2019/20 Players' Transactions: Breaking News , Trades, Free Agents, And Rumors

Please, no Gortat. I hate that guy plus his NBA days should be over.

 

yeah, realistic, but good:

max pg
frontload randle using some cap flexibility (to help preserve some future flexibility)
sign lopez to what's left over for one year
use room exception on vet pg

if we whiff on george (still very possible, imo), most of that plan stands, but fill win with eddie's suggestions where possible. i wouldn't be opposed to outsized two-year deals for useful players, either (like kcp, but with an extra year at lower cost), as those can be useful on the court and as trade ballast.

 

I don't want Gortat for any actual on-court contributions. I want the 1st round pick that Washington would have to give the Lakers in order to absorb the 13.6M owed to Gortat next season and get them well under the luxury tax. The Lakers can then basically sit Gortat the way they did Bogut until the two sides decide on a buyout midway during the season. OR Gortat and his sizable expiring contract can be used as part of a huge trade package. He's obviously more appealing as salary filler than Luol Deng.

 

Everyone wondered if he just worked his a** off finally for his first big free agency and would then revert to his previous level once he got paid. Not so much the first year but this is year 2 right? And it looks like he has.

 

What do you guys think of Tyreke Evans? I think he'd be a great running mate to 'Zo... a KCP upgrade to say the least.

 

Tyreke was great this year. Borderline all star level if he was in the east this year.

Would make a great 6th man. For his contract size he was a great piece - I expected contending teams to give up a 1st for him.

 

Let’s play “worst case scenario” here with the real possibility we don’t get any of the 3 big name free agents (LeBron, PG, Cousins).

We would have about 63 mil in cap space to fill out the roster going into next season.... what would you guys do with the money?

For me, I would continue to offer those 1 year contracts to maintain flexibility for 2019. Flexibility will now be the Lakers version of Philadelphia’s “process”, except it’s constant 1 year contracts vs dumping young assets for lotto picks and signing d-league players to be as bad as possible.... until we get that franchise changing player.

My “plan B” would be to resign Randle for 4 years $18mil/season (I think that’s what gets it done). This leaves me with $45 mil in cap space.

The contracts I provide are based on the amount I think each player would accept, but I use the rest of the money on 1 year contracts to fill out the roster and target (keep in mind with 1 year contracts we generally have to overpay for the 1 year for it to appeal to the player not to take a long term contract elsewhere):

- Nerlens Noel on a 1 year $12 mil contract. Young, defensive center with upside who can run the floor and has something to prove. The downside to this signing is him and Randle on the floor together pose spacing issues.

- Chris Joseph on a 1 year $10 mil contract. We badly need a NBA caliber backup point guard, preferably one who could be a capable starter when needed considering Lonzo has shown durability issues. Chris Joseph might be the best backup point guard available in free agency after Isaiah Thomas. I want nothing to do with IT because I can see him demanding to start.

- Rodney Hood on a 1 year 18 mil contract. Hood is a restricted free agent so he would be in the scenario KCP was in last season, where he declines his qualifying offer and takes a big 1 year deal. I like Hood off the bench because he’s a lot like a bigger Josh Hart, who’s capable of playing both SG and SF, is a decent wing defender and can hit the 3. He would have plenty of playing time coming off the bench for both positions.

- Resign Brook Lopez with the remaining cap space of $5mil if he would accept it. He was one of our best 3 point shooters last season and can provide depth at center and spacing for Randle to operate inside.

