Lakers News: Reporter Rooting For LeBron James Trade To West Playoff Rival

Would LA ever sign off on this?

Your 20-21 Los Angeles Lakers surely represent no one's ideal vision of what a championship squad looks like. The team is a meager tenth seed in the Western Conference, tied by record with the 11th-seeded Houston Rockets and just 1.5 games ahead of the 12th-seeded Golden State Warriors.

Would LA superstar forward LeBron James ever seriously entertain the notion of forcing his way off a possibly sinking ship (assuming no Lakers trades are forthcoming, which would be a shortsighted assumption to make given what we know about GM Rob Pelinka) midseason to head out for greener pastures?

In a recent interview, Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson of Bovada Casino chatted with Landon Buford of Forbes about the prospect of James seeking to join former Cleveland Cavaliers comrade Kyrie Irving and Irving's fellow All-Star guard Luka Doncic on the 24-17 Dallas Mavericks, currently the sixth seed in the conference.

“Mark Cuban is a gambler” but how far would he go to bring another Championship to Dallas 🤔 @ScoopB chats with @LandonBuford in this clip from Scoop B talks 🗣️🎙️ pic.twitter.com/qWdkXTeM4f

— Bovada Casino (@Bovada_Casino) October 24, 2023

"Of course [I'd like to see James in Dallas], but how is this going to actually happen?" Buford wonders. "Does Dallas have the trade pieces for that? And how the heck are they going to let LeBron out of LA and Luka's not in the trade, or Kyrie's [not] in the trade?"

"LeBron would have to seek a buyout," Robinson posits.

"How many opportunities were they going to have [to get] that type of talent coming to the city?" Buford asks. "It's been almost 13 years since they grasped the NBA championship [against James' Miami Heat in 2011], just being honest. Mark Cuban, I mean, he's a gambler. If they can guarantee him a championship, I guarantee he'd put up the money for that."

There's another, much simpler solution the Lakers don't have to actually trade James at all for him to wind up in Dallas, it just wouldn't happen this season. He can simply opt out of the final season of his current deal with the franchise and sign with the Mavs in free agency.

Obviously, the biggest problem with a Dallas "Big Three" of James, Irving and Doncic (beyond the fact that there's only one basketball for three ball-dominant veteran All-Stars) is those players' defensive shortcomings on the perimeter. The Mavericks would need to augment this stellar theoretical triumvirate with defense-first pieces, like current Dallas guards Dante Exum and Derrick Jones Jr., and incumbent starting power forward Grant Williams.