Somewhere, Clarkson, Russ, and Randle are partying tonight. Heck, maybe we can even re-sign Black now.
Defensive drills...defensive drills...defensive drills. I like the kid's attitude. No slacking off...work, work, work.
LOL ... Jordan posted that non clip (am being kind here) himself? He better go learn from Kobe the media person as well... as for all things of a basketball nature. Thanks for the links. Good to see. Hope Julius too. :Headbang:
That's what I love about Clarkson. He's not the best player, but he works his a** off 24/7. Even at his age, he understands where hard work can get you. That chip on his shoulder might be his most valuable asset. Even after the kids getting after it last summer, I'm still not used to having a your three best players eager and hungry, willing to put in the work to be better.
I'm sure that vibe would have taken a huge hit this summer if Scott was coming back. Can you imagine what a downer that would have put on everyone.
When Scott criticized him for his defensive shortcomings...he did not get offended but acknowledged it. Not too many players nowadays will do so. I'm sure he is looking forward to the new season with Walton at the helm.
Man I can't believe the numbers being talked about for JC. I love the kid but he's 24 already and that's pretty far along age-wise in getting an idea of one's peak ability. Not that he can't get better still but if I'm a GM I'm not paying him based on "future expectations of improvement" I'm paying him on what he produces now. Of course these are just max numbers being talked about in the media and the market is what matters. I was hoping we could get him for around 7-8 mil but people talking 12-15 in here...yikes. 15/4/2 on 32 minutes, shooting .433 and .347 on treys and no defense to speak of is not an elite player. Getting close on offense but not quite there yet. At that age Westbrook filled the stat sheet much more and played D. Shot about the same though. I don't know, I hope we don't have to go higher than 10per for him.
^^^ I agree, he's a very good player, but right now he's a 1-way player, and eventually he might be a 6th man. I'm not paying crazy money for a good player that can't play defense and most likely will need to have someone take his starting spot for this team to win anything of note. If we have to pay crazy numbers to keep him I don't do it, I maybe try to work out a sign and trade.
Cap is increasing by a factor of 1.43 (from 63 to 89) so 7-9 is 10-13 Still a big increase but fifteen mil is out of line for JC and imo even 12 is overpaying but given the fact that a LOT of paper is going to be thrown around this summer he's probably gonna get a big payday and someone's gonna give him an big offer sheet.
actually the cap is going to 92 million or so, could be even higher but the point remains that the total is pretty close to the same difference. I can see Jordan getting a ton of money this summer but if he trusts the Lakers we can take care of all our other needs and then focus on the extension which would save us a lot of time, money, and energy. With his bird rights we can go way over the cap to keep him here. Same with Tarik incidentally.
I hope he waits and lets us do what we need to but he also has to pass on other offers to do that as other teams need to move on and get people signed and it seems to me someone we have got screwed doing that in the last 10 years or so, can't remember who now. Also we can go over the cap with JC but if we don't get big signs this summer we need the flexibility for the the future so I hope they are only doing 1+1 deals.
I don't know why everyone is so low on Clarkson. I'd prefer if he took the QO and worked hard to show us improvements on defense and how he can be more efficient within a properly coached offense. But if not, I think he's easily worth $15 million in the new CBA. 24 is NOT so old that he can't continue to improve. Don't know where that line of thinking is coming from. Hassan Whiteside was in the D-League at 24 and now he's an all star. Ariza made HUGE strides at 24 when he was able to be a complimentary player in a great system. Not too many guards out there have his combination of ball handling, quickness, shot creation, and finishing ability. His three point shot is streaky, but he has nice form. The consensus seems to be that we HAVE to make moves in free agency, even if it might mean slightly overpaying. Because continuing to be stingy and hoarding cap space for future free agent classes is a vicious cycle where we'll never be good enough to attract the free agents we want. Well the same should apply to the only valuable free agent we have, who has been our most consistent scoring option the past two seasons. If we let him walk over a couple million, we're a worse team next year.
I don't know why people are down on him either. It's clear none of our young players got proper guidance last year, but Clarkson was the most consistent. I don't know why people don't think he can improve. He knows what his weaknesses are and as hard as he works, I don't know why those can't be addressed.
I think Julius was similarly consistent. You can't average a double-double and not be consistent. Consistently bad in some respects too (defense for both of them).
I really like Jordan, but he's the one guy of the core that I think we can afford to move if we package him with the pick. No way I part with Russell or Randle at this juncture. But the fact that JC might cost us some real money, the fact that his defense is not good right now, makes him just a little more expendable. That said, I do think he can improve on D, his offense is fantastic (he can score from anywhere), and he's a very solid young player. If we can get an All Star for him and the pick I do it, but if not I'm very happy to retain him.
