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

You said he was out of our price range, but now you say you think he’ll go for 1 + a good talent or 2?

Heck, if it’s one plus a talent, then I’d be happy to trade one or Christie or Reaves for him and a first. Keep Lonnie then as a SG for next year.

 

i don't think reaves/christie qualify in this instance. we value them highly, but i'm not sure trade partners do. so when i said that, it's like phx giving up a future unprotected pick and cam johnson vs. our two picks.


also, i firmly believe we get asked to pay higher prices these days. ainge clearly asked for more from us than he did from detroit, for example.

i'm really not convinced toronto's selling off OG for picks, though. fvv, maybe...

oh, and for the record, i wasn't in on any utah deal in which we surrendered 2 1sts. i did want conley/bogdanovic/gay for russ and maybe a lightly protected 1st just to get it done. my thought at the time was the bogdanovic was worth a 1st, conley was worth negative 2 2nds or a negative 1st, and russ was worth at least negative 1st (supposedly, it was negative 2 1sts!).

and yes, i'm still in on conley for russ. i'm not giving up a 1st in such a deal unless they're adding useful players. vanderbilt and beasley makes me consider it, though i'd want top-5 protection on the pick. conley remains better than russ, vanderbilt has upside and is a springy tall wing defender (we don't have anything like this), and beasley's a guy who can shoot/score off the bench. all are expiring contracts next year if it doesn't work out.

 

I liked that deal. Particularly if we could have swapped Gay for someone else. Naturally Bogdanovich would’ve helped us with shooting but even a guy like Conley still intrigued me and we’d have an extra pick this year. Still would have been in a position to grab Rui.

That deal or the Indy deal and we’re a playoff team right now IMO.

Oh well.

Still time to get another move done.

 

Do you guys think Russ, 2027 1st, and maybe a 2nd or two can net Conley, Beasley, and Vanderbilt?

I know Utah values those guys but I don't think any of them net a first on their own.

 

Again, it is like no one is watching these games and how Ham keeps using Westbrook all the time and we are having to overcome his complete ineptness on the court.

We got lucky last night and on a few of his penetrations he found AD (turned the ball over as well though a couple of times) and he made a bank shot jumper and didnt hurt us in OT.....but the numbers pretty much tell the story....

Last night the "big lineup" of James, AD and Rui worked and I think we are running that the rest of the way with maybe Bryant/Gabriel (hopefully) spelling them occasionally. That is what Ham should do- it is totally obvious.

AD: 27 points/9 rebounds (+16)
James: 28/10/11 triple double (+22)
Hachimura: 19/9 (+4)

Question remains what guards do we play with these 5 big men....

Schroeder: 12 points/6 assists (+20)

Dennis looks like the lesser of all evils and has proven he needs to be one of those in the rotation. We ABSOLUTELY NEED Reaves back and he has to be in that mix. That is two that we know need to be getting PT.

RW is now (-59) in his last six games. Even with him being the beneficiary of playing with the "big lineup 3" most of the end of the 4th quarter and all of OT he was still a (-5) last night in a game we ended up winning by 6 in OT. Yet Ham continues to go with him.

For whatever reason Beverley and Gabriel both didn't play in the back to back, so we were limited with options and Christie (the only guard with a positive +/- (+2, 6 points in 13 minutes) netted five fouls. Walker continues to struggle defensively since he has come back.

Bottom line is guard play is where we need the upgrade, not the frontcourt. You cant play big all the time- especially in the West. Sure, you can when Julius Randle is your 2nd ball-handler (but Brunson was unstoppable) but we can't do that a majority of time in our conference.

I dont know of a single player that helps our backcourt by offloading PatBev and Walker. Does Buddy Hield's shooting really offset the clear advantage defensively Beverely is over him??? And I have already shared my opinion on it not being advantageous for us to send our best two 3-point shooters off just to get a really good volume one. Ideally you are adding to what we already have.

Which is why one of two things realistically needs to happen. Either we trade Westbrook (for a clear advantage at guard and with a MUST of shooting in the trade) or when we are healthy we bench him, plain and simple. I would give ALL the guard minutes to Reaves, Schroeder, Beverley, Walker and Christie and when we can go big, have Brown out there if need be....period.

All trades should be with trading Westbrook in mind IMO, anything else just doesn't move the needle enough...

 

What gives you the idea no one else notices this?

 

…I know nothing of the sources here.

 

i feel like it's hard to know what the raptors do in one case without knowing what they do in the others. there's clearly only a couple untouchables there (siakam and barnes, maybe achiuwa). but if they just move for expirings and picks, it doesn't do a lot for them, imo. i guess if they felt like fvv and trent are leaving anyway, sure. but i don't think that's a guarantee, particularly in trent's case.

reading the tea leaves, it seems to me that fvv wants out because he thinks or knows they're not interested in paying him the big bucks. i think the rumored contract he wants is right in the max extension neighborhood. it's possible his agent asked for that, and they said no, and he quietly asked out. i say this because there's been more than one rumbling than an unnamed player wants out of there, and OG just said out loud that he didn't.

anyway, i still don't see why they move on from fvv without getting a pg in return that they think can start for them going forward. and i'm not sure that moving trent just for 2nds gets them anywhere, as just his salary coming off still has them basically operating over the cap.

