KCP has actually been efficient for us until this year. I get frustrated with his boneheaded plays like anyone else but it seems we always need a whipping boy and since Randle/Clarkson/DLo/BI are gone... the target has now moved to KCP. I'm annoyed that we paid 8 million for him as well, but he seems like he doesn't cause drama on the team and works hard. I agree Kuzma can improve and I hope he does. I'm mainly confused about how much people think Kuz will get better while KCP is so terrible. There is little difference between their production and efficiency and KCP would have the same amount of points if he shot as much as Kuz. Kuzma is 24 and KCP is 26... it's not like a huge age gap. As long as we don't pay Kuz a stupid amount, I'm fine with keeping him.
Lakers need one more impact player. I don't think its someone like Iggy. Needs to be someone like a Goran Dragic type player who can handle the ball and score consistently. Just one of those and they will win the title. I have no idea how they can get that guy by the deadline but, that's about it.
Well thats the main issue Is IT enough? Or defense is too poor? Patty Mills really enough? I'm not going to get over us giving up Wagner for nothing. Guy has been f***ing great this year and would be a great stretch big for us
Patty Mills is not enough. We have enough of those guys. IT's defense in the playoffs would be debilitating so no on him.
Replace Rondo with Darren Collison and you get a lot of your way there. If you look at positions the Lakers are really really strong up front C- McGee, Dwight, AD PF - AD, Lebron, Kuzma then you start running into some issue SF - Lebron, Kuzma, KCP - uggh SG - Green, Caruso, Bradley, KCP - uggh PG - Bradley, Caruso, Rondo - uggh, Cook - good O, no D OF the PG, SG, and backup SF - you can feel confident with Bradley, Green, and Caruso but none of the rest. What those guys lack is size and playmaking. Best case and somewhat realistic scenario is an Iggy buyout. He takes care of all of KCP's minutes and he fixes matchup issues with guys like Hield/Lenard/Donci etc. By far the most important. Iggy is a competent playmaker but the Lakers could use a guy who can run a PnR and that would be Collison. A rotation of Bradley/Collison, Green/Caruso, Lebron/Iggy, AD/Kuzma, McGee/Dwight is pretty much all you could ask for in terms of ability to match on defense still and run an offense that can exploit mismatches
Lakers need Goran Dragic. That's really the only guy in my head that would fit seamlessly to the current set up without breaking in time. He can shoot, run and offense, high bbiq and can get to the basket.
Not really sure how Dragic is acquirable to us. Green and a scrub would have to go out to come within the range to get him then that doesn't really jive with a salary dumping plan on Miami's part since Green has 2 years on his contract. Also we lose Green who is going to be important to us this post season.
You don't think Mills can be a FVV type of guy for us? Plug add Iggy, should be a legit contender (we somehow already are, but have flaws) Come playoff time: Avery, Green, Lebron, AD, Mcgee (yuck) Mills, Caruso, Iggy, Kuzma, Dwight If we go deep or even to the finals and are cutting rotation, maybe very very little Mcgee, if any. And very little to no caruso? Also depends on the matchup. If not, what about Bryn Forbes? Likely out of our budget range in terms of trade chips though. But maybe something like Cook (3rd team to send SAS a 2nd), our own future 2nd, and cash? Maybe throw in THT, but I would like to keep. But I think he is a really nice shooter off the bench who can even create, he starts for SAS. He is a poor defender, but maybe in a lineup with Green, Iggy, Lebron (playoff d) and AD he should be fine
On the Dragic front, you know Miami was ready to move him within that Butler S&t to Dallas, before Cuban backed out of it. After Dec. 15th teams can move free agents that signed this last summer. Green by himself can be moved for Dragic since we’re a non-tax paying team. Miami is pinned up against the cap apron and are hard capped, so shedding about 5m in salary (difference between Dragic & Green salary) will allow them to be more flexible in other follow up deals in regards to not breaching the apron. Plus Green is a Riles type player and green can’t be too mad with it...it’s South Beach. Don’t want to trade Green...well it’s tough to do it any other way. Of course there was a way to have both Green and Dragic along with some Miami draft incentive, but I’ll only rehash it if y’all interested in hearing about it haha.
