Rich Paul explains why LeBron James really joined the Lakers in 2018

Appearing on Gilbert Arenas' podcast, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports described LeBron James' reasoning for picking the L.A Lakers in the 2018 NBA offseason. As LeBron's agent since 2013, Paul has unique perspective and insight into LeBron's thinking and decision-making.

According to Paul, James viewed the Lakers as a team with a lot of youth and potential, in contrast with the Cleveland Cavaliers At the time, in part because of the pressure LeBron's presence put on the front office, the Cavs were loaded with aging veterans on bad contracts.

While LeBron James is the reason that this happened in the first place, the Cavs didn't have a lot of resources to retool the roster around James. Kevin Love, who was the Cavs' second-most talented player did not fit with the roster and was a bit overpaid. The Cavs also didn't have a lot of tradable picks.

The Lakers had tradeable contracts, young players with potential and plenty of picks they could use to facilitate a star trade. The young pieces included Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and Kyle Kuzma among others.

How did the Lakers use their youth to surround LeBron James with talent?

The short answer to this question is that they traded all of their young players (except Kyle Kuzma) for Anthony Davis. Then, they used their remaining cap space to sign free agents to build out their depth. To their credit, they ended up winning a title in 2020.

The Lakers had an injury-riddled season the next season and were unable to repeat. They decided to trade the rest of their assets at the time for Russell Westbrook. While it is not fair to pile on Westbrook after his time in L.A. is done, that trade made it really hard for the Lakers to be successful.

They ended up not making the playoffs in their one full season with Westbrook and were significantly worse until they ended up trading Westbrook for a bunch of role players. After making that trade, they were able to return to the Western Conference Finals before losing to the Denver Nuggets due to their lack of big man depth.

This season, the Lakers have returned all of their key pieces and are title contenders if LeBron James and Anthony Davis stay healthy.