2023-24 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Vegas getting hooked up big time . Oakland As are moving to Vegas too and they are about to win the Stanley cup . That city is gonna be a riot

 

I'm interested to see how it plays out. The Knights seem to have a strong following in Vegas, but the Raiders stadium is frequently overrun by the opposing team's fans (like my Chargers) and they don't seem to have much connection to the city. Maybe its just that the Knights are an expansion team that has been good since they started there and the Raiders are coming from somewhere else and have been pretty mediocre. I don't think the As are going to be huge there.

 

Basically rules out our Klutch PG trade option. Don't see us hard capping ourselves for him.

 

Probably for the best. FVV was really good in 2019 and 2020 but he's a small guard that doesn't get into the paint and his defense/three-point shooting really declined this year. Him vs. DLo in a vacuum is worth debating, but not if the former triggers the hard cap.

 

A's move to vegas is no sure thing just yet. vegas politicians don't seem to be too keen on the idea of paying for a new ballpark and who can blame them?

as for the raiders, vegas never even wanted them. and they sure as hell don't want the A's. it's a hockey town and the fact that the knights were an expansion team plays a big part in that. they're a true vegas team unlike the raiders and maybe the A's. if they get an expansion NBA team, they'll for sure enjoy far more support than the raiders have gotten so far

 

It would be kind of funny if Adam Silver somehow banishes Ja Morant to the Toronto Raptors as his punishment. Send him to a country where guns aren't allowed!

 

Vegas got every breaks they needed thanks to Bettman . During their expansion draft, Bettman basically told every team which player is protected and which player was not, and next thing you know their roster is filled with Stanley cup Winner veterans . I mean the fastest ever franchise in any sports to win it all . NHL cashed it in big time by making a hockey team Vegas first pro sports team . But that’s a hockey discussion, this is a LAKERS page .

I mean who makes the FINALS on their first yr ever of existence?

 

yeah there's no doubt vegas had the most favorable expansion draft process ever, but their finals run in '18 was also the result of a number of guys having career best seasons at the same time. even after the expansion draft, pretty much everyone had them finishing in last like every other expansion team

 

If Blazers trade for Zion, does Dame even wait for the press conference before demanding out? He doesn't have time for Zion's baggage or love life drama that's unfolding on Twitter daily.

 

yep. he's probably slightly better than dlo right now but is in decline, imo. i'd rather dance with the devil i've got here, and i think that just became more likely.

i get it, but counterpoint--is there a better win-now option available for the #3 pick in the draft? he's a great theoretical fit with dame, too.

i'd consider zion if i were charlotte or portland, tbh.

 

Putting aside the past week of his life...If I'm a contender who thinks they're 1 piece away, I'll take a swing on him and give up a top 10 protected first and that's it. At $33.5m next year (and the $ only climbs the 3 years after that) I have real reservations about his health, weight, availability and whether or not he's serious about basketball. 30 games of Zion won't do Dame any good.

Dame and BI could be interesting. If NO isn't offering that, I'm hanging up.

 

hate to see players not see their potential due to weight issues

such a waste

but he has given very few signals he's willing to do what it would take to turn things around

 

From Stein (and Haynes) on CP3's potential next deal

Rockets could get in on the Kyrie race if they don't get Harden

The direction of the Raptors

 

pretty sure ingram's not going for the pick. they'd ask for sharp and the pick, and portland would hang up. and again, any trade that involves keeping dame there has to be a BIG swing. because they suck. i'm not sure that the #3 pick and nothing else gets you more than zion on the open market in terms of on-court impact. i've said (even before he was drafted) that i didn't think he could hold up physically. but in portland's case, you're not trying to build a long-term contender. you're trying to win in the next two years. you just need one healthy zion year. i'd consider it pretty strongly, tbh.

btw, if i'm portland, the move is clear: trade lillard. you're pretty far from contending, and he's turning 33 in a month. you can get a haul right now, but that may not be true even in 6 months.

specific wording there. so he'll take a 2-year vet min? or does he want more than the minimum? would the 5m exception be enough?

again, some careful choosing of words. and i think the fact that a) harden is prioritized and b) it's still a "maybe" they'd chase him means that they're not coming to the door with the full 4 year max kyrie has been wanting for two years.

gotta say i'm not sure i understand their moves at the deadline. it sure looked like fvv and trent were going to walk in february. why didn't they just move them for expirings and picks. they'd have gotten a 1st for fvv, imo. i'd probably have given them russ and a 1st for trent/fvv, for example. they probably could have dumped boucher, young, or porter on us, too. and they'd be in the same cap situation, just with more assets.

