New Report States Lakers Never Made Training Camp Offer to Former LeBron James Teammate

Any way you slice it, he's apparently not going to be playing for L.A. anytime soon.

Apr 27, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) drives against Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) during the first quarter in game four of the first round for the 2024 NBA playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images / Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images

All-NBA Los Angeles Lakers superstar combo forward LeBron James often brings some of his favorite teammates along with him when he hops between teams.

It happened when he jumped ship from the Miami Heat to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010, when James brought in former All-Star Cleveland center and teammate Zydrunas Ilgauskas to serve as a deep-bench big. It happened again in 2014, when James returned to the Cavaliers following his Miami run. Sharpshooters Mike MIller and James Jones followed him over. Their Heat comrade Dwyane Wade also briefly joined them, during the 2017-18 season.

It happened yet again after James hopped from the Cavaliers to the Lakers in 2018. During L.A.'s championship 2019-20 season, his former Cleveland comrades Dion Waiters and J.R. Smith linked back up with him. Danny Green, who played on the Cavaliers with James in 2009-10, was also signed as the Lakers' starting shooting guard that year. Ex-Cavaliers power forward/center Tristan Thompson also provided some critical spot minutes during the Lakers' run to the Western Conference Finals in 2023.

Recently, it had been reported by Eurohoops that another former one-time Cleveland teammate, small forward Cedi Osman (who overlapped there with James in 2017-18, when Osman was a rookie), had turned down a potential training camp offer from the Lakers to play for Greek EuroLeague team Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens.

Read More: Former LeBron James Teammate Rejected Lakers Offer to Play Overseas

According to very plugged-in NBA insider Marc Stein, however, that may not have been the case. Sources inform Stein that Los Angeles never tendered Osman an actual offer. Stein notes that James got along famously with Osman during their season together.

Sources tell Stein that Osman hopes his performance abroad inspires teams to give him another look at some point during the 2024-25 season.

A solid shooter on the wing, the 6-foot-7 Turkish swingman averaged a mediocre 6.8 points on .479/.389/.673 shooting splits, 2.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 0.5 steals a night with the San Antonio Spurs in 2023-24. He'd be an intriguing bench option for the Lakers, potentially, but the team really needs to focus on building out its perimeter defense — an attribute that hasn't exactly been a strength for Osman during his seven seasons in the league thus far.

It seems more likely that the Lakers head into the season with their current roster intact, and then look to make personnel changes through trades than mid-season fringe roster free agent signings.

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