The wait is finally over. Carmelo Anthony has made his decision to return to the New York Knicks on a five-year, $129 million contract. Anthony and LeBron James virtually froze the free agent market by keeping teams in limbo over their decisions regarding where they would play next season. Along with the incumbent Knicks, one team that was held hostage until a decision had been made was the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers met with Anthony at the team’s practice facility to make their case as to why he should join his close friend Kobe Bryant in purple and gold. The pitch made by the team covered all basis. Team executives Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss discussed the basketball side of his decision in terms of the Lakers plans moving forward while Jeanie Buss and Tim Harris talked about the business aspect of the franchise.
James Worthy also spoke at the meeting and it was rumored that Magic Johnson gave his input via phone call. The rendezvous also included representatives of Anschutz Entertainment Group and Time Warner Cable discussing the impact of the Los Angeles market. It didn’t end there though, as movie producer Joel Silver created a short movie trailer of Anthony’s life that was narrated by none other than Spider-Man himself — Tobey Maguire.
It is also widely believed that Bryant had been in constant contact with Anthony in an attempt to recruit him. In the end, it wasn’t enough to convince the perennial All-Star to sign with the Lakers in a timely manner, forcing the team to move on.
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Like always, Los Angeles has been a major player in the rumor mill ever since the clock struck 12:01 AM Eastern Time on July 1. Previously linked to a plethora of names that included Lance Stephenson, Trevor Ariza, Isaiah Thomas and Eric Bledsoe, among others, the Lakers elected to spend the majority of their cap space on their own players in Jordan Hill and Nick Young. They also took on the salary of Jeremy Lin in a trade with Houston that also landed L.A. the Rockets’ 2015 first-round pick along with future draft considerations.
In doing so, the team is still able to preserve an immense amount of cap space for next summer, especially if they don’t pick up their team option on Hill after this season. Kevin Love, along with several All-Star caliber players could be free agents next summer while Kevin Durant could end up headlining the 2016 group.
[divide]Carmelo Anthony And Pau Gasol Pass On The Los Angeles Lakers
PAGE 2: Why Losing Carmelo Anthony Sweepstakes Doesn’t Hurt The Lakers
If they had managed to lure Anthony to L.A., the inevitable question mark that would quickly surround the franchise is what the next step would be. Giving him a max contract would have erased all of the Lakers’ cap space, likely forcing them to trade or stretch Steve Nash’s contract in order to create roughly six to nine million dollars of spending money.
Pau Gasol would have reportedly re-signed with the Lakers “quickly” if they were able to land Anthony, but would that turn the 16-time NBA champions into title contenders? Odds are, it wouldn’t.
Bryant coming off two major leg injuries combined with Anthony’s inept defensive ability and Gasol’s lack of effort on that end raises too many red flags a year after the Lakers were atrocious defensively. Offensively, the trio would have to figure out who eats first. Would Bryant be willing to sacrifice a portion of offensive touches in order to let Anthony — one of the game’s best scorers — do what he does best? Would Gasol get enough touches in the post where he is most effective or does he have to step away from the basket to give the wing duo room to operate? Could Anthony develop into the alpha dog that can lead his team to championships once Bryant rides off into the sunset?
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Where would that leave Julius Randle? A trio of Bryant, Anthony, and Gasol likely means that Randle would get a significant amount of his touches on offensive rebounds due to the other three jacking up the majority of the shots. That’s not necessarily the way you want to develop the first young building block that the franchise has possessed in years.
The point is, going down that road raises a massive amount of questions and uncertainty.
An acquisition of Anthony certainly would have excited fans during the summertime. However, the excitement would slowly dwindle away as the season progressed, making it evident that the team didn’t have the correct pieces to the puzzle.
Laker fans should not be upset that the team moved on from their pursuit of Anthony.
They may not come this summer, but not far down the road waits better options for the Lakers in free agency. What does the plan for the next year or so hold for the Lakers? Only time will tell, but Kupchak usually finds a way to figure things out.
[divide]Carmelo Anthony And Pau Gasol Pass On The Los Angeles Lakers