Lakers Coaches Pleaded For Magic Johnson To Not Sign Certain Players

The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t play smart with the cap space they didn’t spend on King James. They spent $30 million to get Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, Michael beasley and JaVale McGee. They could’ve signed Julius Randle and Brook Lopez for half of that. Lopez signed a one-year deal, and Randle has a player-option that he won’t use. The Lakers will miss the playoffs, and their roster is not complete. Magic Johnson may be responsible for this.

The Lakers tried to construct a team of ball-handlers around LeBron, and ignored the mistakes they made in the past eight seasons. Los Angeles wanted a degree of toughness on the roster they missed. Bill Oram of The Athletic says that the coaching staff wanted Randle and Lopez on the roster. However, Magic Johnson ignored this and created the team that is losing games.

Head coach Luke Walton will be held responsible for the terrible reason. According to some sources, Walton will be fired after the season. Lopez and Randle would sure have been a better addition to the team.

Losing Caldwell-Pope, Rondo and Beasley would have given the team about $12 million in extra cap space. They could have signed Wayne Ellington and Anthony Tolliver to one-year deals. If the team was interested in longer investments, they could have signed J.J. Redick and other similar players. Seth Curry has nice shootint and Tony Parker has Rondo’s skills but without the age.

Johnson didn’t manage the season well, and signed the wrong players. But, it would be really unfair if Walton takes the blame for Johnson’s bad management. Walton is definitely not the best coach and he hasn’t used the players he had properly. But, Johson will have to be held to the same level of accountability as Walton. The Lakers will have to play smart next season.