Ok, let me ask you this. If Magic, Rob and Luke are in the room and they tell Blake we are getting PG-13 for randle, clarkson, top 3 pick, hou 1st, and the line up is: Russell George Ingram Griffin Zubac What do you think he is thinking?
If you're adding another bonafide star with Blake, I think he signs with us. Paul is aging, the Clippers don't have the salary cap flexibility to improve their team if Blake and Paul re-sign, and the Clippers have failed to get anywhere with the Paul, Jordan, amd Griffin nucleus for a number for years. I sign with the Lakers if I am Griffin. That's just me, though. Maybe I am just a homer...
Yeah it would take a big leap of faith for Griffin to jump ship to us in the summer. A really big leap. I definitely think there's a way to get his attention, but the first person to jump ship to a horrible team in FA for the specter of a player to come later... that's a tough sell.
http://www.silverscreenandroll.com/...gency-rumors-trade-paul-george-zach-lowe-espn This time it's Lowe chiming in. There's simply too much smoke here for there not to be at least a little flame. I'm not saying Paul George will for sure end up a Laker, but we've got an in. I hope we take advantage of it.
Lowe doesn't consider himself as an insider but when he says something like this , it's not BS ... He called LMA to Spurs a long time before anyone else by instance . I like how he demonstrated how the C-bags f***ed up too without clearly saying they did too
On the Griffin matter , I don't want him , injury prone and he is what he is on defense i.e not good enough ..... He'll be 28 soon too
What the hell has Harden, Griffin, Paul, or Cousins done to be put ahead of George? George has had more playoff success than any of them as #1 options. The guy never even played with a true All Star and still made it to the ECF's. This notion that he can't win a title as the lead guy makes no sense when he's already gone deep in the playoffs as the lead guy without a true star next to him. Dude averaged 22, 7, and 4 in that 2014 season where they made the conference finals. The problem as mentioned before was the lack of support on offense. Stephenson was up and down, Hibbert was just down, West past his prime, and nobody else was able to help George.
Well for one, harden made the ecf too, where he also averaged 28/8/6. I get not liking him, I don't either, but he is a heck of a player. Neither of Blake or Chris Paul can stay healthy. But Chris Paul so far in his career has shown a higher gear than Paul George. His distributing, controlling the tempo and scoring can be dominant at times. The clippers have a ECF in them and when healthy they are a contender. Cousins hasn't done anything. But he finally has an opportunity to show what he is made of over the next few seasons.
We have to start with someone ... Of course we aren't going to win with PG as a 1st option , the hope is another big time player will join him and I think we will be able to build a very good team from there . Every team hopes to have the next Kobe or Lebron but there only have been a few of those in the history of game , sure it would make things much easier going forward Even if we only talk current superstars , only Curry and Lebron have proven they can win a title as a first option , Durant hasn't , Westbrook hasn't ( and can't imo ) ... As Lakers fans , we have been blessed with FOUR top 10 all times players in the latest 40+ years ... FOUR I think we have taken this type of crazy great talent for granted but hey it might be a WHILE until we get another one of this level . It doesn't mean we won't be able to compete for a title here and there ....
Never denied Harden is a terrific player, but you're saying George isn't an elite player or a #1 option and there is zero evidence of that. There's evidence he is with the playoff success he's had already in his career despite lacking a true #1 option. The guy is easily one of the elite stars in the NBA and has proven it during his career. Only time he even missed the playoffs was when he broke his leg.
I hate this narrative that Westbrook couldn't win with KD and PG isn't as good as KD so it's not a championship move. Russell is clearly a guy we're gonna try to bring to LA who supposedly likes the idea.. But I'm sure he isn't the only 1. And even just looking at the wb/KD & wb/PG duos, don't these analysts know play style matters? PG can defer to Russ, let him lead the league in scoring, while PG focuses on being the elite 2 way player we know he can be.
I would only go after Blake if we traded all our kids for PG13 AND Butler cause they are about the same age as Blake. Here's the thing with that though. YEs, we'd be really good next season, possibly top 3-4 in the West. But that trio, plus Mosgov, Deng...maybe we somehow hold onto Russell in our trades...they aren't better than GS. And they are the same age as GS so their prime would be at the same point as GS's.
Harden had a ton of help in that postseason Dwight Howard: 16.4ppg 14rpg 2.3bpg 57.7fg% Josh Smith: 13.5ppg 5.6rpg 2.7apg 1bpg Trevor Ariza: 13.2ppg 6.4rpg 2.6apg 1.8spg Corey Brewer: 11.2ppg 2.8rpg Terrence Jones: 10.2ppg 4.8rpg 0.7bpg Jason Terry: 9.2ppg 2.2rpg 2.8apg 35.4 3fg% Compare that to the help George got in the 2014 postseason David West: 15.1ppg 6.7rpg 3.9apg Lance Stephenson: 13.6ppg 6.9rpg 4.2apg George Hill: 12.1ppg 3.7rpg3.0apg 1.2spg Roy Hibbert: 9.3ppg 5.5rpg 1.4bpg 44.9fg% Luis Scola: 6.1ppg 2.3rpg CJ Watson: 5.6ppg 2.1rpg 0.9apg A key problem for George has been what I've said in that he hasn't had the supporting cast that the obvious "superstars" have benefited from. When your best teammates the last 3 healthy seasons are a 33 year old David West, the one good year from Lance Stephenson, a year where Hibbert made the All-Star team but solely on defense because he only averaged 10.8ppg 6.6rpg 2.2bpg 43.9fg%, 30 year old declining Monta Ellis, George Hill, Jeff Teague, Thaddeus Young and 2nd year Myles Turner, is it really fair to knock him for not having more team success? The guy hasn't sniffed anything close to Kyrie, Love, Klay, Draymond, Griffin, D. Jordan - let alone having two of them on your team like Curry, Lebron and Paul do. Or been part of a Russ-KD type duo or even the type of cast Kawhi has been blessed with thanks to that genius FO. Heck, George would be lucky to have a Bradley Beal by his side at this point. George IS a #1 option. Is he an elite one? Maybe not because of his quiet demeanor and his lack of monster stats. But he has proven he is one simply because of what he has done in recent seasons as the clear leader of a Pacers team that is lacking in high end talent outside of him.
I view George as more of a Pippen type player. He has #1 option type impact with his overall play, but he would need a guy who can fill it up next to him.
I agree with that. As others have said, getting George isn't the end game. It's a strong first move that will hopefully lead to another move to put a star next to him. I defend George's lack of team success because of his shaky supporting casts but I'm obviously not wanting to replicate that situation for him. IF the Lakers simply can't add another star (be it trade/free agency), then we have to hope that whoever remains among Ingram, Russell, Zubac develops into that star. Or the team may not have 1 "elite star" but has like 3 solid All-Star types. This is obviously a longer-term approach but George is still young and those guys are very talented with significant upside, so while it may not be the preferred scenario, it's a viable scenario in itself.
What does the cap/salary situation look like for this summer, can we trade for PG and add a good free agent?
The salary cap is expected to be 102M. Team has about 70M tied up between Deng, Moz, JC, Brewer, DAR, BI, Randle, Nance, Zu. Black's 2017-2018 contract is non guaranteed. So if they waive him and renounce all their free agents - excluding the potential top 3 pick but adding 3 roster holds - looking at about 30M in cap space. So if the Lakers trade say Randle, Clarkson and the Top 3 pick if they have it for George, then they add about 3.6M in salary + 1 more roster hold since they dealt 2 for 1. So the cap space would go down to about 26M. So to answer your question, yes. They can trade for PG and add a good FA (Deng + Moz = 32.47M next season )
