When Kawhi, Melo, and Wade are signed, I would have been closest. Never would have predicted Lance AND McGee. My goodness.
This is way, way better then last year, but... No real back-up PG, no real starting C. Not enough 3-pt threat. With existing roster I guess we still can rank around 3rd in the West and in the league)))) Def. a deep playoff team, but needs more polishing to become contender.))) Polishing to be completed in 2019?))))
3 point shooting WILL be better. It is definitely a necessity. No shooting no wins these days. With that said FT shooting will continue to be awful. The guys we signed are all terrible from the line. The players we had were mostly terrible too. That's a huge huge issue for me especially in tight games. Terrible ft shooting is also indicative of subpar shooting in general.
Can a mod please edit the thread title to "rotation" rather than roster. We have crazy depth and some training camp battles coming up. Svi needs minutes. Hart needs big minutes. Maybe lance and Ingram play some point guard. Maybe rondo plays at sg. This is a really interesting roster. What do you all think?
I think we'll have some unhappy players and fans, and there will be some unexpected surprises. And I'd say Luke has his work cut out for him.
I'm thinking right now: Lonzo (25)/ Rondo (23) Pope (25)/Hart (23) Ingram (33)/Stephenson (15) LeBron (33)/Kuzma (15) McGee (15)/Kuzma (15)/ Wagner (18) Ten deep rotation for most of the season makes sense I think. The Kuzma/LeBron rotation is sort of interchangeable. I think we'll have small ball lineups out there pretty often. At some point in the season, I think we're going to really think about moving Stephenson out to make room for Svi who looks like he could be ready sooner than the Lakers thought. The point guard spot will be a "hot hand" situation, but I think Lonzo eventually wins the starting job. Hart could easily eat Pope's minutes and/or start in Pope's place if his trajectory continues. As it is, when we go to our bench, nothing is slowing down. If anything we're going to hit the gas and go harder.
I don’t know how much value Lance would have in a trade and with any injuries to the 1-3 positions and he could still find decent minutes even if Svi surpasses him. This is a very good (and long absent) problem for us to have.
Well it wouldn't be for a big value, probably just a 2nd rounder (even a protected one) or something. Sort of like what Cleveland did for Wade last year but on a smaller scale. Or what we did for Brewer by cutting him even. I believe in Svi that much though, the kid looks real. Let's see where we're at in February, and of course there's no urgency if everyone is happy, but if we could be better by sitting Stephenson and he's not happy about that then we should trade him.
Definitely trade him if he’s not happy. I’m optimistic that everyone will end up playing an important role and winning will cure any potential unhappiness with those roles. I totally agree about Svi and if he can continue his SL play then I’d already have him ahead of Lance on the depth chart.
I think lance's value is playoff toughness. Svi may get some regular season minutes, more than lance at some point. But playoff time is what we signed lance for, imo. KCP is the odd man out, I'm afraid. He's not going anywhere because of rich paul. It's ok though. Not like he's dead weight. The good news is that if/when we lose these guys after their 1 yr deals are up (and we sign Kawhi), we have svi and hart dirt cheap for awhile, getting plenty of minutes. I hope we resign rondo though. I have a feeling he retires a laker. If he gets us a chip and resigns. My first ever lakers jersey purchase is gonna be a rondo.
Pope is a way better player than Stephenson though. Stephenson is probably the worst player we signed, which isn't a bad thing. We just did really well with our signings. Pope is a better shooter and defender by a good margin.
Oh no doubt. I don't know how to argue this quantitatively, but I think lance's relentless borderline dirty craziness may have more value than KCPs talent against two mentally weak playoffs teams in Houston and gsw.
Lance is useless and TRD depth chart shows it , he is also not a 3 . Lebron will definetely play some 3 and won't be very thrilled to be forced to play so many minutes at the 4 ( read guard the opponent 4 , this is why Kuz will play a lot with him and guard the PF position ... or Ingram might not start , I know would be crazy but ....) It's nice to have a small ball unit as an option , not to be forced to play small ... Lakers FO forgot how important rim protection is , only McGee can do such a thing for 12-15 minutes a game, we're going to get KILLED in the paint defensively unless a decent big is acquired
