The February 8 trade deadline is edging closer and the rumors about the Lakers are constant, as they look to build a solid roster around 39-year-old LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
It is clear the pair need some more help as the Lakers only have a 21-21 record, but LeBron only wants to focus on the players that are on the court with him here and now.
“I don’t play fantasy basketball,” James told reporters after LA’s 127-110 win over Dallas. “What I do is focus on the guys that’s here in this uniform and show up to work every day. It’s too disrespectful to be thinking about what we need or what we don’t have. I don’t do that to my teammates. We’ve been putting in the work and that’s what we got to continue to do. We like the way we’ve been playing the last couple of games. We got to continue that Friday versus Brooklyn.”
Darvin Ham has changed the starting lineup over ten times on the season and now it seems the Lakers are finally starting to find some consistency.
They have enjoyed recent victories over promising teams like OKC and the Clippers and LeBron wants to see constant effort from the starters as well as the second unit to continue the team’s winning ways.
“I think the rotations have been pretty solid because Coach [Darvin Ham] knows who’s playing, who’s not playing,” LeBron said. “So he’s able to, guys are logging minutes with lineups that they’re kind of trying to get a familiarity with. I think that definitely helps when you have our second guys come in, they’re ready to go right away. Max [Christie] has been giving us big minutes. C-Wood has been giving us big minutes. Rui [Hachimura] is giving us big minutes. We are going to need that so if they can continue that, it’s going to help our team out tremendously because we need it.”
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