The Los Angeles Lakers have had a disappointing season to say the least. While the team's effort on the court has been poor, their lackluster play was anticipated due to even poorer personnel construction. For those who remember, before the Lakers pursued and eventually landed Russell Westbrook, they were in negotiations with another Los Angeles-area native in DeMar DeRozan.
However, on ESPN's Get Up on Monday, Lakers icon Magic Johnson explained why he puts the lionshare of the blame on the shoulders of LeBron James for Los Angeles failing to sign DeRozan.
“The blame that he’s got to take is the fact that DeRozan ended up in Chicago and not with the Lakers,” Magic said referring to LeBron. “DeRozan wanted to play for the Lakers and when I got the call from his agent, [Aaron Goodwin], I called the Lakers, said, ‘Hey [DeRozan] wants to come home.’”
“If you signed DeRozan and you only trade Kuzma for Buddy Hield, we would be playing in the Western Conference championship this year with those two guys,” he continued.
While appearing on First Take later Monday morning, Johnson reiterated the championship caliber team the Lakers could've rolled out had they not traded for Westbrook. “They had the Buddy Hield trade already done and then backed out of it,” he said. “You have DeRozan and Hield, then you could’ve kept Caruso and KCP. Those guys are defenders. They’re on-ball defenders…We’d be competing for the Western Conference Finals.”
Source: youtube.com
