Are LeBron James and Magic Johnson trying to create the modern day version of the 96 Jordan Bulls?

Before is start this off I'd like to say in no way am I apart of the LeBronistan brigade, I'm a lifelong depressed Knicks fan who loves to write.

LeBron is quite possibly at a point in his career where he wants to play off the ball as the primary scorer, which i feel he should have been playing that way since his mid twenties. The reason i say quite possibly is players with point guard tendencies like himself don't just change overnight and easily walk into a role they have never played consistently. Can he ease his way into the transition of playing off ball, of course he can being that he may be the greatest on court basketball mind in the NBA today but will he be willing to stick to that role throughout the season if times get hard is where the question mark will stand.

Now lets forget about him playing off ball and look at the signings that happen'd via his and Magics recruitment directly after he committed to signing with the Lakers.

Lets start off with Lance Stephenson for instance who has quite possibly been LeBron's most annoying nemesis throughout his career. At one point throughout the first round LeBron looked so annoyed with Lance you could only imagine him throwing Lance into the crowd via choke slam like the initials were no longer NBA and somehow in a split second turned to WWE. Lance has underachieved for majority of his career offensively obviously but what he brings to the table is an intangible defensive nature to be an absolute pest similar to Dennis Rodman. No I'm not saying he's going to go out there and average 14 to 16 rebounds like Rodman but he's going to do his absolute best to upset players on the perimeter and every good contender needs an effort player who's not afraid to do the dirty work and excite the crowd with unconventional antics and if anyone can do that really well it's Lance.

LeBron recruiting Rondo actually caught me by surprise due to the ugly history of LeBron versus the Celtics. This is the same guy who posed next to a Celtics fan wearing a LeBron is a bitch tee, but maybe LeBron has overlooked that and understands the reason why Rondo is an absolutely incredible pick up. He doesn't have the prettiest game like other point guards who are going to wow you with an impressive ball handling displays and he's not not going to shoot pull up threes from 35 feet but what he does bring is the ability to have a major effect on games offensively without scoring.

Some point guards have great court vision but Rondo is the type of point guard who can see a defensive breakdown 2 or 3 passes ahead. The amount of time he puts into watching game film is so outrageous he has the uncanny ability to read what plays teams are running or are about to run due to knowledge of play calls & coaching patterns but defensively is where Rondo can be a gem. He's similar to maybe the the most overlooked player on that Bulls championship roster in the latter 90's Ron Harper. Defensively they're identical twins in their career 12th season analytically with solid and higher than average numbers. I don't think Rondo will be a starter over Ball throughout the regular season but I wouldn't be surprised if he played over him him down the stretch in critical moments and possibly start over him during the playoffs due to experience. To ask Lonzo Ball to overachieve during his first playoff run would be a tall task so I see nothing wrong with the Rondo move.

Oh the curious case of Javale McGee and what a curious case it is. It's hard to start a player of his skill set with the way the game is played now via pace and space but over the last couple of years he's been working on becoming a better shooter which you really cant complain about, unfortunately just watching him shoot makes you cringe cause you cant even tell if the ball is going to hit the rim. I would say he has veteran experience and should suit the team well down the playoff stretch but if you put him in the game your basically playing 4 on 5 offense and you just never know what your going to get on defense cause defensively when he's good he really good but when he's bad he's really bad. This leads me to believe that the starter will actually be Zubac who's been in cryogenic development but has shown us flashes of potential.

To be honest I thought the Lakers would retain Thomas Bryant at a small non toxic contract but it did make sense to let him go knowing both him and Zubac has the same upside with the difference being Zubac is more polished outside of the paint. He also gives the Lakers a basket deterrent on defense and is incredibly active on the boards similar to one Luc Longley who wasn't a rim protector, but what makes Zubiac so good similar to Longley is defensive paint discipline to find the main offensive rebound threat and seal him out before he can even think about going up for an offensive board. Dennis Rodman was an incredible rebounder no doubt about it but a lot of his major rebounding games with the Bulls was predicated by Luc Longley's ability to make his life easier with the early box out making most of Rodman's rebounding situations 1 on 1 instead of him versus numerous players crashing. Offensively Zubac has a soft touch from outside of the paint and can develop a 30 foot jump shot faster than Bryant possibly. I believe it's very likely Zubac will start over McGee especially if he's in the Lakers future plans.

Now everyone's probably thinking Kuzma or Ingram is the Scottie Pippen in all of this but I dont see neither as a Scottie Pippen type of player. Ingram's ability to play perimeter defense is there and I know someone is going to get upset when I say this but half the time he doesn't look interested in playing defense unless it's against an elite match up, Scottie Pippen was a night in night out player since he was a rookie and until Ingram shows me that I just wont be a believer.

Kuzma on the other hand is something special and sure it's only going to be his second year but I can only see him defending small forwards and stretch power forwards under 7 feet whereas Scottie could guard 1 through 4 on any given night.

The only surefire version of Scottie Pippen in all of this would be Kawhi. I don't need to increase the word count on this this post by telling you what he brings to the table being that he's only been the defensive player of the year 2 times in a row between 2015 & 2016 and we all know Draymond's a great defender, but his selection of defensive player of the year in 2017 by the media was more of we've seen this enough similar to LeBron not winning the MVP year after year even though he is and has been unanimously the best player in the NBA for roughly 7 years in a row.

Unfortunately the Lakers are in a bind cause they know there's no way in hell you give away Kuzma when you can potentially pass the torch over to him when he's just about to hit his prime but how long can they play chicken with the Spurs after what we just saw happen with Paul George who was indicating he wanted to play for the Lakers, it was so bad Magic got the Lakers a $50,000 tampering fine which is hilariously probably 5 cents to Genie Buss but none the less is a bad look cause if you get another one there's no telling what the penalty will be in addition to the fine in addition to being watched closely like a scientist looking at micro organisms through a microscope. Should Magic risk the Spurs dealing Kawhi elsewhere and taking the risk of loosing out if another team is able to sway him I don't know but I do know LeBron is going to need a complementary piece with veteran experience down the stretch of big games.

My prognosis is the Lakers Brass is trying to beat a good offense with a better defense so in my opinion it may be unintentional but it could be very well purposeful that LeBron and Magic are trying to build something similar to the mid 90's Bulls.