Yeah. Trading Geen for Dragic is just filling time whole while opening another. Also, Miami is playing well enough that they're not gonna trade their second best player. If we could talk Darren Collison into coming out of retirement, that would be ideal. Doubt it though.
Wow...getting asked to rehash instead of rehush... Alright follow me...this gets trickier than the Avengers: Endgame timeline... Dallas had a S&t lined up for Delon Wright if they struck out on Green who was waiting on Kawhi. They also backed out the Butler S&t deal and speaking of backing our, a Klutch klient, Morris backed out his commitment to the Spurs. Free agents like Green and our own (ie Rondo, McGee, Kcp, Caruso) were waiting on Kawhi. Once Dallas backed out from the Butler trade, they were in play to compete with us for Green. The cLips got the Miami pick once Dallas backed out by taking on Harkless in the reformatted Butler S&t. That pick was then included in the George trade. Wild, right? All that happened this summer with contingency planning and altering supposed set timelines. But some here, don’t want to hear it. Our contingency was Green and just snatching up scraps from the free agency barrel. We could have told hard capped teams (there were 8 this summer) we’ll take on your salary dumps with our space if Kawhi doesn’t come. You would still have teams like Dallas, ATL, Memphis etc to push that salary onto. If you wait, we’ll even lessen pick protections on the picks you’ll include in the salary dump. By rule the AD trade couldn’t be completed till after the free agency moratorium lifted. Bottomline: our contingency could have been Dragic at 19.2m coming into our cap space and since we had a potential 34m to play with, that still leaves roughly 15m in cap space...for Green. We coulda had both. And for those adamant about a Klutch tax for Kcp, dude still could have got 4.8m via the room exception, which is all he coulda got if Kawhi took the max anyway. As for our other free agent signings, nearly all of them were so close to vet min salary anyways, that maybe the still come back on vet min deals. Are you glad you asked for it?
We’re playing hypotheticals...keep up haha. Our only legit assets are Green and Kuz and maybe Caruso and THT. Everybody else has pseudo 1yr deals and/or no trade clauses. We have no control in trading our future 1st rounders till 2025 at the earliest and our earliest 2nd rounder to trade is 2023. So if this roster still has needs that still need to be met for this year, we need other assets to really pull off a trade if we want to spare our valuable pieces...otherwise any substantial trade needs either Green or Kuz to be involved. We have no other immediate assets to pull off a deal that lands us a difference maker. Now low cost needs are far more likely at this point. Which is why Dudz and Daniels have to be on the bubble.
Understood. I think Green will be invaluable in the playoffs. But, to get someone like Dragic we would need salaries to match. Kuz ain’t going to do that... I’d much rather trade Kuz than Green tbh.
We don’t “need” anybody. We’re 10-2 despite playing sloppy on offense and not having had time to get yet. Yes, we would have to give up Green and/or Kuzma to trade in any meaningful trade ... which simply means a high profile trade just isn’t in the cards. Green for Dragic doesn’t help us that much. We’ll need Green more than Dragic come playoff time in my opinion. Make a move in the buyout market or play the hand we’ve been dealt.
If we lost three more games we'd be 5-5... and everyone would be looking to add a piece. If your main competition has two superstars and Lou Williams then it's natural to want your own LouWill. If Kuzma can completely fix his outside shot and get back to a 35/36% rookie season pace, then maybe we are fine. But if he and KCP can't maintain that efficiency then we will be a dollar short come playoff time. It's fair to argue we can't acquire that weapon without doing another stupid overpay... but I wouldn't make the argument that we don't need anyone because we do if our goal is a title. If our goal is to only make the playoffs then yeah, we're good.
