When LeBron James reached free agency this past summer, there was speculation he would look to sign with the Houston Rockets, both because of the opportunity they presented to compete for a title and to play alongside close friend Chris Paul.
In reality, James never met with the Rockets and he recently confirmed there was little consideration given to signing with them. Houston did unite Paul with a mutual friend he shares with James in Carmelo Anthony.
However, he appeared in just 10 games before the team announced it would seek a resolution with the veteran forward. Naturally, it led to speculation the Lakers would look to trade for or sign Anthony because of his ties to James.
On the heels of the Rockets making their intentions known, James deferred to the Lakers front office when he was questioned about Anthony potentially joining the team. He astutely noted the Lakers didn’t even have a clear roster spot to possibly act on any interest.
Following a loss to the Brooklyn Nets that meant a 1-3 record on their road trip, James was much more suggestive about the possibility of being able to call Anthony a teammate, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“We’ll see. I mean, I don’t run the team and obviously there’s some things that would need to be worked out on both sides. But I’ve always wanted to play along Melo, and if the opportunity presents itself, it would be great. So we’ll see what happens.”
While James was more assertive in expressing a desire to play with Anthony, the Lakers still do not have an open roster spot. A trade with the Rockets, who reportedly are interested in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, conceivably is an option but it would require some balancing of contracts.
That could prove problematic as the Lakers are against taking on salary beyond this season so as not to limit their spending potential come 2019 free agency.