LeBron James On Lakers Missing Out On Klay Thompson, DeMar DeRozan: ‘It Takes Two To Tango’

During an interview with NBA reporter Dave McMenamin of ESPN, LeBron James spoke about the Los Angeles Lakers missing out on Klay Thompson and DeMar DeRozan. 

Thompson joined the Dallas Mavericks, while DeRozan signed with the Sacramento Kings. 

The Lakers heavily pursued Thompson, who was recruited by LeBron.

Los Angeles also had conversations with DeRozan, who is close friends with LeBron and Anthony Davis. 

“It takes two to tango,” LeBron told ESPN. “I think our front office, our coaching staff, they tried to do the job that they wanted to do or tried to get guys to come and it didn’t happen. And that’s OK. That’s part of the business. I’ve been in this business long enough to know that sometimes it happens, sometimes it don’t.

“So we don’t sit here and lie about or cry about it. We move on and Klay’s a great player. Obviously DeMar’s a great player. Valanciunas was one of those guys who ended up going to Washington, was someone that was in talks with us, but we move on to see how we continue to get better.”

The Lakers lost to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the 2024 playoffs in five games.

Denver also beat Los Angeles in the 2023 Western Conference Finals in four games. 

The Lakers fired Darvin Ham as head coach and hired former NBA guard JJ Redick, who was podcast partners with LeBron. 

“I’m not involved in the coaching hiring, but I’m excited about JJ,” LeBron told ESPN. “I’m excited about working with coach [Nate] McMillan. I haven’t worked with him since the Olympic run [in 2008]. First time working with coach [Scott] Brooks, looking forward to that. So I’m excited about that. That’s been the extent of it all this summer as far as the Lakers.”

Unless the Lakers make a trade, they will have the same roster as last season, with the addition of Bronny James and Dalton Knecht.

LeBron, the leading scorer in NBA history, still believes he can win another title with the Lakers.

Los Angeles won the 2020 championship against the Miami Heat in six games. 

“Of course,” LeBron told ESPN when asked about the possibility of the Lakers contending again while he’s still with the franchise. “Because we’ve done it before. We’ve done it before and we still have two guys who commit every single day with myself and AD. We commit to excellence and commit to win. And we feel like any situation, any given year, we can put ourselves in a position to be able to succeed. And we’re not that far off.

“We were one year removed from the Western Conference finals. Obviously, this year it didn’t go as well this past year. Didn’t go as well as we would like, but we’re not that far off.

“And there’s so many teams in the league … But we don’t see that we are that far off in the West.”