Yeah it was mostly given, but the Lakers were holding out hope they could exercise his option in a trade I think. That's alright though. I appreciate what Jordan brought here for most of his time as a Laker. I thought last year he fell in love with the outside jumper a bit, but he was always an upstanding professional. Good luck elsewhere sir! Also of note is that Woj brings up our desire to go after Aldridge, Love, and Dragic. He doesn't mention Gasol and Aldridge's name comes up first. I wonder how seriously we're in pursuit of him? Woj is the first guy I trust that has us linked to trying to get LaMarcus.
Hill's just not worth 9 mil to anyone. He's a solid big coming off the bench for a mid level exception at best.
Do we really want Dragic for 20 mil? Aldridge... 4yrs, 2 of them will be at his best then declining....Love.. I don't know...he can be great in the right situation...so many question marks on him. I kinda hope they pass on all three and wait a year to go after bigger fish.
Chances are we don't Aldridge, Love, or Dragic. I see Aldrige's game aging well; Love is an injury prone risk; Dragic? The metrics don't scream Max player, but I don't doubt the Lakers offer him the max...
I see Aldridge's game aging better than almost any other star as long as his knees stay healthy. I mean he doesn't get up very often or very high for that matter. He'll age like Dirk I think. I'd love LaMarcus, but that would certainly explain why Randle is taking threes and why the Lakers reportedly wanted Towns at first... Man this is interesting stuff. I wonder if getting Okafor changes their mind on getting Aldridge?
It won't change their mind. The key word I keep hearing Mitch use, 'impatient.' Lakers are impatient, fans are impatient, etc; It won't probably be an issue as LMA decides to take his talent to Texas.
Ugh. Those names again. The only one I actually like is LMA. But even with him - getting any of these three guys would necessitate moving one of our core youngsters, Randle or Clarkson to the bench for the foreseeable future (at least a few years) and would squash any type of serious development for them. Unless you move Randle out of position to the 3, which I really don't like as well. He's not a shooter that would work at the wing and with two bigs in Okafor and LMA there's just not much room left for him. I don't think I'm in the minority here as a Laker fan when I say let's bring on the youth movement. We know we probably aren't going to be making the playoffs for a little bit, but we can only go up from last year. Guys like Dragic (can't believe I'm hearing his name again) are going to take away valuable developmental time from Clarkson. I'd much rather spread the money out with a few guys, beginning with a Small Forward!!! Get a starting level SF, get a vet backup PG, a cheap SG such as Ellington, and a backup 4/5. It's not brain surgery guys. We have so many holes to fill right now, it makes zero sense to tie all our cash up in one name player. Especially if that name player occupies a position we already have filled with young, affordable talent that we should be developing.
Yep, a rebuild has to start from the ground up, not top down, or it's a reload. You only reload when you got a team that's already competitive.Get two or three quality FA's to mix in with the youngsters. Then play it out, see what ya got, Kobe's cap space is gone , and there ya go...a competitive team with cap space that may intrigue a Durant...ect
To take this further to address that comment from Mitch about "impatience," - I really don't think that's what Laker fans are feeling at this point. What we don't like is being asked to swallow a bunch of baloney from the FO and accept stupid decision making as in what happened with dissing Phil Jackson and going with the worst coach we've ever had in Mike D' Antoni. That infuriated me. Just incensed me. It was probably the dumbest, poorest handled thing I've ever seen from the Lakers. We get that the super team with Dwight and Nash didn't work out. We've seen Kobe struggle to regain health the past couple years. We know we are in a rebuilding process. We aren't asking for big names just for the sake of it to placate us. We aren't impatient. We have a sophisticated fan base that knows that we need to build a team right now. You don't just do that over night. All we ask is that you do it smart, you do it right and you don't just add names to fill seats. We want a team that can actually compete - if not today, fine, a few years from now is great. And we don't like to be treated like idiots.
Since the season ended, general manager Mitch Kupchak has been asked about Kobe’s future. In a recent interview with The Chris Mannix Show, Kupchak was asked about how the five-time champion’s future factors in with the rebuilding process: 'To some degree. We feel we want to make significant progress from this year to next year. And if we can do that and not mortgage the future—in other words, with a player who is in free agency that’s a veteran—then yeah. It’s a factor because we do want and we need in this city to show progress. And we’ve not made the playoffs for two years running, I suppose you can do it a third year, but our fans are impatient, and they’re used to a good product, and that’s not what we want to do. And we know Kobe is not as happy when the town around him is not enough to win. But, we’ve got to be careful that we don’t do something that puts us in the middle of the pack for the next six or seven years. Because all that does is get you the eighth seed in the playoffs and a draft pick that’s not very good.' From Mitch to LJ.
Can we be "impatient" by going after a freaking free agent SF instead of a PG or a center, considering we have Clarkson, Randle, and Okafor/Towns?!?! Unless, they have inside info that a certain lanky SF will be joining us next summer?
Yeah LJ, I wouldn't sweat the technique in this case. Mitch knows we don't want to just get a guy and be average. He knows we've got a chance at a dynasty if we nail things down here and at the very least we've got a chance at being in the conversation for a long time. But I'm all for getting Aldridge. Why? Because it draws attention back to us, it gives us a legitimate #2 that can be the #2 tomorrow and hell maybe even #1 depending on Kobe's ability level moving forward. Does it take from the kids a bit? Sure, but they're only 20 years old. We expect the world out of them, but we shouldn't expect it to happen tomorrow. If we've got a shot at one of those huge free agents, it opens the door for a cheaper option at SF to come in and it wouldn't be as detrimental. LaMarcus is the kind of talent that could convince a veteran to come join us. Or heck maybe we are able to package our picks and Nick Young for a veteran SF like Wilson Chandler or something. There's some options available if we go that route. I'm eager to rebuild like you are with these young guys, but I know we'll all eventually get tired of their rookie mistakes and problems as well. Having a veteran to teach them the ropes is important to their development as well as our sanity! Besides it's unlikely we convince LaMarcus to come here.
^^ Yeah, I know what you mean realdeal. LMA is a hard one to turn down just because he's such a legit player. I just don't love how it depletes our resources at a position where we don't have immediate need. And it would definitely hamper the development of Randle who I really, really like and want to see get PT. But like you said, I think LMA is incredibly unlikely to come here. It just makes no sense. He can go to one of the Texas teams and continue to be a contender for the rest of his prime. Even if he were to stay where he is he'd be in much better shape than on the Lakers. I just don't see it here. I hate hearing Dragic's name again. I have never wanted that guy. Let's roll with Clarkson please.
Yeah I'm not sure why Dragic's name resurfaced there. Mitch kind of hinted at the start of the summer that having Jordan eased our need at PG so I thought we wouldn't have much interest in maxing out a guy like Dragic anymore... Weird. Either way, I'm all for adding top talent to the squad. Figure out the log-jam once we have it, but get the talent here first!
You take LMA in a heartbeat.. No question in my mind.. I'm excited about Randle, but he has not proven to be a legit, starting PF yet.. He will get plenty of playing time behind Aldgidge & even more so if we don't have a top tier SF too... Clarkson/Kobe/Randle/Aldridge/Okafor and then fill in from there... Yeah, I'll take that.
We see what Golden State does and we raise the stakes! Position-less basketball because EVERYONE IS A POWER FORWARD
Yeah. Okafor/Aldridge/Randle/Kobe/Clarkson would get run out of the building by GS. It would be ugly...ghastly on defense.
