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

I like him and I think he is motivated and will work hard with Ham to improve his D. Listening to him talk, he seems like a pretty intelligent, well spoken, guy. If he could develop his defense, his value goes way up. If he does that while AD is injured he has a shot at becoming a valuable Laker. If AD stays healthy, he does not have a chance to play more minutes than simply being his backup. But ..... history has indicated that will not likely be the scenario. I like his mentality and I believe he can get better at the things he is not good at yet.

 

I respect that point of view. However I wouldn't be keen facing a wing defence of Bridges and OG - they're two of the best wing defenders in the league and both can shoot the ball. It's the ultimate pairing of 3&D wings.

Ayton is a pretty decent center, but maybe they flip him for Turner like some rumours said.

They've still got Booker who is a great scorer, CP3 can come off the bench, Cameron Payne is a decent PG and they have some nice rotational pieces.

I don't want them or Memphis to get OG.

 

Now that it seems we're gonna be operating over the tax next season. Here is an update on what I think is possible roster wise.

Next year's salary cap is $134,000,000 and the luxury tax threshold is $162,000,000.

Lebron - $46.9m
AD - $40.6m
Jones - $2.6m
Christie - $1.7m

Guaranteed: $91.8m

Let's assume we resign Russ, Rui, Reaves and Gabriel who we have some options on.

Russ - $20m (3/$60m with third year non guaranteed)
Rui - $15m (4/$60m with 4th year Team Option)
Reaves - $11m (Gilbert Arenas Provision max for 3 years)
Gabriel - $2.3m (Early Bird Rights and we give him indication he'll get more next season)

This puts us at $140.1m

We also have some pieces in Beverley, Walker, Jones and JTA we could trade this year. We could target Bogdanovic in a trade like this in this season: Bev, Jones, JTA and a protected first for Bogdanovic and McGruder (expiring). This would also allow us to also resign Walker and use the tax payer MLE on Schroeder or Bryant.

Bogdanovic - $20m
Walker - $9.3m (20% non bird rights raise)
Bryant - $6.8m

This would be a total salary of $173.6m (we minus the guaranteed salary of Jones).

Reaves / Russ
Walker / Christie
Bogdanovic / Rui
Lebron / Gabriel
AD / Bryant

We'd have a first and second round pick to add to that 10 man rotation. Maybe we could bring back Troy Brown Jr if he'd be interested and another vet minimum PG? I think we ultimately lose one of Schroeder or Bryant but it would be a dream for one of them to take the vet min again and resign both.

 

I’m not keen on losing Schroeder or keeping Russ over a prime 29 year old.

 

Getting rid of Russ doesn’t help us keep Schroeder. We have Russ’ bird rights so can go above the cap to sign him. To sign Schroeder we’d need to have cap space open. Which means apart from not signing Russ, we couldn’t trade for Bogdanovic, or resign Walker.

 

There’s no scenario we keep both Schroeder and Bryant?

 

You could but it means renouncing everyone apart from Lebron, AD, Jones, Christie, Rui and Schroeder/Bryant. Then you resign Reaves to go above the cap, and use the MLE on the other of Schroeder/Bryant. It’s not a bad idea and a decent 8 man rotation. And we get underneath the tax for a year.

You basically have to choose between keeping both Schroeder and Bryant or keeping one of them and trading for a Bogdanovic level player, keeping Walker and keeping Russ. I prefer the second option because trading for/retaining 3 of those players is better than just retaining 1.

 

Not just better D. Trent is a much more established three-point shooter than Lonnie.

 

didn't he have some off-court stuff, like a cdv case? still, though, the fall from grace was swift.

i outlined one some pages back. my wishful thinking there would be that you operate over the cap but under the tax apron, so you can split the full MLE between bryant and schroder. give them both player options on the second year of two-year deals, after which you'll hold their early bird rights and be able to sign them to slightly over mle without using space or other exceptions.

i don't think reaves is getting what svtzr says, but my guesses had russ/rui combining for about 35 million, lebron and AD at about 88, and then christie and gabriel at 2 each. add jones and you're at about 130ish. i think reaves will be more like 8. so you have about 24 before you hit the luxury tax there--and about 30 before the hard cap (tax apron).

we have the ability to bring back bev at any cost up to the max (lol) due to full bird rights. we can bring back walker at something starting at 8 if we want. and we could STILL use the full MLE on one or both of schroder/bryant.

i don't think it plays out like this on all fronts. just possibilities.

if we move bev/walker/jones now for a 20 million player, i think we still have the ability to use the full MLE without triggering the hard cap if the other salaries (rui, russ, reaves, gabriel) fall where i expect.

if we make no more trades, i think using bev(s&t)/jones/our 2023 picks in a draft day trade agreement for something similar to what we'd trade for now has similar structure/implications.

 

Great stuff here, appreciate reading through scenarios like this with our potential possibilities. One thing I wanted to point out is that I don't think you included our cap hold for the 2023 1st. Was that intentional or just an oversight?

 

According to the Toronto Star, one team offered 3 1sts for OG and that wasn't enough (otherwise they would've traded him) . We're not getting him.

 

All this lies on if we get. Bog which we won't with rui on the Lakers now SF getting cluttered

 

Here's the latest from Pincus. Basically whether we make another move and what kind of move depends on AD between now and Feb 9th. No pressure Davis.

 

man, we're having to reach for negatives on the rui deal. pincus going with the (accurate, but...c'mon...) idea that protections on 1sts will be compromised. nevermind that a) reverting to 2nds doesn't have to happen in the same year and b) everyone's demanding our pick be unprotected anyway.

 

The trade was fine.

 

Not much in this one...

- Blazers trying to get better for Dame. Will never happen, they should give him to us for Russ and build around Simons. Don't care about the length of his contract, he's my favorite non-Laker. Homer glasses on.

-Pelicans called about Collins

- Boston is looking for a big either at the deadline or in the buyout market.

-FVV fired his agent. Is he about to make a Klutch decision?

 

So..now the question is Dennis, Lonnie or Thomas. Which one is deserving of that 11 million dollar MLE? Which one might accept the mini at 4.4 million?

Or are there players on the upcoming FA market that you guys deem better at the MLE than any of the 3?

If we don't make another trade, what's wrong with trying to split up that 13 million between 2 of those guys after the trade deadline, and the 3rd getting one of those exceptions?

At first I thought that Lonnie had to be the odd man out, due to how well Dennis and Thomas have played. However he has the opportunity to come back, and play his way into a " gotta find a way to keep him" player too.

 

I still think that Westbrook has more value to this team, and is still a better all around player than Rozier or VanVleet. I also think he can be resigned for a lower contract than either. Fred is already chirping about wanting more money than the 23 million that he's due with his player option next season. Rozier will be at 23 million next season.

 

Am I the only one that thinks why the heck if we do decide to bring back Russ …. it has to be for the now oft stated starting 20M for however the deal is structured? That’s too damn much. How about he gets to stay in LA with his Wizard homies, have a BALL running the killer bench unit with the crowd going nuts for them …. with his family in attendance …. and compete for RINGs (as hopefully this year) …. on a more team friendly deal like 15-18M …. considering what he didn’t give us last year for his monster salary?