Our depth chart (with minutes available for each player) would look like:
Lonzo (33) /Joseph (15)/Caruso
Hart (28)/Hood (20)
Ingram (33)/Hood (6)/Kuzma (9)
Randle (28)/Kuzma (20)
Noel (24)/Lopez (19)/Randle (5)/Zubac (garbage time and additional playing time due to injuries)

 

In lieu of signing any of the marquee free agents, use the cap space to absorb unwanted expiring contracts for picks. I'd target the Wizards and Nuggets. The former is already looking at being over the luxury tax next season. The latter has a payroll already right about the cap and they have big time decisions on Barton and Jokic (who they may decline the cheap team option so they can re-sign him rather than risk him hitting unrestricted FA in 2019). The Lakers could take Gortat from the former and Faried/Arthur from the latter - and get future 1st round picks from each for their troubles. THEN what I would do is turn around and offer those 2 1st round picks to Dallas in exchange for them swapping Wes Matthews for Luol Deng. Wes has a salary pretty much equal to Deng next season but is an expiring contract. The Mavs seem like the most feasible team to take on salary beyond this season for picks (something they were reported to be open to at the trade deadline and who knows, they might actually play Deng).

So essentially the Lakers just parlay their cap space into veteran one year rentals Wes Matthews, Kenneth Faried, Darrell Arthur, Marcin Gortat for one year and unloading the 18.8M owed to Deng in 2019-2020 in the process.

If they re-sign Randle to 4 year 72M deal, we're talking about a team that would be interesting with the mix of young talent (Ingram, Kuzma, Randle, Hart, Ball, Zubac, Thomas Bryant, 2018 draft picks) + capable veterans motivated by impending free agency (aforementioned Wes, Faried, Arthur, Gortat).

The team is then set up in great cap space position for the loaded 2019 free agent class with essentially just Randle and a bunch of guys still on their rookie contracts on the books.

 

This, it provides the team some continuity and hopefully we'll look better next year for that free agency class.
It gives our young core the ability to just simply get better instead of having to figure out how to play with a group of new vets.

 

I really like this plan if we can swing it, if we can somehow fill out the holes in our roster while keeping our 2019 flexibility and gaining draft assets at the same time.

There’s truth to this too, I honestly think 2019 is the last “chance” to grab a big name free agent. If it doesn’t work out then, we are in that scenario you mentioned where our free agent shopping window will be over because the young core would be coming off their rookie deals and we would have to give them bigger contracts.

God forbid that happens where the window closes and we have nothing to show within these past few years from our “flexibility”. If that happens, Magic and Pelinka really didn’t do much better than Jim and Mitch....

 

Can someone answer a cap related question for a possible scenario:

If San Antonio decides that at a trade for BI, with us perhaps offloading some picks for a couple years is their best deal they can get as Leonard is from all accounts, taking an "LA or bust" stance, would BI's 6 million cap hold get wiped out or replaced by Leonard's salary?

Asking because the apparency see to me is that if BI's 6mil cap hold gets wiped and Leonard's last year of salary is only 20 mil, we are adding only 14 mil of cap for a star FA, and another say 16-18 mil per year for Randel should still leave us enough for a deal for PG or LBJ.

 

Yes that’s correct.

In my previous scenario I had Lonzo, Kuzma and Deng going out for 27m and adding Leonard and Green for 30m.

You could realistically fit Lebron, Lopez and Randle in with the remaining 70m in salaries available. As well as a 8m MLE candidate for backup PG (maybe even Pope or IT take that) and all the other youth we have like Hart, Bryant and Zubac.

Lonzo or Ingram (6-7.5m) / MLE (8m)
Green (10m) / Hart (1.6m)
Kawhi (20m) / Vet Min
Lebron (36m) / Randle (18m) / Frye (vet min)
Lopez (15m) / Zubac (1.6m / Bryant (1.4m)

Just underneath the tax apron. Which is so important for repeater tax when we re-up Kawhi and our youth. Danny Green, Lebron and Lopez will expire at different times over the next 3 years so it’s just about fitting in other people around the remaining core of Randle, Ingram/Lonzo, Hart.

If you could find a way to keep Kuzma it would be ideal, but you’ll be forced to let 2 of those 5 go over the next 3 years if they all become high value players that demand big contracts.

 

Man I love BI but the thought of having George and Kawhi on the wing is sexy as hell.

 

Random Laker related with Shaq on TNT being called Shrek by Charles



His reaction is pretty funny.