2019/20 Players' Transactions: Breaking News , Trades, Free Agents, And Rumors

I'm personally pretty damned impressed with the offseason we had, and I feel confident we'll do nothing but improve in the offseason.

A little prayer...



And a little magic....



Goes a LONG WAY.

 

this is EXACTLY why i wasn't a fan of the D-Lo trade at the time it happened. We are putting too much pressure on ourselves to nail 2 superstars next summer...the caveat is one isn't coming without the other and if 2 of our top 3 targets are suddenly not available (PG and Westbrook)...then LeBron ain't coming by himself.

I dunno why people are NOT worried about this. What you gotta understand is this:

Melo has never played on a team as stacked as OKC.

He's also never played with this good of a defensive unit.

Historically, when he has played with a rim protecting big and a great point guard, he's flourished.

Now? He's got the rim protecting big, a SUPERSTAR MVP point guard, a SUPERSTAR 2-way wing, and a 1st team all defender in Roberson.

So all this talk about Melo not playing D....guess what? He can take the worst player on the opposing team while the other 4 cover for him.

Also, Melo IS a scorer. Guess what his role will be for OKC? SCORING! Because who else do they have on their roster to score?

Melo is probably the 2nd best 3rd option in the league behind Klay Thompson. He's going to average 20 efficient points per game this year due to all the attention being on Westbrook and PG13.

Also, look at how Melo has played with other superstars in the olympics and all star games...look at the box scores and you'll see Melo quietly puts up 20-25 points on like 11-16 shooting with 4-5 OPEN threes. He is a KILLER when he plays with other superstars.

I expect OKC to be in the WCF against the Warriors but I really really hope I'm wrong. Oh, and they match up really well with the Warriors too. Not sayin they'll beat them, but all it takes is a draymond suspension or a KD knee injury or a Steph injury for one or two games in the playoffs and anything is possible.

Alternatively, one good thing for us is this: if OKC suffers any injuries to their starting 5, they're screwed. They got 0 depth right now.

But please, stop acting like this doesn't matter for us. It does, and it could go south for us very quickly. Just read Paul George's comments on the trade and how he's feeling about OKC as an organization. If that doesn't have you worried, you are living in a fantasy world.

Lastly, EFF small market teams and owners. The fact that OKC got PG13 and Melo while giving up exactly ZERO core players and ZERO first round picks is blasphemous. IF the Lakers did this, everybody would be calling for the trade committee. Such BS!!!

 

Superteams don't always work out.

Nash
Kobe
Metta
Pau
DHoward

everyone in the league was like, "that's not even fair"

barely squeaked into the playoffs and Kobe snapped his achilles carrying them on his back. There's a chance some of these folks are available at the deadline, but either way, I'm convinced our office had a great grip on about 10 alternative plans to keep us improving to get to the next level.

We aren't winning jack with a 20 year old PG though, so we don't have to nail it all down this Summer. It won't be the end of anything. I'd rather we get the right guy than feel like we have to overpay the Dengs and Mozgovs of the world.

 

and I think we are really going to surprise some people and be fun to watch

 

this team wasn't able to pull it off either....



one badly timed injury, etc, and it doesn't take much to upset the balance of things.

 

If it would have taken Ball or Ingram still glad we did not.

 

remember me?

 

and we lost Horace Grant. Dang fatty Scott Williams.

 

I think this is exactly right, from a personnel/success point of view. The only reason I don't want us to whiff on these guys is because I don't like the effect it will have on the perception of our team, which is going to be crucial in future seasons. The Lakers NEED to go back to being the franchise everyone wants to play for. You don't build dynasties without being able to woo whichever free agents you want or need in the off-season. You don't always need big stars; sometimes you just need a couple solid role-players to fill-in some gaps. But you need those available role-players to feel like the Lakers are the crown jewel of the NBA, or else they'll go to the Spurs or the C Bags or whichever other teams are the marquee franchises of the day (these days its the Warriors). There's no question we lost that status during the last few years of the Jimbo era. The last few off-seasons were downright embarrassing. I think we all (including the media) feel like Magic and Rob started turning the tide just by being here in lieu of Jim/Mitch, and I think they made a lot of moves this off-season that went a long way to prove we're in good hands and the Lakers are a desirable location again. But if we turn up dry in the summer of 2018, people around the league (including the players) will wonder if we really know what we're doing, and it may delay our return to being at the top of everyone's list of preferred destinations.

 

I'm in pretty much lock step with you on things and have been for awhile. You read my mind. LOL.

Without George, and under the assumption we get James, I'm fascinated how we would go about building the team. As much as I'm for James, he will be older and on the decline.

Going to look at the 2018 list again...

 

my point, then and now, is that you don't make the dlo trade unless you KNOW that space is going to be useful. i questioned whether we could know that at the time, and i hoped that we had a paul george trade lined up that would make sense (the randle/clarkson/picks offer is what i was thinking). when i saw we didn't have that, i got nervous. and now we're seeing that i had good reason to be.

 

Maybe if someone can snatch D-Fish Man and we can enhance interrogate him a little (severe tickling till he can't stand it?) ..... so he spills the beans on what his inside source let him know about DLO behind the scenes "that trust him you don't want that (though not illegal) on the team"..... it would further help clarify why the move was made.

Trying to get rid of Mosgov AND Deng at the deadline or end of the season without getting totally boned by everyone not wanting to see us clear cap space for 2 superstars was a near impossibility. Boom Magic and Rob got the best one of the two out of the way while Lopez was available in whatever short window, signed perhaps a better all around fit at the 2 with KCP, at least for this year with the progress needed, and with the additional 1st round pick drafted a 2 way player in Kuzma that will maybe be ultimately a more valuable player than DLO to the team. On its own that trade stands up strategically IMO whether we get PG or not.

 

Guess we should be so lucky now to sign lbj, i dont care if pg stays in okc, he'll regret sooner than later nrealize sane thing kd realized

 

Also at this pt i would like to have lbj/dmc myself, lbj has shown he can keep nut jobs in check like smith, so he can keep dmc in check n if randle blows up like we hope, he n dmc are close due to uk connection, yes i know davis has that same connect too. But always thought dmc was an la type of player