2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

We shall see on that one, if we've truly seen the best he has left, then we absolutely need Kyrie, because a Conley or Turner centered trade, is not going to move the needle at all. On the flipside ...Lebron being the 3rd best player behind Irving and Davis, is still championship caliber, because this dude isn't the average 38 year old. The best he has left is still better than most, based off of what we saw last season. I'd settle for two more seasons of that.

 

Really? I mean we were outstanding with all those picks and youth before he got here right?

 

Russ makes about 10 million more than Kyrie, so somebody has to come with Irving anyway right? Curry is my preference because he fits the need on the court for shooting, and his salary matches up perfectly, and he's on an expiring deal. I'd be willing to sacrifice Tucker for Harris instead of Curry, if it came down to it.

The all in strategy would be to move Russ,Talen and Nunn, plus the two picks for Irving, Harris and Curry. Hell I'm down with that idea too. We still have a 2.75 million dollar trade exception that should make the numbers match up.

Now if that isn't enough firepower to make us a title favorite, than Lebron and AD are done as elite players IMO. I'm not sure exactly who fields a better team than us with those 3 players added.

 

Yes. Lebron ruins everything and our franchise should have never linked up with him. Lebron is not only bad for this team and league, but in actuality may be the bane of sentient existence. He is a menace to this universe. Was a championship really worth the destruction of life as we know it? I think not.

KD’s trade demand is recent evidence of how terrible Lebron is.

Am I doing this right guys?

 

I would be thrilled to see a version of LeBron next regular season who only scores around 20ppg but is back up near 9-10 assists and defends at a consistently high level. It's crazy to think of that kind of player is a "scaled-back" LeBron (because I just described an incredible basketball player), but that's how good he still is/can be.

Getting Kyrie, for all his faults, would be massive for this team because LeBron actually trusts him (at least on the court). He and peak Wade are really the only guys he's been willing to defer to as a creator. In the biggest moment of their season, LeBron signaled to Lue to run that play for Kyrie when he hit the 3 over Steph in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals. He said publicly that he wanted Kyrie to take the reigns for the Cavs in the regular season. LeBron respects Kyrie's talent and IMO would actually adjust his game about around Kyrie, and at this stage of his career we need LeBron to play more of the facilitator role to preserve himself.

 

Not exactly a King's ransom for what we'd receive in return. We are talking about Russell Westbrook, a guy who most folks around here don't want back. THT isn't close to being a Kyrie level player and probably never will be. Will a late round draft pick get us a Kyrie Irving in a future draft? I don't understand what all the angst is coming from. Frankly.. Kyrie indicating that he wants to come to LA, is the only thing that makes this even a resonable possibility That trade package isn't really all that great if other teams were after that guy.

 

the issue is, again, protections. protections make those late picks. no protections could make those very high lotto picks.

 

and if Kyrie was a dependable guy he would be worth everything and more but he has 1 season left on his contract and the guy is considered a space cadet for a reason.....he may miss 2 weeks cause something in the headlines freaks him out, he may miss months cause he doesn't feel up to it. There's a reason someone with his skill is not wanted amongst the 31 other teams in the league. We are competing with ourselves with giving up any capital at all and this is for a guy whose frog may get injured and he has to miss a month to be at frogly's bedside.

 

That plus Kyrie just fits better than Russ, because he's a scorer more than a facilitator. A lot like D Wade in Miami. Russ's main strength is his ability to push the pace and facilitate, this puts him at odds with Lebron, because you'd want Lebron to be more like a Magic, instead of a Kobe as he finishes out his career. James has always been the real point guard on his teams, regardless of his listed position. Having another guy that can go out and create his own scoring opportunities, without relying on Lebron to set him up, gives James the ability to coast some on offense. He can play off of Kyrie and AD and knock down his jumper. Those forays into the paint saps energy, and stamina IMO, is the area where I see him declining.

 

I tend to agree with this too.

 

Maybe.. but he never did any of that in Cleveland. That is what I look at more than what he might do now. He is most definitely playoffs and Finals proven.

Yes he was still loopy in Cleveland, that's where he spouted that flat earth stuff, he also didn't speak to his teammates for a month in the season they beat Golden State.

If he'd expressed a desire to play somewhere other than Brooklyn or LA..teams would be going after this dude, don't kid yourself. The talent is superb, the idea that he doesn't really want to play for your team though, is absolutely a full stop on pursuing him. Everyone seems to come with an injury risks these days, I can live with that, I think he trusts Lebron to be the team leader and shadow GM, all he has to do is hoop here. The guy is damn near falling into our lap, we just don't need to stumble and fumble the catch.

