Champion Lakers Starter Explains Icy Relationship With Former Teammates
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Former Los Angeles Lakers starting swingman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, now with the Denver Nuggets, beat his old team en route to the second NBA championship of his career in the spring of 2023.
The man known as KCP fit like a glove with the Nuggets and proved the missing piece for Denver's championship puzzle for the franchise's first NBA title.
Caldwell-Pope discussed his old teammates with Mark Medina of Sportskeeda ahead of Denver's ring night and described the surprisingly icy dynamic that now exists between himself, LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
“No, I didn’t hear much from them. They can take it however they want to take it. We won. We just want to enjoy our championship, and not worry about what everyone else is thinking.”
The former Pistons lottery pick spent four seasons with Detroit before he signed with LA in free agency.
Though he didn't quite live up to his high draft pedigree, Caldwell-Pope carved out a role for himself as a 3&D player that every championship contender needs.
LA saw his usage in this regard for their 2020 championship run as the wing often took on the toughest perimeter assignment for the duration of the bubble postseason.
2021 wasn't Caldwell-Pope's finest season and Laker fans across social media let him hear the criticism after the team's first-round flameout.
GM Rob Pelinka traded the guard to the Wizards in exchange for Russell Westbrook but Washington soon flipped him to Denver where he got the last laugh.
The former Georgia Bulldog contributed to a sweep of his old team and his improved shooting was a massive story for the Nuggets' dominant 2023 postseason run.
Denver's budding rivalry with the Lakers now adds another chapter to begin the 2024 regular season where we're sure there's no love lost between KCP and his old team.
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