Well, they should already be well invested and have income just from that which should more than cover their lifestyles.
Somewhat related. This guy’s talking about Brad Turner of the Times, supposedly describing the meeting between Bron, AD and Russ. I’m still not convinced about this AD at center thing. I just don’t see his heart in it.
i'm a longstanding, vocal proponent of AD at the 5, but i wouldn't start a game like this unless the other team has gone ultra small like houston did. as long as the other team starts a bruiser (most teams do), i'd save AD for the first few minutes of every half by letting him play pf. every other minute he plays (any middle minutes against backups and the ends of halves) should be at center, imo. should lead to about 12 pf minutes a game for him (he'd be my first sub, bring howard in for gasol and a guard in for AD). maybe even take russ out then, too. let lebron roll for a few as the lone dude. but i'm not a coach.
I liked the Turner AD combo a few weeks ago. If he comes, Gasol won't play many games, which is ok but unexpected at this point. Would be a great move, but not sure how we pull it off
Early interviews and positive. Everyone seems up for a big season and wants to sacrifice for the team. We need 3&D players around AD, Lebron and Westbrook. So whoever can shoot and defend consistently will win the minutes. I'm sure injuries will do their thing and spread playing time around. But man oh man, the 2 and 3 spots are up for grabs and it's going to be competitive. Ellington/Monk/Bazemore/THT can all play the 2 and Bazemore/Ariza/THT can all play at the 3 Ellington can knock them down, but can he hold his own defensively? He seems to be the best natural shooter on the team, so I assume he'll get some burn regardless. Monk is athletic, shot well last season and has the tools to be a good defender. Can we mold him into a KCP type role-player? Or was his shooting a single season flash in the plan and his defensive IQ is just no good? Bazemore is a pesky defender who shot well last season. Can he continue to shoot well? And will playing in a better defensive team, finally increase his impact on that end of the floor enough to make him a good 3&D wing? Ariza is getting older and blows hot and cold from 3 seasonly, but he is still our best perimeter defender. Can he turn back the clock and shoot well for one more season? THT has all the intangibles and tools to be a solid contributor. Can he improve on his decision making, his defence and his 3 ball? Or do we continue to bring him along slowly? I'll add Nunn here because he might get some burn at the 2 aside form being our backup PG. Nunn has a chip on his shoulder, wants to take on the defensive assignments and shot ok last year. Is he just an average shooter from 3? Will his size and decision making just mean he is some quick offence off the bench? Or does he become a dog on the defensive end and continue his improvement as a shooter to win more minutes at the 2, next to westbrook. Lots of questions and lots of opportunities.
So we have 3 roster spots left We all have been drafting depth charts based on everyone being healthy, and I think more or less the general feeling is this: Westbrook, Nunn Ellington, THT, Monk Lebron, Bazemore, Ariza AD, Melo Gasol, D12 This is fine if everyone healthy. But depth really matters, in today's NBA, when injuries happen and boy are we not familiar with that. I think our last spots need to account to that. So let's roll scenarios: PG If WB gets injured, we have LeBron to run the 1st unit and Nunn/THT the 2nd. None of the latter is a floor general, but it's a superstar getting injured so it's expected to suffer a beat. However he should be the guy playing more games and minutes this year. If Nunn or THT get injured, each one covers the other and we have Monk also. Probably worth adding Reaves or McClung here. Reaves has a 2-way contract, so that doesn't count as one of the 15 roster spots right? I think he will suffice as the 5th point guard SG and SF Our 3 and D spots. We have incredible depth here with LeBron, Ellington, Monk, THT, Nunn, Bazemore and Ariza having minutes, we are covered for any scenario except LeBron. If someone gets injured, we can just increase minutes to the other guys so that's fine. If LeBron gets injured, well it's LeBron so you don't replace him. If it happens, I guess THT and Bazemore increase their roles so no issue here. This depth makes me think that Wes is not a good fit to this roster, considering our needs elsewhere. He's fine as a player but he would just not get the minutes PF That's where we are in trouble. AD and LeBron will likely play the bulk of minutes here. Which means that if they are injured the two replacements are the oldest ones, Ariza and Melo. We can't ask these two to play +30min night in night out. And I'm expecting both of AD LJ to miss +15 games combined. One can cover the other but long term is not sustainable. We need one or even two guys here, one of them being Dudz. I said it in another thread, with almost 10 news guys in the roster, we NEED Dudz to gel everyone and build chemistry. People underrate this kind of stuff but we saw how chemistry matters the past 2 years. I would absolutely sign him, mostly for non-basketball reasons but still providing a end of the bench guy to eat 10min if things go south with AD. I would also had Ilyasova or Mike Scott or Melli to be behind Melo as a true backup. We wouldn't get hurt with them playing 15min when no AD and even a few minutes when AD plays, depending on matchups. Would love this move. Millsap would be perfect, but he might get paid the TPMLE in another contender C Gasol, Howard and AD are good throughout the season barring injuries. But considering how short we are at the 4, I would add Cacok, the kid is good and perfect for this role. He would always play hungry to show his skills in the limited time he might have available. If AD gets injured, Gasol and Dwight could eat the minutes, but they would already be punished because we would play with a small 4. Having an extra body available would help, also covering any injury or foul trouble of Gasol or Dwight, that would force AD to play more 5 in the reg season, which is to be avoided I guess. Even if they want to play AD more at the 5, it's better that it happens because we WANT to, not because we NEED to So all in all, my priority list for the remaining FA: Dudz Mike Scott/ Ilyasova / Melli Cacok Backup plans: Reaves / PG Wes
Westbrook Ellington Lebron AD Marc - Nunn THT/Monk Bazemore/THT Melo/Ariza Dwight Duke is the best shooter and will give the starters needed spacing to attack. Think Marc plays a Bogut like rotation, AD and Dwight takes the bulk of the center mins. Going to be tough finding mins for everyone playing the guard positions, hope some guys are comfortable not playing in some games.
