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

To be fair, it is Bron's fault.

 

Yes and we now all suffer for it

 

can they f*** off with the fake comebacks? especially against the clippers

 

Yeah... the motivation slogan on the drawing board pissed me off like nothing... What was that BS? "Not giving up" or some other Coach Carter bullcrap?

 

Yes. Manage his minutes in a way it balances his workload and the overall team performance. It's pretty clear. He came in in the Q2 and closed the game. Wouldn't play those stretches if he had started

 

20 games is stalling for time with fans. There’s no deal to be made and the price tag goes up with every Russ brick.

We have no leverage. Never did. I’ll say it again, we’re all just hoping for some kind of miracle.

One of the worst constructed rosters I’ve ever seen by a team that wasn’t tanking.

 

What would you have done differently this year?

 

Based on the rumors? Well, I honestly would’ve taken the best available deal and let the team go as far as LeBron and AD could carry them. I probably would’ve tried to bring in Bogdan, Conley, Reddish, a pick from Utah and whatever other players needed to make the salaries work.

I don’t know the cap logistics off the top of my head (I haven’t had any coffee) so trading with Utah and New York may not have been possible but that would’ve been my goal. Get a pick and a young prospect in Cam to lessen the blow of giving up our picks a bit along with some shooting and guys who are better fit. Conley is likely washed and I don’t like his contract but I don’t see a completely clean way out of the Russ deal. We will likely need to take on salary to make something happen no matter what trade we end up making. The goal would be for the pick, Bogdan, Reddish and/or some other player whose salary works to make Conley’s contract an easier pill to swallow.

I actually like what we’ve seen from Walker and didn’t hate the signing but I’d have tried for Bruce Brown or Otter Porter. Otto’s hurt so that might have whiffed on me but I would’ve tried to either bring in a wing or a shooter with the MLE.

The other minimums were actually okay to me as I don’t think you can expect as much from those guys.

So yeah, not a perfect roster but I’d have targeted wings and shooting. It’s a tough spot for us to be in but I wouldn’t have brought Russ back. The clear downsides of my moves would be the loss of future trade options and taking on Conley’s deal for a team that i think is better but probably only middle of the pack in the West record wise. But our playoff success always rides on our big two so I’d want to give them and our new staff the best line up they could work with.

I get the position that we will lose future assets but I think the damage being done right now outweighs those fears.


So there you go. Have fun picking it apart. I’m off to Starbucks or whatever coffee shop has the shortest line.

 

eh, i won't rehash it all, but i don't think most of that was ever possible, and if it was, we'd still be 0-2 and heading for 2-5 at best.

the damage being done now is nothing compared to another full-on dark age post lebron similar to the end of the kobe era. franchise might never recover. we can recover from not being good this year.

edit: and i banged the conley/bogdanovic drum for most of the summer. lots of folks here didn't want conley, iirc--and according to some reports rob didn't want salary extending to next year. imo, utah was asking for picks on top of us eating conley's salary (much like indy with hield), and that's just an absolute no-go. IF we actually could have moved russ for no picks and gotten back some playable guys, yeah, that was a huge mistake. i just don't think that option ever presented itself at any point.

 

We have the top pick on Tankathonwight Shaka:bad news is that we give it to the Pelicans and get the 21st pick

 

Honestly I’ve answered variations of that question multiple times now.

It doesn’t really matter what players we name because some just don’t want to make a deal with the picks unless it’s a complete home run to protect future potential and others like me think we need to move now and put the best team you can put there based on the deals that are actually available.


There’s pros and cons to both approaches. The front office decided to wait and see. so they have to deal with the blow back now and we’ve got to hope the gamble pays off. Doesn’t mean there won’t be criticism in the meantime though.

 

Pelicans May end up adding a top three pick to that core. Yikes.

 

they'd have to be incredibly lucky on several fronts. more likely, they'll trade the 20th pick for the 12th, which basically have equal expected values.

 

My hope is we fight them for the last play in slot. 1 spot won’t matter.

 

their health concerns are as big as ours, and i think people forget they were bad for long stretches last year with a largely similar team, too. i'll be surprised if they finish top 5 in the west, and i'll be surprised if we finish bottom 5. both things can happen, but each would be unexpected, imo.

 

Oh. I was mainly being sarcastic. I don’t think we will end up giving up a top three pick.

 

Thanks for taking the time!

We clearly see our usage of picks quite differently. Trading both picks now means that only in 2028 (6 YEARS from now) we will be able to have 3 picks to trade. That's the bare minimum to get any type of star and it may even be short to get the big ones. At that same year, you're coming off a year where you didn't have your pick.

Any franchise goes through windows presented by the top players they have. Ours is LeBron and AD.
LeBron is done in 2 years and we will get no assets from him.
AD is going through his prime with healthy issues and the picture is not encouraging 2 years from now. Either he's the player we want him to be and we need a #1 star (or else we are the Pelicans) or he's definitely injury prone and he has no value in the market.
We have learned just a few years ago that we can no longer rely on Free Agency when our team is bad.

There's a very high chance we may not be good post-Lebron and I mean lottery team. Having those picks means that we at least give us 2 different chances of not being that bad: go through the lottery and rebuild or use those assets post-Lebron to get a disgruntled star that may happen with Luka, Booker and who knows who else.
Plus, Warriors window with this big 3 comes to and end around LeBron's which means that after the West will be up for grabs

On the other hand, trading for those or Pacers package would give us a better team for sure. But even with LeBron/AD, that team is not top5 of the league. Without them, which the last 2 years have shown it's quite likely, we suck as much as without any trade.

So in the end, the only certainty in doing that deal is that it mortgages our future for the WHOLE DECADE. Then, it doesn't make us a top contender. It does slightly increases our odds to win it all, but it's still highly unlikely.

So, if it's a video game. I would do it because it would definitely be more fun and enjoyable to have a better team now. But has I'm a Lakers fan for life and want to support the team for years to come, I understand how irrational it would be to do so based on so much uncertainty on AD's health and Lebron's final years, the best thing to do is to take a breather and don't kill our future

 

i think there's a decent chance our next star is acquired by trading AD and the picks we didn't surrender this summer. this will all be the interest of building post-lebron.

lebron had his shot with the russ trade, and we're out of that business now.