Please no to Rondo. I wanted him before, but his game has fallen off a cliff. He's a disaster with the Mavs and now he's injured again. The max? LOL, he'd be lucky to get the MLE with what he apparently does to teams. I would put up with Love for the max if it meant no Rondo.
Love is a great SF in a PF's body in the sense that he's at his best offensively when his outside shot is falling. He scored around the rim in Minne due to being their franchise player with the offense built around him. As we see in Cleveland, when he's on a good team & has to produce without the offense being built around him, he's most efficient as a perimeter player. Also he really can't guard bigs as he isn't a physical player at all. I'm not saying he should actually be playing SF, he's just better as a perimeter player who isn't relied on inside the paint, which is what you'd typically want out of your PF. He absolutely can't play C unlike PF's like Duncan/Pau/LMA. The Lebron comparison is pretty terrible for Randle. Lebron is such a monster specifically because it's so rare for a guy with his size & strength to have the skillset of a perimeter player. Lebron has elite handles, court vision, speed, athleticism packaged in the body of Karl Malone. Randle has above average handles for a PF, is quick because he isn't as big as typical PF's, has a good shot, but that's really where it ends. Size is the only department where he can be compared to Lebron, he's not in his league, or even on par with average SF's when it comes to the skillset required to be a good SF. He definitely has the base to develop those skills, but he's a PF today, no question about it. If we were to luck into a C like Okafor or Towns & then sign Love, we'd probably be better off trading Randle than trying to force him to become a SF. The age difference with Love & Aldridge doesn't bother me because outside of an expiring Kobe, we have a team full of rookie contracts & small contracts. Also I wouldn't spend what it's going to take to keep Ed Davis if we had both Okafor or Towns + Love. That money would be better spent on the perimeter. This is what I was saying when I posted that Rondo is playing himself back onto my radar with his poor play. If he completely kills the market for his services & comes in as a player that really wants to be here, has to take a massive discount to get here, & puts all of that competitive drive he has towards proving the league that they were wrong about him, it could end up being an insane value signing. What's funny is that getting 1 makes getting the other much more appealing. With Rondo you need as many shooters surrounding him as possible, making Love more appealing than the other options at PF. I just don't see us going that route because both Rondo & Love come with serious injury concerns & it pushes Randle out of the starting lineup. We might gamble on 1 injury prone player, but there's no way we get both of them
I was interested in Rondo if the price was right earlier in the year. But man, does he stink right now and the attitude is the nail in the coffin. So even I want to pass on Roundo. What was I thinking? He's a C bag anyway. Count me in on wanting no part of him or Love. Hopefully we draft a big, go after a good starting level SF in FA, and lock down a solid veteran PG at a decent price. That would be a great summer. Either that or draft a good SF, if no top tier bigs are available, then go after a defensive minded C in FA as well as the vet PG. I don't want big names for big names' sake. Just get the best, most durable squad going forward for the future. No injury prone guys like Rondo and Love.
We really need to get a top 2 pick to get a big. That way draft a big and chase a SF in FA. Or later in the draft
I don't think so. We can add WCS at 5 and/or Upshaw later. They're not as good as the others, but they might be as good or better for our situation.
There have been a lot of ups and downs over the last few off-seasons. A big trade that go vetoed (CP3), two big trades that turned into busts (Nash/Dwight), failed attempts at luring FAs (Melo), FA signings that are debatable (Nick Young), and a draft pick that turned out to be a gem (JC). Despite all the misery and heartbreak, I have been eternally optimistic for the future and hopeful that the FO would turn things around and get to the promised land sooner rather than later. I've been a Lakers apologist out there in the real world (if not always on this board). Having said all of that, if the Lakers sign Rondo, I will officially lose all faith in this FO and will assume that we will never return to championship form until the Buss family is gone. I hate everything about him at this point and can't even believe this is still a possibility. And I would have thought that even if we didn't have a stud pg entering his sophomore season. Oh, right, and the icing on the cake: he was on that friggin' C Bags team!!!
