2016 Rumor Mill: Trades and Players to Watch

The "fame, city, endorsements card" is not working like it used to. With our idiot coach and clueless siblings, FA's don't even take us seriously.

 

My hope for Durant is that he has always being in Kobe mold. A contrarian. Anti-LeBron.

He just may decide that this is enough of a challenge.

He isn't winning s*** in OKC. He isn't joining GSW, as that would be extremely out of character for him.

We may have a chance if we show a basis for the future in 2 years.

 

The laker's need to go after whiteside quickly with a large contract, I would start below max but be willing to max it out. He fills two voids in he is young enough to grow with our younger players or provide immediate help if we make additional signings and/or trades. I don't see Whiteside turning down 80 or 85% of a max deal because he has made no money in his career yet. You take the safe bet and set yourself up for life and you get to play for the lakers. Not a bad deal and I see this as the most likely FA to come to us at this point.

Then you sit down with both Sacramento and Durant and work out a way to bring in Cousins with the assurance that Durant will sign for Max.
If we keep our pick this year---we can easily get Cousins. Even without it we probably can.
You move Randle and JC or Russell for Cousins--you might have to expand and trade the 2 or 3 pick for Sacramento pick this year. If we have the 1 pick things change. This is a deal Sacramento has to take a hard look at.

I prefer to keep Russell but my gut says we would end up with JC..

Lineup:
J/C
This years draft pick ??/Lou Williams
Durant/Brown
Cousins/Nance JR
Whiteside/????2nd round pick this year? not sure we have one

We have nick young who we could try and move for some asset.

This scenario works because both cousins and Whiteside contracts are lower max offers, and J/C contract would work because it will balloon up once the cap increases. This is a team I could see Durant having interest in.

It seems on paper to be solid lineup with Williams manning our 2nd unit and providing some needed scoring. Durant and Cousins would get a majority of the touches but Whiteside play inside fits well with Cousins.

 

Again, Hassan is:

1. 27 (by next season's start)
2. extremely reliant on athleticism
3. dislikes the Lakers (for not giving him a change 3 - 4 years back after being in workouts (?)... he mentioned being salty about it like last season I think)
4. Forgot one... he is reportedly a little bit of a head case

 

Cousins at PF? God, no.

 

Hasn't cousins been playing pf this season with them having Koufos and WCS?

 

If he's like Kobe, then I think he would stay in okc and his challenge would be to win a championship with them. And if he is pondering to leave okc, then we're gonna have to also compete with the Wizards as they already have a solid present and future in tact with wall and beal. Plus they are his hometown team.

 

Yes. They're having some success with WCS playing next too Cousins. Once they dump Gay and find a guy such Batum and his skillset who fits more their needs, their in business...

Cousins isn't leaving Sacramento. Their probably going to make the PO's and Cousins is on a ridiculously good contract. He's also playing outstanding and Sacramento is winning...

 

I agree. Plus he wants to be in Sacramento and vlade also loves him.

 

Cousins and Whiteside are both knuckleheads. But only one of them can be brought in without losing our young players.

 

I think some people are simply in love with Cousins. I don't blame them. He's very talented.

 

We absolutely had a shot at getting Cousins. However it made little sense to part with Russell/Randle/JC for just him. They were asking to much. Now hes a year closer to walking. If we have Whiteside and some commitment from Durant to sign if we add another impact player than parting with 2 of our young guys and our draft pick could make sense. That still leaves us with a couple young guys to develop and a few in their prime players.

You see any other players we could trade for that are better than Cousins?
Do you see any meaningful free agent other than borderline third tier guys sign with us if we have all these young guys?
Regardless of how Whiteside feels about the lakers hes not turning down a near max deal..only way we lose is if another team offers similar or more money.

The lineup with Durant/Cousins/Whiteside would be great. Whiteside fits perfectly in that he doesn't need the call to be effective. Durant and Cousins do.

If our young guys work out, I still don't see us competing for another 4 years. That is a long time to wait and hope when this pairing puts us in the championship talk.