{"id":2025758,"date":"2026-07-03T18:39:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2025758"},"modified":"2026-07-03T18:39:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:39:38","slug":"what-does-macau-and-africa-have-to-do-with-lebron-james-and-the-mavericks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2025758","title":{"rendered":"What does \u2018Macau\u2019 and \u2018Africa\u2019 have to do with LeBron James and the Mavericks?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In an episode of the \u201cGame Over\u201d podcast published Friday morning<\/a>, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul ran through a long list of teams that LeBron James could play for in his 24th NBA season.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors were on Paul\u2019s list of potential teams<\/a>. So were the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets.<\/p>\n

One surprise inclusion? The Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n

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Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The words \u201cDallas + Masai\u201d were scribbled on the whiteboard behind Paul and his co-host, Max Kellerman, followed by the words \u201cOil,\u201d \u201cGolf,\u201d \u201cMacau\u201d and \u201cAfrica.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Have Lakers built Luka a contending roster?<\/div>\n
Dan Woike and Jeshua Kidd<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
{“@context”:”https:\/\/schema.org”,”@type”:”VideoObject”,”@id”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/CrNqh2moX2PCa2g\/”,”url”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/CrNqh2moX2PCa2g\/”,”name”:”Have Lakers built Luka a contending roster?”,”description”:”The Lakers have made a cluster of moves in free agency. Have they improved around Luka Doncic?”,”uploadDate”:”2026-07-02T21:25:46.848Z”,”duration”:”PT49S”,”thumbnailUrl”:”https:\/\/cdn-media.theathletic.com\/video-stream\/auto-thumbnail\/CrNqh2moX2PCa2g\/3h9k8dMpufNR.0000000.jpg”,”contentUrl”:”https:\/\/video.nyt.com\/athletic\/streams\/CrNqh2moX2PCa2g\/3h9k8dMpufNR\/3h9k8dMpufNR.m3u8″,”transcript”:”The team I cover has changed and changed dramatically. This is a team that has now lost LeBron James, Marcus Smart, Luke Kinnard, and it’s a group that has now gained the A-list center that Luka Dacic has wanted, a point of attack defender in Quentin Grimes. It’s gained Sandro Mamakelashvili, a player it really, really likes. We Find out whether or not that plan is good. They have left themselves with very little flexibility, if any at all, but they’ve gone all in, and they’ve gone all in on a vision that they can make Luk Acic a championship level player by optimizing him. Whether they’ve done a good enough job at covering up his weaknesses, I, I think remains to be seen. But, but they have to be the best version of a Lukadic team. They’re not going to be the Spurs. They’re not going to be the Knicks. They have to be the Lukadic Lakers. They took a big step forward in that direction.”,”ineligibleRegion”:[“BI”,”BY”,”CD”,”CF”,”CU”,”IQ”,”IR”,”KP”,”LB”,”LY”,”ML”,”NI”,”RU”,”SD”,”SO”,”SS”,”SY”,”UA”,”VE”,”YE”,”ZW”],”publisher”:{“@type”:”NewsMediaOrganization”,”@id”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/#publisher”,”name”:”The Athletic”,”url”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/”,”foundingDate”:”2016-01-25″,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”@id”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”url”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”contentUrl”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”creditText”:”The Athletic”,”height”:”60″,”width”:”435″},”publishingPrinciples”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/edit-guidelines\/”,”sameAs”:”https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Athletic”},”author”:[{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Dan Woike and Jeshua Kidd”}]}<\/p>\n
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