The Los Angeles Lakers are almost always busy in the offseason.
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They are hoping this year will be no different. The Lakers are reportedly going to pursue Miami Heat forward LeBron James and New York Knicks’ forward Carmelo Anthony, the top two players on the board, among several other free agents.
Although they are not considered to be a package deal, the two would obviously love to play on the same team.
However, the Lakers do not appear to be a landing place for either. According to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders, the Lakers are going to try to land both players, but it is a long-shot at best.
"They’re going to try, but I think it’s a long shot. Even if they were able to get LeBron James, they would need to sell Carmelo Anthony on taking a pay cut to team up with King James, and then putting together a decent supporting cast alongside them would be very hard. They would basically be in the same boat as Miami in recent years, where they’d only have minimum contracts to offer and they’d be crossing their fingers that some guys would want to come chase a ring with LeBron, Melo and Kobe. The Lakers’ situation is interesting since they do have significant cap room, all of the perks that come with playing in Los Angeles and a head coaching vacancy (so one of those top free agents could help choose the coach), but I think it’s a long shot that they do what you said. That’s the dream scenario for L.A. but it’s not happening outside of 2K."
Anthony put up 27.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game and shot 45.2% from the field, 40.2% from beyond the arc and 84.8% from the free throw line last season. James averaged 27.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 1.6 steals per game while shooting 56.7% from the field, 37.9% from three and 75.0% from the charity stripe last season.