LeBron James has already said he doesn’t see the Los Angeles Lakers as heading into a rebuilding year, even with young players like Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma set to be his primary supporting cast.
It seems that James’ faith in how competitive this team can be might come from him really liking that aforementioned young core, so much so that he was fine with the front office not trading any of them for Kawhi Leonard.
Had the Lakers acquired Leonard, it would have been to allow him to be James’ super wing sidekick, the Scottie Pippen to James’ Michael Jordan, but Chris Broussard of Fox Sports said on “First Things First” that James’ camp has another player in mind for that type of role (h/t Lakers Reddit user TempMedicine):
”Talking to some people close to LeBron, they think Brandon Ingram can play like a Scottie Pippen role.