 

Right. I feel like if AD and LeBron are elite, then adding Irving, Harris and Curry to the mix should put us right there with the other top teams. We still need to finally catch some luck with health but that's not a bad team at all.

 

Kyrie's issues are very real. No getting around that. Dude is weird to say the least.

We'd be banking on Handy, LeBron and AD keeping him focused. On the plus side, I think LeBron is better at that than KD who just seems like there's a picture of him beside "surly" in the dictionary.

 

Bringing in Harris and Curry are a NEED. It's not about making the trade work. Get both.

 

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I feel you on the 29 pick..24 though they can have it without any protection if that's some kind of sticking point. It would have to be an absolute total catastrophe for us to be in a lottery position in 2 years. Anything can happen true, but that’s a risk I'm ok with. 7 years down the line is a different situation, I agree with that.

 

it's 27 and 29.

we don't control 24 or 25 because NO has the option to defer (next year is a swap). so even the soonest pick is past lebron's retirement and likely past AD's and kyrie's effective years. some huge unknowns that far out.

now, sure, we're the lakers and can probably build not-the-worst teams if we focus on that, but we've been burned that way before.

 

Yeah but in Cleveland before Lebron got there he was injured or nursing injuries alot so he was prolly more focused on getting healthy in rehab then to spout crazy stuff in the news. Since he's been succesful with every new season he's just been getting crazier and crazier and when you get older you either get more mature or you just get crazier. With the Cbags he was getting pretty crazy and he went full blown nuts with the Netrs and he was playing with 2 hall of famers in KD and Hardin. He only played in 29 games last season and he was healthy, he took 6 weeks off in Jan of 2020 for reasons we still don't know yet but he was healthy. With him at this point in his career he's not worth 2 picks or swaps, if there were treams vying for him then maybe you up the deal but we are competing against ourselves and it's never smart to throw everything for a crazy guy when no one else is bidding.

 

From the outside looking in here. I don't think he wanted to play in Boston. Maybe he was open to it at first, but he quickly soured on that idea. He complained about young guys being difficult, chose a weird time to have his surgery, and kept talking about having a chance to make his own decisions about where to play. He was fine in Brooklyn until Harden showed up, reading some of his comments pre and post trade, he didn't seem to think that they needed James Harden. I think Harden got that message too and asked out.

It's just a different situation here..players are human, they have feelings. When his pride was stung in his contract negotiations, the Lakers and Lebron are the only team that stood up and said we'll take him publicly. He's won a chip with Lebron, they say that he is better friends with AD than Lebron. He respects Handy, he respected Kobe. More practically..we have an asset that can be moved for him, and will have the cap space to pay him what he wants. These are strong motivating factors for him to "act right".

A pick swap is meaningless, you still get a draft pick and you can still trade whatever player you pick. If you are chasing chips and aquiring a high end talent, worrying about finishing worse than the team you are trading with, isn't that high up on the list of your concerns IMO. I don't think we are even talking about giving up 2 picks for Kyrie alone, it depends on who else is involved, because both Curry and Harris fulfill a big need on this team too.

 

Is 26 a pick swap? I don't see AD retiring in 5 years he's only 29. Lebron will be gone, but that salary spot will be filled by another high end player to be our 3rd guy, the beat goes on. We can get a ring now..that's more important than worrying about what might happen 7 years down the line. If we got a couple of chips it would have been well worth it. Guys will still want to play for the Lakers in the future, chips only continue to enhance the brand.

 

26 is out of play because 25 is up in the air. this is why you always hear 27 and 29. and yes, we could swap 28 in between...but yowzers.

AD isn't the picture of health, and his game is heavily predicated on athleticism. my money says he won't be a top-tier player at 34.

and the idea that we'll just cycle lebron out for the next star sounds nice until you look at what happened when kobe started to decline. we couldn't get people to come here. nobody wanted the heat. luka's my only hope there, tbh.

i just feel like championship cores run their course, and they don't get cycled out. gs thinks they're going to just keep humming along as steph and klay and dray fade? nay. kuminga/moody/wiseman ain't about to do any of that. same with us as lebron/AD make their staggered exits from the upper echelon. unless you trade them first, you can't just cycle through. hell, it took ainge what...5-6 years to turn his massive star trade back into an upper crust team, right.

that's just how this stuff goes, typically. and that's why teams are trying to get our unprotected 1sts in those years.