The whole media narrative is that they want to nab all three - LeBron, PG, Kawhi - to build the 2018's version of Boston's Big Three. I can get that, the Lakers are in the business to win championships and I dunno if Lebron + PG alone are enough to beat the Warriors, especially since LeBron is definitely losing a spring in his step and the entire Warriors starting lineup are under 30. LeBron's losing that superhuman endurance while Durant is only 28 years old or something ridiculous. The entire Warriors core, assuming they stick together, are all around the same age and still have a few years before they start aging out.
I think its stupid unless LeBron's forcing the Lakers to adopt a championship or bust mentality immediately instead of giving the team one or two years to develop. We know LeBron's stint on the Cavs has resulted in some pretty crazy contracts being dealt and roster shuffles being made.
Pop and the Spurs' front office can only be described as patient and generally cautious. I imagine they'll try to talk to Kawhi at training camp, which I'm pretty sure he has to attend as part of his contract, and if that falls through they're probably more than willing to do the counter-intuitive thing and trade Kawhi to an Eastern Conference team if the Lakers don't want to throw the kitchen sink at them. Their strength has never been making good trades and robbing teams of their high picks (Ainge) or locking undervalued players into cheap and long contracts (Hinkie) but rather patient player development and management. From memory, their last "big" free agent signings/trades were Richard Jefferson (lmao) and LaMarcus Aldridge and its taken them like 20 years to get a 1st round pick better than 20 (18th pick this year).
