Funny how it's soooooo obvious that AD will sign in LA next year no matter what... and yet here are the Lakers, offering up two of their top draft picks and another #4 just to get him right now... THAT'S why I don't buy this garbage from AD's camp. If it were a forgone conclusion he'd be in purple & gold next year then they wouldn't bother to trade for him now and give up assets. Heck, trade those same assets for Mike Conley, if you know you'll sign AD! Or some other player to bring in a title. Lakers are desperate to be relevant on the court and Lebron is putting pressure on Rich Paul and the LA office to get it done.
Exactly. If you're that confident, keep your assets, preserve your cap space and wait. They don't want a Paul George repeat (i.e. AD ends wanting to stay) and Lebron doesn't want to waste another year.
Well, to an extent this is true, but as you mentioned Lebron is old and waiting another year for AD would be just that - wasting another year.
I think LAL, Lebron, and Paul are all in on this together - do whatever it takes by any means necessary to get AD there this year, as they all realize that (a) they can’t waste one of Lebron’s final years as a top-level player, and (b) there may not be cap room to sign him next year, as they will necessarily need to chase other targets this summer due to (a).