Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Prince J. Grimes.
What’s up hoops fans. It’s your boy Prince here for Layup Lines. And today feels like a good day to talk about the Los Angeles Lakers, fresh off one of the most interesting media days around the NBA this week.
The biggest topic of conversation was probably LeBron and Bronny James, who had some fun and funny moments together. It was incredibly cool to see a father-son duo do media day together for the first time. We knew the James takeover was coming, but it feels more real now than ever before as stories about their battles in practice continue to trickle out.
LeBron is even building some decent hype for his son, saying Bronny looks better than he did as a rookie. That’s a lie, but what else do you expect from a dad. Regardless of how Bronny looks, it’ll be an amazing moment when they take the floor together in a real game for the first time.
"Pure joy."
LeBron James on Bronny's first media day with the #LakeShow. pic.twitter.com/dSzuFv6xLF
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) September 30, 2024
One other thing that caught my attention, though, were the expectations James refused to put on the team as a whole. In fact, he said he didn’t have any for the Lakers.
“I don’t have any expectations,” James said, via ESPN. “And that’s unfair to put any expectations on us right now. The only thing that we can count on each other is how we come to practice and come to work every day.”
I want to be fair to LeBron and the Lakers. Because if you asked me today to rank the best teams in the Western Conference, I’d get through at least four before even considering the Lakers. BetMGM has six teams with better odds to win the West.
But a statement like that rings hollow coming from James. Championship expectations have followed him his entire career. Those expectations only grew stronger as he cemented himself as one of the two best players of all-time. And once he joined the Lakers — the team with the second most titles in NBA history — those expectations were cemented.
It’s championship or bust. The day James’ team is alleviated of that pressure will be the day he retires.
Related: Savannah James playing as Bronny on NBA 2K is heartwarming
Whether it’s fair for those expectations to continue following someone who turns 40 this season is a fair question. But the follow-up would be why else is James still playing.
Bronny is one reason. But I’d be surprised if LeBron wasn’t still fixated on winning. There’s a reason the Lakers dumped Darvin Ham after two winning seasons and a trip to the conference finals, and replaced him with James’ podcast partner, JJ Redick.
James expects to compete for championships. When he no longer feels like he can do that, he’ll stop playing. His attempt at calming expectations from the outside won’t work. We can see right through it.
Knicks pulled off KAT trade with help from FIBA, EuroLeague
The New York Knicks’ trade for Karl-Anthony Towns is finally done, The Athletic reported Tuesday, and it is absolutely fascinating for more reasons than one.
There’s obviously the basketball component, which involves two contenders in the Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves making big changes to rosters that had successful playoff runs last season. But there’s also the mechanics of the trade, which wasn’t simple to pull off by any means. It took three teams, including the Charlotte Hornets, and a whole other league and continent to get done.
No, really. The Knicks had to include Duane Washington Jr. in the deal to make the money work, but Washington doesn’t play in the NBA. He’s signed to a team in Serbia. So the Knicks needed some cooperation.
FTW’s Mike Sykes broke it all down here:
“As far as the NBA is concerned, the Knicks still held Washington’s rights because he played for the team on a two-way deal last season and the league doesn’t acknowledge non-NBA contracts when considering a player’s free agency status. So he was still eligible to be part of a sign-and-trade deal.
The problem is he’s under contract and has already played in a couple of games for Partizan this year.
So, basically, for the trade to work, Washington had to get out of his deal with Partizan and become a Knick for a day to eventually become a Hornet for a day and then get waived.”
Read Sykes’ breakdown of the whole situation. It’s wild, but it did get done. Hopefully someone gets a championship out of it.
Shootaround
— Domantas Sabonis is ‘scared’ but ready for fans to dive into his life in Netflix’s new series
— Damian Lillard is questioning his Raiders’ fandom after Davante Adams’ trade request
— Draymond Green refused to engage with with a condescending question about his availability
— A Grizzlies veteran pulled off a funny photo prank on his rookie teammate