The silence from the Los Angeles Lakers — even after reportedly hiring their next head coach — is deafening, and the space where their own message could be relayed is instead being filled with the innumerable versions of the story outside sources are sharing. One such thing that has been the source of innumerable speculation is the relationship between those atop the organization and LeBron James. There is no reason to believe this will happen yet, but James could theoretically be shipped anywhere, and according to Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports, at least one NBA executive could see it happening, and even mentioned a specific destination: It’s early in that process. Leonard’s shot just fell through the net. But one Western Conference executive brought up a name that could be a Simmons trade target: LeBron James. “I think they very well might explore that,” said a rival executive of Philadelphia. James doesn’t have a no-trade clause, but he shares the same Klutch Sports agent with Ben Simmons in Rich Paul. James has two seasons left on his deal before he can become a free agent. After a disastrous offseason in which their president of basketball operations abruptly resigned and they struck out on their top two head coaching targets in Monty Williams and Tyronn Lue, do the Los Angeles Lakers honestly believe they can put together a championship contender in the next two seasons? Before we go any further down this rabbit hole, there are a few things we have to point out. First and foremost, this is a rival executive speculating about what another team could do. This isn’t that executive relaying stuff that he’s heard. This is a third party wondering aloud what might potentially happen. Such an executive has incentive to throw this out there, too, by the way. As soon as the words “LeBron James” and “trade” are mentioned in the same sentence in an article by a reputable reporter, a million other articles will be launched for circulation purposes. Executives know this, and thus will sometimes try to use it to their advantage. In this case, it’s a rival of the Sixers, and what better to stir up a little chaos than speculating on the record (even anonymously) about Philly trading away one of its franchise players? Haberstroh, to his credit, points out in the article that “there has been no indication” that Philadelphia is considering any such trade of Simmons, and by extension, the Lakers seem far enough removed from this that it would be hard to assume they’ve even discussed this, either. With all that in mind, it’s also worth noting how little sense this would make for the Lakers even theoretically — on or off the court. Let’s first focus on the basketball side of this. Simmons is obviously a very talented and promising player. Defensively, he has the makings of a truly special presence, and even despite showing no interest in shooting outside of 10 feet, he still is a net-positive offensive player in most situations. Should he ever develop a jumper, he could be a transcendent talent, though at this point, it’s hard to see him going from utterly disinterested in shooting to even league-average as a shooter. All that said, he doesn’t really fit with Lonzo Ball, and only kind of fits with Brandon Ingram. Trading either Ball or Ingram at this point is probably a nonstarter given their current injury statuses and overall value right now, so building a roster around Simmons becomes a tremendously difficult task. Now let’s broaden our focus to off the court. Do you honestly trust this current front office to build a roster and culture basically from the ground up? Do you think the Lakers as a brand could withstand the kind of reset that trading James would bring, or that Jeanie Buss or any of her siblings would be willing to find out if they can? Trading away LeBron would be essentially admitting that the organization was not ready for the expectations that come with him. It would be the absolute low-point in the history of the franchise after having fallen through rock bottom a few times merely in the last few years. Trading a player of James’ stature so unceremoniously just a year after he signed would also be a bad look to free agents, both this summer and in the future. One would even imagine that if things got to that point, part of the reason behind trading James might be a desire to stop dealing with anyone in his camp, but there sits Rich Paul as Simmons’ agent, so this move wouldn’t even accomplish that. Finally, in terms of cap management, Philadelphia trading for James and his $35 million salary is incredibly complicated, seeing as Simmons is only on the books for about $6 million. Either Philly would have to get under the cap far enough to absorb James outright (basically by renouncing all of Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris and JJ Redick) or find a way to send enough money back to match James’ contract. And they don’t have enough such deals to make that work outside of Joel Embiid, who obviously wouldn’t be included alongside Simmons in basically any trade. Basically, this rumor just doesn’t make any sense on really any logical level, even if some executive says they could see it. The Lakers couldn’t take the PR hit of trading James and, even if they were willing to, Philadelphia makes very little sense given their assets and cap situation. It’s a fun thought exercise, but doesn’t hold up to any real further thought. Rumors aside, the Lakers and James have to figure out a way to work together, and quickly. This has been the case ever since James committed to playing for the Lakers for up to four years. There’s no easy way out of this situation for anyone, so the focus should be on making it work, rather than making it go away. For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Anthony on Twitter at @AnthonyIrwinLA.<doc-sep>CLEVELAND, Ohio – Here’s an idea for the Los Angeles Lakers. Why not trade LeBron James for the younger version of himself? That’s not an actual possibility unless a time machine has been invented. But the latest talk around the NBA involves something close. With the Philadelphia 76ers now out of the playoffs, people are already suggesting the team trade Ben Simmons for James. Simmons has been regarded as a younger version of James since he entered the league. There has been some chatter that Simmons will never fully mesh with the 76ers’ other young star Joel Embiid. It’s also worth pointing out that James’ agent Rich Paul did take a meeting with the 76ers when James was looking to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers. Still, even if the 76ers fans are looking for a scapegoat, it would take a lot of work to swap Simmons for James (who just so happen to both be represented by Klutch Sports). Their contracts don’t exactly match up. But hey, with all the drama surrounding James and the Lakers, this isn’t the craziest thing we’ve heard.<doc-sep>
It’s a completely new world in Laker Land than a week ago. Even though the process seemed dysfunctional, it appeared the team would land the right head coach for LeBron James. But now Frank Vogel has signed with the Lakers for the head coaching position, and the influence of noted LeBron enemy Phil Jackson growing within the organization. Jackson and his buddy Kurt Rambis already are signaling a willingness to part ways with LeBron by comparing him to Carmelo Anthony with the Knicks. So, the Lakers appear to be setting the stage for a potential move, and it just so happens that both of the teams eliminated in Sunday’s Game 7s are interested. But only one has a bonafide star that could really end up on the table. According to NBC national NBA writer Tom Haberstroh, there is a lot of league-wide chatter about a swap involving LeBron James and mentee Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers. It’s early in that process. Leonard’s shot just fell through the net. But one Western Conference executive brought up a name that could be a Simmons trade target: LeBron James. “I think they very well might explore that,” said a rival executive of Philadelphia. James doesn’t have a no-trade clause, but he shares the same Klutch Sports agent with Ben Simmons in Rich Paul. James has two seasons left on his deal before he can become a free agent. This would be a stunning development. But, given everything we’ve seen from the Lakers over the past two weeks, there’s really nothing you can put past them. With Rambis and presumably Jackson taking more power, the negative feelings from the Lakers front office towards James evidently are growing. A trade that would send LeBron James to Philadelphia could be a significant improvement on what he’s currently dealing with in L.A. Also, a trade for Simmons would allow the Lakers to go into a full youth movement. Not that all the pieces are particularly great fits, especially if you add Simmons into the mix with Lonzo Ball. They could be great defensively, but how will they score? These are all questions the Lakers must answer and, in an incredible turn of events, LeBron lacks a lot of leverage. But even still, a return to the Eastern Conference to join a team that has proven itself to be a formidable playoff team might be what his basketball career needs. Even if he already has chosen to put his family roots down in L.A.