Lol. Sorry. I think Love will be a Laker. Just too much smoke blowing on that one for too long. I'd love it if we could somehow pry Jimmy butler from the mess up in Chicago, but I don't see it. Same for the other restricted guys unless Mitch and Jim whip up some kind of poison pill contract. I think we end up with Love and Carroll.
Actually, what I would see happening would be cutting Sacre, dumping Young, and probably looking for a more 'cost effective' wing; Afflalo for instance. So, instead of a paying $10-12 million for Carroll/Green, you get Aaron for $8 million. We'd still be operating over the cap. At that point, though, who cares when you're coming off the 2 worst seasons in franchise history and need to restore some credibility back to the team, you have a 3 billion dollar T.V. deal, and the main goal is upgrading the talent regardless of position to improve upon that meager win total. I think the Lakers spend big this summer and try to save $$$ where they can, but I don't think it's their number 1 priority. Winning is and they'll spend to get there...
To get that done, you gotta trade away Young, Kelly, and probably Randle too... That's the only way the salaries would work... Trade those guys for future picks or something... Let go of Jabari Brown and Robert Sacre... You've got maybe 8 million left... Yeah it ain't happening lol
I agree. I think we swing for the fences and try to get Love, Gasol, Aldridge, or maybe even Jordan or Dragic. The rest of the FAs will wait until those guys are taken care of anyway, so once we swing at them and miss we'll go after guys like Carroll, hopefully Tyson Chandler, Asik, Robin Lopez, etc. Then we try to find value picks like Wes Mathews, KJ McDaniels, Emeka Okafor, CJ Watson, maybe even Mo Williams if you're lucky. First things first though is the big swing.
Anything is possible with Mitch. Anything. We won't even have to touch Randle. Cap is going up 22 million next year and more so after that. The guy got Chris Paul and saved the team $40 million dollars. The guy got Steve Nash and Dwight Howard without giving up Pau. We'll have an upgraded wing player and a max if Mitch sees an opportunity.
I'm not CONVINCED, but if I was a betting man, I would bet on that. But with the signing of Love, I see our "wing upgrade" coming in the form of Randle and the 27th pick. Don't forget about the room exception. That would equal about what our remaining cap room would be in the Rondo scenario. I think we'd use that to either sign Rondo or Watson, the remaining room on another vet, and minimums for the rest.
I mean the guy is a genius, but he can only do so much. "Best" case scenario to add a max player and a starting caliber SF- 1. Trade away Young/Kelly//#27 for a future 1st rounder. Atlanta? That gives you an available 27.962 million. 1. Sign Love- 4/86.87 million (starts at 20.31) 2. Sign Deng- 3/21 million (starts at 6.68) 3. Sign Rondo- 2/7.549 million (Team Option 2nd Year) 4. Sign Ellington- BAE 5. Sign Price and Hollins at the minimum 6. Draftees are Towns/Jarell Martin Rondo/Clarkson/Price Bryant/Ellington/Brown Deng/Martin Love/Randle Towns/Black/Hollins Best I could do on short notice...
