The Los Angeles Lakers were one of several teams linked to possibly trading for Kevin Love this season.
Love’s history with LeBron James on the Cleveland Cavaliers and veteran status seemed to make him a prime candidate for some sort of move. There was even talk of something happening post-buyout.
Ultimately, L.A. didn’t pull the trigger. And based on some of Love’s recent comments, that might have been for the best.
This week Love appeared on "The Old Man and the Three" podcast. He discussed a number of things, but one of the more intriguing subjects that came up was this year’s L.A. group.
“[LeBron James] is the greatest player of our generation, and in the GOAT talks, people will going to follow his every move,” Love said.
“So his team, if someone is underperforming or someone is messing up the Lakers season, so they say they are going to be the scapegoat. I would be surprised if they figured it out after the All-Star break.
“I do feel like they will make some noise, but how far will they go, I don’t know, but I think some of the expectations and the scrutiny is I’m not going to say, unwarranted but in some ways unfair because you have to see how it plays out.”
Love also acknowledged that it has been a tough year for the Lakers due to all the scrutiny the team has received.
“I always said that Bron has a gravitational pull,” Love continued.
“The media, people that love him, people that hate him, people that love and hate the Lakers; everybody focuses on that, so any step in the wrong direction, and people will just take that and just grind away on it.
“It’s tough and obviously a massive media market, and everyone expects the Lakers to do great things having a Big Three. Even with AD being out, they expect things from them, but it’s tough.”
This week, one team stepped forward and revealed it would be willing to accept Russell Westbrook from the Lakers — for a price.
At the moment, that seems like the only legitimate way L.A. could improve at this juncture. Should nothing materialize on that front, things will likely get a lot worse for the Purple and Gold before they get better.
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