2023-24 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

We had one last year (TT). Too bad he didn't play at all...

 

Yeah, I think Ham didn't want to disrupt the rotation at the time, we were playing well. Then he came against Denver when we were losing and actually played well. I would bring TT back if Plumlee or Powell aren't available at our price. He's not that old

 

So if we do get Bruce, I imagine it would have to be for the full MLE and we’ll have the BAE then too:

DLO / Schroeder (BAE)
Reaves / Bruce Brown
Rui / Vando
Lebron / Gabriel
AD / ?

We’d be a bit light on bigs in this scenario but solid at the guard. Not sure which big could be had for the BAE instead of Schroeder?

EDIT: just saw Tristan Thompson’s name above, he was a solid pickup and I think he can eat some minutes during the regular season well enough. He is still active and a big body.

 

does he even have a good shot? i thought he just channeled his inner troy hudson/cameron payne that series. the whole nuggets team basically didn't miss

 

He shot well during the regular season: he isn't a movement shooter or anything but he'll hit open 3's easy. He's a great pickup but does this mean the Lakers aren't trusting Christie's development?

He's a very good screener and roll man as well so he bring a lot of good stuff both on defense and offense. Actually him and Reaves together in a backcourt is pretty terrifying if I was an opposing coach. Basically can switch 1-3, fight thru screens and on offense they both have varied but complementating styles. REaves more on ball while Bowen off ball screening, rolling, cutting.

Lakers need a big though still: you can't go into the playoffs not having a big ala Mason Plumlee type to throw at Jokic, Embiid, etc.

 

he's shot well from three the past couple years, so it's probably not a fluke. though i recall that his numbers with jokic off the floor were night and day vs. with him on. guess we're hoping lebron does the same for him.

as jsm said, rui can't go into RFA if we do this, because there would be a number we literally couldn't match. also, it would probably mean schroder's gone, as we'll need that money to nab a halfway decent backup 5.

i don't know. gotta say i don't love the full mle plan, and it reeks of cheapskate ownership again.

 

It's tough but Bowen the more I think about it is an ideal complement to Reaves in a finishing 5. They're games are different but at the same time they can get you different ways but their games complement each other really really well. Bowen guarded 1-4 in Brooklyn and was the primary screen setter for Durant and Irving.

Basically you have AD/Lebron/Bown/Reaves set and you plug and play the 5. You have to take risks to improve and this is a good one: Bowen is about an ideal roleplayer plus guy you can find

 

Mavs working a trade?



Which might correlate to Hollinger's note on this Suns rumor

Latest from Woj on the Bucks

 

You're the 2nd user putting Vando at 3, he never played there. Gabriel is a 3rd string too and you forgot Max.

Dlo/ Schroder / JHS
Reaves / Brown / Lewis
LeBron / Max
Vando / Rui
AD / ? / Gabriel

I'm warming up to this Brown rumours. He's not a shooter and remember to be a liability when he started to show up. But he improved a lot in Brooklyn and basically he will hit it if you discard him. So he's enough solid in shooting to benefit from his other strenghts like defense, energy, rebounding. He can screen, he can pass, a really all-around tough guy.
Denver is likely offering a 1y deal with a promise to bump him up next year with Bird rights. They can only pay 7.8M. So what's the number that is better than a 2+1 MLE deal with LA, loving in a better city, playing with LeBron and in the best franchise in the world. I think that number would need to be in the 20+ category. Denver might go there to be honest, I probably would. It's like what we will probably do with Reaves

AD only played 5.
But yeah a closing lineup with Reaves, Brown, LeBron, Rui and AD is terrifying for opponents. Big, strong, versatile and a nightmare for offenses.

 

I honestly do not like the Bruce Brown signing if it happens because it's not what we need and we'd be paying a lot to get him.

I'm especially not OK with Brown signing if it means giving up D-Lo.

I think I'm ONLY OK with Brown signing if we lose Schroder/Walker to someone else.

I'm also hopeful that if we waive Beas/Bamba, that we get a handshake deal with them prior to waiving them to return to us at discounts for the upcoming season.

Waiving Beas/Bamba just to get Brown and then possibly LOSE a combination of DLO/Schroder/Walker (2 of the 3) just to get Bruce Brown who will surely revert to being a 29% 3pt shooter the moment he joins us and will probably play the role of double agent imploding us from within?

No thanks.

 

I think the team is operating on the assumption that Christie will be a rotation player this year. I see Brown more as the backup 3

DLO / Dennis or BAE PG
Reaves / Christie
Vando / Brown
LeBron / Rui
AD

I love the idea of closing with Reaves/Brown/LeBron/Rui/AD. The backup 5 situation is concerning, for all the talk about centers being easy to find these days there are very few viable ones on the market this summer. I like the effort and energy Wenyen plays with but he's not good enough to be the primary backup big. Thompson I see more as a 3rd center. Drummond probably doesn't come back here and Robin Lopez is about cooked. Maybe Udoka Azubuike or Mo Wagner. I think someone gives Powell more than the minimum and I think I'd rather use the BAE on a backup PG.

 

It's a terrific team if they keep Dlo/Reaves (he's staying obviously)/Rui with Brown. Brown really does a lot of things well that the Lakers could use: switch 1-4 and set mean screens, and get boards. He's an ideal fit with Reaves as they're strength compliment each other.

Brown is basically going to take the Walker minutes and he's a big upgrade despite Walkers big GS game, and Christie will take over Troy's minutes.

The concern is a big: need a center to credibly guard Jokic and make him work on the glass and defense. Otherwise this is going to be a very good team if they resign the guys the Lakers want.

 

it's a pretty large concern, though. the vet min isn't enough to get what we need from that position, as we've proven over the past few years.

i just feel like if you said we were trading schroder/walker/beasley/bamba for bruce brown, you'd be pretty underwhelmed. and i'm a brown fan.

again, i just feel like this is a cute way to dress up the fact that we don't want to spend big.

 

Losing Schroder or Dlo has nothing to do with getting Brown. Imagine a trade. It's basically getting Brown and giving Beasley, Bamba (notice one of them is gone anyway) and Walker (who we can get similar in FA for the vet min).
I like it. Brown is starting material (closing in this instance). He does fit a role because there's no similar player. He's like a mix of Vando and Reaves, a swiss army knife who plays all games.

Plus, we are likely losing Schroder. And we know Dlo can't be trusted to close all games, so we need a 5th guy for the closing lineup when it matters. I think we get either Brown or DiVicenzo for that role.
If we get DiVicenzo, Reaves will really step up his game and be the bonafide 3rd star. DiVicenzo can't create so Reaves needs to take over.
I'm not sure there's other guy out there if we don't get one of those 2

 

I think Abeer said it best...trading schroder/walker/beasley/bamba and POSSIBLY losing DLO to get Bruce Brown? That's underwhelming and I'd rather have 5 good players than 1 good player. Bruce Brown in a vacuum is probably better than all 4 guys individually but he doens't elevate our team and doesn't address weaknesses either. I like Brown a lot but not if it means we're losing all these guys especially DLO. If we bring back DLO, then fine.

 

Our 8-man rotation would be:
LeBron
AD
Reaves
Rui
Brown
Dlo
Vando
Max

What's not to like? The rest we fill with either Prince (BAE)/Eubanks or Bates Diop/Powell (BAE), Nowell, Gabriel, JHS and Lewis

I like it. Cost-controlled and versatile team.
Just in isolation, 12M on Brown is great value

 

Feel like Schroeder is going to be back: doesn't seem much of a market for PGs