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

Ehhh I'm not sure how much a vet min guy can poison the locker room of a team lead by someone like LeBron. It was different in Dallas where he was the main offseason acquisition for a team without much veteran leadership. Same with Houston. Stephen Jackson was great for the Spurs in 2012 but started acting out in 2013 so they cut him like a few weeks before the playoffs and made the Finals anyway. Things got really negative with Russ but that's because we had no choice but to keep playing him due to roster construction and his huge salary. If Wood is being a j****** just cut him and sign TT who probably won't be on a roster besides ours.

I'm still split on Wood moreso because I'm not sure he'd ultimately be more useful than Biyombo. I want to see some AD at the 4, but realistically Ham likes AD at the 5 and our front court is already pretty deep with LeBron/AD/Rui/Vando/Prince/Hayes. Just not sure how much of AD/Wood together we would actually see and I'm not that interested in lineups with Wood as the only big. There may be certain playoff matchups where we need a defensive center like Biyombo if Hayes isn't ready. Playing an offensive center like Wood more minutes tends not to be an answer to a playoff matchup.

 

And that wasn't even due to immaturity or attitude issues that plague Wood. This was simply because he was promised minutes and a role already promised to two other centers on the roster. All those covering the team have spoken on the damage that dynamic did to the locker room.

Not to mention this decision right here put a curse on the team that resulted in the Suns owning us for much longer than they should've



If Wood agent is causing a stink and doesn't think he's a minimum player, if he takes a minimum deal I guarantee he's looking for a guaranteed starting spot or a guaranteed number of minutes.

 

it also didn't help that drummond got hurt in the first game he played with the lakers and was already out of shape on top of that, having sat out for a while waiting for a trade

but ultimately, the reason they lost that series to phoenix was because of AD's injury

 

So much better than the 6-4 and under brigade we rolled with last year.

 

I couldn’t find the Stu lantz section

 

I thought Drummond did fine and the damage he did to our season was way overblown. If Lebron or AD were at 100%, we beat Phoenix and are probably in the Finals.

I don’t recall any reports of him disrupting the locker room other than Gasol upset at losing his starting role. I stand by that it made sense to sign him, and he was overall productive for us and provided necessary front court depth. Contrary to popular opinion, I think a dominant rebounder of his size DOES fit well alongside AD. In fact I was hoping he’d opt out and become a free agent this year. Drummond at the minimum would have been an awesome pickup for this roster

I also don’t think the Drummond situation was comparable to potentially signing Wood. Bringing in a big name signing in April off the buyout market is much different than bringing Wood into training camp would be.

In 2021 we were EXTREMELY close to the hard cap, so it’s not really feasible to just cut Drummond and sign another big man before the playoffs (and again, I don’t think that would have made sense anyways)

Currently, if Wood pouts or underperforms in a limited role, you can easily cut him in December and just pivot to Tristan Thompson who I’m confident would still be available at that point. I’m pretty sure we’re far enough below the hard cap to where eating Wood’s salary like that wouldn’t be an issue

 

Drummond was fine in the season and playoffs. He was playing 24 mins and averaging 11 and 10. If Davis doesn't get injured we win it all. It's that simple.

 

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/lantzst01.html

 

I agree. Drummond only looks bad because AD got hurt. We would have lost with anyone at center if AD's hurt. We only had 4 games with AD, Lebron and Drummond together and our record was 2-2 so the sample size was real small.

 

yes, miami gets to keep martin and one of their two prospects out of a deal when they already don't have the assets even if they're included. but no stern veto forthcoming...

 

Griffin says he got a better deal from us than he should've.

All Pelicans still have to show for that deal is BI and 1 pick that has yet to be cashed in. Better hit paydirt with that pick.

 

i mean, he has to say that, right? also doesn't hurt that he has a vested interest in portland getting a bad return.

 

Updated spending power

 

man just saying that if Wood thinks there's any chance he'll get cut, he will not come here in a million years as that will be the end of his career.

 

There’s always Shanghai!