2019 NBA free agency didn’t go the way the Los Angeles Lakers planned, but things may have worked out for them anyway.
It’s easy to forget now that we live in a world where LeBron James and Anthony Davis are teammates and that trading Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and a plethora of draft picks wasn’t exactly Plan A for the Lakers.
The initial goal was to use their cap space to sign a second All-Star player for James, which wouldn’t have required the Lakers to sacrifice most of their young core. When Davis hit the market, the plan evolved to doing everything they could to land him, then using the lure of the James/Davis combo to convince Kawhi Leonard to leave the Toronto Raptors and form what would arguably be the most talented Big 3 ever assembled.