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

We played the f***ing Spurs 3x and the Pistons once!! For f*** sake!

 

I mean, most of these reports are what we discussed before the season i.e. that the deadline would keep moving back. I'm not really surprised by what we are hearing.

It really comes to down what trade we are ultimately able to pull off. There are some guys who would be worth waiting on as they would improve the team over the long haul.

Will we land those guys? We will see.

Also just don't see any reason to doubt the leaks. Hard to believe Johan, McTen, etc are all just throwing things out there.

 

i don't doubt the leaks, for the most part. i just dispute the notion that fans are being lied to. most fans don't even read this stuff, tbh. nobody's lying to upset you. if anything, they're trying to tell the truth without having to be on the record about it.

we tried to trade russ, everybody tried to bend us over.

we agreed with...everyone...that two unprotected 1sts for hield and turner was an overpay, and it was too early to pull the trigger on something like that. rob actually almost said exactly that to the press!

now people are fussing because they think the lakers are moving deadlines when having a deadline to pull a trigger on a move is stupid in the first place. as if time overrides circumstance. whatever.

 

Who knows, if say “leaks” are happening, that maybe when mention of possibly waiting until Jan “maybe” could even be some misdirection being put out there for some purpose. Obviously waiting at least until Dec 15 makes total better sense, if Turner and Hield are now priced out of whatever was discussed earlier. Not only for seeing who else becomes eligible and available per rules, but as well our own situation with Beverly.

 

Managing fan expectations comes with the turf for any front office. Even bigger responsibility for a team like ours. In this case fans expect moves at a certain time because the front office leaked it.

So the front office can start by just not leaking a date. Especially if they really don’t think they will make a move.

 

All that said, the times make sense at this point, at least to me. Particularly if PatBev will be moved. Though I must say I’m not so sure the team is as eager to move him as guys want them to be.

 

i don't think they're leaking dates. i think they're discussing why some dates are important. and the media guys who talk to them are trying to educate people as to why certain dates are signposts. i'm not sure why it has to be made into more than that.

if a great deal is offered tomorrow, we'll take it! if any posturing is happening, it's appropriate and accurate posturing: we're not going to get rooked.

i don't think so, either. i actually think they're leveraging their chips against each other in the market. we have nearly 70 million in two parcels of expiring contracts and two first rounders to deal. we don't have to move any of it. we can probably take the top FA on the market in the summer if we do nothing between now and then. to me the THT/bev move always had one eye on the future trade market. they figured worst case, bevs will bring the same on-court value as THT did last year (none). but best case, he's expiring money that makes us less desperate to move russ and more flexible in general.

 

Here is my problem with the changing timeline (whether it's for action or evaluation) and the ultimately the roster...

We don't need to see more. We don't need to further evaluate the roster. We knew what we needed before the season. Guess what, we need the same things today. Anyone in the organization who tells you otherwise doesn't watch basketball or is buying time until it's too late to do anything. Sure, it was helpful to get confirmation that Bryant and DS are at least backup level rotation pieces. For me, that didn't change a single target on the trade board. More so, it's a position you don't have watch on the buyout market. The only thing we needed absolute confirmation on was if Bron and AD had enough health and competitive juice in them this year for this team to be serious. They've shown they do. Until Rob completely breaks their body and/or spirits.

But waiting ends up being a self fulfilled prophecy for Rob if he does nothing. Because the longer he waits, he's going to drain that health bar for Bron and AD. Before the season, it was clear they couldn't carry this band of misfits without getting in better players. That was before even seeing what was actually being asked of AD and what that looks like on the court. Rob is going to get AD hurt. Not a funny bone numbness injury or a tweaked ankle injury that keeps him out a game. Hurt hurt. Miss the rest of the season hurt. The ask isn't sustainable.

The fact that they feel less pressure to act because they scraped together some wins against the least talented teams in the league is wild. The fact that they're waiting to be pursued and for teams to call them now is a slap in the face to Bron, AD, and Ham.

Whether it's two picks, one pick, or no picks; stay aggressive. He let off-season become training camp to become pre-season to become start of the regular season to become x number of games in to become Thanksgiving to become December 15th to become well... after the holidays to become mid Jan to become trade deadline to become oh, it's too late now, maybe this summer. That's not acceptable management of this franchise or of its two best players.

 

The dates aren't significant if the only action is inaction and watching them in the rear view. I think it's more than beat writers looking at the NBA calendar and more of them hearing from within the organization this is when the front office is planning on looking at things. Not necessarily doing anything, but window shopping because x correlates to that date (20 games in, 12/15 availability, team Z only has to pay for __% of Russ $).

I am not sold on us taking a great deal if it's looking us in the face. Like I said earlier, you can lose the negotiation and win the trade. But I think we're so superstar hungry, we're going to miss out on good deals so we can hold out hope for a Beal deal, Dame deal, Lavine or DD deal that isn't going to come.

Rob has not earned the benefit of the doubt or enough good will to believe he knows what he's doing. Hence the skepticism.

 

Laker fans doing their part

 

Can Bron call in another favor to his old pal? I'll take Bridges.

 

Folks, still a lot of filler content from the media. Trying to create something out of nothing. It's all restating my update from before the season in different words. All is still dependent on Indiana or another team lowering their ask.

Currently everyone is trying to gouge LAL, but I do suspect they've done a halfway decent job at convincing other teams they are okay to wait until the summer and throw this year away. Perhaps it's only plausible because of the perceived incompetence of the FO, but in either case, that's precisely how LAL will regain some leverage in negotiations.

 

do lakers regain any leverage if they keep losing?

 

no one is planning on looking at things. we've been looking at things for over a year now. the deals have just sucked. every single one. if they continue to suck, we won't trade. and i'm fine with that. last thing we need is to compound this failure.

i'm not going to repeat my statements from earlier, but i stand by them: nobody is lying to the fans about our plans. our plans have been clear, imo.

yeah, he's the league's worst gm or whatever. which is why he need him under immense pressure to trade, armed with all of our future picks.

i don't know if this was a dig or supportive. i'm just saying if rob had traded two 1sts for hield/turner in august, we'd probably be 8-11 now and unable to make any other move for at least a year.

no, but they have more now than they did a few months ago. as rambis said above, the more teams believe we'll sit tight, the better the offers will get (and we'll get some as the deadline approaches--maybe not good ones, but they'll come). for teams to believe you'll sit tight, you have to believe it. again, we're not lying. we will let russ expire if we have to. i love it, personally. i'm going to be quite disappointed if we cave after all this.

 

Not getting any assets for Russ would be a failure for the front office in my opinion no matter how they spin it. It would also continue a bad pattern of guys walking for nothing that goes back years.

 

i'm confused. what's the deal offered that involved assets coming in for russ? i've seen assets going out with russ.

i've made no secret that my personal preference is to break russ's contract into smaller pieces that are more movable and provide depth without adding albatrosses. as i've spammed lately, charlotte can help with that.

but i could see the FO arguing that the "asset" created by russ's departure is whatever we gain via use of the cap space this summer. i don't like that very much, but i still like it more than attaching a bunch of assets to russ for marginal upgrades when it's becoming quite clear that lebron is cooked.

 

When I say assets I mean players or picks.

So, I think we actually agree here as I hope we are able to work something out that brings us some contributors.

 

okc, hou, was got picks for trading Russ, it'll be a big failure on Rob resume if Russ is here all yr and walks for nothing

 

Yeah. I think the front office should be able to get something back for his expiring contract. If we don't, I just don't think they will be able to spin that as a win.