Understood realdeal. But we all know Pau is a very different kind of player and mentality. Also a different body type. Pau's issues seem to be more mental than anything else. He went from Champ to chump in just one very strange off season which I have never heard the definitive reason for. Some say it was an undisclosed family thing, others have some crazy gossip about him cheating on his girl or his girl cheating on him. Whatever the reason he flat out lost his heart and along with it any kind of fight on the floor. It wasn't so much physical or age as it was just . . . softness. He stopped trying. He got passive aggressive to a fault. On top of it though, there was the issue that Pau physically is kind of in between PF and C and instead of playing to the strengths of it he fell into its weakness. Too weak to really bang at C but too slow and plodding to keep up on D at PF and at times very indecisive in the post at either position. I don't see Marc falling into those issues. Marc is what he is. A gigantic bruising C with some very nice skills. He's a bigger body with a more defined role that I think he excels at. I don't see him falling prey to the same kind of mental issues, letting himself get tossed around like Pau did the last four seasons. That was just sad to see.
I get what you're saying, but if we're in a straight up rebuild then I'm slightly more hesitant to sign a 30 year old than I would otherwise be. I think he'd be great if we got him and I wouldn't be upset. I just feel like if we're trying to build a young core, that's not exactly a guy I'm looking at with rose colored glasses. Gasol would immediately make us decent. That's for sure. Kobe and Marc Gasol, when healthy, is a good start. Throw in Randle and hopefully another young guy and we're talking about fighting for the 8th or 9th seed. Not really a rebuild, but I'll take it if other pieces make sense as well. I just want to point out his age that's all. I think some people might forget he's not that young.
I don't think we can rebuild if we have Kobe on the books. The max is a 4-year deal that we can offer Marc so after Kobe is off the books, we have Marc for only 3 more years. That's assuming Kobe doesn't re-sign. Marc is a DPOTY caliber player. He's a very effective offensive Center, despite the complete lack of spacing on that Grizzlies team. Chances of signing him are extremely slim, but he's my top choice because he's really good and will probably have no trouble adjusting to this team.
Agree with Real. How many years does Mark have left? Ideall, we get 4 years out if him and then we're back looking for another center. The only way I would acquire Gasol is of went the path of drafting a Center and grooming him to take Gasol's place when he retires. I said I wanted Asim earlier, bit is prefer Lopez after thinking about it. Lopez is a few years younger than Asik; he's 26 I believe. Asik is 28.
That's definitely what I have in mind. If we give Marc the four year max are we good enough to win a Championship in those four years? The answer to that is no unless we convince Durant to come in 2016. Again though we're talking about some serious dominoes. If the Busses/Kupchak/Kobe can sell Marc Gasol on this plan, then I'm in: Busses/Kupchak/Kobe: "Marc, come sign here this summer. We'll give you the max for four years. We'll have a few extra bucks to spend and we'll have probably a playoff bound team. Then next summer we're going to back up the bank vault and let Durant have a fortune. On top of that, we'll have some more money to spend. In that case we'll see if Kobe wants to come back or if Durant has an idea of another star he'd like to play with. The roster in 2017 will be 100% competitive." Hard sell though.
Not sure why we keep bringing up Marc's age. If we aren't signing players to win within the next 4 years or within Kobe's "reign", then what exactly is the plan? To win in the next 6 years? 8 years? Basically any half-decent player that we try to sign will be old then. Asik, Rondo, and Wesley Matthews (whom I really want as well) are just a year younger than Marc. Does that one year make that big of a difference? If our plan is to win 5+ years from now, they're 33+. Another challenge in trying to win 5+ years from now is finding a replacement for Kobe. I also think it'll be harder to convince a player to sign with us by telling him that the plan is to win in 5+ years. I don't think we're on completely different spectrums here on what we want. I think you're thinking more along the lines of securing both the present, future, and far future. But I don't see any other player being as good as Gasol so I would much rather try to maximize the chances of winning now.
I'm just playing devil's advocate is all. We've already suffered through the tail end of one Gasol. Are we setting ourselves up for disappointment to target the other one?
Marc Gasol... Good passing big, who will man the middle. Very good face-up J. Not as refined as big brother but a tougher customer. With him and Randle, it could be a nice tandem in the same fashion ala Memphis. Oh and ANY 3 not named Wesley Johnson. Checked the 'net. Little bro is 29. He could probably maintain his level of play for another three...four years tops.
