Official 2016 Free Agency Thread

Great game last night, but it definitely doesn't change anything for me. I still hope we go after someone else. Barnes instead is my definitive choice.

 

Barnes is getting the max. It's likely it'd take the full max to get him regardless of KD's decision.

The whole "KD to GS" thing wasn't ever really feasible anyway because they'd be forced to gut their entire team for him. Why would they do that? They're well on their way to being a dynastic team. To get KD, they'd have to get rid of everyone except Green, Curry, Thompson, maybe Ezeli, and maybe maybe Livingston. Is it worth getting KD to get rid of Iguodala, Bogut, and all the good bench pieces? I don't think so.

 

Lou shot 40.8% last season, and he's a career 41.6 shooter who hasn't shot above 42.2% since 2009-10.

DD is a career 44.2% shooter who shot 44.6% last year. He's only been below 42.2% once in seven seasons.

In brief: I'd rather have DD shooting than Lou, except from three.

But to look just at the shooting is to miss the point with DD. Check out his rebounds+ast per 36 by season:
5.9, 5.9, 5.5, 6.2, 7.8, 8.3, 8.5. He's trending upward.

Compare Lou's:
7.2, 9.5, 8.1, 8.6, 8.5, 8.3, 8.0, 7.1, 8.4, 5.6, 6.4. Trending downward.

Before you say, "He's not being asked to do that stuff anymore!" remember that he's not shooting as well as DD either.

There are reasons why DD has started 509 games in seven seasons and has piled up 22.7 Win Shares over the past three while Lou has 89 starts in 11 seasons and has 22 win shares if you count the past five seasons (22.4).

DD's not a savior, but he's better than Lou fa sho fa sho.

 

BTW, I'd offer Biyombo max years at 10-12 per. 2 and 30 might be nice, but 5 at 55-60 offers a certain kind of stability.

He's 23! I think he's going to develop into a 8-10 PPG guy with 9-12 boards and a couple of blocks. Signing him means, in my view, signing a player better than Jordan Hill and Ed Davis, who won't go changing his game because of a contract.

 

I'd rather keep Lou who is a worse career FG% shooter for the price we are paying him (pennies to the dollar with CBA going up) than going with Demar who is a few percentages better for career FG% and who we would have to pay the max for and probably keep for 4-5 years.

 

Between Biyombo and Whiteside right now, I might be more inclined to go after Biyombo because I'm not as worried about him working hard after a big contract and plus we can probably safe some money signing Biyombo instead of Whiteside. I mean how much different are they really going to be?

I'm curious what others think as far as this argument is concerned?

 

Something the Lakers might do is offer him, or anyone else really, a full max deal (starts at 21 million) for 2 or 3 years. There's going to be a lot of stuff like that happening this summer.

 

http://www.twcsportsnet.com/videos/2016/05/12/mitch-kupchak-discusses-expectations-for-luke-walton

There's a nice little interview right at the start with Mitch that gets into a bit of Mitch's mindset this summer. He's going to be okay with not wasting money this summer. I can see us getting fancy with some contracts, but Mitch isn't about to max out a stiff for no reason. The decisions they make will be the right ones. I have faith in this process.

 

It's weird. I thinking keeping the pick does allow us to punt again because then we'd have 4-5 really good young players in our core. The reason I bring this up is the domination of GS being so absolute the next few years, that our kids will need to be in their prime to compete against them, at which point they will be done. We really have to stop looking at ourselves as a big market team with huge advantages. The new CBA stripped us of most of that. It seems like we could only steal second tier stars. So we have to build our core through the draft which means multiple years of suck to get a talented roster. If we keep this pick, I'm leaning towards signing just one max deal (or two players at 10-12 million) in order to provide stability and leadership. The Noah Deng combo is sounding more and more appealing. Veteran leadership that can help all our young pups while they grow.

 

Even with the pick we'll have more than 50 million to spend so... We could see something like 2/40 million dollar offers to both Deng and Noah and still have cash to try to find a value piece or a dump candidate.

I don't think keeping or losing the pick changes the entire process. I think the idea is to get some veterans however we need to. I could see a 2/40+ million deal working for Noah given his injury history. I could also see him asking for 4/50 instead, who knows? I think the idea though is to get guys like him. Luke is going to need coachable veterans who can create a culture of hard work and respect. I know people are scared of Noah's injury history, but given Bogut's success in Golden State, I wouldn't mind giving it a shot. Guys like Deng and Noah make a ton of sense.

If we get the pick, I think we are most likely to trade it for a high value veteran (I don't know who), but if we keep it that's fine too. Either way, I think the Lakers are going to be content building around their core group of youngsters with high character veterans. Like you said, they need time to mature and season both literally and figuratively. If you put them in situations to improve around guys who will teach them how to be great professionals, I think you're on your way to a great thing. If we can swing for the fence and land Durant or LeBron or something, then sure we go that route, but given the likelihood of that is almost nothing... I think the Lakers are content to wait out that generation for a few years while building their own dynasty.

edit- I realize this isn't the prediction I made in sirron's thread. It just goes to show how much I'm flip floping as the days go on what exactly we'll do with all that cash. But hey! It's the political season, I'm just getting into the festivities.

 

Lou walks after a year.

 

Lou Will? He's guaranteed all three years of his deal. We've got him two more years no matter what.