Lakers Looking At Khris Middleton

I’d be okay with him too.

 

i agree in principle, but the other danger is paying top-5 money for top-40 players. i'd rather find ways to break up the cash into multiple useful parts which could be combined in trade should the opportunity arise. we have a star in place and some good young players.

 

yeah, i'd be looking at contracts ending in 2020 that teams might want to get off of. cuz they'll be lakers.

 

And that's the rub... there's no doubt...zero...AD is the target. You want to trade for him to capitalize on Bron, but you can't cap yourself out a year in advance of him coming here. #2020plan haha.

But we do have this working in our advantage. You have a 1yr window to see which star player wants to pair with Bron and could work with Bron.

Let's say AD doesn't get traded to us and now it's waiting for him in 2020....you still got this upcoming 2019 free agent crop that are nearly all 8 yr players that will finish their 9th season next year. It is fiscally in their best interest to sign a 1+1 deal with any team this summer, cause they will all be bumped from 30% max players to 35% max players during the 2020 summer.

In the interim, you can see for 1yr which max level free agent is willing to come and pair with Bron and if he actually clicks with Bron. If he doesn't, then he moves on in 2020 and AD comes in (if we haven't already successfully traded for dude by next year's trade deadline).

It's actually beneficial to get that cap locked up before we turn our attention to an AD trade. You don't want to use the majority of it to trade AD's salary into, unless the Pels trade AD without taking back many of our kids (and they won't unless we throw 50 future 1st round picks at them (which we can)).

2020 is going to be the plan...not cause we're forced to wait on AD...it's cause all the max players this summer should do 1+1 deals. The only way they don't, is if they're scared of their own mortality. Ky and Kawhi are probably the only guys with legit health issues that may prompt them to secure a long-term bag...but that 35% bag is just too enticing andvrgey both still so young, so I really don't see them taking a long-term deal this summer.

 

Yeah. I understand our strategy, why we are holding on to cap space, and the dangers of overpaying second tier guys.

But the other issue is to continue bringing a team filled with one year vets who aren’t really vested in the teams long term success. The problem for us right now isn’t the kids IMO. It’s all these vets who are either over the hill or just don’t have much reason to go all out on the floor.

I’m not locked in on particular guys anymore. I just want to see us really build a roster.

 

I think the endgame was Bron/Kawhi/Jules once we heard Paula was favoring staying put.

Mintz in some weird power move didn't want Jules to take a blimped 1yr deal here with bird rights still in hand and the possibility of S&t'n Jules the summer of 2019 into space (a minimum of 15 teams will have 20m+ in cap space this coming summer) so that he could keep his bird rights with his new team. Any way you cut it, Jules lost money this year with the option of having larger year to year escalators ( 8% vs 5%, had he kept his bird rights).

So when Julles went sideways, now you don't have any real contingency for that capspace for that summer with the Boogie injury. Meanwhile 2019 has a grip of options.

The stop gap was a necessary evil..so you got to make the best of it.

I still think it was a blessing to not have a Bron + Paula pairing. She's obviously killing it this year, but clearly she can't handle the immense pressure of the LA market. Like Kob said, some just ain't built to be the headliner in LA.

But aside from that, let's say we signed oh girl to a deal....now AD wants out. Who pairs better with Bron? I think it's pretty obvious. So we essentially would be the cLips in signing Paula to a deal only to Blake her to get AD with her contract. Keep in mind, with Paula on the books you have no Kcp and/or Rondo contracts to pair with the kids to salary match for AD...so Paula and/or Jules has to be part of the package aggregated with the kids.

And then of course the Pels who would look to rebuild from an AD trade, would then look to absorb a maxed out 29 year old Paula...would they want that deal? They obviously valued Jules, but to a certain price point (otherwise we conduct a S&t last summer to bring in Rondo in exchange for Jules heading the other way on a larger contract)...so would the Pels want to trade for Jules on a 20m per deal? Last summer says no.

I know we wasted a year of Bron if we miss the playoffs...but I think our flexibility right now is huge for the amount of options that are possible this summer and beyond.

We know all too well that once you lock up cap, it's a b**** to get out of. Or are we too eager to make Zo the next DLo?

 

Yeah. I think Lonzo is gone but I suppose we will see. Teams are going to want Ingram and Kuz in trades. I hope we are smart about our deals