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

Oooh he's Klutch ,I am not surprised that he sign with Lakers

 

Nice, this Koloko signing doesn’t put a dent into how massively underwhelming this off-season has been. But given the lack of options and being this late into the summer, it’s probably as good of a move on the margin as we could have hoped for.

Assuming he’s healthy and in shape, his profile definitely seems like he’s more ready to contribute right away than our current two-way players AND has more upside.

I thought Castleton had an underwhelming summer league, but I’d still rather keep him on one of the two-way contracts and cut Hinson to free up Koloko’s two-way spot. We need as much big man depth as we can get, and there isn’t any room in the rotation for a one-dimensional shooter.

I’d imagine the hope is that even as a two-way player, Koloko impresses enough to be a real part of the rotation. And then eventually mid-way through the season you make a trade that clears enough salary and a roster spot so you can convert him from a two-way player to a standard roster contract

 

Are we really going after Jimmy Butler ?

 

a Cameroonian professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Lakers ???
When,what game

 

I thought Christian Koloko was a decent prospect coming out of Arizona. He’s got alot of length and never really had an opportunity to develop at the NBA level.

Considering he’s just on a 2 way deal, it’s a decent way for the Lakers to try to develop him into a serviceable rotation player. He’s got the physical tools to be just that.

 

OK after a couple days ago just watching half of his highlight tape above on my phone and seeing right away he's on the thin side too I went for the humor on the thin stuff. But I just watched for the first time seriously on my computer monitor and heck if he's heathy and on a 2-way now same as Castleton, what's not to like. He and Hayes both listed at 7' but Koloko is/was listed 10lbs meatier than Jackson's 220, at 230. He's quicker than Colin too for sure but Colin goes around 250-255? and has a different set of skills, hopefully able to knock down some 3s after working all summer on he said he would. But with Wood out if Hayes (I'm expecting some improvement), Koloko and Castleton (I'm expecting some improvement) to fill in as 3rd big maybe off bench behind AD are all healthy ..... suddenly I'm intrigued again. Go JJ and that nice staff you put together, you Grinders.

Ooops I just read after typing that, above, that one of the 3 2-ways has to be released. I don't remember who the other 2 guys are but I'm still hoping Colin takes a leap. I suppose he could lose his 2-way if he's not showing that he has. I wonder when that decision on who to kick out of the current 3-some has to be made.

 

I don't think we had a good off-season. But sometimes not doing something is as good as doing whatever. Wasting FRPs in Grant, Trae or Lavine would have been awful. More importantly, context matters.

We entered the off-season with 0 roster spots available. There's fault on Rob for the POs given to 3 vet mins last year. There's fault on the organization for drafting Bronny and give him a roster spot, but that's the price for re-signing Bron, which is good for the organization. I would like to live in a world where we aren't hostages of the best player in the world the last 2 decades, and you can hold that against our org but I imagine over 90% of the league would like to be in our shoes regarding Bron.
Then you're left with 2 young guys in Knecht and Max that we chose to sign instead of finding something else in FA. I think they were both good decisions.

Then you get to trades. I would have sent two FRPs for Dejounte Murray, plus Max if they wanted (and whatever fillers). We don't know what happened, but there's rumours they wanted Reaves and ended up with what I think is a worse package. Without knowing details I can't criticize or praise, but that's the only trade that was mentioned that I would have done. There was little movement around the league and I don't think we've missed on anything else that would have improved this roster.

I think this roster lacks depth and has 2 problems: POA defender and C backup. If Gabe shows what he showed in Miami we have the first covered. So we're left with backup C. I haven't seen anyone available yet, so not sure what we can do. My hope is we can find someone with JHS, Reddish and Hayes/Wood contracts. If we have to send Vando, Rui, Gabe or DLo, we are fixing one problem and creating another. I believe this type of trades can go down more easily in the 2nd half of the season when teams are more willing to let go good players for expirings and youngsters.

Finally, I think we are better than people talk about. We were 4 wins away from the top4. FOUR!!! That's nothing in regular season. It's a game here and there lost in details. And if anyone followed the Lakers games, knows that Ham crippled the team with his decisions. We had +50 different lineups. We had Prince starting most of the season. Cam Reddish starting. Weird rotations. So I think that you remove that and we would have been top4 and everyone would be talking about how great the Lakers are. I mean the Clippers and a much worse off-season and are on a way worse situation and don't get a tenth of the discourse.
Our worst matchup is the Nuggets and unfortunately they lost their last game and we got them. I'm pretty sure any other team in the West doesn't want us in a 7 game series. Not even Sac. We have had amazing runs with Rui or Vando in the lineup with our Off and Def ratings both at top 10, looking unbeatable in stretches that we play those lineups consistently.
We identified the biggest flaw of our team that was Ham and dealt with it. We kept Bron and signed 2 youngsters that can be valuable down the line. I think we did enough, we did the most important things. It wasn't great but it was enough.

So yeah, in a nutshell I don't get the panic and don't buy the we are doom narrative that media loves to force down our throats.
I think we can improve, we should improve and it's Rob's job to do so. But I'm not impatient and understand that in the real world you can't have everything you want when you want. It takes time and in our context and with the market we have, there's likely better moves we can do down the line than just changing things for the sake of it. That's proven in any business to be the most sustainable way to have success and I second that.

 

stop summoning @sirronstuff

 

100% this

I don't get why they didn't bring in a big to help in the middle and rebound

How many games will be get out rebounded with this lineup?

 

LeBron should stop being such a p**** and bang inside

 

Interesting article.. Assets wise.. Okc is stacked...Clippers suck..we are in need of a few young guys taking a leap.

https://hoopshype.com/lists/team-as...ich-franchises-have-the-most-valuable-pieces/

 

But I love sub sandwiches

 

What’s not to love about Koloko? He, Hayes and Wood isn’t great, but it’s better than what we had up to this point. Hopefully Koloko’s presence will light a fire in Hayes as well.

 

Koloko as a prospect is fine.

missing a season for blood clots is scary though.

 

Let's just call it a "soft" rebuild" at this point.

Let the forums and social media hype this dude up and he's probably at the end of the bench before the start of the season.

 

C bags can eat their hearts out ! They don’t have a drink like us

 

Not even a full 17 oz SMH. What a cheap organization.

am I doing it right?