Jake LaRavia, Lakers Agree To Two-Year, $12M Deal

https://motorcityhoops.substack.com/p/detroit-pistons-potential-offseason?utm_medium=ios

 

OK my unsolicited 10 cents I like him a lot. He and AR and Luka are going to be a menace on the floor together as they grow. He's a bruising 6'8' 235-240ish forward who flashes glimpses of AR and Luka mannerisms with his early ball handling. Likes and will initiate contact seems from just looking at the first few minutes in this clip and shoots the hell out of the ball like Dalton, but appears closer to AR in Baller IQ than to Knecht.



https://nbadraftroom.com/jake-laravia/

2 for 2 with Adou Thiero another bruiser with strength and elite athlete tag to go with it. Keep it going Rob!

 

I like Laravia but I gotta see if he forgets how to shoot before judging this signing.

 

Oh he will

 

Who?
Great to see we're focusing on our biggest needs, filling most glaring holes in our roster.
Awesome start to the free agency...

 

This guy will play center, Kenzo

 

95% of people will pick on him while having seen a total of zero minutes of him playing

He has some qualities I like, he's a grinder, shoots well, can attack the basket and is young. Give us another big wing that can defend the 3.

It's not a flashy signing and he seemed more expensive than I would hope.
Let's give him time to at least show himself and then we can complain

 

This is a good signing. Guys been learning and ready to take the next step.

 

Something tells me he'll be fine. I like the hard working type, he also seems to have some tools and is the right age, could be in for a litthe breakthrough season. Assuming we can grab Ayton or some other relatively starter-worthy center, I'm good with this signing.

What do fans of his former teams say about him? I saw one reddit page from a few months ago where he was praised a LOT by the Grizzlies fans but it was only this one source.

 

lol this is my fear, and it’s well-founded.

that said, he shot over 50% on wide open threes, which are the kind Luka creates.

also, I’d argue he wasn’t brought in as a specialist, and those are the guys who have done the worst here.

 

As you said he’s a Jaquez bruising driver type guy, hopefully it shows up here, but yeah 31% is my guess

 

Yeah. I definitely think the signing has a lot of potential. There’s a lot to like about him and his game

 

My initial dislike for the signing had nothing to do with the player, and everything to do with what we might miss out on. I’ll reserve judgment to see how we do the next couple of days. Haynes makes it sound like we have Ayton in the bag, in which case I’m fine with this.

First time I saw Laravia was a Lakers game against the Grizz and I remember thinking this kid can play. Some sneaky athleticism, he’s no stiff.

In terms of contract terms, his former teammate, Konchar is currently in the middle of a 3 year $18M deal with worse stats across the board for his career and 6 years older. Given Laravia’s youth and a 1 year shorter deal, this could turn into very good value.

 

Yeah, I only didn’t like it bc it was eating into the mle money. In particular, it put us under ayton’s buyout number, according to separate reports.

 

I think in isolation it's a slight overpay. The kid was kinda scrambling in the league, Memphis traded him and Sac didn't pick up his option. Both not because he sucked but because they had other plans

It seems we could have offered a vet min because I don't see any team using an exception or cap space on him, at least not with a better project than us with Luka and a clear wing deficit.

Which leads me to conclude that we were really high on him and made him a priority this summer. Let's see if it pays off, I think folks will like him in a few months

 

again, when i saw him with reaves, i knew something was probably up. as for the value...we'll see. reminds me a bit of the lonnie walker signing, where we think we see something others are missing. we didn't there (though lonnie doesn't suck).

but i mean, tre jones got 8 per from the bulls, right? prices are maybe a bit higher than i thought, interestingly at the lower tiers. some of the bigger paydays have been smaller than i thought (reid, jabari smith).

i'm trying to be positive. there's a chance this is a two-way rotation player added for not much at all, and that would be great, actually.

and nobody wants to hear this, but statistically speaking, laravia was a better player last year than DFS has been since he left dallas. now, maybe luka is the magic formula for DFS--but maybe he also makes laravia better.

 

I like the player, not sure of the fit based on current roster build. There's some venn diagram overlap with him, DFS, and DK.

There's a jack of all trades feel to his game that I think he can build out. Like said above, just have to pray last year's shooting wasn't an anomaly.

This feels like a day 2 signing though. This is what concerns me...


He was our top wing target?

 

who was the better wing target? i'm assuming NAW never factored because we knew he was out of the price range.

you'd have preferred gary trent maybe?

now, that we even had a wing target when it wasn't one of our big needs...

 

Brown. Brown at the minimum stings. You could argue that he only took the minimum to go back to Denver. But the counter is if you make him priority 1 like we did LaRavia and offer him the BAE (or equivalent from the MLE), does he like Denver more than a starting job for the Lakers on a deal that will get him a bump on the next contract?

It's a bad class. I just don't like our first priority being a (slight) overpay for someone who doesn't address one single need on the roster. If the roster shifts and we actually pull the trigger on a trade, OK... that changes. But today, that's my opinion.