There might be a new banana boat crew coming to Southern California, but that could very well not include Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball.
According to this report from Darren Heitner of Forbes, the Lakers are focused on teaming pending free agent LeBron James up with best bud Chris Paul.
Source: Lakers have a laser on LeBron & Chris Paul
— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) June 23, 2018
It had been a foregone conclusion that Paul was going to return to the Houston Rockets next season. That’s certainly changed over the past couple days with indications being that the two sides are not in a good place.
For his part, it seems to be pretty evident that James will opt out of his contract and ultimately leave the Cleveland Cavaliers in free agency next month.
With an ability to add two max contract players, Los Angeles has been linked to both LeBron and Paul George in recent months. Now that it appears George might very well remain in Oklahoma City, the Lakers’ attention could turn to teaming James up with Paul.
If this were to come to fruition, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that Los Angeles would look to move Lonzo Ball in a trade. Not only is it unlikely Ball could mesh with James, he plays the same position at Paul.