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

Hartenstein (hand) has been upgraded to questionable for Wednesday's game against Portland.Of course lol he knows that Lakers on schedule in a week
Does anyone surprised ?

 

thybulle is the kind of guy who might come here and suddenly make three point shots, in keeping with my general theory of lakerativity.

williams's injuries concern me greatly.

not sure if portland would want dlo when simons is already there.

 

Any offense we get from Thybulle would be a bonus. I view him as a relatively healthier version of Vando and better than Reddish. I'm not of fan of Williams, but we give Portland some incentive in this deal by absorbing his contract. He might help, he might not. The main part of the deal for us is Thybulle. Dlo is probably not preferable for Portland, but he has an expiring contract. If they do manage to get out of Simons's contract, Dlo could be a lower cost replacement option, as they would have his bird rights. Dlo next season looking at probably 3yrs/45million.

 

I’m still curious (sort of) why Dwight Howard can’t get an NBA job. I have theories, but in short minutes? Seems like he can still be effective

 

maybe it's the weird press he's been getting???

 

He was really ineffective his second stint with the Lakers. Big decline in 2 years from the Bubble Dwight and that was back in 21-22. It's over for him in the NBA

 

Take from it what you guys will but Irwin said the two teams we've stayed in contact with the most have been Washington and Portland. He posted an article over the weekend about bigs we've shown interest in and then did a follow up pod with a little more insight on them, including -- Williams, Kessler, Valanciunas, Vucevic, and Turner (sorry Slick, Indy said they're not interested in moving Turner).

Portland had interest in Rui previously but I'm not sure if even they know what their plan is moving forward. He doesn't make sense for them next to Grant.

 

Robert Williams is never healthy but his defensive numbers are just bonkers insane. I would take a flyer on him but I'm not giving Portland a first rounder for him or anything of real high value. They can have Max with JHS and Rob can put the SAS game on rewind for the Portland brass

Kessler makes sense but I'm not giving much for him. I don't think he's all that special and one lottery protected first is what I would give him. I'm not really interested in any other Utah pieces if I'm the Lakers, Lakers need defense and outside of Kessler they have bad defensive players across the board

Valanciunas has kind of sucked this year.

Vucevic has been great but more offense is not what this team needs

 

i'm good with getting him on the cheap. his offense has been better than ever (40% from three, 23 PER), and his d has fallen off. but is the latter a wizards effect? the former may be a bit, too, but i think he has two more years of being playable for 20mpg and the appropriate salary for it. still grading out as a positive player on the metrics i like best.

max or gabe can go straight up for him. not sure we'd have to add picks in either case.

 

He's been great but I worry about opportunity costs with obtaining Vucevic whos been a negative defender despite his size for his career. Same reason Cam who clearly is a less talented baller then guys like Rui and Dlo but he's probably more valuable then any other roleplayer we have because he's the only legit wing defender this team has.

Looksing at the offensive firepower this team has with the likely 4 untouchables (AD/Lebron/AR/Knecht) - I'm all about adding defense for this squad as the 1, 2, 3rd priority

 

he's 38 years old.

 

this team is looking like it could make a title run if things align, even more so than the 22/23 team that got to the Conference Finals, so I hope the FO doesn't waste the window and gets us some much-needed depth before AD inevitably gets played into the ground.

use Gabe, Vando, JHS or Wood's salary and get us some valid contributors.

 

We were rated 24th in defense before last night’s game.
Yeah, we need to be somewhere around 10th or lower to have a chance for a deep playoff run.

 

Bad news in philly

 

The problem with Vucevic and Valanciunas is that they’re good options to play next to AD, but bad options to fill in for AD when he’s on the bench. Those guys offer very little rim protection and get chewed up in the P&R by any decent guard. I think we’d be better off with a Kessler or Robert Williams type that is a clunkier fit next to AD (because we don’t want AD playing much 4 anyway) but is a better substitute for AD.

 

Excellent point about us not wanting AD to play much 4. Also, Kessler would be too expensive for a 15 minute per game back up center. It would cost too much to get him and it would cost too much to extend him a year from now.

 

I think that is a great idea. Done!

 

Why … LOL. He works for AEG supposedly.