 

Well the message board is all over the place and more and more trades are being suggested with moving PatBev and Walker out and not Westbrook anymore.

And really, the more I think about all the variables out there.....specifically:

1) Pelinka's comments that we arent trading both of our first round picks unless it makes us "frontrunner contenders"
2) Ham's love affair with "him" and his inability to move completely away from using him even when it really matters (has probably cost us a handful of games that is the difference in us being a playoff team right now as we speak instead of still chasing a play-in spot)
3) The need to have more shooting without subtracting what little we already have

I come to the conclusion that San Antonio, with their cap space is the ideal team to offload him with.

No, it isn't a sexy trade by any means and definitely doesn't involve the insane asking price of Jakob Poeltl, but the Spurs not only still have cap space left (15 million below the salary floor, 27 million total) to absorb Westbrook's contract, but would love to offload McDermott/Collins likely as well.

All 3 of G Josh Richardson, F Doug McDermott (one year left at 13.75 million) and F/C Zach Collins (one year NG contract at 7.7 million) are 20-24 minute role players now in San Antonio, sacrificing their continued careers during the rebuild taking place at the Alamo. All are over 6'5 and would immediately improve our size and shooting. Would taking on Doug's final year and to a lesser degree Collins lower the asking price of Richardson (rumored to be 2 seconds) and the cost of unloading the expiring one of Westbrook?? My guess is the max it would cost is a protected first and you "might" get it done with some second rounders only.

Richardson is not a great defender, but he is adequate and he is a shooter (39% at 1.8 makes in just under 24 minutes a game since becoming a Spur), McDermott has length and has been an even better shooter in SA (42%/2.0/22 minutes). Adding those two would indeed help, whether Collins (6'11 and only 25 years old) would need to be part of the trade or not.

Teams will be lining up to use that cap space of the Spurs to offload contracts and lower their tax bill in the coming days...so we would need to jump early. Avoiding a 1st round inclusion though may mean parting ways with Max Christie. Would you take on McDermott's near 14 million for next season AND lose him to be able to keep your 1st rounders??? Or would you send a protected first their way and maybe being able to keep Christie???

Lakers trade G's Russell Westbrook and Max Christie along with F Juan Tascano-Anderson and C Damian Jones (would insist if we had to include Max) along with 2-3 more 2nd round picks (they have those in 2023, 24, 25, 27, 28 and 29 although two have some "lesser of" values attached to them) for G Josh Richardson, F Doug McDermott and F/C Zach Collins

We would then run with this:

PF Rui Hachimura
SF LeBron James
C Anthony Davis
SG Josh Richardson
PG Dennis Schroeder

G Austin Reaves
G Patrick Beverley
F Doug McDermott
F Zach Collins
C Thomas Bryant

G Lonnie Walker
G (Buyout PG)
F Wenyen Gabriel
F Troy Brown Jr.

 

This was what the Lakers broadcasters were talking about after the game. Then suggested that they might need to swap Walker for Troy for more shooting but questioned that swap.

 

Oh please baby jesus lord our saavior PLEASE make this happen!!!

Russ, Bev and 1 protected first for Rozier, Hayward and PJ Washington.

 

At this point I don’t even remember the details of why he’s considered unreliable. But the consensus seems to be that while Amick is legit, you should “say no to Amico”

I do think Charlotte makes sense as a trade partner though, and I’d like Rozier here even with his contract.

I can’t believe Trent would be available for only a few seconds, unless he’s one of the unhappy ones in Toronto and both parties know he’s bolting after the season. If that was true, I would be all over it.

If we had some assurances (I believe he’s Klutch, so we should have some back channels) that he’d re-sign with us, I’d even gladly pull the trigger on a protected first for him.

 

my realistic dream would be a 3 team trade where we get Rozier + PJ Washington from Charlotte, and Gary Trent Jr. from Toronto

that would really get us back in contention.

 

Part of me wants Lakers to get a center like Poetl because we are giving up offensive rebounds like crazy and don't have enough shot blocking. But if this moves AD to 4 and Lebron to 3, we move Hachimura to the bench. Hachimura in my opinion is important as a starter to guard the 3/4 spot. I watched him do a great job on Randle. So if we start him at 3, with Lebron at 4 and AD at 5 we'd need to focus on upgrading the backcourt with a player who can knockdown open 3's and is not undersized like Beverly and Schroder and can guard the 1-2 spot.

 

i still have a weird attachment to rozier. i feel like he brings things to the table things we don't have. and while some don't like his long contract, i like that he's cost controlled and we shouldn't expect him to drop off a cliff until maybe the end of this contract.

ideally, i'd like to give up russ for him (because i think he slots perfectly into russ's spot in the rotation right now), but i'd do bev, too (because rozier's a good enough shooter to play with russ off the bench in the backcourt).

it's not worth an unprotected first. depending on who and what else is involved, i could see a protected 1st going, though.

i actually think i prefer rozier to trent, but i know i'll be in the minority there. i just see him and think of jason terry at around the same career stage. rozier's not quite as good, but has a similar skillset, similar downsides, etc.

 

With him and Trent, it really comes down to what we'd have to give up to get them you know.