i'm with soldier, we can take care of the center spot with journeyman if need be, as AD has to play there in the playoffs if we plan to win anything. why do people forget that we had to nail howard and mcgee to the bench at many crucial moments last year? centers are placeholders here. we had a fine one in marc and then...i don't really know what we were thinking with drummond.
i thought this from the beginning when they started talking as though he might stick around. basically same contract we signed trez to. i'd rather not, but it seems possible--particularly if trez were to opt out.
Don't want to see Drummond out there. It feels like the Lakers change their offense way too much to try and get him involved. Much better to get a center who just focuses on rebounding, defense, setting picks, and finishing around the rim. Drawing up plays for Drummond doesn't work unless you are a lottery team.
I just feel like the team and coaches think they can get more out of Drummond and I think he'll be back.
I do too and I’m not as down on him as most are here. It’s pretty clear to me that AD wants him here to reduce his minutes at the 5. I’m good with that if Trez walks. Gasol isn’t going to be starting material next season at 37.
At this point is there a team that would commit more than MLE money to him per year? And if not substantially more, would he rather play there than for the Lakers? Who knows.
I’d like to see him with a full offseason and training camp next to a healthy Lebron and AD. If he doesn’t come back I won’t be heartbroken either.
i think drummond coming back is a guarantee unfortunately you can give him a full training camp or whatever, but that won't fix the fact that he's a bone head with no offensive game to speak of
it has to work financially, though. cap is 112, lux is 137. lebron and AD make 77 or so together, so that plus empty roster charges (6 million ish) and deng's corpse (5 million) comes to about 88-90 million tied up no matter what. in theory, we could finagle under the cap if we shipped off everyone for nothing (possible but not probable at all), so i'll assume we operate (WAY) over the cap. we're at 121 if trez opts in, 112 if he opts out. we have the MLE at our disposal in any case. one possibility is trez opts out and we use the MLE on drummond (guessing he was promised this, as 432j indicates). but if trez opts in, are we really going to spend 20 million on guys we can't/won't play in the playoffs? using the full MLE on drummond also makes it so that we have to fill any other holes via trade or sign and trade (and probably both). daniel theis, nerlens noel, biyombo, mcgee and howard (!!), alex len, willy hernangomez, gorgui dieng, dedmon, robin lopez are all FAs who probably make less than MLE next year. betting at least a couple of them end up going on something around vet min. any of them could be a placeholding center for us, imo.
they're still on the hook for deng? jesus christ. thanks for the parting gift, mitch and jim i'd rather have harrell over drummond but it looks like the FO is set on keeping the latter. keeping harrell and bringing back one of dwight/mcgee would be awesome, but won't happen
I just don’t see Trez staying given his reduced minutes in the playoffs and how upset he was about it. Add in the fact that he’s on a bargain contract with a player option (with AD, Lebron and the FO favoring Drummond) and the writing is on the wall.
Yeah apparently he voiced some of his frustration on social media during the series. I get it. Trez is a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve and gives his all on the floor. I like him and wish he got a fairer shake as well as more pick and roll opportunities with us this season. But I think he’s gone.
not sure if he actually said something or posted something, but he was liking other people's posts on twitter asking why he wasn't getting playing time i get that his game is just not playable at most times in the playoffs, but there were times in the series where he should've been playing and wasn't because they insist on playing drummond no matter what
