Official 2016 Free Agency Thread

how on earth is Deng a B- on the court? literally, of all the arguments against the signing this is the only one that has no validity. Deng is the PERFECT fit on the court for this young team.

 

We will know when the season begins. Walton is the ultimate wild card here that gives me a lot of hope. If he gets through to these guys, then it will be a good year. I just want the young guys to have the chance to really play well and have confidence in them.

 

It's located here with a few others, but not officially added yet. Trying to do that sometime this Summer and do it once the roster is settled. So many good ones to choose from.

http://lakergifs.com/emoticons/

 

30 wins should be the goal.

prior to FA, i wanted a starting c, a starting sf, and some vet bench players, including a pg. we've checked all boxes. i might have preferred mahinmi or biyombo over mozgov, but the FO seemed to prioritize mozgov, given that the other two signed similar deals later. so i'll trust them on it. i wanted harrison barnes or parsons over deng, but deng was definitely high on my list. add in his off-court character, and that one's a slam dunk, imo. i would have preferred felton to calderon, too, but again, it fit the general needs.

with a sensible system, better general morale, and some improvement from randle and russell, i don't see why the lakers couldn't get near 30 wins this year. and the offseason actually went better than i expected, tbh. i feared the lakers might be in denver's position right now.

 

we can agree there. I just think from a fit standpoint, Deng was the best SF on the market at this time. i understand the concerns over his age and length of his deal, but at this moment I believe he's a better player than the Bazemores of the world.

 

I was getting too many files for easy search, so it was a way to track them for myself and also added Memes and other gifs that were much larger.

Meme Builder (Fun and Easy)
http://lakergifs.com/meme-builder/

But if you prefer the old site, I will maintain it. With the updated page here, I can resize them and fit more on the page even though they are larger.
http://lakergifs.com/emoticons/
I will make sure the Laker emoticon smiley page forwards straight there vs the main page that shows all the categories. I already have about 500 files uploaded on the site from just this Summer, so you can see how they won't fit in the previous format well.

It was really an attempt to accommodate more than just emoticons, because some of the gifs I made are large and the page takes forever to load. By adding a Meme Generator for fans and PNGs for your own projects, it's very helpful to have categories, and the ability to search. I still have a Boron page too.
http://lakergifs.com/category/lakerfiles/byron/

Not happy with site loading speed right now, but it's easier to host more in this format. Searchable became a necessity due to just volume. Playing with the idea of saving great vines/videos on there too. The stuff people come up with now is so creative.

 

Lakers will need more than 30 to get Westbrook. I think 30 happens regardless. Lakers will need to show something that no one expected. Like when Gasol came to the Lakers and dropped 24 points and 12 rebs in his first game. No one expected Gasol to fit THAT perfect. That is what needs to happen with this team. Things need to show that they click immediately and then the confidence will skyrocket.

 

3 years ago we got 27 wins with Wesley Johnson and Jordan Farmar leading the way; actually, we were 13-13 when Kobe came back from his Achilles injury, and then of course, Kobe hurt his knee and was out for the season. We went on to finish winning 27 games, but remember, that was the year Nick Young had his best year; he was also out for 8-10 games. If Nick was healthy, we probably finishef around closer to 31-33 wins with that roster. That was the year that Kaman sat laid down on the bench and we didn't have enough players in the Cleveland game; Sacre had to play with 6 fouls.

Point? I think that's closest season I can compare to what we're about to see this year; if Walton can implement his system successfully, inflate some stats for some guys because of that system but be more defensive disciplined, we're good to go. The Western Conference has gotten stronger, but I still believe if we play a fast up-tempo game, we can overachieve, IMO. Pick in rolls, motion weak, early transition, etc. Let's try to outscore folks because we're damn sure not defending anybody. LOL!. It doesn't mean not to attempt to try to guard, but we'll probably be in the bottom 5 again. League average offensively should be the goal.

 

Anything is possible. This is the best team we've field in awhile, IMO; although defensive deficient. However, a fun team that I can we can watch every game, root for the team, and be competitive is my goal. The wins will come. Let's just hope the regular season schedule breaks just right...

 

What's our cap space like?

 

Thank you.