The Los Angeles Lakers based their rebuild around the talents of a core group of young players, including Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart. However, now that LeBron James is in town, the team’s dynamic has changed.
Where there was once patience for the young players to find their way, now there is a need to find immediate success in order to reap the benefits of the 33-year-old James’ immense talents.
With that being the case, this episode of the LN Podcast focuses on the development of Brandon Ingram and his fit alongside James. This episode breaks down the issues and digs into whether it’s time for Los Angeles to consider doing something that they had previously resisted: trading Ingram.
It’s also time to revisit the Trevor Ariza trade, which never materialized for Los Angeles and instead saw the Phoenix Suns ship the veteran forward to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Austin Rivers and Kelly Oubre.
The perception of the deal may be shifting a bit now the Suns have opted to waive Rivers, leaving some questioning why the Lakers reported offer of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and a second-round pick wasn’t enough to get the deal done.
Finally, the question of Lonzo Ball’s progress is brought up and whether fans see him as a disappointment at this stage of his career. His shooting still has yet to come around but is his defense good enough to still make him an exciting prospect for the future?
