{"id":70840,"date":"2024-03-27T17:44:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T21:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=70840"},"modified":"2024-03-27T17:44:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T21:44:20","slug":"nba-legends-bold-proposal-for-the-los-angeles-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/27\/nba-legends-bold-proposal-for-the-los-angeles-lakers\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Legend&#8217;s Bold Proposal for the Los Angeles Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Lakers&#8217; lack of success since their 2020 NBA championship has resulted in many questioning the tandem of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a>, and whether or not a trade would be in the franchise&#8217;s best interest.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/crawfja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jamal Crawford<\/a>, one of the best sixth men to ever set foot on an NBA court, recently appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LUmHPYflqUg\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>The Big Podcast with Shaq <\/em><\/a>to disclose his thoughts on the matter. The podcast is hosted by NBA Hall of Famer and cultural icon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/onealsh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shaquille O&#8217;Neal<\/a> alongside TNT&#8217;s Adam Lefkoe.<\/p>\n<h2>NBA Legend&#8217;s Bold Proposal for the Los Angeles Lakers<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jamal Crawford thinks the Lakers should trade AD \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n<p>(\ud83c\udfa5 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bigpodwithshaq?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@bigpodwithshaq<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5clxBNeewE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/5clxBNeewE<\/a>) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NLZkYbGPT7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/NLZkYbGPT7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheDunkCentral\/status\/1773070749453939028?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 27, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Crawford&#8217;s Lakers Trade Idea<\/h3>\n<p>Crawford insinuates that Los Angeles&#8217; best hope towards championship contention would be by trading Davis.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;They don&#8217;t have enough to even compete right now&#8230;My thing is, if LeBron is still your best player at this point, I&#8217;m looking at trading Anthony Davis. You can get four or five pieces to go with him[LeBron]&#8230;That fit LeBron if LeBron&#8217;s still going to be your best player.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Crawford later elaborated on his statement.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not his talent, it&#8217;s roster construction. Look what the 1-2 punch has gotten them[the Lakers].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Should the Lakers Trade Anthony Davis?<\/h3>\n<p>Crawford&#8217;s suggestion is certainly a daring proposal, given that Davis is now seen as the Lakers&#8217; franchise player for the foreseeable future. LeBron is 39 years old and figures to only have a few years left in him.<\/p>\n<p>If LA were to trade Davis, they would essentially be setting themselves up for a rebuild the second that James either leaves or retires. The Lakers franchise perennially bears the crushing weight of lofty expectations, and hitting the reset button after winning only one championship in the past decade would feel out of character.<\/p>\n<p>If the Lakers decide to hold on to Davis, they could pair him with another max-contract superstar once James&#8217; contract is off the books. The Lakers also hold plenty of tradable assets to retool in the post-LeBron era, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reaveau01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Reaves<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/russeda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">D&#8217;Angelo Russell<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hachiru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rui Hachimura<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Anthony Davis and the Lakers in 2023-24<\/h3>\n<p>In 2023-24, Davis has managed to thwart serious injuries, playing in 68 of the Lakers&#8217; 72 games this season. He is playing 35.9 minutes a night, his highest total since the 2017-18 season, when he was still a member of the New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Anthony Davis has played in 96 of his last 100 games, per <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LakersLead?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@LakersLead<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Last night, he finished with 52 minutes, the most by a Laker since Kobe Bryant.<\/p>\n<p>The street clothes narrative is over. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/f2j7ZH8i9b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/f2j7ZH8i9b<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LegionHoops\/status\/1772971840547557546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 27, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Davis is averaging 24.7 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 3.6 assists. The 6&#8217;10 big man is also one of the contenders for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/10\/21\/candidates-2023-24-nba-defensive-player-of-the-year\/\" target=\"_self\">Defensive Player of the Year award<\/a>, averaging 2.4 blocks and 1.2 steals per game.<\/p>\n<p>Last night, Davis played 52 minutes as the Lakers came back from a 19-point deficit in the fourth quarter to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 128-124 in double overtime.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9jzbrmvZLvY?si=IwRr9_tt4W62RK__\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Lakers now sit 9th in the Western Conference, with a record of 40-32. They are in a heated battle with numerous teams to avoid the dreaded play-in, including the Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, and Dallas Mavericks. The West is incredibly tight this year, as the fourth-seeded Clippers are only eight games ahead of the eleventh-seeded Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Lakers&#8217; lack of success since their 2020 NBA championship has resulted in many questioning the tandem of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and whether or not a trade would be in the franchise&#8217;s best interest. Jamal Crawford, one of the best sixth men to ever set foot on an NBA court, recently [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4773,"featured_media":70847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,2,26,3],"tags":[240,38,152,4774,1382],"class_list":["post-70840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-featured","category-lakers","category-news","tag-anthony-davis","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-rumors","tag-nba-trade"],"modified_by":"Adam Echchaibi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4773"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}