The storybook beginning all Laker fans are looking for

July 1st is an important date Lakers execs and fans should mark on their calendars as an important one. Majority of the moves made by Magic Johnson thus far are moves made towards the 2018 free agent market obviously. There are still a couple of huge scenarios that can potentially ramp up the current arms race by a thousand percent.

With Paul Georges announcement that He's not going to re sign with the Pacers and He prefers to be traded to the Lakers he set off a chain reaction of unintended consequences. Every team with a superstar and quality assets are now trying to trade for the quality all star small forward with the hopes of possibly retaining him. Teams know not only does George make your team better but He'll be a magnet for other players looking to team up to dethrone the tyranny on both sides of the NBA. Teams are actively sending trade offers to the Pacers on a daily basis but the difficulty of a trade of this magnitude is almost impossible if George isn't willing to extend his contract further than the one year and the only teams He's indicated of doing to so with is the Lakers and the Cavaliers pending that Lebron is staying which I'll get to towards the end of this post.

One key signing the Lakers are more than likely monitoring is the Russell Westbrook contract extension that will be offered on July 1st, Westbrook has given no indication of signing the contract that would make him the highest paid player in the NBA. You would think this isn't a big deal at all and Westbrook may very well field offers next year and test free agency but that is not the issue at hand. The Thunder just cant take the risk of loosing another star for absolutely nothing and are known for having a quick trigger finger when it comes to trading players away when they don't get that they want in the time frame they want and speculation has been high that the California native would return home to play in staples and further grow his brand, Lonzo Ball is the point guard of the future now but there's no denying that if Westbrook goes on the Trade Block or hits free agency He will be sought after heavily by the Lakers.

With or without Westbrook the new President of Operations Sir Magic wants the Lakers to play uptempo and there's been no talk about the Lakers trying to acquire this one player I'm about to bring up but its going to make sense with the way they want to play and it would make even more sense to stay quiet about trying to snag him knowing that a lot of teams will be going to try to acquire his services. Brook Lopez is a really good inside presence offensively if your playing through the post but in a run and gun system He's absolutely to slow, by the time he gets down the court the team will be getting back on D off of a Ball to Randle or Ingram alley poop. The best center equipped for this system is DeAndre Jordan, yeah he's a horrible shooter and Shaq was probably a superior free throw shooter when you compare but in order to defeat the Warriors your going to have to have to play as fast as them and be extremely solid defensively. In Jordan the Lakers would get and elite rim protector who's generally healthy and is the most agile center in the NBA currently.

Last but not least Lebron who says he's chasing the ghost of Michael Jordan still needs 2 rings to possibly silence the Kobe Mob but then again trying to silence the Kobe mob is next to impossible knowing if Kobe took half court shots they would have found ways to justify the shot selection but back to Lebron who has a second home in LA and multiple business ties to the city, He's being actively recruited by Paul George to join him in the purple and gold and knows his best chance to get 6 is to go head on with the dragon known as golden state and cut it's head off in the conference finals and have it a lot easier in the finals against a weakened eastern conference.

The reason all these pieces defeat the Warriors is the simple fact that it forces the Warriors to play an opponent straight up on defense. If Paul George or Lebron is playing the shooting guard it forces Steph Curry to play defense against his own position instead of having Thompson on the ball handler, the Lakers wouldn't be able to match the long range shooting of the warriors but they would force a lot of turnovers and deflections with a team like this making the potential 2018-2019 the biggest threat to the Warriors