2024-25 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Seriously …. oh poor Russ. The Clippers didn’t even want him for vet min this year. LO effing L.

 

The topic at hand is Tinkerbell. You keep ducking my question.

Denver wanted him..probably specifically to punk Chokeolo..It won't be that hard either. IMHO

 

Okay I just watched that segment of the podcast (on 1.5x speed) and you’re right, it’s not that serious. Irwin even pushes back on some of Feigen’s insinuations that Grant didn’t care about winning because he chose to go to Detroit.

It seems the entirety of the
sourced intel that cooled Irwin off Grant is exclusively based on buzz that Grant is content in Portland and not necessarily dead set on forcing a trade out.

Finding contentment in his current situation and not wanting to demand a trade yet, IMO does NOT necessarily mean he doesn’t care about winning. It does NOT mean he prefers the green light on a losing team than a lesser role on a winning team. It does NOT mean he would be unwilling to do the little things to help the Lakers win.

Idk that all seems like a reach, psychoanalyzing a player from a very small amount of actual intel. All it means for sure to me is that he accepted a contract that he couldn’t refuse and doesn’t want to stir the boat yet just one year into his deal.

You’re right that winning and motivation are factors on the margin that need to be considered. But I think the FO has more legitimate private intel on Grant’s ability/willingness to fit in behind Lebron and AD based on their relationship with Klutch than “Irwin heard he’s content in Portland”. If Portland lowered their price to one protected FRP and the FO accepted, I’d be pretty confident they did their due diligence and this intel about him having been content in Portland up to this point wouldn’t concern me one bit

 

Hell..Rob might shock everyone, and the actual target, turned out to be Ayton, not Grant.

That would be a Pelinka type of move.

 

It’s been answered multiple time by others not quite playoff or championship level and too damn good to tank with. But you are still over the top recognizing nothing he does for the team. And Russ is a vet min player that will drive Denver nuts if he wants to be Russ there. Like he will. I’m at a lake . Out.

 

I recognized him choking away a legit shot at a chip, a couple of seasons ago. Then had the audacity to declare , that the season was a smashing success, and that he didn't think, that he needed to work on anything.

f*** that guy. Any player we traded him for, should be expected to contribute too, that's the purpose of a trade.

Cheers..be safe.

 

i agree with 98%...i wouldn't move to tank until after we convey the 2025 pick, though. all the more reason to hang onto those future picks, too, btw.

this, too. i think the team as currently constructed should win more than half its games and play a good brand of basketball. that's way more fun than those tanking years. good lord that was awful.

 

i think rui got the best of both worlds, as he was being squeezed out on a bad team and walked into a role on a better one. we need to be looking for more of those. they're out there. these tanking teams can't develop everyone at once. you need real nba minutes.

lol, those quotes sounded damning--not supportive--to me. AD: when i came, i had to adjust. this dip**** struggled with that.

screw that guy. good riddance. if we had just cut him, we'd have improved. i'd say "tinkerbell" is worth 10x russ, but that would mean i'm multiplying a negative. he sucked and sucks.

because we only have so many non-AD/lebron salaries to work with. we've offered rui, dlo, vando, and gabe to every single team that had anything that interests us. that's not a comment on them as much as it is a comment on our general priorities and abilities.

but go on pining for anfernee "poor man's dlo" simons.

 

i think there are several routes to contention, and i think actively tanking for a long period of time is among the worst, actually. i know everyone is once again excited about philly, but the only reason they're semi-viable was randomly hitting on a late first round pick. people will point to okc as tanking beacons, but a) they're ringless and b) SGA was a trade based on a previous trade involving mid first round picks and not high lotto picks. it's hard to think of teams that spent years in the lotto reaping the direct benefits in ways that couldn't have happened otherwise, imo.

further, i think the lakers fanbase (perhaps a few on here excepted) wouldn't put up with such a strategy.

anyway, after this year, i think we'll get a glimpse into what the lakers front office thinks about these strategies. we haven't been in a position to choose (imo) yet. but we're approaching it. if we can't make an over-the-top trade at the deadline and fizzle out again, i can imagine lebron, AD, rob and jeanie (and the rambii (puke)) sitting down and having a serious talk.

even then, though, i'm not sure trading AD would lead to a quicker rebuild than trying to work around him. again, philly is a supposed contender with embiid (who's less healthy than AD) and george (who's basically as old as lebron, functionally).

 

What are we going to do with Simmons? We have too many guards now.

 

Actually, I don't think we are too far apart here.

It's not that I think we shouldn't trade DLO or that we aren't actively trying. I just don't think we can. I agree with the sentiment that there is no real market for him.

 

dlo's only market is as an expiring, which is more useful at the deadline when teams have given up (see: russ trade). only a few teams have given up at this point, and they're not interested in burning developmental minutes on a guy who might help them accidentally win games. good teams only want to trade useless players on expirings for him, as he'd be a nice addition, but not at the expense of a rotation player. we need rotation players back, so there's nothing there, either.

all that said, we're substantially worse without dlo, and most trades involving him end up with us massively downgrading at pg while strengthening spots where we're not that weak. so we roll with what we have.

i'll say the same thing i said about westbrook (and i was glad to be wrong): if we don't move dlo at the deadline, the best move for both parties might actually be to sign a new deal at a lower number with an agreement that he will be flexible with his role.

 

Agree with these points as well.

 

Who ?
https://x.com/MikeAScotto/status/1819055217687552152

 

reclamation attempt. he has solid size for a wing and was drafted as a potential 3 and d guy iirc. i believe he's had several injuries and his shot hasn't come around.

speaking of reclamations and orlando...nobody's signed fultz? somebody signed westbrook before fultz?

 

Sad way to end a career - he was really really good in Utah and was never the same after that awful leg injury

Fultz seems to get slightly better each year - worth a flier

 

i mean, kris dunn keeps hanging around, why not fultz? same with dsj. all three have shown they can defend, and the two unsigned guys have probably shown more offensively, tbh.