I'm optimistic that D'Angelo is showing enough promise that we can lure at least a second tier FA this summer. But more optimistic than that even: if we DON'T lure a big FA I believe next season we'll be a better team without Kobe and with our young core playing big minutes.
Couldn't have asked for a better game. Got the vintage Kobe, Julius with the one-hand slam, DAR going off, kept the game relatively competitive, all while keeping the tank alive.
Fun game to watch. The back and forth between Kobe and LeBron was great...and we also got good games from Julius and D'angelo. Defense was laughable though.
Hey ROFY, I know it was another life but do you still have any say or counsel with your son, Luke? You know, like if the Lakers were to fire Byron right after his last press conference following the last game at home ..... and make Luke a good offer? How's your relationship these days with Bill and Susie? Would they be of any help? As a side note I always wondered how the 3 of you worked out that situation with none of you "knowing for sure".
Phoenix Won.. Odds of keeping the pick are increasing. Simmons, Ingram or Brown would all be a solid addition to our young core..
4 games back of the third spot with 14 games to go, and bYRON at the helm. That's practically a sure thing. Zing!
Wow. I might have to take back what I said about not wanting Cousins. That's pretty freaking huge. Obviously it's a moot point because there is no way a division rival would ever deal us their franchise player no matter how disgruntled he is, but . . . That would be a scary squad if you could send them a number one or two pick and some vets and add Cousins to this core, if he WANTED badly to be here. A motivated and happy Cousins to go with Clarkson, DAR and Randle is a nightmare for the rest of the league. NIGHTMARE!! I guess I would take that risk. I would go so far as to say that you add one a good, two way free agent SF and you are looking at a potential contender in just a couple/few years.
Toklat would be happy with our tag team of Julius the Beast and DeMarcus the Bad (insert something else ?) both on the team..... dishing out pain to any other teams that try to cheap shot us. Regardless of what else he thinks about Cousins. That would be on the level of Gasol if Mitch could dust off the wand one more time by not giving up any of our best young talent. Plus would need Cousins' agent to force the issue and threaten to leave any other team they try to trade him to whenever his contract is up, and he will be his worst, sour self if not going where he wants to go, so there aren't any serious offers from other teams blowing up their rosters. A real honest to goodness "power play". The guy is scary good, and with our core if they like each other ..... WOW!
I think that Cousins is a real possibility IF we secure the #1 or #2 pick. Then, that pick becomes the centerpiece of the deal. Cousins is also possible IF and only IF he DEMANDS a trade to LA and only LA. Our only real competition for Boogie would be Boston. However, I think a 1st pick / Lou / Clarkson or 1st pick/ Lou / Randle deal beats ANY deal that the C Bags can offer up. Hopefully Boston's pick ends up being the one that slips and ours moves up to 1st. There's really no way to get Cousins if we don't secure that top 3 pick...for the Kings to wanna do it with a division rival, they gotta be getting the farm back for Cousins. The 1st pick is a starter for the conversation....likely the Kings are going to ask for 1st pick, Randle and Russell for Cousins. I think we end up givin them 1st pick (Simmons), Clarkson and Lou. Also, don't be surprised if the Kings are willing to part with Rudy Gay too. I think what could happen is we sign and trade Clarkson with Lou and Simmons for Rudy Gay and Demarcus Cousins. Then, I believe we would still have 2 max slots (somebody correct my math if I'm wrong) to go and get 2 of the following mix of players: KD, Derozan, Barnes, Whiteside, Horford, Conley, Batum. And with Cousins, Gay, Randle, Russell and Nance already on the team, we would be looking pretty solid to any of these potential FA's.
You'd have Russell, Randle, Cousins, Gay, Nance Jr., Nick Young, Tarik Black cap hold, Anthony Brown, and maybe a Marcelo Huertas cap hold. That is a total of 48.673 million dollars. An additional 2+ million for other cap holds runs you to about 51 million dollars. The cap is expected to be about 92 million. You'd have roughly 41 million in cap space which is NOT enough for two max slots. A max contract will run somewhere around 21, 25.3, or 29.5 million dollars depending on how long the FA has been playing.
Yeah. I don't think taking Gay is a good idea. I'd much rather take just Cousins and leave us two max slots to go after maybe a Durant/Batum combination.
Ok I'm just saying for it to make sense for Sacramento, they'll try to dump some long term contracts on us. I mean, if we can get one of Durant, Derozan, Barnes, Batum and then spend the rest of the cap on role players (or get guys on 1-year deals so you can go after Westbrook following year), that's still pretty good to pair with Russell, Randle, Gay and Cousins. Russell Derozan Gay Randle Cousins Pretty solid starting 5. I think that squad is at least an 8 seed in the West next year, with the potential to be a top 5 squad in a couple of years.
I want no part of Gay/Cousins together. They don't like playing together in Sacramento, why would they want to play together in LA? If Sac wants to dump one of those guys, I'd consider it. I'm not taking both.
Hmm...where does it say that these guys don't like playing with each other? I didn't know that. If tha's the case, then yeah I don't want him here either.