I think I'd go the other way, Bron out first to get him as much rest during the season as possible and bring him back with the 2nd team while AD and Russ sit. Russ and AD on the floor together with Ellington/Monk/Nunn/THT/Melo/Ariza/Dwight-Gasol There's so many options...glad I'm not in Vogels shoes
i was operating on the idea that older guys tend to want to play longer stretches and sit less frequently. but i might be making that up. it's why i'm on team "start the olds": gasol/AD/lebron/ellington/russ
Ellington is undersized, IMO. And he just hasn't been great defensively. I think he can be more effective coming off the bench. Monk has some athleticism. Again, though, he's 6'3" with a short wingspan? Nunn? A little small. Ellington, Nunn, and Monk all will get time at the SG position. Nunn might me more of a facilitator at the PG position. I think Baze has the most size and while he isn't the best "pure" shooter out the bunch, he can switch the 2/3 seamlessly, get out on the break, and play some defense. Just my opinion.
Kinda what I was thinking too, especially after listening to his press interview and him saying he prides himself on his defense.
I just think saving LeBrons minutes this season is gonna do nothing but help him be refreshed for a playoff run. Russ is about 5 years younger and hasn't shown any signs of slowing down and playing him a few more minutes a game while saving Bron from playing extended minutes is now a very viable possibility. This will also show Russ how invested we are in him by trusting him to stay on the court to lead the team while we all know Bron can play with anybody. I just don't see offensive lulz anymore with AD being the primary offensive focal point if Russ is on the floor to create and draw attention away from him with a couple wings who can hit 3s on that unit. That's just gonna make ADs job a lot easier while Bron always makes everyone's life easier no matter who is on the floor. Also with all this talent to trickle down to the 2nd team Bron won't have to carry the entire burden either. Soo many good problems to have
I honestly think they should have LeBron and AD at 30 mins and Russ around 32. Rotate them on back to backs to give them rest periodically. Allow players like Nunn, THT, Monk, Bazemore to soak up a lot of minutes through the regular season. They can all assist Melo - the new best player on this team - to get us a top 2-4 seed.
After the Rondo acquisition, we have one more roster spot to fill. Depending on whether we choose to play big or small, we should either sign a big that can cover the 4/5 or a wing that can defend the 3/4. If we play smaller which I think suits us better: Westbrook / Nunn / Rondo Ellington / Monk / THT Bazemore / Ariza Lebron / Carmelo AD / Gasol / Howard THT can cover small SF's and Ariza can cover small PF's. But you probably want a wing added that can play the 3/4. Someone like Stanley Johnson could be good - he is a good defensive player that can guard the 3, 4 and 5. He is terrible offensively but can pass well. Either way we're talking about the 14th roster spot here.
2 spots: The biggest wave of free agency signings has already passed for the Los Angeles Lakers but there is still business to be made. This Monday the team made a relatively big signing, bringing back Rajon Rondo after he was waived by the Memphis Grizzlies. The Lakers now have two more roster spots to use and several different routes they could go down. There is the potential of the team signing three and D wing James Ennis, who is perhaps the best wing remaining. I'm thinking we need a 4-5. We have way too many wings now. There's also a ton of talk about Gasol getting traded to get his 2.6 million of the books for luxury tax relief. Lakers would trade him and a 2nd round pick for a non guaranteed contract and waive that contract immediately only being on the hook for $100k instead of 2.6 million. I have seen 4-5 different outlets writing this same story so there has to be some heat to it. Regardless we have plenty of guys that can guard 1-3, way more then enough and the ability to play small now as is. We need size for versatility and options
We will only go into the season with 14, so one more to fill. Lets see what happens, maybe Gasol gets traded, bought out or decides not to come back or maybe it’s just off-season chat that holds no truth. Regardless, we’ll either have him or someone like Cousins or Jordan. I just think it’s clear we’ll play smaller than we have the last two years when you look at our roster construction. We’ll see AD at the 5 and Lebron at the 4 a lot. I personally see more value in a defensive wing that can guard Butler, PG, Durant, Giannis, Middleton etc, than a 5 where we only need to worry about Jokic and Embiid.
i've been waiting for it to come together for stanley, and it just never has. he's worth a shot, as is the other arizona alum with no offense (rhj).
I’d take a flier on him for the 14th spot. There aren’t a lot of big, athletic, defensive wings that can play the 3 and 4, as well as the 5 in a pinch too like he did last year.
