2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

lol, if paul wants to come for the MLE, sure. but he's not opting out of 44 million dollars to sign for 10. or even a 3-year deal (max possible at his age, right?) deal in that range. that would be silly.

and forget THT for westbrook. get out. it's not even that i think THT will necessarily be a star. it's that russell westbrook is a radioactive contract.

and his salary is so huge that it would eat up all of our paths to improvement just to get him here. earlier, i was pitching the idea of moving kuz/trez in one deal for an impactful player and s&ting schroder in another. to get russ, you have to basically use it all. and it's not like he's been helping teams win lately.

i'm starting to resign myself to the idea that one of westbrook/wall/walker will be here, with us using kuz and schroder as the primary pieces to get them.

 

yes, i'm already bracing mentally for one of them to be on the roster

 

These recent big name point guard rumors tell me a couple things...1)Bron wants to do less of the heavy lifting as the primary ball handler. 2) Rob and/or Bron are eager to move on from Dennis.

There hasn't been this many potentially available star PGs in a long, long time whether it's via trade or free agency.
Dame, CP3, Russ, Lowry, Conley, Simmons, Wall, Rose, Kemba, Ball... thats 1/3 of the league. It's a shame we have limited assets at the moment because it'd be a great time to pounce.

 

i'm pretty much against anyone that has to come via S&T. would just really hurt flexibility and possibly cost us half the rotation. it's troubling to think the FO thought we were that far off from winning this year. i really disagree.

so for me, ball, lowry, conley, and rose are out (unless rose wants taxpayer mle, which i doubt). now, paul has already pulled the thing where he opts in and gets traded, so that's certainly not off the table.

but again, these are high-dollar guys who are old and either have been or are likely to be serious injury risks. after the season we had, wouldn't investing in some more durable players make sense?

even the ones i can talk myself into (wall/kemba/russ) still really worry me.

i've excluded lillard from my discussion because that's simply not happening.

 

And Horry's shot had played a big part of that. They were doing just fine up 'till that. Peja and Christie's shots came after Horry sucked the wind out of that team with that dagger. Especially Peja's shot, you just can't explain a sharpshooter missing that badly with anything else than massive fear. The Lakers were in their heads. Even shown the following preseason, Christie sucker-punches Fox and then runs around proud of himself like he just beat Tyson.

 

Yeah number 2 is really telling because Shroeder was capable of doing number 1 and we have his Bird rights.

 

Here's what I think...they expect everyone to be and get better. Everyone but the Clippers. Bron is a year older and based on the timeline he gave during his Smartless podcast interview, he wants to Brady it and play into his early 40s. To make that happen, the miles per season have to drop. He doesn't believe in load management, so it's going to continue to be in game management. Dialing it up as needed. Hopefully not having to reenter the game after 4th quarter leads have been pissed away. They were hoping DS would help. He didn't. He went MIA most of the time he was out there with the other 4 starters. That requires a real leader at the point and who's alpha enough th not hide on the court when AD and Bron are playing.

I'd stay away from Ball and it doesn't seem like we think there's any chance at Conley. But the rest, I'm OK with. Rose would be the only one coming off the bench, but with his usage and minutes, he'd be playing starters minutes. Yes, some on the list have a history of injury concerns. But especially coming out of these past two seasons, who is healthy or durable anymore? I think the best way to address that is to lessen the work load. If any of those PGs are your 3rd best player, everyone's life gets significantly easier.

I think the most realistic is Westbrook. That's a disgusting contract, but is it worth taking on for 3 years (maybe 2... maybe you can shed him as an expiring in year 3 if you have to) for another ring and prolonging Bron's career? I'd say it is.

You let Russ run wild during the regular season getting his triple doubles, then Bron and AD are fresh for the playoffs. His shot is scary come playoffs, but at that point you're trusting Rob and Bron to get us shooters to fill out the roster. Honestly, I include a pick swap in that rumored deal and try to get Kispert at 15

One thing I will give to Russ and that's mad respect for his attitude and killer instinct. He goes 110% and doesn't quit. That fire and competitive spirit if guided and corralled by Vogel and Bron can be a deadly thing.

 

Looks like we're interested in bringing back Bullock

Goes on to say they have his early bird rights, si they can start him off around $10.3m

He's too pricy for us. Not unless Bron and (since one of the selling points is his friendship with Paul) potentially CP3 could talk him way off that price tag. I think we'd have a better shot at another former Laker, Ellington.

 

yeah, i can see the point, but i still disagree.

much like AD not wanting to play the five, lebron not wanting the ball makes him less valuable. and maybe that's just the fate of the team. but none of the guys we're talking about are actually good enough/healthy enough to do the things we want: carry the team effectively instead of lebron and AD.

this, like many conversations lately, goes back to the "third star" discussion. i've always contended that when you have lebron and AD, you don't need a third star. if you do, it means lebron and/or AD are no longer superstars. if our assumption is that, you might as well move the one that's not and get your middleton/holiday tandem to replace them.

personally, i'd be looking for someone more like terry rozier than russell westbrook. costs less and may actually come closer to doing the job we need. also, isn't likely to be unavailable at the times we would need them most.

one thing i will say is that i think all these contracts (wall/westbrook/walker) end in 22/23, so none of them doom you forever. but they could effectively end lebron's prime with a third of your payroll in streetclothes for long stretches.

tl;dr: we shouldn't need another player who gets paid 40 million per year. and if we get one, he shouldn't be one on his last legs.

