Official 2016 Free Agency Thread

I agree unfortunately. Thunder catching fire in the second round and then taking a big lead on the Warriors would convince anyone to stay. I think he's signing the 1+1 this summer like he should.

 

That's a bummer and honestly pretty confusing. Why wouldn't they be high on EVERY All-Star?

 

I don't think it surfaced just now. A few weeks ago, Steve Mason said DeRozan was "drooling to come here," and Ireland immediately jumped in quickly to say that's not what he's hearing. I'm not sure this was ever a thing. I think it was reporters just hypothesizing that an LA kid who went to USC would want to play for the Lakers. I think Ireland knew the Lakers weren't interested in him and quickly put the brakes on Mason's comment so not to lead Laker fans down the wrong path.

As for their plan, because of our good fortune in the draft, we have 4 out of 5 positions covered with Russell, Clarkson, Ingram/Simmons, and Randle. I think Mitch said we needed frontcourt help which obviously meant center. Going all in on Durant and missing isn't the end of the world. We fixed our coaching issues (potentially) and we have a nice young core of players. Missing on free agents now isn't as dire as it was in years past. Since we whiffed on Melo, we now have Russell and Ingram (or Simmons) which wouldn't have happened with Melo on the roster. No one was signing with us last offseason. LMA and everyone else of that level was pipe with Kobe limping into his final season and a bunch of people on the roster who aren't old enough to rent a car.

I think if we go into next season with a starting five of Russell/Clarkson/Ingram/Randle/Biyombo and Black, Nance, Swaggy and Lou off the bench, I will be happy. And yes, I am including Swaggy in there because I think in an up-tempo, motion offense, he can regain some of his D'Antoni Swagginess that was literally sucked out of him by Boron.

 

You said you wanted a SG/SF but not DeRozan. That's EXACTLY what he is. It's like asking for a canine but not wanting a dog.

I don't think DeRozan is a full time SF. I think he's a part time SF that can fit well alongside Ingram. I've been pretty consistent on that.

 

Yeah I agree they're probably prioritizing some big man Free Agent. What's strange is the Lakers are apparently not high on Whiteside, but I don't hear them connected with Biyombo either. I haven't heard anything about Horford besides what we're saying around here. Strange. I wonder which big man they're actually targeting.

 

I kinda disagree. I don't mind DeRozan, but choosing not to sign a sg to a max deal when they can't hit from outside of 15 feet and disappear on the road in the playoffs is not "incompetence" at all. Would I sign him? I vacillate on that a lot. Clarkson is not as good as DeRozan. But he is good. I think the Lakers are honestly looking to sign a center, then go into 2017 with 2 max slots again, only this time, there will be more impact players and we will have a better idea of where we stand with all our kids. I think they are being patient. Getting Ingram changes our outlook so much because now we have 3 potential all stars (Ingram, Russell, Randle) and a 6th man of the year (Clarkson) all around the same age. DeRozan isn't going to speed up their development really. Ingram put us into DEEP rebuild mode. The more high quality young prospects we get, the more we have to commit to the long youthful rebuild model (GS, OKC) as opposed to the "sign big FAs" model (Miami, Houston).

 

I wonder the same thing. Maybe we were trying to keep the Biyombo chatter low cause we wanted to kind of sneak in and grab him, but with the playoff run he had, we can't do that now. I wonder if Nance and Clarkson are going to be made available for some frontcourt help? Maybe we're not looking at a FA? Maybe we're looking at another dump deal?

 

There's a few interesting dump candidates:

DeAndre Jordan (in case they decide to blow it up): 2+1/ 68 million left on deal.
Kevin Love (in case they decide to blow it up): 4/93 million left on deal.
Marc Gasol (coming off a serious injury): 3+1/93.5 million left on deal.
Brook Lopez: 2/43 million left on deal.
Blake Griffin: 1+1/41.6 million left on deal.
Paul Millsap: 2/41 million left on deal.
Greg Monroe: 1+1/35 million left on deal.
Tristan Thompson: 4/104 million left on deal.
Jonas Valenciunas (If they decide Biyombo is better): 4/64 million left on deal.
Robin Lopez: 3/42 million left on deal.
Tyson Chandler: 3/39 million left on deal.
Nikola Pekovic: 2/23.7 million left on deal.
Derrick Favors: 2/23 million left on deal.
John Henson: 4/44 million left on deal.
Kosta Koufos: 3/25.5 million left on deal.

 

That is interesting... He's not much of a defender or rebounder though so I'm not sure how he'd fit exactly into the system. He's definitely talented, but I've never felt like he did everything he needed to so the team could win. I'd still take him as a dump and try to get a pick along with him though. That'd be a solid move by the FO. If they don't like him, just let him expire and by then the kids should be just about ready to rock and roll.