Bron, Zo, BI, Kuz, Hart, Moe, Svi, Bonga, Deng dead cap = 67.2m Kawhi = 32.7m 1st round draft pick for playoff bound teams in 17-30 range project to be somewhere between 1.9m - 2.7m, so let's just say we sign that pick to 2.3m next summer (more on why below). After signing Kawhi + draft pick, LA will have 10 on the roster, which is an incomplete roster charge of 2 for about 1.8m. Total team salary = 104m; cap space of 5m AD makes 27.1m next year. Absorbing some of that into our cap space makes his amount 22.1m. So the Lakers need a minimum of 17.1m in salary to acquire him. If you package BI, Kuz, Hart, Moe, Svi and Bonga, their salary aggregates to just a little over 16m. So we would be short about a million. That's where you involve the draft pick and a deal can be consummated. Zo gets spared, but Hart doesn't. However, you can look into trading that 2nd round pick and giving him a heftier than usual payday so that could remove Josh's 1.9m from the trade package. Long story short, it's possible to spare Zo/Hart...but imho, unlikely. NOP is going to want as many of our assets as possible to break bread with us at the table. If anything, I believe we can spare Kuz & Hart, but NOP would be dumb not to demand for Zo/BI as part of any discussion starter to a trade. Hope that answers your question. Edit: Just saw @Savory Griddles response and for the most part I agree....Zo and BI in all likelihood gets us to the table with NOP... Anything short of that and he's headed to Boston imho.
Thank you @vasashi17 for the info, really great insight into these numbers. As long as there's hope we can keep one of the young core while adding 2 potential Superstars sounds like a good plan.
Haha, I love you bro, but I'm getting more and more convinced LT stands for Little Tikes the way you value our kiddies haha I agree that we shouldn't just throw all our tikes away, but for a talent like AD, you need to give up some value. Plus if we deal Zo/BI (aggregated salary of 16m), you can hold onto a lot more of the kiddies and keep their team friendly deals on the books to still have a deep enough team. Plus you round out the roster with ring chasers using the room exception and vet mins (like TC and SwaGee). #A(dult)D(omination) @OmarE thx my dude! I agree that the 3 star alignment is not only what the FO is angling for, but it's a helluva plan and my body ain't ready for it, cause that type of team will surely body the league.
If push comes to shove, the one guy I keep is Lonzo. I'm not so sure NOP would be hot after him either since they have Holiday. He's the guy who best fits with Lebron, KD, and AD. He takes pressure off Lebron for distributing the rock and doesn't need to score. BI and Kuz become redundant with KD and AD. I'd love to keep Hart, too, but I think it takes three young guys to get it done. Zo's the one I wouldn't part with.
If NOP allows it, I would love to hold onto either BI or Ball. Stern thinks Demps is an idiot...but it would be moronic of him not to get at least BI/Zo for AD. Maybe we can get LaVar to turn up so that NOP wants no part of that smoke. But till then, I can't imagine they take a seat at the table without that package as the starter. Also another thing to consider is that NOP can dare AD to walk in the summer of 2020 and go find his max that way...in which case a 3rd yr Bron, a 2nd yr Kawhi and Deng's dead cap will take up about 80m of our team cap. Even if we shed all our youngns and don't account for the incomplete roster charge, the cap is set to 118m leaving 38m in practical cap space. AD's max would start at 41.3m, so we'd be short of giving him his true max. He can still leverage NOP by opting into his 28.8m final year (a la Cp3 to Houston), but he'd be losing alot of girth to that bag in the process.
I would say you are correct sir and if NOP doesn't mind dealing with LaVar, Zo would be a good fit there next to Jrue (also the Bruin connection).
So he went from calling dude kid to boi... You know what that means. Looks like Ky is back on the menu, bois!
Lebron keeps playing like this, all he needs is one player who can be a two way player who is a star. Lakers have enough depth after that and another year of experience.
If we traded Ingram and Ball for Beal, we could keep all our other kids (Kuz, Hart, Svi, Bonga, Wagner) and be sitting at roughly 84 million after capholds. That's 25 million in cap space. Do you think Cousins comes for that? If Cousins is healthy, he might take that 25 million. Is a starting five of Cousins/Kuz/Lebron/Beal/Hart enough?
If Beals contract ended in 2020, i would say, yes, take a shot. You would clear the room for AD and compete for the title for two years. Chandler/McGee Lebron Kuzma Beal Rondo That team with some lucky breaks could sneak a title if the Warriors implode. However, Beals contract goes through 2021. No way that trade happens. You would risk no chance of Durant, Klay or Kawhi this coming offseason. And no chance with AD the following year.
Remember, I'm working under the assumption that Cousins might take the 25 million. Cousins at even 85% of what he was preinjury along with Beal and Lebron and Kuz and Hart as role players would give us a legit chance to win a couple rings. I want AD and KD too, but if we can get Beal right now, he would give us a punchers chance this season if the Warriors continue to have issues and we'd be right there if Cousins took what might be a discount (although I don't see many teams offering him the max) this summer.
Lakers could have easily got Cousins, even if he came in January. I do not believe they will ever want Cousins.
I'm not sure they wanted Cousins this last offseason. He only signed that deal he did with the Warriors because they didn't need him to rush back and he might get a ring out of it. I don't think he signs with us for anything less than a 20 million a year deal for multiple years. Hard to tell a guy we want to sign you for 5 million when we have 20 million in cap space even AFTER signing Lebron. If he comes back at 85-90% of his former self, and they had LBJ and Beal already on the roster, then I think the Lakers would go HARD after him. Lebron, Beal and Hart can share point guard duties in this offense, and Kuz and Cousins fit nicely together. That starting 5 is pretty damn good. And if Durant leaves the Warriors to go to Brooklyn or the Knicks, Draymond/Steph/Klay probably doesn't beat that team. All of a sudden the Lakers are right there with the Sixers, Warriors, C Bags and Bucks.
If Davis ever says "i want out"... look out for C Bags They can make a nice package (even a stingy mofo like Ainge would not miss out on AD).
