On the first episode of “Mind the Game” starring Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and former NBA player JJ Reddick, they talked about a bevy of topics on the anticipated podcast. One of the talking points was on a number of team's uses of lottery picks and how James believes the league is wasting them on “potential.”
The statement was not pointed at anyone or any certain team, but James mentioned how there have been selections of players towards the middle of the draft or after that join winning teams and truly make an impact besides their development.
James himself was a No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers straight out of high school, so it is interesting to see him have this opinion.
“Our league has been feast off potential, guys with potential. They come in and say this guy has potential, we have to, if it's not year one, maybe year two, or not year three, or maybe year four, are we going to pick up his option in year four,” James said. “It's been grasped on potential like that has been, that's the whole thing of the lottery.
“The whole thing of the lottery pick 1 through 13 or 14. I don't even know what it is now when it cuts off like you've been a lottery pick, but it makes sense why those guys that's like 16 to 30, 16 to 42 why those guys be on real contending teams making impacts.”
Reddick questions to James about the same teams drafting poorly
Co-host to James in Reddick would then ask the question “Also why is it the same teams that always draft well? And the Same teams always draft poorly?” which further cements the Lakers star's point of view.
One example is the Miami Heat who find diamonds in the rough with undrafted players, but also in the middle of the draft like Bam Adebyao (14th overall), Tyler Herro (13th overall), and just recently in rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. who the Heat selected 18th overall last year.
James would respond to Reddick's series of questions with the idea that he will own a team at some point in his life, and it will hire people who draft well. However, he is still active as a player at 39 years old with the Lakers and excelling in his 21st season in the association as he is averaging 25.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 8.1 assists per game while shooting 53.2 percent from the field.
“I’ll tell you what when I get my team, the teams that draft well, those guys will be working for me for sure,” James said.
Reddick would humorously say that James will just “offer them a bag.” With the Los Angeles multipositional player responding with “for sure, OKC [Thunder] does an unbelievable job with that.”
James' teams in the past like Lakers that traded potential for stars
James has been a part of a number of franchises that weren't in the process of rebuilding except one could argue when he first played with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the beginning of his stint with the Lakers.
However, following his philosophy he said on the podcast, his teams traded away “potential” to bring in more players like how Cleveland traded away Andrew Wiggins to get Kevin Love.
Another example can be with Los Angeles where they traded away young players like Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Kyle Kuzma for an established superstar like Anthony Davis. Since then, Los Angeles did win a championship in 2020, but currently, they are 37-32, which puts them ninth in the Western Conference as their next game is Friday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
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