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

Before I start this off I'd like to say in no way am I a part 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 that players with point guard tendencies like himself don't just change overnight and easily walk into a role they have never played consistently.

Now, can James 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 the real question.

Now let's forget about him playing off the ball and look at the signings that happened directly after LeBron committed to signing with the Lakers.

Let's 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 chokeslam like the initials were no longer NBA and somehow in a split second turned to WWE.

Lance has underachieved for the 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 t-shirt that said "LeBron is a b***h," but maybe LeBron has overlooked the nuances and understands the reason why Rondo is an absolutely incredible pickup. He doesn't have the prettiest game like other point guards who are going to wow you with an impressive display of ball handling and he's not going to shoot pull up threes from 35 feet but what he does bring to the table 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 two or three 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.

However, it's defensively where Rondo can be a major gem for the Lakers. 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 down the stretch in critical moments and possibly starts 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.

And 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 can't complain about, unfortunately just watching him shoot makes you cringe cause you can't 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 on 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 don't see either 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 won't 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. 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 Jeanie Buss, but nonetheless is a bad look cause if you get another one there's no telling what the penalty will be in addition to the fine while being watched more closely than a scientist looking at microorganisms through a microscope.

Should Magic risk the Spurs dealing Kawhi elsewhere and taking the risk of losing 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 that 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.