Magic Johnson says LeBron James' blunder cost Laker $106m 

NBA legend Magic Johnson wanted the Lakers to pursue DeMar DeRozan in the offseason over Russell Westbrook.

The Lakers legend was discussing this season’s roster makeup Monday, during consecutive appearances on ESPN’s morning shows, “Get Up” and “First Take.”

After giving praise to the Lakers’ leading scorer, LeBron James, Johnson said the franchise face is to blame for L.A. passing up DeRozan — who signed a three-year, $82 million deal last August via a sign-and-trade with the Spurs.

“The blame that he’s got to take is the fact that DeRozan ended up in Chicago and not with the Lakers. DeRozan wanted to play for the Lakers and when I got the call from his agent, [Aaron Goodwin], I called the Lakers, said, ‘Hey [DeRozan] wants to come home,’” Johnson said on “Get Up.”

 “We could’ve made that deal. But when Russell and LeBron started talking, that’s when they nixed that deal and went with Westbrook… If you signed DeRozan and you only trade [Kyle] Kuzma for Buddy Hield, we would be playing in the Western Conference championship this year with those two guys.”

DeRozan is a Compton, California. native, and attended the University of South California for a year before the Raptors took him No. 9 overall in the 2009 NBA Draft.

The Lakers acquired Westbrook last summer in hopes of forming a Big 3 with James and Anthony Davis, but their master plan never came to fruition. Injuries kept James and Davis sidelined throughout the season, and Westbrook has struggled on both ends of the floor for the majority of the season.

“I called [Lakers general manager] Rob [Pelinka] and said, ‘DeRozan wants to come play.’ So I got out of the way… I went on vacation and the next thing I hear is we’re not gonna sign DeRozan but trade for Westbrook,” Johnson said on “First Take” later in the day.

“They had the Buddy Hield trade already done and then backed out of it. You have DeRozan and Hield, then you could’ve kept [Alex] Caruso and KCP [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope]. Those guys are defenders. They’re on-ball defenders… We’d be competing for the Western Conference 

Hield was rumoured to be heading to the Lakers from the Kings in a deal centred around Talen Horton-Tucker. Caruso signed a four-year, $37 million contract with the Bulls last August — four days after the Lakers traded Caldwell-Pope to Washington as part of a package for Westbrook.

Westbrook is the highest-paid player on L.A.’s roster, earning $44 million, ahead of LeBron James ($41 million). The former league MVP and the Lakers reportedly have mutual interest about finding him a new team in the summer.

Last November, DeRozan himself even said he believed he was going to be a Laker.

“I felt like going to the Lakers was a done deal and that we were going to figure it out. I was going to come home,” DeRozan told Yahoo Sports. “The business side of things just didn’t work out. A couple of things didn’t align. It didn’t work out. It’s just part of the business, part of the game. My next option was definitely Chicago. So, looking back at it, it worked out well.”