added.
While the addition of former league MVP Russell Westbrook initially brought some title-contending hype to the Lakers organization, it clearly didn’t pan out as hoped. In hindsight, DeRozan would’ve been a far more useful addition — and far less costly in the trade market.
Johnson believes the Lakers could’ve held onto some key role players that they shopped in the Westbrook trade.
“You had a chance to keep the role players — [Alex] Caruso, [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] — all those guys who were our best defenders… If you sign DeRozan, you only trade [Kyle] Kuzma for Buddy Hield…
“We would be playing in the Western Conference championship this year.”
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