Magic, Shaq, Howard (even Kobe himself!) wound up there because the essentially forced their current team know that they only wanted to play for the Lakers. CP3 was no different. The prestige of the Lakers has traditionally meant that not only do the Lakers get the players they want, but they get them via trades where the superstars strong-arm their current team into a trade so that those players never even reach the open market via free agency. So the Lakers have never relied on free agents, because they've never had to. That's a huge advantage, and the Lakers were pretty much the only ones who could pull it off consistently, until Stern effectively stopped that practice by nixing the Paul deal.