Paul George Discussion

LA Times tells me I've seen too many of their articles for free So I can't read Tania's whole article, but I can almost smell who that source is: Magic or Rob. They're still being told (likely by George's agent) where George's mindset is and the Lakers can only take the man at his word. All they can do is continue to prepare like he's coming...

At this stage that means the Lakers should prepare as if they're not making changes. Moving D'Angelo this early may prove a mistake, but oh well. I think now they'll look to boost Randle and Clarkson's value. If Randle has the type of year it looks like he's gearing up for, someone will be willing to take him knowing they'll have to pay him. Clarkson may not have a ton of value, but I feel like if Lou last year was worth a late 1st then Clarkson's value should be similar. I could see him going to a contender during the year. Deng obviously is the big question mark, but hopefully you can attach whatever you have to attach and get rid of him. The worst case scenario is waiving him next summer, but that can be done too.

Roll into next summer with Ball, Ingram, Nance Jr., Zubac, Hart and 70 million in cap space. We desperately need growth out of Ingram and Nance Jr. from outside and Ball needs to prove he's everything we're hoping he is.

I'm not disagreeing. I keep saying that growth is going to be vital for the young guys. If we don't win something like 30-35 games then I'm not sure George finds the partner he's looking for. It's possible George doesn't care and he's coming anyway to take Kobe's mantle because he's just that much of a fan, but I think it's far more likely that we need a massive showing. We need to look like we're on the cusp. Given our FO struggles, the national media doesn't give us the same appreciation as a "young up and coming team" as teams like the Wolves or Suns even. We need to be at least in that conversation. That's a lot of responsibility and pressure on young kids and Luke Walton, but that's just the reality of the situation. Go win games. Go be exciting or I think all of this is moot.

It's potentially more important because if George goes somewhere competitive and we're still slogging through 20 wins I have no idea why anyone would want to be here. The pressure is on, but I think we're still building positive momentum right now... It all starts with Summer League.

On another note, we'll see just how interested players are in coming here tomorrow evening. I'm not expecting us to make big splashes, but even a solid veteran on a one-year deal would be nice by some time next Wednesday.

 

Yeah I think you're crazy

I mean the guy skipped his exit interview and got out of here as soon as he could. He's been about as unprofessional as a previously assumed professional guy could be. Showed up out of shape after his enormous contract, was publicly unhappy with his role, then because dismissive late in the season after getting benched. Maybe when Rob said in his introductory press conference that he had "two contracts" that were a problem, Deng got upset, but honestly if he'd been earning his f***ing paycheck, nobody would have said a damn thing. I couldn't care less if he never came back. This guy is the antithesis of what he promised to be. Corey Brewer got here at the trade deadline and was everything Deng was supposed to be for less than half the cost.

 

It worked! Thank you. I was wondering why that popped up, I've been reading Times articles for a long time online.

There's another interesting quote from that piece:

So they would have been open to moving the #2 pick if they'd been able to dump Deng and pick up George in the process. Interesting...

 

I think the 2 for 5/10 question was them trying to bait Sacramento into moving up to get Fox. If they move up to get Fox, the Lakers can move down to 5 and still get Ball (Fultz, Jackson, Tatum, and Fox go first).

I think getting a 3rd team involved sounds a lot more like we needed a dumping ground for Deng or maybe Mozgov at the time if he was still here during those discussions.

 

Sometimes clearing your cookies works for that. I've also just used different browsers and it'll sometimes get by that.

 

Well, I know all that. I was just trying to help realdeal get around their "filter" or whatever you'd call it.