Not super thrilled by any of the conventional choices this summer. I would throw every dollar the organization had at Ardridge, but we have Randle, so that would be counter productive to his development. I really like Marc and Monroe, but I'm not convinced either would be the game changer this team needs. So with all that said, I think our focus has to be just adding solid talent like Wesley Mathews or Jimmy Butler to our roster, so we have a decent team just ready for that big star to step in and win in 2016. Say we retain, Young, Lin, Kobe, Randle, Davis, and Hill. Add in Mathews, and Monroe and we have a really solid core and I bet we still have space for two max contracts the next summer.
Except you're getting Marc at the end of that run, not the start in a worst case scenario. If my fears are realized then you're getting Pau from 2012-2014.
According to Sportrac.com we've got 47 million on the books including our cap holds. I don't know if that means before or after we waive our rights to Lin and Davis an Hill though... If we only have 20 million to spend, we only get one max contract for a younger guy I think before we have to make some hard choices about our team. I think I'm saying that right. I'm no cap expert.
I thought we were expected to have a much higher cap because of the new TV deal with the NBA. I thought that gave us two max contacts
I thought so too, but there's been talk of them "gradually" raising the cap so it doesn't "shock the system". The cap was estimated to be at 63 million and they said the new TV deal would only raise it to 66 million... At least that's what I've just read right now. I'm not cap expert and I'm sure someone else could explain it better.
Lin brings in revenue that exceeds his value on the court.. I'm not sure how easy he'll be to keep if we try to lowball him, but I'd definitely like to keep him at a discount dictated by his play this season. I'd still much rather get Dragic than Rondo (assuming Dragic plays like he did last year), especially if we're going to have 2 PG's that can play heavy minutes, requiring 1 of them to play some SG. I'd say Knight is a better fit than Rondo for that scenario as well.
Kobe, Swaggy, Randle, Kelly only players under contract.. Options on Hill, Clarkson, Davis(PO), Sacre.. We only have around 33M in guaranteed salary for 15-16 (not counting draft picks).
Then add in the picks/cap holds and we're talking another 5-6 million or so, right? That's 39 million. If the cap goes to 66 million then we have 27 million left.
Yeah I guess.. But it all depends on what happens with the cap. Revenues are expected to increase a TON so even if they plan to make the increases gradually, I think we'll see a higher raise than we're used to. I'm hoping it at least goes over 70 & we have 30+ to spend. I don't think it's an offseason where you can realistically expect to sign 2 superstars, as there aren't that many available & most will probably stay where they are.. But there are a lot of very good 2nd-3rd tier players that could make a team a contender. A starting wing for 12M or less maybe even 10 or less for a guy like Afflalo or Matthews, a starting C for 10M or less (I think Biyombo might be cheap), a PG good enough to atleast split minutes with Lin, bringing back Hill and Lin on fair long term deals, maybe even Ed Davis if we can't afford Hill. I think we'd be in really good shape to contend. If Lin, Matthews, Kobe, Young, Biyombo, Hill, Randle, FA PG is our 8 man rotation next season, I'll feel really good about our chances next year. But if we end up with a top 5 pick that changes everything.
From everything I've been reading they won't let the cap increase naturally. They'll put in an artificial stop at around 66 million which will limit what we can and can't do pretty dramatically. I thought it was going to raise too, but if it's not we're looking at a rougher 2015-2016 than I was expecting. If the Lakers have only 27 million to spend after Cap holds, they'll have some really tough decisions to make. We only get one max deal and then we've got to spend wisely on other options. Let's say we go after everyone's favorite: Marc Gasol (In my brain I'll say Greg Monroe). Marc Gasol/Greg Monroe- 16.7 million The rest of our roster- 10.3 million In fact if we end up with a top 5 pick and that Houston pick it'll be worse. We'll only have roughly 6.4 million after cap holds.
Aldridge is more pipe than anything, just throwing that as one of my options. Yeah, Marc is turning 30, but he's not exactly on the decline either. He still hasn't gone to the Finals so I think he's got a lot of motivation left still in the tank, unlike his brother did at the same age. He's been relatively injury free for his career and his skills are not dependent on his athleticism, which translates well with age.
Awesome pics. Great size. Look thick. Solid. Tight. Keep us all posted on your continued progress with any new progress pics or vid clips. Show us what you got man. Wanna see how freakin' huge, solid, thick and tight you can get. Thanks for the motivation.
