Add Magic Johnson to shortlist of Lakers legends who have criticized LeBron James over the past week. A list that already includes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who recently said LeBron should be ashamed of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But while Abdul-Jabbar slams LeBron’s extrajudicial activism, Johnson takes aim at James’ involvement in roster building for the Lakers this season. Johnson thinks LeBron should take the blame for landing Southern California’s DeMar DeRozan with the Chicago Bulls this summer over the Lakers.
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“Coming to think of it, the blame he has to take is the fact that DeRozan ended up in Chicago and not with the Lakers,” Johnson said on ESPN’s Get Up Monday morning. “DeRozan wanted to play for the Lakers, and when I got the call from his agent, I called the Lakers and said, ‘Hey, he wants to come home.’ And DeRozan could have been a Laker instead of a cop.
“We could have made that deal, but when Russell and LeBron and they started talking, they nixed that deal and went with Westbrook, and he became a Laker instead of DeRozan.”
DeRozan instead went to Chicago in a sign-and-trade with the Spurs, which cost them only Thaddeus Young, a future first-round pick and two second-round picks. If the Lakers had gotten DeRozan instead of Westbrook, they would certainly be in a better position than they are today. DeRozan wouldn’t have cost LA the huge transport it took to trade for Westbrook, which included renouncing Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezl Harrell.
While there’s no guarantee DeRozan would have worked with the Lakers, it must hurt that he’s having an All-Star year in which he’s averaging a career-high points per game (28) while playing the Ball Ridiculous shoots well (50 percent from the field, 35 percent from deep). To add insult to injury, DeRozan also plays alongside Alex Caruso, another player the Lakers let escape this summer by deciding not to offer him a respectable contract.
Instead, the Lakers are 31-47 this season and two games behind last one-season in the Western Conference. While not officially eliminated from the competition, LA has a 0.2 percent chance per FiveThirtyEight of overtaking the Spurs for last place in the play-in and then actually making the playoffs.
If what Johnson says is true, that the Lakers could have had DeRozan if LeBron hadn’t pushed for Westbrook, then that’s a real misstep on James’s part. Especially considering Westbrook likely won’t be wearing purple and gold next season as both sides reportedly have a mutual interest in finding him a new home this offseason. But at this point, it’s too late to sit down and fantasize about what the Lakers could have been with DeRozan. Now LA needs to focus on refitting LeBron and Anthony Davis for next season and hoping that this disappointing year was just a streak on the radar and not something to be expected going forward.