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

these were my thoughts. la clearly is still a draw, and i'm not sure that's really debatable? i agree you can't rely solely on it, but we already learned that during the mozdeng era.

all other things being equal, living in la and playing for the lakers and not the clippers still matters to guys. we have to continually work on the "all other things being equal" part, but the value is real.

i also agree that people are often prisoners of the moment. everything has gone as well as it possibly can for boston for a few months now, but they were languishing less than half a year ago and might be again in less than a year, tbh. we won a title, then everything started going about as poorly as it possibly could. there's no guarantee that continues, either.

 

Some leaguewide buzz, nothing really pertaining to us even in a 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon kind of way.

Closest I can get is that if Knicks give Brunson or another guard the bag this summer and tie up long term money then maybe they'd be more likely to take on Russ to shed some other long term money they have locked up.

 

Sure, Tatum is going to want to come here when all we have is a washed LeGM still making max money, his son, and whomever replaces AD in three seasons.
There is a lot this FO has to turn around before ANY star thinks he’s coming and winning a Chip here immediately.
Holding on to LeGM is the opposite of making a soft landing spot for a guy like Tatum.

 

Who knows? Jason Tatum can do whatever he wants, maybe he wants to ultimately be a Laker and feels like he could turn it around. James came here with this franchise in shambles and we won a chip a year later. Anything can happen, it's real life.

 

Tatum is not coming.

Lol

 

i think there's no way to know. it's easy to bet against any star player leaving any franchise, tbh.

again, six months ago, boston was in shambles.

 

tatum AND Luka are coming

 

No, they'll likely stay in their respective locations, and that's okay.

We can't have every superstar.

 

I would bet more on Luka coming, though.

I just don't see Tatum.

Anyway, we need to nail this FA and the options are pretty dry.

 

plus, if we do, we'll turn on them immediately anyway and find a way to make having a superstar on your team a miserable fan experience for all.

i think we have an equally slim chance at either, which is a better chance than every franchise except their current one.

as for FA, i have very low expectations. we have the mini mle, vet mins, and a FA we'd like to keep. i haven't seen many names that excite me at those prices anyway. feel like the only real routes to improvement are via trade, but we depressed THT's value so far that even that's a longshot.

starting to feel like we'll be watching basically the same team to start next year. and i actually think that while that team isn't a contender, they will be better than most people think just due to some continuity and better health. still pretty meh overall, though.

as far as what i'd like:

retain monk on an extension of his current salary with the raise that comes with 1-year, preserving the mini mle for ingles or warren.

shop the vet min to one or two of several center candidates (dedmon, dieng, whiteside, naz reid, cousins, biyombo, mcgee, moses brown, damian jones, etc.).

AD/vet min from above list
lebron/johnson/gabriel
ingles or warren/THT
reaves/monk
russ/nunn

melo, dwight, and augustin could all be asked back to fill in the end of the rotation.

if ingles/warren can't happen, i'd put out feelers to thad young (full mini) or maybe even trey lyles (partial).

long story short, FA isn't our path back to contention. has to be trades.

 

It all relies on Russ. We either get at least 2 rotational players and there's some hope to have good depth and build a winning system, or we're stuck with him/Wall, and will be a borderline 6th seed at best.

It's all on you Rob

 

I agree except on the seeding. Our ceiling without Russ is 6th. With Russ we're a play in team.
Warriors, Suns, Grizz, Clippers, Nuggets are better, with the latter two getting healthy. We're not jumping these teams.

Mavs and Jazz are both question marks depending on FA and trades (Brunson and the Mitchell/Gobert ordeal). With Russ, I think we fall in line behind them. If things don't break our way then we could easily be looking at a 8th seed ceiling.

Next group is Wolves and Pelicans. Blazers could enter that grouping depending on their summer and if they can flip #7 to get Dame help. I think we're better than this group, but they're young and right on our heels. With as many young guys as those teams have, all it takes is one of them to hit that next level and they're off to the races.

West is going to be brutal next year unless injuries remove a team or two like last year.

 

i can see tatum coming later on in his career. definitely not anytime soon

 

well, he's under contract through 2026, so no, this isn't a "right now" proposition.

but lebron was never ever coming here until he did, either.

 

If I'm Rob, I'm doing due diligence on what Orlando may want for Bamba.

Would add the requisite size and youth.

LBJ left a lot of bread crumbs.

But I think @therealdeal was the one who started the thread, and he made me a believer early on.

Most peeps didn't believe it or just didn't want LBJ here. A lot still don't.

Anyway, yeah we will see. 4 years is a long time, but in between now and then, if Tatum wins a ring or two in Boston, he'd be hard pressed to leave.

 

i just won't dismiss out of hand any star coming here after they're established. we have a long history of attracting these folks, despite the press (and our own fans) insisting we can't. all three of the biggest players in modern franchise history (shaq, kobe, lebron) could easily have not come here but wanted to be here. as long as we can keep the brand alive, it can happen.

 

Keep the brand alive, Linda!!!

 

Man I swear your take that a healthy Lebron and AD is somehow insignificant is ridiculous. There still isn't one team in the West that has a better duo than those two..even with James pushing 38.

 

The Lakers brand is still strong. Whether we make the playoffs or not, the media is still obsessed with anything Lakers related. Most of these young kids in the NBA grew up on Kobe and Lebron. A lot of them attended their camps, try to pattern their games after them, idolized those two guys.When asked a lot professed to being a Lakers fan as kids. I get that there is a strong anti Lakers bias from some in the media. I don't get why a large chunk of our fans seem to subconsciously buy into it.

 

Have you watched the playoffs?... at all?

We have NOTHING else on the roster. Literally. Teams in the playoffs have waves of players who are not minimum players in addition to their top level talent. That's why moving Russ is paramount. No matter how good you think he is, we need middle of the pack players who are starters and are not a forced fit. If we get 2-3 from a Russ deal + our tax payers mid level + Nunn (or what a Nunn + THT deal brings you) then we're in a decent position.

I don't think getting in as a 6th seed is awful next year. If we're in, you never know what can happen. Biggest eye openers in this year's playoffs: depth and injuries.