The Lakers traded Nance and Clarkson to the team Lebron is currently on, and they will likely lose Randle and maybe even Lopez, KCP and/or a few bench guys in the process to sign Lebron and George.
Yes, they have Ball, Ingram and Kuzma, but that still is quite a bit of inexperience and not a sure title contender for at least a few years. Playoff team? Absolutely. Contender? Well, unless they somehow add like 2 extremely good bench guys, I'm not seeing it in a loaded West.
Could add Wade and Carmelo with minimums and exceptions. Then you got buyouts and stretched guys. Not saying it will happen, but it could be done
Is adding Wade to a young team a positive? He caused problems in both Chicago and Cleveland.
Yeah, and I think Wade is pretty much set at this point in staying in Miami. I mean, he went to CLE to play w/James again and it didn't seem to work. If he said what he did about staying in Miami and then goes to play for LAL less than a year later, it would also look bad for him.
And frankly, I don't see Carmelo playing in LAL for an exception (or less than 10M).
My main point in what I said was, that's a great team, but in terms of being a contender in the loaded West, they still are some years away. And having a deep bench can really help, as Houston, San Antonio, Toronto are showing us, but LAL wouldn't have any with all they may lose to even bring in Lebron + George.
It would be one thing if Kuzma, Ingram and Ball were maybe a few years older and grew into legitimate all-stars.