2024-25 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

it's never ending.

 

lol, that's pretty funny.

yeah, size used to be a strength for us, and we've undone that. now we're down 2 of our 6'8"+ guys to start the year. the list now consists of lebron, AD, rui, and hayes. and that's it. we're one more injury/illness away from castleton seeing minutes, and training camp hasn't even started. not getting that center in the offseason is a gift that keeps giving.

 

Would love to see if we could package a JHS deal for a backup big.

 

That's ideal. I believe that we could make it happen at some point in the season, especially when/if JHS shows himself in the court and shows the injury issues are behind him. Teams may be a bit wary of gambling on him until then

Nick Richards would make tons of sense (we can even throw Hayes or Wood if they want a backup C).
Jalen Smith signed for the Bulls and they might bite. He's not the center I would particularly want, but he's a very good rebounder which offsets his lack of rim protection.
Pipe dreams within that package range would be Stewart, WCJ or Valanciunas. Landale may become available too.
A domino to be aware of is Ayton. I absolutely don't want him but with Clingan being drafted there I would imagine he will be shopped, which may free another center from the team who gets Ayton.
Duop Reath is in Portland too and he may be available. Played well last year and in the Olympics too.
Finally, Dallas would likely not trade with us but if they would be willing too, they have too many centers and Powell could be a nice addition. He looked cooked last year though, but he's 33 so maybe can still give us a couple years.
There's always Capela as well if anyone finally understands what Atlanta is doing (especially their GMs).

Tl;dr: there's actually many centers who wouldn't surprise to become available some time during the season that shouldn't require 1R picks.
I actually became more hopeful that we will get a center by trade this season, after this exercise. We'll see

 

i think centers will be available via trade (moreso than they were via FA or trade in the summer), but the question is whether we'll be out of the picture by the time we can make those moves.

 

Yeah my reasonable expectations for improvement from within, glass half fullness and hope for the puncher’s chance in playoffs have been shaken to the core here with the Vando and now Wood news. I’ve always based that with the caveat of reasonable to good health for the most key players. Especially those two important guys with our lack of size now. Ugggghhh!!

 

That's painfully true.

Same. These news really suck.
But let's see it from a positive side, at least we haven't yet seen Gabe and JHS being ruled out.

*Insert meme where Bart says "today was the worst day of my life" and Homer answers "today was the worst day of your life so far"

 

42 more days til Lakers basketball

 

The Lakers open the season Tuesday, Oct. 22, honoring Jerry West as they host the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena. Recognizing the significant contributions West made to the organization as a player and executive across three decades, the team will wear a commemorative No. 44 band on the left shoulder of its uniform this season.

 

Lol.
Ex-Suns employee seeks $60M in damages in discrimination complaint

Baxter Holmes, ESPN Senior Writer
Sep 10, 2024, 02:55 PM ET
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The Phoenix Suns are embroiled in a dispute with a former employee who is claiming discrimination and wrongful termination and is seeking $60 million in damages, according to a 25-page statement from August 2024 that was obtained by ESPN.
She worked at that position less than for 10 months .
She was fired for «systematic failure to fulfill its responsibilities ».
Trishan accuses the club of racial discrimination, harassment and harassment. According to the lawyer, the manager had to endure racist remarks and a hostile working atmosphere, despite appeals to the personnel department and management.
That ex-employee, Andrea Trischan, who was the Suns' program manager of diversity, equity and inclusion, filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Arizona attorney general's office's civil rights division, which is investigating the matter.

 

i think in this case, rui starts at three and backs up at 4, hence no reddish. but yeah, not ideal. and any more injuries to forwards/centers is danger time.

can't believe this took this long. it's been obvious since the replay rule went into effect. takes no extra time.

 

We may have one of the weakest benches for a team with “Championship Aspirations.”
This team is barely a play-in team as currently constructed and Rob has nobody to blame this time but himself.
This season will be the first in awhile that I’m not looking forward to.
Oh well, at least I have the Premier League still.

 

i wasn't looking forward to russ's second season AT ALL. and we went to the conference finals (after enduring some hardships along the way).

 

Same. That offseason without any moves was awful to sustain. It paid out a few months later so hopefully something similar will happen.


Btw, I don't think we have title aspirations. I was reflecting the other day and I think Jeannie and especially Rob would like to be without Bron. But he's here and the financial and reputation gains are too big to go against.

I think they are planning for the long run while riding Bron to sunset and carve ourselves as the ultimate superstar franchise, plus maintaining a good relationship with someone who will for sure have a lot of influence in the league and in a bunch of players in the next few decades.
But in terms of strategy, the idea is to have a swift transition post Bron (and AD). In the meantime, try to assemble a good enough team to give us an outside chance, like it happened 2 seasons ago.

It sucks as a fan because you always want to get better and compete for championships every year but that just doesn't happen. And we're actually a franchise who has been able to compete every decade which is unprecedented. I think the idea is instead of doing so for 2 years within the next decade, we can actually do it for 5 to 7 years afterwards.

By the time Bron retires, the new CBA will be in full force and it will be easier to do big swings when you can grasp the ins and outs of it. I was listening a podcast where they mentioned that many GMs are wary of doing too much before the CBA comes into force and they fully understand it.
Bron is also really old and it's been unbelievable the way he has maintain his high level. I mean, each year he's doing something never done so we are walking unknown territory. But from a strategy and management point, you never know when a drop-off can happen so it's hard to justify going all-in for such a short and uncertain window. I would even argue it's ill-advised.

Ultimately, it's always wrong to get rid of assets for superstars who will be retired by the time those assets come to fruition, as recently the Nets, Houston and Clippers have proven. So you get in a sort of limbo that is not easy to ride and will get divided reactions by the fans.
There's always the argument of "well, if you can't compete then trade Bron and AD", but it's a bad decision financially and overall business wise, for the reasons stated above.

Unfortunately, we will only see if it pays off in a few years and some people can't fathom waiting that much time. But I'm a Lakers fan for 20 years and will be the next 20 and the 20 after that, so I don't have an issue with that

 

Well, judging from the inability of Rob to get anything done, maybe AD and LeBron realize this too?
At least I can have fun watching AR, Connect4, and Bronny develop.
Oh wait, I forgot to add JHS in that list.

 

I can’t believe you people trying to trade JHS, there’s a reason he was taken over the likes of Whitmore Pod and Jaquez which we will find that out this season

 

I agree with most of this.
The one thing that’s hard to dismiss is how great AD and LeBron looked at the Olympics. Yes, the competition is weaker, but not massively different. These two are still two of the best players in the game.
I think that if Rob could have surrounded them with a proper team this season, they still would have a puncher’s chance. I’m sure he tried hard and I’m in agreement with the decision to not just give away firsts to get moderately better.
Anyway, maybe we get lucky in the next few years, somehow pair AD with a great talent, and squeeze out another Chip. Maybe it takes longer.