NBA Free Agency 2018: Most impactful signings of the summer

OAKLAND, CA - MAY 31: LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors in Game One of the 2018 NBA Finals on May 31, 2018 at ORACLE Arena in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) /

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A mural of LeBron James in a Los Angeles Lakers jersey is viewed in Venice, California on July 9, 2018. (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images) /

4. LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers

It’s still odd, almost two weeks later, to type those words, but the game’s best player going to the league’s most storied franchise is very much a reality.

Is there a scenario where enough goes right over the next three (or four) years that James could help raise banner No. 17 to the rafters in Staples Center? Sure. Is it likely? Different story.

Let’s start with the much derided roster Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have surrounded James with. The spin that the franchise has tried to put on those moves — defensively versatile players who will try to smother the Warriors into submission instead of attempting to beat them at their own game — is admirable, but in the wise words of the world’s most famous Laker fan, sell crazy someplace else…we’re all stocked up here.

Calling Lance Stephenson a tough, positionless stopper is like calling a 16 oz. Porterhouse diet food. Sure, if you’re on the Atkins diet, technically it counts, but…no. Just…no. JaVale McGee had one good month in the perfect ecosystem, but we have a career’s worth of evidence that that was the exception, not the new rule. Playoff Rondo exists on his own schedule.

If they trade for Kawhi Leonard, does that make things more interesting? Sure, but it will certainly gut the team of most if not all of its young talent which, by the by, is better than the vets it just went out and acquired. Realistically, it would take Leonard coming via free agency next summer to really get the ball rolling, and even then the Lakers would be a notch below Golden State and possibly Houston.

2020 is the Summer of the Brow, but even if the Lakers add Anthony Davis to a LeBron/Kawhi/Ingram/Ball core, James will be 36 during those playoffs. Could he still have enough in the tank to lead them all the way? Of course…but it’s no guarantee.

Add it all up, and maybe putting the acquisition of James as the fourth most impactful signing of the summer, at least where ringzzz are concerned, is giving more credit than is deserved, even to the King.

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