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

If the Lakers do not want to give up draft capital in a trade, they will have to take on contracts that likely have 3 years left vs the one year for Westbrook. The trading partner would have to look at it as we get rid of 3 years for 1.

That is the only way the Lakers can trade Westbrook without giving up picks. And it is possible.

The question is, can the Lakers get lucky in getting talent that buck the trend of injuries, IE Gordon Hayward, Brogdon, in the mean time? Because that's likely the only talent they will get back. Those that are always injured.

But! The cancer would be gone. So, I think it's still a win and worth the risk.

 

Yeah. That’s how horrible this guy was last year. Just F all around on defense and the recent career numbers from Cranjis that @LaVarBallsDad posted show he’s just that bad. With the BAD attitude to go with it so that first times the new coaching staff preaching accountability, just like Vogel and old staff did …. and calls him out in team film sessions …. that self delusional, not his fault protective attitude most likely rears its head.

And that’s not even mentioning all the things he’s going to need to change and / or do better on offense.

Can him being in a contract year where he’s about to be embarrassed like he’s not going to believe …. somehow make him at least not a net negative until the trade deadline?

 

still can't believe the knicks wouldn't go randle/something for russ. that stung. i mean, you're the knicks. you're terrible. you and randle hate each other. and you'd still rather not get off the contract.

 

That’s how bad Russ was last year …. including attitude. Other teams couldn’t help but be aware.

 

With Westbrook, the time he will have maximum trade value as a expiring contract is actually the trade deadline (not this summer).

That’s the problem with the Lakers. At the trade deadline, the Lakers should have several teams lining up to try to get off bad contracts in exchange for paying Westbrook for the last 3 months of the season (or in all likelihood, a buyout). That’s the time when teams assess their own rosters too and decide what they did this summer was a mistake and it’s time to hit the reset button.

It’s at the trade deadline where it’s the Lakers who might be the ones that receive draft picks for their troubles to take on bad contracts.

However, if this is what happens, in all likelihoods it means another bad season.

 

Therein lies the rub...if Lebron and AD are healthy, the team is going to be successful. If they aren't, the team isn't going to be successful. If the former is the case, there won't be any need to trade Westbrook. If it's the latter, there won't be any trade that could overcome the former.

If it goes left and a trade is made, the whole thing is going to get blown up.

 

Unless Brick can change his ways with the horrid defense and correct a lot of every other area he hurt us he’s going to limit whatever that top level of “success” will be. Old dog new tricks problem. We don’t blow teams out any more (not deep enough) and he’ll cost us close ones however far we might have a chance to go. This won’t be LeBron from 3 seasons ago.

 

IDk man..if your two top dogs only play 21 games together, it's a wrap regardless IMO. You can't blame Westbrook for everything. He was brought in to be the 3rd guy. The team would have been built differently if he was brought in to play with either Lebron or AD alone in the first place. However he is most definitely a valuable asset to use in order to flip the script, if we see a repeat of this James/Davis injury situation. Russ could have been one of the top defensive point guards in the NBA last season (Like Dennis Schroder was in the prior season btw) it wouldn't have made much of a difference, with James and Davis playing 21 games, kinda like it wasn't when they played in 27 games the year before. Pretty much the unanimous consent around here was that Dennis should be gone after last season. Good defense and all, he had the audacity to want a 20 million dollar contract!! Nobody ever came up with a credible idea of what point guard we could get though either, considering that we were over the cap and couldn't sign and trade for one. Trade for Buddy Hield and Lebron will just continue to be the point guard, that s*** wasn't going to work either. I digress..we are where we are. Maybe some good luck on the injury front, and an engaged coaching staff makes everything better, including Westbrook. If not..a 47 million dollar expiring contract, and Lebron's cap space once he bails out, that's enough to retool around AD, cause we are stuck with him regardless.

 

Precisely.

 

Are we stuck with AD? I’m not confident with his opt out option that with all the grief he gets in LA for injuries he has no control over, and said exactly that (the injury part) after the season, that he doesn’t want out of here to a better team when the time comes. And you know how well we’ve handled “those” situations with getting value before it happens.

 

The problem with Anthony, is that if he doesn't bounce back strong next season on the injury front, his value is decreased. We will have a hard time shopping an injury prone max player and expecting to get value back. He's going to have a hard time finding a team with the cap space to pay a max player that can't make it through a full season. We are kinda stuck with each other if he plays another half a season. That's the pessimistic viewpoint on the situation, I'm choosing to go in the other direction. I'm expecting AD to have a MVP caliber season, if that happens, now the paradigm shifts. We now are thinking about a robust FA market coming up in 23, with 90 million in cap space available from James and Westbrook's expiring contracts. It's chip or bust, if we win it all, I'm sure both would be open to chasing another ring at a discount if we could make the team better. If not..I only expect AD to be here after next season.

 

I’m always a glass half full guy and hope you’re right. But afraid they will re-up LeBron this year for two more.

 

We probably should, you would hate to see him walk for free. The extension allows us to get something back from Cleveland when he heads back there to retire. Or maybe Miami.

 

At that point, why would it be advantageous to LENGTHEN the problem when you can kill it in three months? It would be stupid to take on those bad contracts. You would be placing yourself in a worse position.

 

Sterling Brown who played with the Bucks under Ham and was traded from Dallas to Houston might not get picked back up.

He's listed as 6'5" with a 6'9" wingspan. Could be a minimum signing and fill in end of the bench role. Isn't a sexy signing but with multiple roster spots available, we have to be creative.

 

worries me that dallas needed wings and couldn't play him.

that list was center-heavy, and we could get one of them at mini mle, imo.