Rumor is Rondo wants to come back and the team and higher-ups like him too. So, sadly, we’re probably playing him to keep him happy.
This more reasonable. I don't like the jack up 3s game much either. It has created offenses that pretty much look like college offenses where the ball gets rotated around the outside until someone is open for a three. I agree that we can't contend with the GS model from a shooting perspective, but we need SOME shooting. We had zip, zero zilch. I think this summer will be nuts though. I think both Kyrie and KD are leaving to New York. Kawhi is going to be on the Clippers with someone else (Butler maybe? Do they try to bring back Harris?). All we really need is one more star and we join several teams with 2 stars and good role players. A realistic team might be trade Kuz, Ball, Hart, our first this season, and two future firsts for AD. Sign Vucevic for 20 million. Resign Rondo with the Room exception. Not a bad starting 5 of Vucevic, AD, Lebron, Ingram and Rondo.
You had me until Rondo. Can’t have Rondo back. He’s not a starter anymore, all he does is put up empty stats because he has the ball so much. He can’t space the floor, he’s looking injury prone and will be 34 next year, his defense is garbage, his turnovers are awful, and his rating or whatever when playing with LeBron is horrible. They joked on one Lakers podcast yesterday that you have to be really bad to make any lineup with LeBron going into negative PER or +\-, whatever it was. I would sign almost literally any other PG that can shoot decently, play solid defense, and doesn’t pound/dominate the ball.
Thanks Magic for doing Zu a solid, your player relation skills are on fleek https://www.yahoo.com/sports/ivica-zubac-lakers-fans-want-140100161.html
I do not like Rondo either. I was just thinking more along the lines of what is likely to happen. My #1 choice for that team is Patrick Beverly, but I suspect he will resign with the Clippers for a reasonable deal.
Yeah I saw that. I don't think there's an ounce of malice in Zu, he's just super happy to be given a chance and he's going to blow up being a Clipper now. S***!! But I gotta ask ....... "fleek" ??
A couple of the Twitter rumor guys were throwing out the possibility of Beal along Kawhi. In that hypothetical, is Davis even possible?
Pretty good listen. Brian Windhorst interview on the Silver Screen and Roll podcast. Talks LeBron, Lakers coaching candidates, the roster mistakes made this year/Magic & Pelinka, free agents he’d like to see us go after, Anthony Davis situation, etc. http://dcs.megaphone.fm/VMP3211236899.mp3?key=ef8302d275f67104559cb03377ae391e
Beal and Davis making the same bag (27.1m), so you can reroute Beal for AD. But that's why I never understood the BI for Beal approach.... BI should only be used to trade for an absolute stud (cause dude has the most potential of our current group, to be one himself). Imagine giving BI the high usage looks DLo and Jules are getting right now...then consider the defensive end. Also I get why fans can't trust an old cbag...but let's not forget Rondo had 2 corrective surgeries on his dominant hand and still has the same usage rate and Ast/TO rate as Zo did this year. He did that with a mangled hand folks. I still think the Rondo move was solid for not only Zo, but BI as well. If we can somehow transition dude to a suit and joining the bench, Im totally for it. I agree we can't keep giving dude 9m per tho. But if he came back on a multi year room exception deal (4.4m)... I wouldn't mind that approach one bit.
I don't think there is any scenario where I want Rondo back. Caruso has outplayed him for all but a couple games where Rondo was retro Rondo for a couple hours. Caruso will also cost significantly less because he doesn't have Rondo's history. If all we do is sign Kawhi and don't make a trade, I think Caruso is actually plenty in terms of backup PG. Ingram, Lebron and Kawhi can bring the ball up, and in crunch time, it'll likely be Lebron regardless even if Lonzo is on the floor. Rondo is just a terrible player at this point. His hand wasn't mangled. He had an injury, but that mangled hand would not have effected his defense where he basically leaves us playing 4 on 5.
mangled hands or not, doesn't take away from the fact hes a TERRIBLE defender, careless with the ball and is an extreme stat padder that gives up wide open layups for himself in favor of passing it somewhere else for a more lower % shot so he can get his Asst #'s
Well given the state of the Wizards I’m not sure it would take Ingram. I also think Beal is pretty underrated right now and would fit well with LeBron and potentially Kawhi.
EtG: if you can get Beal without BI and/or Zo, then I'm all for it. I've been in constant agreement with most of your recent posts, whether they be critiques or commentary. So I'm not against the notion of Beal. However, I would rather we use any of our trade capital towards AD first. That should be the priority with Beal the contingency in terms of trades. In terms with free agency, I'm sticking with Kawhi over KD or whoever. Kawhi and AD are my personal endgames. Now we gotta figure out how to get the reality stone to make it so. Savs: 2 corrective surgeries implicates a mangled dominant hand bro haha. Still for our team he's top 3 in 3pt%, steals and Ast/to ratio. That being said, he's trash in defense this year, but with a worthy rim protector on the 2nd unit (like DJ or Boogie moving McGee to the bench), I think Rondo still could have done impact on that end. But offensively he was the dude this year. Btw, Caruso is RFA by default from that 2way contract (so is Williams), so if we want to keep him, then we can. But I still have a problem with just Caruso backing up Zo, which is why I wouldn't mind Rondo back at a lower price point.
Why though? Caruso has been better than Rondo this year. Caruso will be cheaper, and if we sign Kawhi, we'd have Lebron/Ingram/Kawhi all capable of initiating the offense if Zo got hurt or needed to go to the bench. I see no value in Rondo for this team. And Rondo being top 3 on our team in 3 point percentage is about as impressive as being a better free throw shooter than Shaq.
Until Zo can prove he can play 70 deep into a season, I just can't trust a rotation of Zo-Caruso. I know BI and our stars can pick up the slack at point, but I rather they focus in getting (or staying) elite at the wing. With BI, Kawhi and Bron's health, I just don't think it's a good plan to put more on their plate when it's not necessary to. Zo's injury history would also mean he takes on more with just Caruso back there. Part of what drove most of us crazy with Luke's rotations is that we had bodies to use in preemptive injury prevention, but chose not to play those dudes more minutes. Rondo isn't the only option at backup PG, but I do like his coaching potential where he can join the bench later and teach our players how to bring their inner dog out.