 

btw, for those playing this game, i just realized something problematic: if schroder's first-year pay is greater than 18.8 million, it triggers BYC in S&T scenarios, which is pretty thorny. essentially, don't calculate any S&T scenarios in which schroder doesn't make between 15 and 18 million, as that will be his outgoing value from us in trade. now, as part of a huge deal for a bloated salary like the ones above, maybe the sheer size of the deal can overcome this issue. but in short, kuz/schroder wouldn't be enough to get someone making 40 million per. you'd have to either get trez to opt in and get traded or add kcp.

just more reasons to be concerned about s&ts, this time from our end.

 

I think that's just the thinking of today's players. Honestly I much prefer Bron and AD's ideology vs. Kawhi/PG. The old saying is sometimes the best ability is availability. I'd rather AD play an easier spot or Bron not have to be relied on every possession to bring it and either score or set the table. That way come post season they can be at their best vs. watching from the owners box as your team gets beat down.

I don't necessarily disagree that we don't NEED a 3rd star and could add depth instead, but they want one. We're star chasers. Lakers want the household names and Bron is the same way with his recruiting.

The counter to your argument that needing a 3rd star means Bron/AD aren't superstars and we should move on is the Brooklyn Nets.

Also you do trust Rozier to not DS it? I'm not sure I do. And by that I mean someone who overly defers to the point you start asking why the f*** are you on the court? Not everyone is cut out for playing next to Bron/AD caliber players. An alpha 3rd star would be tough. None a one of these star PGs who we're reportedly interested in would blink twice about being on the court with them.

Based on the names linked to us, I can gather that we're prioritizing a PG who can create for himself and for others at an elite level. DS trying to get the ball into the post or initiate anything was embarrassing. The fact that someone with his limitations as a PG wants north of $100m is mind blowing. Maybe if this was the Deng/Mozgov summer, but it's not.

On the flip side, they could greatly increase your chances at a ring. Is a ring and extending Bron's career worth being saddled with a massive contract? I think so. And by getting a 3rd star, even at that price point, you're even more attractive to ring chasers. So you're relying on that $40m buying you a high level recruiter to join forces of our Klutch mob + Rob.

And as a said earlier, with the injury prevention approach from our two lead horses, I think our best bet is to lower their on the court dependency. So add a Westbrook, who has missed more than 18 games once (2014) and you have a regular season force who's going full tilt for at least 3/4 the season.

 

Pincus on a path to CP3....

Basically, if he wants to come here the opt in and trade is his best bet. But why would the Suns help us? Meaning a 3rd team would probably have to be involved.

Also, latest is Trezz might not be opting out

 

right and the 44 million makes it tough, too. phx isn't in the position the clips were when they were basically forced to dump paul for middling role players (ironically, including trez) in that if paul opts out and walks, phx has real spending power on the FA market that they probably think would be put to better use than signing schroder/kuz/trez. maybe not, but i'm guessing that would be their view.

the wizards are in a similar situation but don't have much luck in FA historically (players seem to want to go to phx more than washington), and they didn't just go to the finals, so maybe they consider westbrook for that package more seriously than i think phx considers it.

kemba's salary is small (lol) enough that we wouldn't need to move three guys for him.

edit: the more i think about it, the more confident i get that our best bet is to use the taxpayer mle to sign a center, convince trez to opt in for trade or just to run it back, and re-sign all of our guys (AC, THT, and yes, DS).

still think a big one or two-year deal for DS is optimal. 25 million for one year would be my hope.

why do it this way instead of swinging for a big name in the summer: feasibility. December 15th hits and pretty much everyone (save maybe THT, depending on how exactly he's signed) becomes moveable. i *think* byc is only for S&Ts, so the difficulties surrounding moving schroder now are gone in a few months.

 

Interesting insights from our friends in Philly. Have to run in a few mins so will update more details later (send me a private message for any quick questions), but the big thing on their mind is that they are anticipating trouble moving Simmons. Would not be surprised to find Morey as bald as Doc Rivers at the start of the season Unrelated: Morey and Pelinka seem to be pretty friendly for 2 competing GMs.

Bye for now!

 

How about Patty Mills .... per random Yahoo Guy and random gambling site?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/odds-lakers-next-point-guard-190430919.html

 

yeah, could totally see it. him or dj augustin or some other placeholder type. mills would really interest me; love his attitude/approach.

he doesn't fit the bill that everyone is always trying to tell me lebron wants: ball-dominant floor general.

but i don't think that's what we need at all. if we could get a year of prime-type production out of mills as the 20-25mpg starter with ac/tht/kcp eating up the other 72 minutes, i think we're good on guards.

go get gorgui dieng for the min, send drummond packing, and secure a TE for schroder. not sexy, but solid. like 1st place solid.