Sorry but let's not overreact like we did in 2021. This team literally been playing playoff basketball since february because they had to climb out of the 2-10 hole and subsequently a 25-31 hole...no training camp, everything on the fly, and this team was the best team in the league since trade deadline. You have to run it back...yes that includes DLO. As bad as he was in the WCF...he was BIG for us in the grizz/warriors series. I don't want to pay DLO $30M though so I'm with you on that..but I don't think we'll need to because no cap space teams have a need for him and nobody gonna pay him that. I'm also not letting go of Beasley - we can still use him especially if we can't retain Walker and Schroder. At the very least, you can trade Beasley/DLO/Bamba for someone really good so you have to retain as many players as possible to see if you can. make a big splash for a disgrunlted star. I say try to bring every single player back....run this s*** back and get ready to be a higher seed next year and NOT have to play the top 3 teams in the west in all 3 rounds (yes Warriors were 6th but we all know they were still a top team and defending champs).
Agree 100% @fabfourlakers, Pelinka can’t be pressured again by LeBron to blow this team up for his idiotic 3 star fetish
i doubt that any star we bring will be able to outperform AR given the same sub-20 usage rate and providing same level of defense.
The front office likes stars. Always has. Always. They will take a shot for a big name if the opportunity arises. Just gotta hope it doesn't kill team depth.
I think recency bias is making DLO out to be the bad guy here. Yea he basically became Jordan Poole when the lights were the brightest, but do we even make the playoffs without him? He was also ok during the 1st round and semi-finals. Or is it that he's going to demand 20+ million a year? In that case, I think we still need to work out a deal with him purely because of asset management. I don't want to lose him for nothing.
Russell is going to demand a raise over the 30 million he's making right now. He's going to point to exactly what you posted when he makes that demand. If folks think that Russell is somehow open to a 20 million dollar contract, haven't been paying attention to the things D'Angelo Russell has been saying. He's eligible for a 2 year 67 million dollar extension, that's 33.5 million per season. You better believe that he will ask for at least 33 million .
And any team in the league, including us, will say: He's a FA, he can ask for whatever he wants. But if he asks for that, he's going to Schröder himself.
We will blink or trade him, but he won't be settling for a 20 million dollar contract. His camp's position will be, that he was the main catalyst for the trade deadline turn around. Bamba doesn't play, Beasley got no run in the playoffs, and Vanderbilt plays about 20 min a game. It's him..not them. That's not going to be conducive, to taking a 10 million dollar a season paycut. Everyone says that we can't let him walk for nothing, what other choices do we have?
Honestly, IMO a 2 year extension isn't that bad and is near the same timeline as LBJ and AD's contract. I would just give him that and trade him later if you really don't want him. I guess my only question is what are the tax implications? Because i'm pretty sure the FO is thinking the same after we dole out contracts to AR and Rui.
I'd like everyone back as they seem to enjoy playing together (reports notwithstanding) if all the pieces fall into place. Even Beasley likes the potential of this crew if we had a training camp and full season as a whole. The only one whose position is tenous would be Brown.
well, if he demands it, he'll be schroder-ed. he should definitely talk to schroder about being schroder-ed. OR it was just getting rid of russ and bev. that was a big part of the turnaround. btw, if he can't get down to 25 per or less, i warm to the idea of just letting him walk. we could then be more aggressive shopping beasley and bamba in trade (or preserving them as assets), and we could probably use the full MLE and not have to worry as much about the hard cap ramifications. obviously not my first choice at all. it sucked when schroder walked for nothing, too. but we can't sign him to a price nobody else would sign him to, either. edit: the trick is timing. watch for what we do with beasley and bamba's contracts. if we guarantee them, it might be a sign that the dlo negotiations are going poorly.
Good point. We don't want to sign him at what he is asking, because it will be harder to trade him. We might have to add in a 1st like we did with Russ if his salary is at a pay scale that no one wants on their payroll.
https://lakersdaily.com/report-lakers-wont-pursue-max-extension-with-dangelo-russell/ Well the hard negotiations have started. Personally, I'd look for a 2 year extension or a 3 year deal, with a team option in year 3. Reports say that he wanted a 4 year 100 million dollar deal from Minnesota. I have already pointed out, why I think that his camp will be looking to bump that up. Meet them in the middle at 27 million for two seasons. No..I don't think he's really worth that, however a reasonably decent figure gives us the possibility of getting something of value for him in a trade. He can still play, put him on a team that is content, with being in the hunt for just a playoff spot, he would be a good rotation player on a lot of teams. Worst case, we just keep him, and he flames out in the playoffs again. Then he may look even more attractive, as an expiring contract. Every team in the league isn't trying to compete for a chip in every campaign. Also this is the NBA, there is always a high end player somewhere, that is looking for a way out of their current situation.
if he really wanted 4/100 from them, he should take it from us. i agree that i'd pay him slightly more on a shorter-term deal if he wanted, but i think it's in his best interest to take the longer deal at lower money. i don't think he's going to get another big contract after this one.