Kobe's hand in the Chinese market is probably more than all of the Asian players of all time combined. Lol
Just complete speculation on my part, Indiana signed Toney Douglas to a non-guaranteed contract. A couple of interesting things about that; it takes Indiana to 16 players on their roster and Douglas can't be traded until December 15, 2015. So, who are they going to cut to get to the required 15 players on their roster? I'm wondering if they can cut their ties w/Solomon Hill. He's not great by any stretch, but he plays a little defense, and can soak up some time at the SF position. Also, only 24 and from Los Angeles. Just a thought...
I hear Indiana fans don't like him and they say he's an offensive disaster, but I'd take a flier on him. I thought we were getting him this summer in the Hibbert deal. The thing is everyone keeps saying we have no SFs, but we have a bunch. Kobe and Nick are SFs now and Anthony Brown was paid a lot to be a SF for us. Like it or not NIck needs time on the court to try to build up his value. We can't move him if he's not playing AND not performing. It's in our best interest to get him on the court and to put him in positions to succeed. I think we still really could use some veteran leadership on this team instead of more young guys. I like the farm system approach, but we need a couple more guys who've been around a few years.
Agreed. Funny, I went back to like 2007 on a forum when we acquired Ariza; he was seen as a decent slasher, good defenders, couldn't really shoot that well, etc...then he comes here and he played well for us, obviously. Point is we never know what these reclamation guys can turn into; I heard Hill plays a little defense, but yeah, I've also heard his offense isn't great. I'd still take a shot, though.
If he was willing to come in on a similar deal as what we just gave to all these other young guys, then I don't see the harm. He showed flashes of good things in Indy and was their default Stephenson replacement. The team he was on didn't have a primary scorer for the entire season so of course he wasn't perfect. Worth a shot. I'm not sure about the Ariza comparison because I just frankly don't know enough about the kid, but I agree with the point. I'd still prefer an older guy, but Flip is snatching them up right now.
Dorrell Wright to the Chinese League. Although he seemed like a one-dimensional player, he had the tools to be a 3-and-D guy. Good outside shot at least, good 6'9 frame. Eh, suppose we got a younger version with Jonathan Holmes.
Could someone correct me if I missed something? I haven't been able to post as much lately due to work, nor has there really been anything to post on. But isn't our rotation (of presumably guaranteed contracts) sort of like this right now? Hibbert/Black/Sacre Randle/Bass/Kelly/Nance Kobe/Swaggy/Anthony Brown Clarkson/Williams/Jabari Brown Russell/Williams That's 15 guys right there. We are talking about signing Upshaw, Metta, etc...have there been any rumblings of players getting cut? As discussed earlier in the offseason, Sacre and Kelly seem like the likely picks to get axed. But is Anthony Brown non-guaranteed as well? Our roster just seems like a cluster**** right now. Can we send like Upshaw, Nance and Anthony Brown to the D-League, still have them under contract, and still have 15 more guys on the Laker roster?
You could cut Williams' identical twin I suppose? Kelly has to stay for obvious reasons ..... see sirronstuff's observations ...... ..... so that would leave Sacre to go if we keep Upshaw and Panda on the 15 man roster.
Not quite. http://dleague.nba.com/news/nba_development_league_rosters_101/ There are six sorts of player who can become associated with an NBA D-League team. Returning Players: Play with a D-League team for two+ consecutive years, then that D-league team has their rights. NBA Affiliate Players: Waived in camp, that team can designate up to four such players as an Affiliate Player; that team's D-league affiliate will have first shot to sign that player to their D-league team unless another NBA team wants them. Local Tryouts: Show up and impress, get a contract. D-League Draft: I think it's held in a few weeks. NBA Assignees: When an NBA team signs the player but sends them down (happened with a bunch of our young guys over the years). Free Agents: Boom. NBA Affiliate Players are the group I'm thinking about, Real. If we go in with 20, we can keep 15 on the roster and affiliate 4 four of them, losing only one. Borrowed this post from @trodgers who explained it some weeks back...
So say the Lakers do want to sign Metta ...... what kind of salary or deal can we give him? Are there any exceptions or standard vet contracts we haven't used yet? What can we afford?