Lakers News: Former LeBron James Championship Teammate Breaks Down The Lakers’ Road To Competence
How can L.A. get back to good?
ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Richard Jefferson spoke on the latest episode of Lowe’s must-listen The Lowe Post podcast at length recently, covering a variety of topics from around the league. Most interestingly to Lakers fans, of course, would be their thoughts on L.A.’s bumpy 0-5 start to the season, which makes them currently the worst team in the NBA by record.
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Jefferson, of course, was a crucial role player on that 2016 title-winning Cleveland Cavaliers club, alongside current Lakers All-Star LeBron James. A 17-year NBA vet, the 6’7″ small forward played on four NBA Finals teams: two New Jersey Nets clubs in 2002 and 2003 with eventual Lakers assistant head coach Jason Kidd, and two straight Cavaliers teams in 2016 and 2017.
Through 1181 career regular season NBA games, the Arizona product averaged 12.6 points on .464/.376/.768 shooting, four rebounds, two assists, and 0.7 steals.
Jefferson was also on the ill-fated 2004 U.S. Men’s bronze medal-winning Olympic team, along with future Lakers James, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, and Lamar Odom.
Lowe asked Jefferson which of the many rumored trade packages for embattled $47.1 million Los Angeles reserve point guard Russell Westbrook could help the club out of its current rut.
“The Buddy Hield/Myles Turner [trade] solves a lot of problems, because you actually are getting shooters not just one, you’re getting a big that can play the five,” Jefferson opined.
“It’s the only trade that I would lose sleep about if I were the Lakers,” Lowe remarked. “[Giving up] both picks is a lot though, man. They’re so far away.”
“[The Lakers] have to bide their time,” Jefferson responded, noting that “they need more than just [Turner and Hield], because they don’t have even great defensive wings. You don’t want LeBron James being your primary defender on some of these guys. Don’t go ask the f***ing 37-year-old to also be a top-one [or] two defender.”
“The Lakers have no more answers,” Jefferson continued. “They did make a mistake [with the Russell Westbrook trade] and now to fix said mistake… I think they were potentially good-to-great as a championship team [in] 2021, they made a mistake, and I think the best thing that’s on the table is for them get back to being good [through a trade]. Every move out there makes them good. I guess there’s something to be said about that, because this is miserable, what they’re dealing with right now.”