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

both guys have been decent from the corners, but both take their threes from the wrong spots and in the wrong situations.

 

According to Basketball Reference:

• AD 40% career from corner three and 30% career from three overall, but only 13% of his three-point attempts are from the corner. Also, as we know AD's three-point shooting percentage has went down since his 33% bubble season in the past two seasons, shooting 26% and 19% respectively.
• WB 33% career from corer three and 31% career from three overall, but only 10% of his career attempts are from the corner. WB has shot particularly well from the corner the past two seasons, hitting 44% and 43% respectively, but they only account for 18% of his attempts.

As Ham and others have mentioned, WB could focus on that corner three. He is going to have to shoot a higher volume of them from that area though(maybe 50%+ of his attempts).

Basically, it's not the end of the world if WB stays, but as I mentioned, either him or AD need to take a huge step in terms of their three-point shot, and every player on the roster needs to have well-defined roles. No more of this, "so and so do this depending on the match up" and no more AD and Westbrook not knowing what their role is. We cant stick both of them in the paint. If we plan on doing that, then have WB be AD's back up at the dunker spot.

 

Unfortunately, we wont be able to capitalize on that as much, with WB likely being in the game with Beverly/Nunn. The opponents PG's would most likely be guarding the smaller guys. WB would be defended by guards/wings/etc. So maybe WB should really get to work on that three.

 

Nope- that’s my opinion of a team with no shooting and not enough depth.
Pretty much EVERYONE not named BevMo would have to take a massive leap in their 3 point percentages for this team to succeed.
That just doesn’t happen in the NBA.

 

Well, it's not ideal for WB to stay. But, I am just trying to gauge where Laker management is at with this and break down what we could be looking at (if WB is not traded). My findings are that it is not as bad as I initially thought (if any AD or WB can fix their shot).

 

Not as you initially thought, at a minimum until he gets pissed at Bev for doing what Bev does, getting on everyone about slacking off on defensive play, and at a maximum with Ramona’s orchestrated post that in his heart of hearts Russ is not digging the role Ham has explained to him?

 

yeah, that's what i was referencing. i've been a big vogel defender, but i thought him allowing AD to catch at 45s behind the 3 pt line was just incredibly stupid. you turn a dragon into a non-factor. if he's not centrally involved in the action, park him in the opposite corner to either catch and shoot or dive from the weakside and cram on everyone.

 

Some of these newbies and journeymen and going to have to step up big time because as is, we do not have a 8-man playoff roster. We are 6-7 counting Reavees, Walker, you want to throw in Thomas Bryant, Damian Jones ok 7-8 but damn, that's some newbie guys in the rotation and that includes Nunn as a main top 5 guy. Our dropoff after Nunn is scary:
LBJ, AD, Russ, PatBev, Nunn

Reaves, Walker, Bryant, Jones, Brown, Tuscano-Anderson, Gabriel beyond that, some scrubs I ain't even gonna mention though there could be a break-out, probably not the type that gets playoff minutes though.

I don't know what Rob's plan is but a Jordan Clarkson or someone to come off the bench would be nice, I know Ainge is asking too much for JC but the need is great here.

Rotating out some Reaves, Brown and Nunn with the starters for shooting and wing D is ok but that bench needs some scoring. I mean we got What? Walker? I guess some Nunn. We are far from deep unless all the scrubs I didn't mention are miraculous.

 

Be careful, Rob might be listening! We don't need a JC type on this team. We already have two JC's in WB and Walker.

 

Well it's true and you just named the solution which is WB. But it's WB coming off the bench and running with the young kids. That would be fantastic. It's so funny that combined with a healthy LBJ and AD that makes us a contender again and yet it's not even a consideration at this point apparently. We'll see what Darv does. Health is wishing for a lot I realize but we are nothing without it anyways. Too bad for star egos. These guys all pump each other up too because they all care about getting the big money until they are 40.

I'll reserve judgment on Walker until I see what we get out of him, he may be a 20pt guy off the bench for all I know but he's not gonna board and dish like Russ would out there with that 2nd unit + the speed. Now Walker could run with Russ and that 2nd unit, @ the 1&2, now you're talking. That's where I would have both of those guys slotted right now. Starters: Bryant, AD, LBJ, Reaves, Beverley/Nunn switching based on matchups.

 

Pssshtt .... makes way too much sense .... will never happen despite all the Darvin statements, I think everyone kind of feels. But as you and I agree, Russ doesn't have a whole lot of leverage here, and if he has to get benched and not play at all or be sent home because how he wants to play is not getting it done with the starters and refuses to come off the bench, then he's really killing his next paycheck.

 

Russ running with the quick 2nd unit, it is the OBVIOUS answer. Will Darv beat down what should be non-important lame duck politics at this point and do what is right? How could he not have full FO support?

 

Russ being a starter doesn't mean he won't run the 2nd unit

 

Then it's just a bunch of kissing a$$ isn't it? And improperly aligned roster placements for someone's f***ing ego.

 

We have to trade Russ no matter what… he has a 40 million dollar contract and if he just leaves next off season we can’t do anything with that cap space :/


But if we can trade him for some serviceable pieces, the cap space can be used.

 

The talent you bring back for his contract aren't good enough. That's the issue.

 

And we're going to have to depart with more assets (draft picks).

 

currently. similar talent to what's being discussed (conley/bogdanovic, hield/turner) may become available for lower cost (fewer picks, if any) as the season progresses and teams start to pack it in for next year.

the big issue is what you're paying in picks, imo. as the headliners in those deals (e.g., turner) can be had with our space as the roster currently stands. this has to inform rob's thinking and negotiating: "look, if i want turner, i can probably sign him next summer, and you'll get no compensation in such an event. if i'm taking on additional salary beyond that, i'm really not sure if it makes sense to give you picks".

all that said, i think a russ trade makes more sense than a cap space plan, as the latter requires completely rebuilding once again, and we would only have enough money for a single impact FA in a pretty bare market.

i still expect russ to move, either now or in december-february.