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

Yup, I think he’s going to have a shortened NBA career. Riles is no dummy.

 

That's the actual dialogue of the tweet I posted earlier.

Obviously, we're being active. Just don't think Indiana wants to deal with us. @ElginTheGreat is probably correct.

 

so okc or orlando is going to eat 2 years of hayward for the 13th or 15th pick?

 

Lakers offered Russell Westbrook in trade package for Malcolm Brogdon

https://sports.yahoo.com/lakers-offered-russell-westbrook-trade-202714264.html

 

Dumb headline and opening paragraph. Russ, THT and 1st round pick …. for Brogdon & what effing else?? Must be in there somewhere but not bothering.

 

we don't have a 2026 pick unless NO defers, and we can't know that until 2024.

 

If ORL is open to that, Rob can swoop in and be everyone's hero.

I think they are trying to avoid dealing Rozier, if possible. Listened to a pod last week with one of their beat writers and he went on and on about how much of a culture setter TR has been for them.

I route Russ to ORL, pony up a heavily protected 1st, send THT to Charlotte (they can flip him, gotta give them something), and if we're taking on GH and not getting Rozier, then we're also getting Oubre and Plumlee or Washington. We keep Bridges in CHA for them, give them an asset, save ORL from a longer deal and everyone gets a pick.

LA trades: Russ, THT, 29 1st (protected converts to two future 2nd rounders), cash to ORL (buying their 2nd rounder essentially)
LA gets: Hayward, Washington, Oubre, 35th from ORL, and 45th from CHA

CHA trades: Hayward, Washington, Oubre, 13th, 45th
CHA gets: THT, Okeke, LA '29 pick

ORL trades: Okeke and 35th pick
ORL gets: Russ, 13th pick, cash

ORL has to release Bamba's cap hold, pick up Okeke's option, and obviously Russ has to pickup his. If I juggled the ball correctly, that could work...I think.

 

S*** headlines

 

There’s a handful of teams I just don’t see us being able to do a trade with. The Spurs are at the top of that list. Slightly under them I’d put the Portland, Boston, and Indiana in whatever order you want.

 

Instead of having to give up a pick to dump Hayward’s salary, why not acquire a protected 2027 pick in the process of dumping Hayward (and Rozier)?

 

No way. We would be getting fleeced in that trade. No to Gordon Hayward period. Oubre and Washington can be had it seems on their own. Definitely wouldn't give up THT and a 1st (protected or not) for a package centered around Gordon Hayward. We can buy our own 2nd rd picks.

If we are making a deal with Charlotte, it has to be centered around Rozier. Now if they want to give US a 1st rd pick for taking Hayward, cool..we can package him with it on to another team.

 

Moving Russ for a empty bag of chips is addition by subtraction. You get ANYTHING back and you're not getting fleeced.

I am in camp depth over 1-1 deals for Russ. Our roster is in dire need of better than min players. Any deal will be for imperfect player(s). Too many people expect perfect deals that don't exist.

GH can give you 50 good games. Ham saw roster management up close with how Bud has managed to play Antetokounmpo low minutes. I think he can do that for anyone he needs to here, namely Bron and GH would fall into that category to for different reasons. My goal with GH is to get over half a season from him and have him healthy for the playoffs.

I'm not big on Oubre. Rozier is my ideal target from CHA, but reading the current momentum, I think they shield him from a deal unless it blows them away (maybe both 1sts). I'm on the record that I think Oubre is a dumb player. Disliked him since draft night and was thrilled when the Hawks moved him out of my city. BUT he's only 26 and we have three development coaches on our roster. If I'm Ham, I tell him to watch nothing but Wiggins tape. They're different players but if he can be a homeless man's version of that, he's killing it on this team. If three of the best development guys in the league can't maximize him as he's entering his prime, he should retire.

There's absolutely no way Washington can be had for peanuts. He's good. Real good. I like his game quite a bit. I think they try to insert Plumlee in a deal instead but you can haggle your way up to a Washington inclusion.

THT is more valuable as an asset (even with his diminished value) then he will ever be as a player as a Laker. I think Ham and co. can maybe get more out of him (same logic with Oubre) but he's never going to have the ball in his hands enough here.

My draft pick I'm including, I'm looking to top 20 protect that. If you can pull that off, they can have it. Or when it converts to two 2nd round picks.

You are right, we can buy our own picks, but you're not going to be able to buy one as high as 35 (ORL pick). You're able to snatch a 1st rounder there with how varying everyone's draft board is this year.

Also, if you bring in two wings, a big, two early-mid 2nds that's five new players AND you still have your mid level and are now in position to grab BPA. I probably still go after another wing for GH insurance, but it's not as dire as it is today.

 

We don't have to get all our needs from Charlotte either. There is a reason they are floating giving up a 1st round pick for Gordon Hayward. The guy last played in 50 games 3 seasons ago(52). There is no logical excuse, to give up that much for that guy as the centerpiece. I think they are going to have a hard time finding anyone to take him even with a pick attached. Washington is on a 5 million dollar contract and his numbers are decent for the money, Maybe we could swap Nunn for him. He hasn't made it a through a full season in his career yet either. Oubre...meh..we could do better than him in free agency period. I'd rather see what Ham and company can do with a 21 year old THT.

You want to give up Russ and his expiring, THT and a 1st, and 5 million (which is the price of a 2nd rd pick) for basically a guy that hasn't recovered from a serious injury, and probably won't ever, and a couple of bit players? Hard pass on that one, and ..moving Russ for a big of chips is cool fan talk and all that, but that trade is a terrible idea. Our scouting department is great, I'd take my chances on buying our own pick and looking for another AR situation.

 

hayward's basically played about 50 games per year at roughly 30mpg for the past three years, right? if you pop that down to 25mpg, can you get 65 games out of him? i know it's more complicated than that, but still.

anyway, i still stay 50 games of hayward beats 82 games of russ. and the fact that he'd have to come with goodies seals it for me.

but they can't have a pick for that. no sir.

 

50 games of Hayward doesn't help us at all. It's chip or bust and sitting on the bench in street clothes when the playoffs come is a terrible waste of 60 million dollars. I'd rather run it back and make an assessment by the trade deadline than go for that deal.

 

Also in that piece...

Batum going to paid

Hope to God they're wrong. He was my fall back if we couldn't Otto Porter. If Batum sets the market at full mid level-ish, our wing options are going to be even slimmer than I previously thought.

Couple Nets drawing interest

Anthony Irwin threw out this idea on his pod this morning about a hypothetical trade if Kyrie to the Lakers had legs: would Kyrie + Harris deal for Russ + THT interest you guys?

 

Wow..I guess that's what he meant by expecting a crazy off-season. 5 years 248 million is a lot of change to stay put though.