I like the team. Although, Deng has a player option for more money; also, not the ideal floor spacer. Also, I think Love could sign a 2 year deal for 38.9 million. He'd opt out but his first year salary would be 19.45 million. But that's the kind of team I'm looking for this offseason. Also, I'm not entirely sold on starting Okafoe/Towns Randle right out of the gate. That may take some time. Again, though, that's team is along the lines of what I want... For fun though, let's take a look at this metric on Rondo... This mostly normalizes for the quality of teammates and minutes played, giving you an idea of how many looks a player creates for others per game. If ever there was an argument for Rondo, this is it. Potential Assists Per 48 Minutes (pass that leads to a shot attempt) Rajon Rondo.......24.08 Reggie Jackson...19.69 Mo Williams........19.59 Steve Blake........18.03 Jameer Nelson....17.65 JJ Barea.............17.63 Ronnie Price........16.77 Jeremy Lin..........16.56 Brandon Knight...15.16 Beno Udrih.........14.98 CJ Watson..........14.46 Aaron Brooks......14.46 Norris Cole.........13.63 Goran Dragic......13.03 Cory Joseph.......12.59 Patrick Beverley..10.72 Kirk Hinrich..........8.89 Similar to the last stat, but adjusts for free throws and 3 pointers created. Based on actual points scored rather than potential points. Points Created by Assist per 48 Minutes Rajon Rondo.......30.3 Mo Williams........22.6 Reggie Jackson....22.3 JJ Barea..............22.1 Steve Blake.........21.1 Jameer Nelson.....20.5 Jeremy Lin..........18.8 Ronnie Price........18.0 Brandon Knight....17.3 CJ Watson...........16.2 Beno Udrih..........16.2 Norris Cole..........15.9 Aaron Brooks.......15.7 Cory Joseph.........15.2 Goran Dragic........15.1 Patrick Beverley....13.2 Kirk Hinrich..........10.4 I advocate upgrading the staff; but Rondo could be an extension of Scott on the floor; also, Kobe could help, too. 2 guys that are extremely knowledgeable, know each and every players tendencies, would help immensely. I'm more open to signing Rondo than I was in the past...
To me it's never been a question of Rondo's ability offensively. I know others have posted a thousand stats that will prove yours wrong (@thkthebest I'm lookin' at you), but for me it's all about Rondo's attitude. Can he and will he buy in? We've seen how effective he can be when he's playing at his best level, but who can get him there and keep him there? Is Scott that guy? Geez I really don't think so... Scott is great at molding young guys, but a set in his way character like Rondo? Look what just happened with Nick Young. Now Nick says all the right things and he and Scott get along off the court, but it's been a struggle getting him to commit on the floor at times. Rondo will provide that same issue tenfold. After researching this pairing I think Rondo could go one of two ways: Scott has always let his stars run the show. If Rondo feels like he's got a long leash, I could see this working just fine. BUT if Rondo doesn't feel like Scott is intelligent enough with his coaching, Rondo will turn on him in an instant. Then you add in Rondo's inability to shoot the ball, his declining defense, and the fact that he'd have to share the ball with young guys and a ball-dominator like Kobe... There's a lot not to love about it. If we can get him for cheap and we can get him to buy in, then I'm in. It certainly seems like a good match for Rondo. There won't be that many suitors this summer and he needs the chance to rebuild his image. The Lakers just need bodies so if he's interested in playing nice, we need to be open about it. As for Love- if I were him, there's not a chance in hell I gamble on a two year deal. We've had this discussion, but I just for the life of me don't imagine a scenario where a guy who gets hurt as often as he does turns down guaranteed money right now. It'd be the dumbest gamble since we gambled on Nash staying healthy. Or since Dallas gambled on Rondo. He really NEEDS the guaranteed money and I think we'd be happy to give it to him.
Agreed with Rondo. Yeah, I think we'd give it to Love, too. He's going to opt out of his current deal regardless. He gets more money by opting out instead of opting in even if he does stay in Cleveland.
I must admit I'm liking the idea of going after Chandler more and more everytime I think about it; familiarity with Scott, fantastic screener, still a very good defender and rebounder, etc. You keep Lin who played with Chandler in New York when he was successful and/or get Rondo, and I'm loving the high/screen roll action everytime. Heck, Kobe could look fantastic with him even at his advanced age.
Yeah my favorite off-season last year was using our cash to grab more solid players, but we didn't. Now it makes no sense NOT to spend our money. Who needs room for 2.5 max contracts next summer? It's a waste of time and resources. We're getting SOMETHING this summer, whether that's a home run or not. My favorite scenario though is quickly becoming one where we grab two nice veterans and keep our picks. Carroll- 13 million Chandler- 8 million Filler up with the rest Clarkson/Watson/Price Bryant/Ellington/Brown Carroll/Young/Martin Randle/Black/Kelly Chandler/Okafor/D. Johnson Good mix of veterans and youth. Health gets us to the playoffs and we've got time to develop the youngsters behind solid veterans.
