I have a few problems with Lopez. 1) His scoring will inevitably go down. He was playing on the undisputed worst team in the league last season. He's not going to get the minutes (Luke, you know likes to limit those) or the touches he did in Bkn. 2)He's not going to be here after this season. We're not in about position to make any noise this year, so he's basically a non-factor in future plans. 3)Zubac will no longer be closing games. The kid needs time, and this is going to cut into that. The good news? This will improve Zubac in practice, having to defend Lopez and trying to score on a shot blocker.
I've quickly become the Lopez defender (even though it's possible he ends up somewhere else after all this so it may be moot) but here goes! 1. Eh. So what? His scoring may go down to 17-18 points per game, but his assists will also likely increase to 3-3.5 per game, maybe even more if we do it right. And honestly I'm not sure his scoring goes down all that much. No he's not on the worst team in the league anymore, he's on the third worst team! We still don't have any legit scoring options so we actually will be relying on him to get things done. 2. So what? if he's not in our plans, so be it. We get big cap room for a big addition. If he is in our plans, then great! We have his Bird Rights and the ability to offer him more money or at least more years. He's only 29 years old with a game that should age fairly gracefully (relative to his position). 3. Who knows if that's true? We may end up having Zubac close games for us anyway. We don't actually know what the rotation will look like. Not to mention Zubac needs a ton of time to develop. He's got great tools, but he was horrendous defensively last year. I don't know if I want him closing games if we're trying to win those games.
We've had cap room. No one wants to be on the Lakers. Best choice is adding through trades, but they got rid of a major trading piece to dump salary.
I also don't see how his assists increase. Our offense was already pathetically predicated on iso ball, and now with no playmaker, it's only going to get worse.
i'll defend lopez: he's a beast on offense. can score all over the floor, not a dumb player, either (though not a passer, which may be an issue for luke). his d may be underrated. he's not going to step out on the pick and roll, but he can go vertical and defend the rim, and can defend the post. zubac is still a year away from being a year away, imo. good to have a competent center to learn from. and there are minutes to go around at that spot. the downside is that it's unlikely he's staying, and he has a troublesome injury past (yes, i know he's played a lot--it's the nature of the injuries-he has the kind that don't go away). i suppose another silver lining is that the lakers will have his bird rights should they strike out in FA next year. btw, none of this justifies the dlo move, imo.
Yeah under a different regime and if nobody wants to be on the Lakers why is it George wants to play here so badly?
I was saying the same thing yesterday, but apparently Russ wasn't a major trading piece. Word was we couldn't even get a lottery pick for him. Then again it wasn't clear if we couldn't get a top 15 for JUST him, or him and Mozgov. Report was we couldn't get the 9th from Dallas for him and Moz I think, not sure about Russ alone. Either way, his value in our eyes does not appear to have been his actual value. I didn't want to trade him, but apparently the FO didn't like him so it was gonna happen, and I'm getting over it. Lopez and the 27th plus dumping Mozgov has grown on me as a pretty even trade for both sides.
Not so major since no one wanted him. Not high picks from anyone offered up. Ireland was all over himself today that Magic and Rob so quickly pulled off getting rid of Mozgov and pulling back a talented starting center in the league, if only for one year or piece further in the George dealings. Salary dump yeah but that's clearly not all that was accomplished. Russ was damaged goods in everyone's mind in the league apparently at this point. http://www.yardbarker.com/nba/artic...no_9_pick_for_dangelo_russell/s1_127_24214003 And the no playmaker left (meaning Russell) .... as Lakers2015 said, are you forgetting who we are reportedly drafting in Ball??
A rookie pg isn't going to be our saving grace. I'm just afraid this is going to be a return to name chasing at all costs.
I think best case scenario is George comes over, we sign another all-star next offseason, and Lopez re-signs for a decent deal. Lopez is a pretty solid player, I think people are too down on him because of his past injuries and that he played for the Nets.
I liked Russell's game but very hard to argue against this post. Lopez is going to be a big plus. Coaches love constant effort guys. Hard to coach players that only bring it part of the time.
I'd share the fear, but Pelinka is too smart and too much of a shark to not already know he's got at least one in the bag. George will be a Laker either today or next summer, but it's happening. We don't start pulling the trigger like this unless we know it's going down or at least that we have a fantastic shot at it. You think all these rumors are an accident? There's way too much smoke right now. I know, I know. "We heard that with Love!" but we really didn't though. We heard he'd like to come back, but never an outright "I'm signing with the Lakers". It's never happened among all our attempts the last few years. Let the game play out. Let's see where this goes.
Nice thoughts guys. Why is nobody talking that with better surrounding talent and system hell hopefully shoot close to 40% from 3 if last year was his first year actually chucking them up consistently?
