Official 2016 Free Agency Thread

Drew Gooden is still in the NBA? Hell no. I'd rather give a shot to an undrafted or summer league standout.

 

I don't know how people judge an offseason. I look at how a team objectively improved and how it improved relative to where it was.

Objectively, the Lakers should be better in the starting lineup at every position, better in the second string at probably four out of five positions, better at shooting, better at defense, better coach, better schemes. They improved by taking arguably the best player in the draft and what is, by all accounts, a first-round talent in the second round. They added a starting center in a way that doesn't hamper us financially (pace what some have said, with little by way of argumentation), will help us offensively, and won't hurt us defensively. They added a veteran iron man, tough defender, who can score and rebound. They added a sweet-shooting veteran PG who can't play defense, but he's a ridiculous upgrade over Huertas. We even added a pick in the process. We retained every FA we should have - and let everyone walk we should have - with the possible exception of Bass.

We are probably a team that should win twice as many games as last year. That's an absurd improvement. There's not really any scaled I can think of according to which this is "average at best" "if we exclude Mozgov." Blows the mind.

If you think it's worse than a B-, I want to hear why.

 

I heard we were linked to Tyler Zeller at some point. Any word on that? I think it was Ramona Shelburne who mentioned it. I wouldn't mind that, but it would take minutes from the young fellas.

 

Agreed. I think it's a rock solid B. Draft pick is an A. New coach and staff is an A. Mozgov is a C. Deng a B. Calderon and one or two second round picks for nothing = B. Clarkson and Black re-signings are B+ to me. Huertas = B minus.

The offseason started with a huge bang with the firing of Boron and hiring of Luke, and continued with getting that number 2 pick and landing Ingram. Then Free Agency hit with a complete dud in Mozgov, but quickly got better with Deng, our own re-signings and Calderon. While I was disappointed at the start of Free Agency, I'm pretty happy all around with how we improved and I think it will bare out with our win total this year. Most likely we double last years wins and that's exciting.

Overall, while we struck out on big names (and I think we could have done MUCH better in the Center department), I believe we have created a great place to land if Westbrook wants to come home next summer. He's a perfect fit for this roster and I think Luke's coaching will also be attractive for him.

 

We didn't wait for any home runs and ended up solidifying every position on the team. I'm sure we tried as is evidenced by none of the big names even wanting to accept an offer of a meeting but we'll be a significantly better team than last year.

 

^We worked with the hand we were dealt with...young, unproven core coupled with a terrible 2016 season. As far as the Mozgov signing, Walton and Shaw felt his skills fit in with what we have. Whiteside was a pipe, Noah is injury prone [wanted New York], Horford probably did not want to be here, Biyombo was too raw for the coaches, Howard would have caused Southland civil unrest and the Durant signing came out of nowhere so Bogut was not even a consideration at the time. Even then, Golden State would not have accommodated us.

The pair of signings being Deng and Calderon are more as complementary additions to the growth of the young core and to foster a positive, professional, focused culture.

 

Super low number for Festus who played his way out of an ENORMOUS contract. His Finals was so awful I think he may have lost himself 40-50 million dollars and I'm not exaggerating that. Just truly awful. There was a time when I saw him mistime his jump for a rebound and then jumped in the complete opposite direction of where he needed to go. Just awful.

Still that contract is a great value because he'll surely live up to 8 million dollars. I just find it strange since they've got a plethora of bigs who are as good if not better than him.