Lakers News: Warriors Tried To Trade For LeBron James At This Year's Deadline
During the final day leading up to this year's February 8th NBA trade deadline, the Golden State Warriors made a surprise push to land Los Angeles Lakers All-Star forward LeBron James in a deal, sources inform Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Obviously, because he's LeBron James, he was given right of first refusal. The LA superstar rejected his Pacific Division rivals' overtures, Woj learns.
According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN (via NBA Central), James' longtime friend, Warriors star power forward/small-ball center Draymond Green, reached out to their mutual agent Rich Paul about a James team-up.
"Rich immediately said, 'No that's not going to happen,'" Windhorst added. "Actually I think it behooved the Lakers to let this get asked... because the Lakers were kind of holding the line at the trade deadline. They didn't like what their options were. And even though LeBron was pressuring them, they believed that LeBron was solid and that they didn't need to act like he was going to do something and maybe walk on them. So getting LeBron to basically recommit to them I think only emboldened them to stick with their path, which is to make the best of the roster they have now, and then re-examine things in the summer."
To be fair, Los Angeles has looked far better of late, since fully committing to forward Rui Hachimura as a member of its full-time starting five. LA is undefeated (5-0) with Darvin Ham's newly preferred starting group of D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Hachimura, James and All-Star center Anthony Davis. The club has improved to three games over .500 (29-26) for the first time since December.
Woj adds that Golden State owner Joe Lacob went as far as reaching out to Lakers owner Jeanie Buss about a possible deal. Buss apparently referred Lacob to Paul, as she essentially operates from the vantage point of wanting to keep her stars happy, be that in LA or elsewhere.
Depending on the trade package (presumably it would include the contract of Andrew Wiggins or Chris Paul, draft equity, and Moses Moody to start) James would of course elevate the Warriors' ceiling to instant contention, even if he would also elevate their average age to near-prehistoric. Instead, the tenth-seeded Warriors (26-25) are chasing the ninth-seeded Lakers (29-26) in the West, with both clubs jockeying to get out of the play-in mix.
