Shaq's Plan To Save The Lakers Is Pure Genius
Everybody knows the Lakers are a complete disaster at the moment. Jeanie Buss has no idea what she’s doing, people in NBA circles apparently hate Rob Pelinka, and LeBron is finding out that being a GM is maybe a little tougher than he anticipated because for some reason the rest of the league just doesn’t bow down to him at every request. They need someone to step up and come up with a revolutionary plan of action to get this once proud franchise back from the depths of futility. That’s not my anti Lakers agenda speaking either, those are just the facts
Enter Shaq. It was about time someone brought a real plan to the table and Shaq appears to be the first Lakers legend actually willing to get involved. The other day he laid out his three step plan to fix the Lakers and I dare you to find a flaw in his strategy. Let’s take it from the top.
Plan A: Pay Klay Thompson a shit ton of money
“I’ll be like, ‘Klay, your contract is coming up. KD’s contract is coming up. Lots of guys’ contracts are coming up. They can’t pay you what we can pay you. You will be the highest-paid Laker in Laker history. One, I want you to come play with LeBron, and we want to get this thing cracking again. We want you to come live in LA.’
“So, I’m going to call Klay, myself, ‘I’m going to make you the highest-paid Laker in Laker history. Shaq didn’t make this much, Kobe didn’t make this much, Magic didn’t make this much, LeBron doesn’t make this much. We want to help build a team out here with LeBron. What do you say?’ Because if Klay’s going to win this year, he has four. But guess what? Klay’s not the man, he can come to LA and be the man.”
Boom. I’m sure LeBron will have no problem with this and let’s not forget that he makes $41M in the last year of his deal. There’s only one problem here unfortunately for Shaq. If Klay is really just looking for the highest payday, that’s not coming in LA since GS can give him more. If he takes the GS money he’ll still be making more than LeBron, and even if he does go to the Lakers he is not “the man” on that team. LeBron is.
Plan B: Give Kemba Walker a shit ton of money
“I need a feisty little point guard that can score,” O’Neal said. “I’m going to Charlotte. Hey, Kemba. Guess what. You want to make a little bit under LeBron?”
O’Neal said he’d pay the impending free agent between $25 million and $30 million a year, plus he’d use the Los Angeles area, TV market and endorsement deals as a sell.
OK I’m starting to see a trend with Shaq’s plan and again, there’s this one major flaw. The Lakers can’t offer more than CHA either. He has to get off this idea that people give a shit about being paid more or close to LeBron.
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Plan C: Trade for Anthony Davis
GENIUS!!! Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before? Hey Lakers wake up and realize that you could potentially trade for Anthony Davis and all your problems would be solved. It’s astonishing that nobody in that front office has thought of this move. Leave it up to Shaq to bring some out of the box ideas to the table, I can’t believe he doesn’t have a front office job by now. Trade for a top 5ish player in the league, DUH!
At the end of explaining this bulletproof plan Shaq had this to say
“If I can’t get any of those three things I’m going to be in trouble again,” O’Neal said. “But that’s all I’m focusing on right there. And we got the money and we got the power and we got the city to back it up.”
Just to recap, the best way to fix the Lakers is to offer a ton of money to potential free agents by letting them know they can be close to LeBron in salary but then if that doesn’t work just trading for Anthony Davis. Absolutely revolutionary stuff from the Big Diesel and honestly if the Lakers don’t follow this plan their fans should 100% protest. That worked great for them the last time they tried it