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Time for the Internet to Explode?

LeBron James

What can make the internet “explode?” Well, many things can, and a midseason LeBron James trade is certainly among those things.

The words “LeBron James midseason trade” have felt far-fetched for so many years, but now, they’re getting closer and closer to being a reality.

There’s almost a stigma around a star of LeBron’s caliber getting traded in the middle of the season, seeing how similar legends in the past were never traded in the middle of the season.

But times are changing. We’ve seen superstars like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving get traded in the middle of last season, and trading superstars has become more normalized.

LeBron is once again having an awesome season, averaging 24.9 points, 7.7 assists, and 7.9 rebounds a night while shooting 52% from the field and 39.7% from three, which is the second-best 3P% of his career.

But the Lakers are 25-25 and have lost a step ever since they won the In-Season Tournament.

Now, some reporters and analysts including the legendary Stephen A. Smith have thrown around the idea of a potential LeBron trade at the trade deadline.

The rumors got so strong to the point that James’ longtime agent and Klutch Sports Group founder Rich Paul felt the need to respond and address these rumors.

“LeBron won’t be traded, and we aren’t asking [for him] to be,” Paul said in response to the speculation.

However, it’s not a super promising sign when LeBron is tweeting out hourglass emojis after losses or saying that he “has no plans” for what he’s going to do with his 2024-25 player option in the offseason.

I still don’t think that LeBron is going to get traded, but we can expect the Lakers to be one of the most aggressive teams at the trade deadline.

Their deadline moves last season propelled them from a middle-of-the-road team to a legitimate championship contender, so it wouldn’t be a shocker to see something like that happen once again.

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Proving the Doubters Wrong

Cam Whitmore

Cam Whitmore’s slide in the 2023 NBA Draft remains very confusing.

He suffered some injuries during his only season in college but he impressed scouts just enough to be regarded as a consensus top-ten selection.

Some scouts even had him in their top five, but he slid on draft night and was picked 20th overall by the Rockets. The Lakers strongly considered taking him in the draft, but they instead went with Jalen Hood-Schifino.

And now, Whitmore is proving his doubters wrong. After he dominated the competition in the G-League, the Rockets called him up to the roster permanently and he has been a revelation.

He averaged 11 points on elite shooting splits in his first 13 games of the calendar year, but he has been on fire over his last five games, averaging 21 points while shooting 50.7% from the field and 41.7% from three.

Maybe if the Lakers had drafted him, they wouldn’t be suffering so much right now.

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Return to the West?

Kyle Kuzma

Everyone expected the Washington Wizards to be pretty bad heading into the season, but not even the most pessimistic Wizards fan could have seen this coming.

Just nine wins out of their first 48 games, and their young core hasn’t progressed at all; in fact, some of them (like Jordan Poole) have regressed.

Now they have a new head coach and it looks like they’re going to trade as many players as possible at the deadline and commit to tanking.

They are a bunch of interesting players who can help contending teams, like Tyus Jones, Daniel Gafford, and the sharpshooting Corey Kispert, but the main piece is Kyle Kuzma.

The Wizards were reportedly looking for two first-round picks for the former Lakers player, but they have lowered their asking price recently.

He would fit nicely with some teams in the West like the Mavericks and the Kings, so it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to see him back in this conference.

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Ready to Make a Move

The New Orleans Pelicans (28-21, 2-2)

The Pelicans aren’t doing too bad right now, but they should know better than any other team that a season can go from excellent to disastrous in an instant.

They were one of the best teams in the West last season before Zion Williamson’s injury but failed to make the playoffs after he got hurt.

With a bunch of tradeable contracts in their team right now, it seems like they’re going to be aggressive and try to get another legitimate star to play alongside Zion and Brandon Ingram.

Recent reports are suggesting that the Pelicans tried to offer a whopping five first-round picks to the Nets for Mikal Bridges, only to get rejected.

If they’re willing to offer five first-rounders for Mikal Bridges, imagine what they’re willing to offer for other stars.

Teams also might try to exploit this to their advantage, by overpricing their players when the Pelicans try to trade for them.

Overall, I doubt that this specific report is true, but we could expect to see the Pelicans trying their best to land a third star.

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Best Team of the Previous Week

The Sacramento Kings (28-19, 3-1)

No team was perfect this week, as the Kings, Nuggets, and Clippers were the best teams in the West with a 3-1 record.

We’ve already talked about the Clippers and the Nuggets countless times in recent weeks, so let’s focus on the Kings.

De’Aaron Fox is having his best year as a pro and is averaging 27.1 points a night, but he got snubbed for the All-Star game once again alongside his teammate Domantas Sabonis.

These two took out their anger on the opposing defenses last week.

Meanwhile, the likes of Kevin Huerter, Harrison Barnes, and Keegan Murray also contributed by having an efficient week and scoring 16, 15.8, and 14.5 points a night respectively.

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MVPs of the Previous Week

Kawhi Leonard (Los Angeles Clippers)/Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets)

Longtime readers know that I picked these two stars as my co-MVPs for the 2022-23 season. Both of them had excellent weeks so it wouldn’t have been fair to pick just one player.

Jokic missed a game, but he went undefeated in the three games that he did play in, averaging 26 points, 10.3 assists, and 18 rebounds a night while shooting 50.9% from the field.

Kawhi played in all four games (and hasn’t missed a game in 2024, hopefully, this won’t jinx him), and he averaged 30 points and seven rebounds per game in less than 32 minutes a game.

He also shot 59.8% from the floor and 50% from deep and didn’t miss a free throw. If no one gets hurt, we could expect to see these two battle it out in the playoffs.