Lakers being threatened to lose LeBron James and Jonathan Kuminga to same team

2 hours ago 1

The Los Angeles Lakers already know they have no chance of bringing LeBron James back. James, who has already announced that he isn't returning to Los Angeles, has some other decisions to make. It'll be interesting to see what he decides to do on the free agency market, as some believe a decision could be coming in the next few days, though he hasn't done so just yet.

Regardless, James' decision to leave the Lakers allowed Los Angeles to make some other moves, and there's even hope that others could be on the way.

The final piece of this whole puzzle would be landing Jonathan Kuminga. However, according to the latest report, it doesn't seem like Los Angeles has much of a chance, and in fact, it's even possible that the Cleveland Cavaliers could land him if James doesn't end up in Cleveland.

“While the Cavaliers have sought to trade wing Max Strus this summer, they have not moved forward with a deal, indicating that they could keep Strus if LeBron James does not go to Cleveland. The Cavs had hoped to deal Strus (and Dennis Schroder) into cap space, but there is not much of that remaining–they may have to attach a draft pick to make it happen,” Sean Deveney wrote.

“Strus could also be used in a Jonathan Kuminga sign-and-trade deal with the Hawks, if the Cavs lose out on James.”

It's weird to think that Cleveland could hurt the Lakers in multiple avenues this offseason, but that certainly seems like a possibility now.

Losing James to the Cavaliers would hurt, but even losing Kuminga wouldn't be ideal. I'm unsure what's going to happen here, just as everybody else is at the moment. Because James hasn't announced anything, there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle that still have to fall, and James holds a lot of the keys to both of those.