I see us making a run at Durant, Horford, Barnes, Whiteside and maybe Al Jefferson with a decent chance of nabbing one of them. I'd like for us to take a look at Evan Fournier a young wing guy we might be able to steal. Back to the draft, I'd still have a hard time passing on Ben Simmons. I think that one would come back to haunt us at some point unless we are getting someone like Paul George. I'd trade the #2 or 3 pick, but I'm not sure who our target would be. The options available in free agency seem to be comparable to guys we might be able to trade for with the pick. So, while I can see the logic in trading the pick, I think we're going to end up keeping it if we get it.
I think we take Simmons if we're #1. He's listed at 6'10" - 240. If he grew another inch or two this year (not impossible at 19), I wonder if we'd try him at center next to Randle? 6'11" 240 is bigger than most centers, and in today's NBA, he could get away with playing the position against everyone but Memphis. We'd still need a sf, but it is not out of the realm of possibility.
I want to agree, but I kind of thought the same thing this offseason. I realize it's different now with 2 slots, but I'm still worried. I wonder how our FA plan gets effected if we do get Simmons or Labissier. I doubt any veteran FA even looks at us at that point. Way, way too many kids. Similar to what happened this year. But if it happened, I'd be happy to throw max money at Batum. He'd be off the books the same time Russell would be up for his big extension...if Russell ends up being worth the extension.
See again though it's way too many kids WITH an extra slot so that it's NOT too many kids. If you're Durant and you look at this team and you say "Oh man they're young I don't think we'll be competitive right away." Then the Lakers spend 22.5 on Whiteside and another 8 or so on Noah while STILL preserving a max slot AND being able to bring back Clarkson. Now instead of just a handful of kids it's: Russell/_____ Clarkson/Williams ______/Young/Brown Randle/Bass/Nance Jr. Whiteside/Noah/Black Even if they're a year or two away, it's a good squad right? Plus all the other stuff that comes along with being the face of the Lakers. Again, I'm not saying we're going to get Durant or LeBron or something. I'm saying anyone writing us off at this point as a non-factor in FA this summer is wrong. Heck we could even go a different route: Russell/Vasquez Clarkson/Williams Durant/Young/Brown Randle/Bass/Nance Jr. Whiteside/Black/Upshaw I mean there's just so many possibilities here. We can make a vastly more competitive team this summer even without Durant. It's going to happen.
I think whiteside found a home, and I don't think Bass is happy on this team. I think the Durant idea is out of the box. No way he leaves a championship team for our roster. Barnes is a great addition. He can produce better results in LA, has championship experience and is perfect for what we are missing.
But is OKC a championship team? I'm not so sure any more. I'll guess we'll see. I know that they have had a lot of injuries holding them back these past few seasons, but they haven't seemed the same world beaters since they lost Harden.
I don't know, real. I think you're going to feel like Charlie brown getting that ball yanked again. Durant's really the only major difference maker on the FA market, and he's not coming to LA. do you want to throw a full max at nic batum? how much better is the team then, really? and all the ideas about all the players the lakers can nab--other teams have those ideas and lots of cap space, too. I think the team will turn around if and when randle, Russell, or (least likely) Clarkson proves that they're a bona fide #1 or #2 guy on a good team. then FAs will flock to LA, as, all other things equal, it's still a great place to be (as Aldridge even taking meetings with the lakers demonstrated). I still don't see an allstar on the durant-less team you constructed above. how many teams make the playoffs without a single allstar? how many contenders don't have one? my vote is still for opportunistic trades, and the best one might occur in-season, prior to the equal opportunity FA bonanza. I'm guessing mitch is already on this and has a few targets in sight. but he'll need things to break his way. failing all this, I'd go for a plan that involved using the giant amount of cap space this year to frontload long term deals to guys you want to keep, thus preserving space for when one of the young guys blossoms (hopefully).
How does anyone on our board know for certain what Durant will do, though? I'll tell you this, the Lakers will go hard at him. And I'm certain he'll get a recruitment call from Kobe Bryant as well. And that last contract we gave Kobe is going to make a lot more sense in that pitch: this is how we take care of our franchise player.
I'd love Whiteside but I think it will be real tough for us to beat out Riley for him. He'd be right there with Durant on my list of top targets though.
I don't agree that Durant is the only difference maker. For our team Barnes is a difference maker and so is Whiteside. Guys like Batum, Derozan, and Noah. There's plenty of guys that wouldn't catapult us to a Championship level, but would give us a much, much better roster and we'll certainly overpay for them if we need to. I've also pointed this out: there's no other team that'll have our cap space. The closest is Philly which has a worse outlook/culture than us by a wide wide wide margin. The next one is Charlotte... There's a few teams that can offer a max contract, but no one else has our combination of money, young talent, versatility, and market size. Not to mention with Kobe gone there's going to be a great sentiment for a new kid to pick up that slack. I could definitely be Charlie Browned but I just don't see it happening this summer. I don't see the franchise buying a lot of time waiting around anymore. It's just not really a reasonable way to go anymore. Not with the vacuum we're going to have, the cash we'll have available. It just doesn't make sense to me anymore.
if he has to, riley will cheat to keep whiteside like he has in the past to keep/obtain other players. @real: is noah really much different than hibbert at this point in terms of overall impact? that's a lot of eggs in the batum basket for making this team respectable. put it this way: maxing out a batum type would be totally out of sync with the recent script. I think mitch would sooner trade two of the young three for a cousins type than spend huge cash on a non-allstar.
Out of sync with recent script yes, but we have so much money that we have to spend on someone. If we don't get Durant at max, we are throwing the max at someone. The past couple years that player we paid to take up a good chunk of the cap was Kobe.
we'll see...as I said earlier, there's more than one way to use 60 million (aside from tossing maxes at third-tier players).
I don't trust Whiteside yet. I still feel like when he gets paid, he's gonna go back to the underachieving status. He's a knucklehead. I do agree with Barnes though. He would be a difference maker, especially if he had Walton in tow. An off-season with Walton as coach and Barnes and Horford as FA acquisitions would be solid. But Barnes is getting resigned. They need him since Iggy will start to fade.
gs can match a barnes offer sheet, no sweat, imo. iggy and bogut come off the books the following year, so it's only one year of an uncomfortably high payroll. small price for continued contention.
pretty much. Skal whathisname is no. 1 on draftexpress. Is he any good? Simmons is a player I dunno about this Skal kid
Skal has looked better in the last few games until Monday when he struggled. I'd like to see him rebound a bit better, but I do think he could slide on to this team pretty easily beside Randle. He's probably more of a fit than Simmons would be, but I'd still take Simmons due to his talent.
They cant get both. They'll be gone by number 4 which would be their pick if we lose it. They only shot they have at getting those two guys is with their own pick....which is likely.
