The Los Angeles Lakers failed to land Klay Thompson, with the Dallas Mavericks acquiring him via a sign-and-trade with the Golden State Warriors. Lakers fans are understandably disappointed at losing another target and LeBron James’ long-time friend Romeo Travis thinks teams don’t want to do deals with the franchise.
“Weird how no teams will do deals with the Lakers.”
Weird how no teams will do deals with the lakers https://t.co/4NhSrw1Xaa
— Romeo Travis (@RomeTrav) July 1, 2024
O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ice Cube’s son and lifelong Lakers fan, had an interesting theory for why teams don’t trade with the franchise.
“West coast teams don’t want Lakers successful.
East coast teams don’t want Bron successful.”
West coast teams don’t want Lakers successful.
East coast teams don’t want Bron successful. https://t.co/UkdJ3aY2QM
— O’Shea Jackson Jr (@OsheaJacksonJr) July 2, 2024
I think there is some truth to that. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin claimed that NBA teams do not want to trade with the Lakers because of professional jealousy. He added that there are general managers who do not want to deal with LeBron, Rich Paul, or Rob Pelinka for the same reason.
The Pelinka angle is quite interesting as well. There have been murmurs that his being the Lakers GM has played a role in teams seemingly not being keen on doing deals with the franchise.
Rival executives once blasted Pelinka by revealing he was an “a**hole” when he was an agent. He did whatever he had to if a client wanted to leave a team and that rubbed a lot of executives the wrong way. Now, when he’s one of them, they aren’t exactly all that eager to do business with him.
Rivalries could be another reason as well. San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich famously never wanted to trade with a rival like the Lakers once upon a time. Popovich reportedly was unwilling to trade Kawhi Leonard to the Lakers in 2018 and he ended up on the Toronto Raptors thanks, in part, to that.
In the case of Thompson, though, the player himself appears to have turned them down to be in a better situation. Klay signed a three-year, $50 million deal with the Mavericks, with the financial savings from living in Texas over California along with the team being just three wins away from winning the championship this year being why he went there.
Professional jealousy, Pelinka being the GM, or rivalry doesn’t appear to have played any part in Thompson not being a Laker. I suppose it is more concerning in some ways that Klay felt the Mavericks were just a better landing spot from a basketball standpoint.
Bulls Owner Reportedly Doesn’t Want To Trade With The Lakers Because Of Michael Jordan
I mentioned some of the general reasons why teams don’t want to make deals with the Lakers, but it appears there is one reason unique to just the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls owner doesn’t want to trade with the Lakers as it could help LeBron surpass Michael Jordan.
“In this industry you, you have to make the best decision for you as a team but people are petty and make stupid decisions all the time that like aren’t what’s best for you… Fans clamor for Alex Caruso right like for years.”
“Like they should have gotten Drummond and Caruso. I’m like go look at like the transaction logs of Lakers-Chicago like they don’t make trades together. Last one was like during when the Lakers were rebuilding and were terrible.”
“The Bulls dumped like an older point guard, a Spanish point guard on them and I forget which one it was. It was a marriage of convenience that helped the Bulls like, I think their owner doesn’t want LeBron infringing upon like Michael’s Legacy so like.”
“The Bulls just don’t trade… They’re not a big trading team they’re a conservative team and how they operate… They’re just not going to help LeBron.”
It would be absolutely crazy if this is indeed true. For Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf to not trade a player to the Lakers as a favor to Jordan in the GOAT debate against LeBron would be quite a petty measure. The last time there was a trade involving the two teams was in 2016, two years before James went to LA, so there might be some truth to it.
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