Yeah. For like Russell and Ingram. Wouldn't put it past them at all. The boss would be heartbroken otherwise.
Yeah. I don't think he put his foot on the line. He just crossed it and did a dance on the other side.
About 1:30 get's asked about staying in Indiana or not. Just more confirmation that he has his foot out the door.
I just get this feeling that Paul George has his own foot out the door and I wonder if the Lakers are fully cognizant of that. It'll be interesting to see how hard we go after Paul this summer in trade scenarios. If Magic and Rob feel confident Paul George is coming, I wonder if we make other moves first. What those moves would be, I don't know. Would anyone be shocked if we made a play for Chris Paul? Jeff Teague? George Hill? Jrue Holiday or Kyle Lowry? I wouldn't be shocked at all and it would be a solid use of our resources. We've got depth at other positions (good depth is debatable). I would think one of those names helps Paul George make his decision. For what it's worth, Jorge Sedano subtly dropped the other day that even LeBron has his eye on the Lakers as a future landing spot of the Cavs dry up.
http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/new...acers-magic-johnson/zvl28kvs3msi17p0sd5eot406 ^^^Interesting perspective here. Makes the case against the Lakers even pursuing PG. There are also some nice tidbits about how intent PG is on becoming a Laker and how aggressively Magic will be pursuing him. Nothing we didn't already know, but a solid read nonetheless.
I think this is on the money. George would be a part of a series of moves that put us firmly in the playoff hunt.
I mean... Really his only evidence in not going after Paul George is that George is a diva and a crappy teammate based mostly off of his comments in the media this summer. I didn't think it was good look for Paul George, but I also wouldn't ever make the case that we shouldn't go after him for those comments. I don't think George is as much a diva as they're making out and I think the executive that person likely talked to is in Boston. Boston would love to have Hayward instead of George for a lot of reasons, including that Hayward would be a FA and wouldn't cost them any of their young "assets". I don't believe George is a bad teammate. I believe he's unhappy and is likely thinking of his way out already which ended up bleeding into the way he approaches his work. His teammates didn't rip him up and they agreed with Paul that it was overblown a bit by the media. I mean the writing is also on the wall that he wants out so the media is looking to take those comments into that context as much as possible. I think really what has happened here is the Lakers can use this as a bargaining chip in their favor on trades. If I'm them, I'm not exactly eager to part with a lot of assets right now. There has to be a reason nobody pulled the trigger on a deal in February. There has to be some fire to all this smoke about him wanting Los Angeles at this point. If I'm the Lakers I'm really thinking, "I want Paul George asap, but I'm not going to offer the world to Larry to get him." Instead what I do is make this place attractive by next summer which means going after a high-profile player this summer in FA. The immediate name is Griffin because he seems the most likely to change teams, but if you could get another player in here with the promise that George is coming either by next Feb or next summer, then do it.
If we get the top 3 pick and are able to package that for George, we'd still have room to go after a good free agent and potentially shop Russell, Ingram, or whoever is left over for another legit guy to play with George. Yes, its easier to type than to pull all these deals off, but we've got some cap room and young assets to work with. There's enough to improve this team pretty quickly if the front office wants to.
This works too, but I'm not feeling a vibe of patience coming from the front office. I think they really do want some All Stars here for next season. And for the interest in George to be this public at this point, I just can't see us waiting until next season if the opportunity to get him now really arises.
My dream scenario this off season would be to get PG along with Hayward without giving up Ingram or Shoebox. Hoping to speak fantasy into reality
Question. How can we get a free agent this offseason (let's say Hayward for the sake of argument) and still have cap space next offseason to sign PG13? By my math, even if we renounce the rights to Randle, we'd still need to shed a ton of salary somehow. A max deal to Hayward or Griffin puts us in the mid 90's. Sure we can stretch Deng or Mozgov, but that ain't freeing up enough room for George.
I'm with you, I just hope Rob's reputation as a shark holds true. We have little incentive to gut our team for George. We have incentive to gut our team for a star, but George is the one who is public about wanting to be here. That's why I'm saying focus on something else first because otherwise it's possible Larry Bird calls George's bluff. Will George really leave money on the table to go a worse team in a harder conference if he's about winning? Probably not. FA will be fascinating. I think part of Mitch and Jim's problem was they had no connections across the league and everything they had was circumstantial. They went to Aldridge with, "come here and someone else will come" and when he said "who?" they just shrugged. Rob has the plans laid out and I think they'll be able to be much more convincing in meetings that they're working towards a specific goal. I know most people aren't big fans of Lowry, but I think he'd be an interesting add. I believe we'll show interest in Chris Paul, but the Clippers I hear are going to throw 200 million at him.
There's always ways to free up money. The Lakers would attach future picks to bad contracts, trade away Clarkson and Brewer, etc. How do Miami and Houston spend every summer wooing FAs when they're usually cash strapped? We can figure out a way.
This "political correctness" is BS. Tell straight up, "im going to LA". Give Bird a chance to get anything in return. Like Clarkson, Deng and a pick. No need to gut the team you're about to play for...
We sign Hayward outright, AND trade for PG this off season including Deng in the trade (with Russel at least), along with whatever other moves to free up the cash, etc.. Remember, I said this is fantasy, but I want it to become reality.
I get the trade for him method, but I'm talking about the scenario where we sign a free agent this offseason to make the team attractive for PG-13 to come as a free agent. I don't see how it's financially possible without using a young asset attached to Mozgov or Deng to shed salary.
Paul George's playoff numbers this year: 43.0 MPG 39% Fgs 43% 3pt 87% FTs 28.0 points 8.9 rebounds 7.3 assists 1.8 steals 0 wins
