Unless he can get that corner 3 up to 40% I think he's minutes are going to get slowly but surely as the season progresses. He's a very good chaser but he's screen navigation isn't as strong and he's basically a zero on offense: not a lob threat, poor hands when catching passes in the lane, no mid range game and an inconsistent 3 point shot. Similar to Utah I think their going to be a lot of competition for his minutes between Rui, Prince, and even Max and unless he can be some sort of consistent threat on offense hes going to struggle getting PT
Agreed. Both are going to be huge for us in the regular season whichever starts, or if neither starts, they are still valuable players. Vando wants to keep his minutes in the playoffs though, he does need to improve offensively. We just have too many good players now to play someone that is a liability on one end or the other.
it's the offseason, so i'm probably repeating myself, but this is a big year for vando. it's his shot at a bigger payday, so i'm guessing he's going to be working harder than ever.
It definitely is. Seems he and Rui have both been after it this summer, was really glad seeing them tag along with Handy on his overseas tour. He's going to be a great value this year. Putting the cart ahead of the horse, I am curious as to his potential price tag next off season, what kind of bag he'll be expecting, and whether he'll make sense for us based on what minutes will be available. There's a world he stays on a friendly deal and there's another world he's packaged with DLO at the deadline.
If we keep drafting like we are, and Rob keeps working his magic, I think we may be asking those difficult questions every single off-season. Glad it's Kurt and Linda having to the make the tough calls and not me.
i said a while back that i thought we'd offer him the biggest extension we could (which isn't huge) early on and then play it by ear. if he makes no progress on his shot, he's looking at mini mle, imo. if he finds ways to be a contributor on offense--enough to stay on the floor in the playoffs, he could get over the mle. we have full bird rights on him if it gets that far, but if we move him, the team that receives him will have full bird rights, too, which could make him a very valuable trade piece. we're in a pretty good position with him.
Yeah, I agree we're in a good spot with him. It's always nice when it's a luxury vs. a necessity (AR was a necessity). I think he will land in the $9-$12m range depending on how the season goes. Then whether he's a Laker next year depends on Rui, AR, Max, Gabe, if Cam figures it out, and if JHS is progressing to be ready next season. That's a lot of variables but Vando is a big offensively and a wing/ guard defensively. So if 2-3 of those guys either take the next leap or prove recency was growth and not an anomaly, his price might exceed his role. LakersGuru on Twitter is a bit higher on him and has been beating the Vando drum the past week or so. He has him in the $11-13m range with a few player salary comps Feels like haggling if we're at the high end projection and we're $1m apart. Right now, $13m seems a lot though.
cam's probably gone no matter what, a la monk, and max is a sg so probably doesn't impact the dynamic. to me, it's about whether vando finds a way to get consistent burn with hachimura, prince, and lebron essentially playing the same position. if he does, he'll get his 10 million+. if not, we may get to keep him on the cheap or he could become part of a trade. edit: i'm going to keep an eye out for lebron at center lineups. i know we didn't love them before, but now that we can throw two to three big forwards out there (and one or two big guards) with him, i think the defense and rebounding doesn't have to suffer as much. it would also allow us to play vando as the center on offense.
Not sure about Cam. If he breaks out, he's gone. If he's just fine this season and the needle doesn't move much, he might stick for year 2 of that deal anticipating to eat the Prince minutes (wish that was a 2 year deal) or Vando minutes if he's not back. Max is a SG but it impacts Vando's role because if Max becomes the go-guard-that guy out there, Vando loses his job because Max can hit 3s. Also we're going to see 3 guard lineups this year. It's Ham, he won't be able to help himself. So there will definitely be a Max, DLO, Vincent lineup (difference is all of them can ride the 6 flags rollercoasters) Yeah, there's just so many variables at the F positions this year. More than there's been in awhile. It's a great problem. On healthy nights, there's probably only a max of 15 minutes available after Bron, Rui, and Prince get theirs and I think Austin will get some at SF too. So that's 2 shifts where Vando goes foot to the floor. At $4.6m, that's great. But I'm just not sure the opportunity will be there to show he deserves 2.5x that as a Laker. Now he could go HAM when Bron or AD are out to offset that, but I think it's likely he's worth more to us as a trade chip on that next contract than as a Laker on that next deal. Like I said, really jumping ahead here but it is middle of August and I just saw a tumbleweed.
i think if reddish is "fine", he's gone, perhaps from the league. he's had a lot of time and opportunity, imo. it was interesting to me that the prince deal was one-year, no team or player options. guessing he wanted 2 and a PO, and we wanted the reverse. i'm guessing he's gone regardless next year, too. i view both as mercenaries, tbh. glad to have them, but i'm not getting attached. i will say that prince's higher salary figure gives a clearer path to retention in the event that he's solid but not spectacular. DO NOT speak this into existence. this kind of thing only works when all three guards are going to punish you on offense, and vincent and max are not there (vincent probably will never be there). when you go small at sf, you have to outscore the opponent like clockwork, and even then it's only a middle quarters gambit, imo. when ham went to that stuff with bevs and russ....ugggghhhh. jazzed for this. no more teams beating us by finding the wing mismatch and iso-ing. lue needs to polish the resume. rui and prince have to win the role over vando first. i think you're right that it's unlikely vando is here after this year (40/60 unlikely), but i could also see him playing rui and/or prince into being shipped out themselves. like i've been saying, it's a big year for him. it he going to become a low-level journeyman or a high-caliber glue guy?
Bite your tongue on shipping Rui out regardless of what Jared does. Love affair in full bloom with the player and the franchise (per Mr Handy and Mr Hachimura).
hey, rui's getting 18 this year. he needs to deliver. vando's getting 4.2 or whatever. if vando outplays him, it's an issue...
I’m really pulling for Vando’s offensive improvement. With having no assurances that LeBron will continue with us after this season, I want both Rui and Vando to remain Lakers for many years to come. I’m expecting Cam to have a decent season, but I’m not expecting a breakout one that makes us choose him over Vando. That being said, a world does exist in which all three are retained. A big trade could present itself by the trade deadline and it only increases our chances of pulling it off if all three are playing better than expected.