LeBron James played the first game of the 20th season of his amazing NBA career against the Golden State Warriors. In the season opener, the Los Angeles Lakers got completely outplayed by the Warriors, but James still had a good game.
LBJ finished the game with 31 points, 14 rebounds, and 8 assists while shooting 48% from the field, including a 3-10 display from beyond the arc. Despite all his efforts, the Lakers lost the game by 14 points.
Seeing the Lakers’ performance in the season opener, many believe that similar to the last season, James’ another year will be wasted by playing for the Purple and Gold. This leads to the million-dollar question about whether the Lakers will try to make some trades to improve the team around James or not.
Richard Jefferson Believes The Lakers Won’t Make Any Trades For The First Few Weeks
The Lakers have been in trade talks with several teams involving Russell Westbrook. But no deal was finalized this summer. So this has led to many wondering if the Lakers will even make any trades or not? Well, former NBA player Richard Jefferson shared his thoughts on when the Lakers may make a few calls and try to get a better supporting cast around James.
“There’s no way to honestly look at that roster with those two picks and think that you’re gonna waste a year of LeBron James. He didn’t sign multiyear extensions, he’s not gonna just go through this entire year losing again for whatever. There’s gonna be a move at some point in time before the season’s over, there’s going to. I don’t think there’s a basketball mind that doesn’t think that. That’s why I don’t think they’re done so I can’t judge them off of what I see right now because I don’t think that this is going to be their team.
He added, “The Lakers, they feel like they might be able to get something better out there. If the first 20 games don’t go well for the Nets. There’s some Draymond drama. Who knows what’s going on in Phoenix. They feel like there’s a couple of things out there that are floating that maybe a better deal can pop up. Theyre not gonna allow it to get to the trade deadline. They’re not gonna allow it to get that far, but they’re gonna give it like 10-15 games before they pull the trigger.”
Jefferson believes the Lakers are keeping an eye on how things are developing around the league. Keeping that in mind, there’s no reason for the Lakers to rush into making a decision about engaging in trade talks. Moreover, who knows if the Lakers may actually start playing better over the next few games.