 

The NBA is so awesome, even the off-season is interesting.

 

Yeah, I doubt BI is moving but that's what I'd want. They've been trying to get a legit wing next to Dame for so long. They've gotten good depth ones, often several of them at once, but 3 good depth wings doesn't equal a #2 wing.

On Zion, even on a short window I don't trust him. I'd take less talent who's more available. Unless it's a shortened season, I'm just not offering up much for 1/3 of the season plus the season long story of he's close, set back, longer period of being out, he's close, maybe he's close, season's over.

I trade Dame too, it's best for both parties, but both want to stay loyal...or at least want to appear to the fan base that they want to stay loyal and hope the other blinks first.

Was thinking the same. Does that mean an option to him of a 2 year minimum or 1 year TPMLE?

Houston's cap space really can shift the entire top of the FA market. I'm so curious as to what they do, especially if Harden doesn't come. I find it hilarious someone with Ky's HOF level talents who's only 31 has such a non existent market. Such a lunatic.

None of their recent decisions make sense. They hire a development coach. So are they building around Barnes and the pick? Are they in a holding pattern until the next star wants out? Why hold on to the vets? Are they trying to convince season ticket holders they're trying to stay competitive?

 

yeah, on paper, irving is better than harden, and he's younger, too. just so unreliable. i know jalen green's been saying the right things, but it's a bad look for houston to be planning to use all its cap space on big name veteran scoring guards when they just recently used the #2 overall pick on a scoring guard.

if i'm houston, i'm renting space rather than trying to blow it all on harden or irving. but they owe their 2024 pick to okc but have top 4 protection on it that turns into seconds, so they're trying to compete right away so there's no danger of conveying the #5 pick or something. to me, that may be short-sighted. i'm not sure that getting irving or harden makes them a playoff team, and neither is a good idea in terms of long-term development.

 

I think I'd now prefer that we decline Beasley and Bamba so we can use that full nontaxpayer MLE. Lopez is my top candidate but he's in all likelihood going for more than that. I've really talked myself into Naz Reid's fit on this team but would be happy with Christian Wood too I think.

 

hmmm...the full mle triggers the hard cap. that means to use it we have to stay under 170ish, right?

again: lebron/AD/vando/reaves/christie = 112ish.

so that leaves 58 million to do:

full mle (12)
17th pick (3)
dlo's slary
rui's salary

and at least 4 more players. if dlo gets 20 (that may be low) and rui gets 15 (again), you've got 42 million-ish wrapped up in those two, the pick, and the MLE target.

that leaves 16 for the other 4 players, one of whom probably needs to be a BAE (4.5ish) guy (this is what i'd give cp3 if that came to fruition). three or four vet mins makes up the rest. so you probably have to punt lonnie's rights, too, unless he's willing to do a kcp and sign for slightly below market value so that we can gain early bird on him next year.

AD/reid/wenyen
lebron/rui
vando/17th pick?
reaves/christie
dlo/cp3

it's possible, i think, but i'm not sure it's the best route. you also have to have rui on the books before you make your mle offer, as some team could creatively structure an RFA offer to him that makes it impossible to match if you use any hard cap triggers.

the other concern is that the mle targets you name have their bird rights owned by their teams, which means it's likely more lucrative for them to either stay there or potentially get signed and traded.

i'm not a wood fan, btw. and lopez's age concerns me at this point.

i don't know. i'm not even sure if all my math's right above.

 

Yup its around $170 million and I'm assuming Lonnie is gone. BAE would go to Dennis or CP3, I'd prefer it go to Dennis if we're bringing back DLO but he may be able to get more than that. I might even want to throw the BAE at Jevon Carter before CP3 if DLO is back, we need to have one PG that can be a viable point of attack defender. We should be able to squeeze in a few vet mins, I know LakersNation did a video on this scenario a few days ago.

I'm mostly just enamored with having Reid on this team. Minnesota has his bird rights but I don't know if they want to pay more than $12 million APY for a backup center when you have Towns and Gobert and I don't know if Reid wants to keep coming off the bench. If we promised him a starting role (I hate doing that, but whatever) I think we'd have a good shot at him. We can point to AR and Rui as guys who played there way into big money here and are now pretty high-profile role players around the league. The timing with Rui's RFA is a wrinkle though, we'd have to hope he likes what we offer and doesn't force us to match after he shops around.