KCP Discussion: Kentavious Can Produce!

Simmons has been the loudest drum beater on LeBron to LA.

 

Nwaba is a little redundant at this point. Nwaba would be the one to go. It's not going to be Hart as he has a guaranteed contract (he was a first rounder), and he actually showed in college he can shoot. Brewer is an expiring contract that will be worth something at the deadline.

One Word: Gunnar

 

Alright now that I've got a minute: What a pull by Magic and Pelinka. I said before Pope won't make or break the season (get us to the Playoffs), but he's a big improvement on our roster. I think it's a testament to our brand power and the power of Magic and Pelinka as FA recruiters. I think Pope could have gotten a longer term deal elsewhere, but he's got a shot to earn a ton of money next summer by betting on himself either with us (assuming we miss on everyone) or with another team. I do think Lonzo and Luke had a bit to do with it, but of course we had the highest one-year total to offer. Still, I have no doubt other teams offered more years, we just offered the best one-year contract. Either way, it's a great sign for things to come. I genuinely don't think it can be overlooked that Pope is part of the Klutch agency. It's not a direct "Pope means LeBron is coming!" kind of thing, but it is a relationship building kind of thing. Keep in mind, one of the Laker bloggers has said that Maverick Carter has had more than a couple meetings with Jeanie Buss. This is just more smoke to a slowly burning fire.

To the pros/cons. I'll start with cons: He's not the smartest player in the world. He tends to take bad, early shot-clock shots at times. His TS% hovers just over 50% which isn't great and is mostly due to his free throw shooting being decent. Pope is a 40% career shooter from the field which is horrible and just an average shooter at 35% last year.

However the pros: he's a hell of a defender with quick feet, strong hands, and a good feel for what the offense is doing. He's got great length which helps him challenge shots. Having Caldwell-Pope is going to take a ton of pressure off of Lonzo to be a defensive stopper and in fact should suit Lonzo well since Lonzo is a better off-ball defender. Pope gives us a big, long guard option to go with a big, long group from 1-3 between Ball, Pope, and Ingram we should be able to switch everything on the perimeter eventually.

Offensively Pope still fits Ball almost like a glove. You can see in those highlights that Pope is an incredible athlete who loves to run. Pope will be the beneficiary of many outlet passes from Ball getting easy points in transition. Pope is a streaky shooter, but he's solid coming off of screens on the wing. I'd expect a lot of Pope coming out on the left side of the floor (by far his favorite) where he can either curl to the rim or bow out for a three.

This is a heck of a coup for the Front Office and a good day. He won't make us a playoff team, but he's going to get us a few easy points and could win us a couple games here and there.

 

Look at Lonzo's mustache. Do you think it tickles women when he kisses them?

 

Like I said the first part is relationship building. We're going to sign Caldwell-Pope to a big, one-year deal with the possibility of turning that into a big deal next year. It shows a growing trust in the Lakers from Klutch as we give one of their clients the high life and help (through back channels) start good conversations with other people in the agency.

Giving Caldwell-Pope an 80 million dollar isn't doing them a favor, it's buying Pope's soul. We'd have bid against ourselves and we'd have cut off almost any opportunity to get LeBron in a year. That's not helping anyone, that's just silly. Doing him a favor is giving him all our cap space, a starting role, and an opportunity to try to get that 80 million dollar check next year.

Like I said, it's not a 1-to-1 kind of thing, but it's relationship building nonetheless.