Lawson by far. His contract is for another two years at essentially the cap hold price Dragic would be if we traded for him. Saves us from offering someone a max deal that doesn't deserve it.
I'm IN for Ty Lawson if he's available. Will also cost us MUCH less to keep him. I also like that he's just a thug on the court.
@fabfourlakers but it'd cost considerably more to get him than Dragic because Lawson hasn't put Denver in the position Dragic put Phoenix in (nor does he have the leverage). A lot can change between now and the deadline, but I think Lawson would be a more difficult get.
The only issue I'd have with trading for Lawson is that it might ruin our tanking plans. But I'd definitely rather have him under his current contract than the prospect of a maxed out Dragic. I don't see Denver just duping him for no reason, and there's no way I'd give up our only asset (the #1 pick) for him. If they want to take Nash's expiring and the Houston 1st rounder, then go for it.
@fabfourlakers the bucks, kings, and C Bags as well. I'd imagine most of the teams targeting Dragic have also had conversations about Lawson.
Wonder what it would take and whether we could swing McGee with Lawson (or do they not get along), I think lawson is a beard to try and drive down the asking from PHX. Would Den send the rookie big man with Lawson for Lin, Hou First Rounder and filler? That would be a steal
I don't see how we get Lawson. He's under contract at a decent price for multiple years, there isn't the worry that he'll walk like with Dragic, & he isn't forcing a trade in the media. It's going to take more assets to land Lawson. I'd definitely rather have Lawson than get Dragic & have to worry about him leaving in FA if we don't give him a max contract. I just think they'd demand Randle & I don't think Lawson is the player you give up Randle for. The only way I see us possibly getting around giving up Randle is taking on additional salary. We'd have to include Nash & take on McGee or Hickson. Again I think that's too high of a price to pay for Lawson. Lin, Hill, Nash, Kelly, Ed Davis, Clarkson, Sacre, Hou 1st, 2nd rounders <-- if they can put together a package they want for Lawson from that pool of assets, I'm all in. At 12.4M next season Lawson gives us a top 10 PG at a fair price to build around with enough space remaining to land another quality player. Maybe we could even get both Lawson & Dragic before the deadline & make a playoff run this season. We'd kill our cap space next season but we could still exercise our team option for Jordan Hill & use him for a FA in a sign & trade.
Im responding only because I'd laugh if we got lawson and dragic and then goran got pissed because our backcourt is too full for his liking...imagine the lakerfan backlash. I don't see how Lakers get lawson but would take McGee and Lawson if we somehow could get it - Lawson is trying to force his way out of Denver so the asking price might be lower than when Denver hung on to Carmelo for dear life. But I think the leak about Lakers interest in Lawson is effort to drive price of PHX down (as if to say - we have a deal in place over here - unless you lower your asking price).
Yeah that would be a shame if Dragic was turned off by the fact that we also got Lawson. If the reports are true that he wants the ball in his hands & to run the offense then it might be a dead idea, but it'd be entertaining to watch if it worked out. Lawson has always been an explosive scorer but he has made huge strides in changing his game to become a pass-first PG, & it's working out as he's 1 of only 2 PG's to average over 10 APG this season. Probably a bad idea to even attempt it with Goran wanting the ball though, you're right. I just don't like the idea of taking on McGee to get Lawson at all. I'm just doing some quick math but I think we'd only have something like 5M to spend in Free Agency depending on what happens with our draft picks & cap holds. Add Lawson, McGee, top 5 pick?. Subtract Lin, Hill, Davis?. I don't think that's a dramatic enough improvement for us to be a playoff team, & we wouldn't be bad enough to get a great draft pick. Unless Mitch pulled off some magic like picking up Hill's team option, then packaging him with Randle or our top 5 pick, we wouldn't be in much better shape than we are now.
i don't see us getting lawson. but playing this out - why do we need a free agent if we have mcgee, lawson, randle, kobe, young with bench of clarkson, kelly, HOU pick, and second round pick? I guess I am too optimistic that lakers would at least then have assets to make mid-season trades if the team did not gel and huge upside with guys like Syracuse Christmas and others on the roster for the bridge to the future and summer of 2016 (without putting it all into Dragic). My thought here is you win and build a dynasty by gambles. But I think asking price for Lawson is going to be more than what we have or are capable of giving. Lakers are trying to project they are not worried about 'whiffing' in summer of 2015 with this game with PHX. Truth? Best chance for dynasty rebuild is to suck for another year and keep drafting. Truth hurts sometimes but I think lakers (because of Kobe) will gamble on a wild trade if given the chance - but they won't give up Randle period, and probably won't move their protected unless they know they have two moves coming (guard plus a big) and keep their HOU pick.
Well, first of all I don't think we'd have all of that. You left out our top 5 pick so I'm assuming you think Lawson & McGee make us too good to keep it. We wouldn't have the Houston 1st because that's 1 of the few assets we have to offer Denver. Clarkson is probably the 2nd asset they'd want but maybe we're able to keep him. At the very least we'd have to give up Lin + salary filler + Hou 1st. So we'd have Lawson, Kobe, Young, Randle, Mcgee with a bench of Clarkson, Kelly, 2nd rounder, mini-MLE + minimum contracts. The only things that changed from this season are upgrading Lin to Lawson, downgrading Hill to McGee, & having Randle back healthy. Is that really that much of an upgrade from last season that we'd be a playoff team? Maybe if Randle plays like an Allstar, top 3 PF next season, which I see as extremely unlikely. Lawson is much better than Lin but enough to take a bottom 5 team to the playoffs? I have a rule of never counting a team with Kobe Bryant out, but that seems far fetched to me. In my eyes for us to become a playoff team in the West next season, we'd need an upgrade like Lawson or Dragic at PG, a starting SF good enough to move Nick Young to the bench, Randle to become a consistent 17/9 with above average defense, Kobe to stay healthy the entire season & be much more efficient, & a starting C that can give us around 30 MPG with a double double & rim protection, or a Mozgov level C to split minutes with Ed Davis. This isn't the mid 2000's when Kobe alone is enough to make the playoffs, the West is an arms race.
We need a good pg and a good center to make the playoffs, so we need a veteran point guard because no rookie point in the draft can lead this team. Also, I think only Okafor can qualify to be called good in this draft, so we need to get him or get either Hibbert or gamble on Brook Lopez.
I'd prefer Dragic honestly, but to each their own. I don't see how we could possibly get in on those sweepstakes anyway.
Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA ยท 3m 3 minutes ago Unless something else emerges between now and deadline, Denver is done dealing today, league source tells Yahoo.
