The Los Angeles Lakers front office has done a nice job of clearing up cap space in recent weeks so that the Lakers can sign two max level players in 2018, with Paul George and LeBron James being among the 2018 free agents that they will target.
One sports writer, Bill Simmons of The Ringer, believes that the Lakers might not stop there though.
In a recent podcast Simmons outlined a scenario that would not only bring James and George to the Lakers, but also John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins:
“What if I told you that 12 months from now, LeBron James, Paul George, John Wall, and Boogie Cousins will all be on the Los Angeles Lakers together?” he says. “Conspiracy Bill has some things that he doesn’t like about what’s going on. I think the LeBron James–[to]-L.A. [story], he hasn’t come out and denied it. Everyone’s talking about it in the league, it became public last month. He knows they’re talking about it and hasn’t said anything. Hasn’t said, ‘This is ridiculous. I’m so tired of hearing this. I want to finish my career in Cleveland.’”
Wall and Cousins played together in college at Kentucky and reportedly have a great relationship, so Simmons thinks they may want to team up next year when they both can become free agents. Additionally, Wall and James share an agent, so they may also want to join forces:
“Here’s the interesting part,” Simmons says. “So, John Wall, represented by Klutch — Rich Paul — LeBron’s buddy. LeBron, it’s pretty clear he either owns Klutch or funded it or has a stake in it. You could have John Wall and LeBron. Paul George is going to the Lakers anyway. I mean, that’s not even a secret anymore. It’s just like, they might as well start selling his jersey. And I always thought John Wall and Boogie are a team.”
If the Lakers want to be able to sign four players of that caliber, they would need to do some serious salary shedding in the next year, beginning with Luol Deng’s contract which will tough to unload.
If all four players did want to team up they would need to take significantly less money than their current teams can offer them. While it seems like a very unlikely scenario, the Lakers and Magic Johnson are the only team who could possibly make it happen.