Here’s how the Lakers can land LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George next season

LeBron James is about to be a free agent. Paul George is expected to become one, too. Now Kawhi Leonard wants out of San Antonio, and according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, his preferred destination is in Los Angeles with the Lakers. That’s the same place James owns two homes, and the same place George has not-so-subtly been angling to play.

Can they all really play together? It’d require some maneuvering, but it’s possible.

Lakers president Magic Johnson has said he wants to bring the Showtime back to the franchise he delivered five NBA championships to during his Hall of Fame playing career. The stars have aligned for him to do just that.

Here’s how we can get Leonard, James, and George together on the same team.

The Lakers currently project to have more cap space available than any other team for the upcoming free agency period. The cap is currently projected to come in at $101 million, giving the Lakers about $66 million in cap space, according to Spotrac.

But to get there, they have to sever ties with their free-agents-to-be. That means Los Angeles has to renounce their rights to Julius Randle — allowing the talented forward to become an unrestricted free agent this summer — as well as Brook Lopez, Isaiah Thomas, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Channing Frye, Andre Ingram, and Travis Wear. Tyler Ennis, Ivica Zubac, and Thomas Bryant have small non-guaranteed contracts that can be released as well. It doesn’t mean they can’t re-sign these players; Los Angeles just won’t be able to exceed the salary cap with more than a minimum contract to re-sign them.

If they renounce everyone as expected, Los Angeles would have about $37 million in guaranteed salaries committed for the 2018-19 season.

Yes, it would come at the cost of parting ways with Randle, but his name has been swirling in trade rumors for years. Losing him for a chance at landing three superstars is a no-brainer.

In order to hit that $34.56 million cap mark, the Lakers would also need to trade the No. 25 pick in this year’s draft to free themselves of the cap hold of 120 percent of the rookie scale contract. Here’s how they do that.

Leonard wants out of San Antonio, and they need to get the best possible package in exchange for him. Under normal circumstances, teams would jump at the chance at to trade for a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and a cold-blooded basketball assassin in the clutch.

But Leonard reportedly wants to go to Los Angeles, which will scare away some of Leonard’s suitors fearful of trading significant assets for a likely one-year rental? (It didn’t scare the Thunder in trading for Paul George, to be fair, and that trade worked out well for Indiana).

The Spurs send Leonard to the Lakers, and in exchange, Los Angeles sends Brandon Ingram, Luol Deng, the No. 25 pick in this year’s draft, AND their 2019 first-round pick.

Why should the Lakers do this now if Leonard isn’t a free agent until next year? Because it’s a risk to wait a year to sign Leonard in free agency.

This specific trade also frees up an additional $4 million of cap space to sign free agents this summer. The Spurs win by landing Ingram, a player Gregg Popovich can mold into a superstar. They also get an additional first-round pick in this year’s draft and next year’s draft, and LA could also include Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart, or even Lonzo Ball to sweeten the pot. San Antonio will only have to swallow the pill of paying Deng nearly $37 million over the next two seasons.

Leonard is due $20.99 million next season, but the Lakers can offer him a max contract extension next summer, thus locking up a hometown hero to a contract for the foreseeable future.

James could stay in Cleveland and ink a five-year deal worth $205 million, and George could sign an equally as lucrative deal worth $175 million over five years to stay in Oklahoma City. They’ll be taking a pay cut to go to Los Angeles, but the Lakers have to give them the most they can.

A max offer from the Lakers to James would be a four-year deal worth $152.5 million, based on current cap estimates. George’s max contract would be four years at $130.3 million. Knowing the exact salary cap would help, but we don’t get that figure until later into the offseason. The current projection is $101 million.

At this point, though, both James and George would triple their off-court worth by taking advantage of every sponsorship opportunity Los Angeles has to offer. Even if they had to sacrifice, say, $5 million over the life of their contract, they would make it up tenfold off the court.

In this scenario, the Lakers keep Ball, and they keep diamond in the rough Kuzma. They add three all-star wings to the mix. Imagine James as a point center.

Los Angeles’ roster would be top-heavy, and they’d have to fill it out with only the mid-level exception (likely the taxpayer mid-level exception worth just over $5 million per season) and the veteran’s minimum, but players would take salary cuts in a heart beat to join the Lakers and play on that team. That’s a team that could legitimately challenge the Warriors and Rockets out West.

James took this year’s talent-poor Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA Finals. Imagine what he’d do with two legitimate all-stars on his team?

A lot has to happen for this Lakers superteam to emerge, but if it does, watch out. The league thought the Warriors superteam was unfair, but we could be watching another unfold right before our very eyes.