Rondo Trade: C Bags Asked For Randle (6)

I'm optimistic as well, but I simply don't see the recovery being as easy as it could have been with a player like Rondo. It's not about what Rondo gives us personally as much as it's about what he can attract in the FA market.

That being said... if we can get guys like Dragic and Monroe or Robin Lopez on cheaper deals then I'm going to be happy. Since it's unlikely we'll sign a big name, we need to sign second tier guys and overachieve next season. If we can get Dragic/Lopez/Mathews or something like that then we have a shot at the 8th seed and a chance to look like the next young team to come up and win something. That could maybe be enough to give us an edge in FA races.

 

Agreed all the way. Rondo would have been a great floor general and would have been amazing for us. But with him off the table, Gasol and LMA not likely to leave their respective teams, we need to start going for the second tier guys and fill in some of our blank roster spots rather than swinging for fences. It just isn't there. Sure save some money for a max guy in 2016, but we need some second tier guys.

 

Why do you think Rondo would have been a FA attracter? Other than Kobe I've never heard of anyone saying they wanted to play with him. Doesn't he have more of a negative rep?

 

He has a rep as being a pain, but so does Kobe. He'd be an attracter because of his ability, not necessarily his personality. With two (counting Kobe on a cheaper deal) Championship level players, we're a far more attractive team than a team with Jeremy Lin and Nick Young. Solid young players? Maybe so, but not players any top-level FA would look at as potential game changers.

 

See and that's where I have a huge problem with your plan. Durant when he comes available will be 29 years old. Do we draw the line on him too? There's simply no way we're going to have a guy under 27 years old find his way over here to be a max-level player unless he comes through the draft and we're already missing our draft picks. It makes way more sense to try to sign the best available players and make a play through FA.

We can't turn away players because of their age. By the time they become FAs in the current CBA we have no choice but to sign them at 27-29 years old. That's the best we'll get.

 

He did have a great line; no one is asking owners to take pay cuts.

Average salary in the NBA is, what, $5m?
Suppose all those players make 10x that in their career; that's $100M net worth, max, for the average player (and I bet it's closer to $5m than 100m).
The average NBA owner net worth is more like $3B.

 

That's been my point man.

We are swiftly losing chances at big name players, so my point was we had to change tactics and start laying down role player foundations. Find guys who are low cost-high value players. My position has been muddled the last year or so but I've always wanted to do that. I advocated signing Monroe and Stephenson last season. BUT once I realized the Lakers didn't want to go that route, I was more accepting of their plan.

Now that our FA pool is ALREADY shrinking for this summer, I say we turn our attention towards other players. Dragic I believe can still be had for value. Robin Lopez is losing playing time this season to Kaman, I think he can be a value player. Monroe is being completely mishandled in Detroit, I think he can be a value addition. I think you have to overpay for Wes Mathews, but he could certainly be a Championship caliber player.

This summer we'll have roughly 26 million to spend or so. We can still offer Rondo that huge contract, but I see him staying in Dallas now (and probably for below MAX too). So instead let's spend what we need to spend on Wes Mathews, throw a poison pill contract at Reggie Jackson, and piece together the rest. We'd have a young, dynamic, and talented back court all of a sudden. If Wes costs 10 million, Reggie Jackson costs 12 million (he'll probably be less), and Robin Lopez costs 4/16 million we have a solid young cast.

 

I completely understand and that's been the point all along: they're not going to make these moves. They're going to continue waiting for a star to come and that means we're going to stink for a long time. In my opinion, this last move by Rondo should be their sign to STOP waiting for a guy to come like that and go find the value players. Rondo was the last STAR level player that really was obtainable because he was a great player on a bad team. The likelihood of the big name guys leaving their cities for this team is low. On TOP of that, if we have no other good players by the time Durant becomes available our likelihood of getting HIM goes from slim to none.

It's time to get OFF this plan from the Lakers. Are stars more likely to leave their situations to come here than Dallas even if the team is really, really bad? Sure. That doesn't make it LIKELY though. It goes from 2% in Dallas to 15% in LA which is still a failure obviously. Time to move on from this plan.

 

From Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports:

The Lakers and C Bags had mutual interest for a Rajon Rondo deal, but the Lakers weren’t willing to give up injured rookie Julius Randle, a source said.

 

I'm glad we didn't give up Randle.