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

I think the Nets situation is more volatile. While I think they can strive better in disfunction than we can because they're a lot better/deeper, I also think they could easily fire Nash and trade Kyrie this year if things don't turn around soon. Curry and Harris just came back, when they get up to speed I think their offense will be good enough to hide their AWFUL defense in the regular season.

At least our top two guys aren't as moody and unpredictable as theirs. I could see both retiring mid-season for Kyrie to focus on his "cause" and because a twitter troll made KD feel unappreciated. I don't think that will happen, but if I woke up and read that...I would shrug it off as yeah, sounds about right.

It is comical that these two high profile teams have the worst offense and the worst defense. Their defense is reeeaaaallly bad.


For a team starting Simmons, Claxton, and O'Neale that's unacceptable. If Simmons is going to be afraid of his shadow on offense, he has to be DPOY and anchor that team.

 

Where the hell did that come from weirdo?

 

Keep it in your bedroom guys

 

@LaVarBallsDad ... years ago I recall asking where you were in So Cal in case close enough to watch a game here with large projected image. But waay too far south, plus probably dodged a bullet. You'd likely turn it into a grump fest like Game Time here.




:THT Heart Hands:

 

btw, ya'll: i watched the end of the charlotte game last night, and i don't think they're in the market to tank. clifford's got them believing. also, if they DO decide to trade with us, it's going to be rozier before hayward (i think he's a leader there), and pj washington is going nowhere.

anyway, think our chance with them was last year, when everyone thought hayward would never walk again and before bridges saved them 30 million dollars.

 

Yup, this is why I didn’t get my hopes up or even read too much into it when I started hearing Charlotte’s name recently pop back into trade speculation. Just feels like too much of a longshot.

Felt like there was some hope from Lakers fans that since a Charlotte trade would involve us taking long-term salary, maybe it could get done with minimal draft compensation. But naw, I think Rozier and/or Hayward would be such great fits for us that Charlotte would still probably demand a lot.

To your point about them looking good enough to not tank, I think that’ll actually apply to a lot of the teams we’ve been thinking of as trade partners.

I just think in general the “race to the bottom for Wembanaya” that a lot of journalists started speculating was overstated.

The way they flattened the lottery odds, I don’t see that much incentive to desperately try to be the WORST team. #1 worst record has a 14% chance at the top pick compared to #5 worst record with a 10.5% chance. Really not that big a difference.

Like if I’m Indiana and I’m 3-4, have some pieces to be excited about, Haliburton looking great, this rookie Mathurin looking nice, Hield playing well and only increasing his value, etc… why rush into a “tanking” trade?

It’s still early, might as well try to compete and see if your team is further along to being a playoff team than you anticipated. If they’re really too young and inexperienced and it becomes clear later in the season that they’re not good enough yet, well THEN you can try tanking to get a few extra percentage points to your odds.

Like even Utah, sure they’re 5-2 probably isn’t sustainable and they’ll end up being a contender for the #1 pick. But if I’m Danny Ainge I’m not too stressed about the W’s or looking to rush into a move to start accelerating the losses. The losses will come in time. Might as well ride the hot streak and try to build a culture, show your fans that the core you’re rebuilding around has potential.

 

^^^ that makes way too much sense. What's your deal?

 

yeah, but the tank will still be on, even with flattened odds. it's not just about #1, it's about how far you can fall if you're not the worst. the worst team still gets a top-5 pick, even if they get crazy unlucky. and that cascades downward to some degree. so teams will still want to lose.

also: you want to build culture with guys you think will be there. utah's problem is that olynyk and conley aren't part of the long-term plan, imo. they're just helping them win games they shouldn't win. ainge should have brought in a tank commander coach instead of someone trying to make his bones...

we still don't even know that the indy deal was real. we know that we internally discussed OFFERING the two picks, not that they'd take that offer. and it seems like they'd signaled they wouldn't, anyway, with the business about simon wanting to see turner, etc. and i get that--they have to make a choice on turner in the offseason at the latest, so they might want to take a look at him before moving on.

my hope is still for SA--they're way below the salary floor and have two vets that aren't part of the long-term plan and fit perfectly into russ's salary. let's just make this happen. they held that space out there all summer with no bites. let's give them a pick swap or two and move forward.

 

aaron who? and anthony irwin seems HEAVILY invested in telling the worst lakers stories of late, imo.

we make that trade and we're maybe 1-4 right now.

 

ah, ok.

still think rob's extension was to avoid a panic trade. we'll see what it actually was over time.

 

Now with the top 3 teams in the lotto only getting a 14% chance at the #1 pick it's hard to believe any team is going to tank unless they truly are a bottom-dweller at this point already anyway. In which case they don't need to try to tank, do they? Orlando, Detroit, Houston, Kings etc. And if you don't make the top 3, say you are #4, it's no big deal, you just get a 12.5% chance or 10.5% chance for 5th place and so on. It is not important anymore to be the worst team in the lotto.

 

This was always my thought /concern going back to the summer.

 

With the discussions of Charlotte and Indy again, it kind of sucks for the Lakers lol.


From the Charlotte perspective, Hayward is healthy and looks as good as he’s been in his Utah days. Rozier was balling out before he sprained his ankle this season as well.

From Indiana, Buddy Hield is playing at a level to justify Rob Pelinka’s man crush on him. I get it now lol. Myles Turner just had a 27/10/5block game.

I agree with previous posters, the players that have all been involved in potential Laker trade rumors have all increased their trade value, which is bad for LA.

There was a rumour just a few days ago that Pelinka has been working the phones trying to setup a multi team deal. I’m sure this was discussed and probably turned down by one of the teams:

Charlotte gets Westbrook + a Lakers FRP
Indiana gets Plumlee, Pat Beverley (both expiring contracts) + a Lakers FRP
Lakers get Hayward, Hield, Myles Turner


My bet would be that it’d be Indiana saying no and sticking to wanting 2 FRPs.

If not, At this point I think it would be worth it to give up the 2 FRP for this 3 team deal to try to push it through. It solves EVERY problem this team has except I’d personally like a 3 and D point guard. Pat Beverley was supposed to be that, but hasn’t played like it so far and he would need to be included to make the salaries match.

However, if there was some way to make this happen (praying to the basketball god Kobe Bryant to bless us from heaven), this depth chart is awesome:

Reaves/Schroder/Nunn
Hield/Walker/Brown
Lebron/Hayward/JTA
AD/Gabriel
Turner/Jones/Bryant

we could get creative and make Lebron or Reaves our starting PG if we want Hayward starting, or we can bring Hayward off the bench as the 6th man where he ends up playing 30mpg anyway. We don’t really need a traditional PG anymore either because Lebron, Hayward, and Hield can be our playmakers.

Our closing lineup could even be Hield/Lebron/Hayward/AD/Turner which actually sounds pretty good….

As I previously mentioned, ideally if we could trade Nunn and a second rounder for a point guard that can 3 and D (Patty Mills comes to
mind), this suddenly becomes a very well built team to surround AD and Lebron.


Where’s the “Do It Rob!” Button?

 

Shout out to Troy Weaver. Pistons have been fun. Also, liking Orlando who's another fun team.