I don't think thats a bad option at all. I just think that okafor/ or middleton/butler/danny green are better
Yeah, I wouldn't mind WCS if we pick 5 at all. I've been a proponent of that. But yeah, sure would be much nicer to grab Towns or Okafor. I would also be ok with Johnson or Winslow at 4 or 5 spot and then go after a C in FA like Asik, Lopez, or maybe even a much higher priced DeAndre Jordan to provide killer D behind Randle.
Recent interviews make it seem like Mitch disagrees, & I do as well. EVERYONE is going to have cap space next summer. The only advantage we have over many teams is also having space this season to make dramatic improvements to the team. If we don't put a playoff team on the floor this season, we'll be sitting on the sidelines yet again next summer, watching every major FA sign with teams in better situations. I agree, this is definitely the outcome I'm hoping for. WCS might end up being good but I highly doubt it. I see LMA & Gasol as the only really good options for bigs in FA. Guys like Asik & Jordan aren't bad options or anything, but I don't think they're as good as the wings we could potentially sign with that space.
With the emergence of JC and the fall of Rondo I don't know if I'd take him even for cheap. I'd rather spend our money on more impactful positions depending on who we get in the draft.
My thought is that 2016 will have plenty to pick from. If we fill this roster out with some decent talent, it will be easier to sell a player like Davis, durant. I understand that its a big risk though. I just don't think anyone outside of Gasol/LMA really make us a great team. Im not a Asik fan at all and i've always thought love is overrated. Will we better with the latter? sure, but I just don't wanna overpay for those guys just to be a little better.
Is it bad that I am sort of hoping we dont land in the top 2 for the lottery because I want us to have to take a PG so then we won't go after Rondo..... I'm not all the way into that camp yet but I can't stop worrying that our Rondo will be ours this summer and that scares me into hoping we just draft another PG even though we need more help at SF and C
My line of thinking with Rondo is if his value keeps dropping, he could end up being a cheap insurance policy next season & beyond. Obviously I hope Kobe plays at a high level & stays healthy for all or atleast most of next season, but if he doesn't, JC is more than capable of filling in as our starting SG. & with Rondo or another starting PG, we don't have to worry about losing a season due to having a true backup like Price in the starting lineup. Even if Kobe stays healthy, you have to assume he'll sit some back to back's & have his minutes limited. This doesn't mean I want Rondo for his asking price, but if he ends up being the best value available, it's a smart insurance policy. This is also the reason I'm interested in Mo Williams for the right price. Also if Kobe retires after next season & we don't have another starting SG ready to step in, JC can move over while Rondo or Mo give us a cheap starting PG until we find a long term solution. Decent talent can sometimes sell fans, but it isn't selling a player like Durant. The only thing that's going to sell Durant is results. He was right on the verge of winning a title & saw first hand how important having a great team around him is after they dumped Harden & haven't had a chance at a ring since. We have no chance at all of convincing KD to join a team that misses the playoffs this year, he isn't a fan that can be sold on potential. The same likely goes for the majority of the top FA's that will be available. You are 100% correct that 2016 will have plenty of star players to choose from, with all of the players that already had player options built into their contracts & all of the players that will get player options in FA this summer. But with almost every team in the league having cap space next summer, we're going to need more than the Lakers legacy & cap space to land a franchise player. Even if we overpay for FA's other than Marc or LMA, there's absolutely no reason not to spend on the best team we can buy this summer. We have Kobe's 25M coming off the books along with the cap jumping to 90M or higher next summer. We could use every bit of our cap space this summer & still have room next summer to hand out a huge max contract + another big contract.
To add on to my point about needing an insurance policy for Kobe this season & beyond, this is yet another reason I'm so high on Middleton. He can play either wing position extremely well & play a ton of minutes without slowing down. If we have a solid backup SF, Khris can slide right over to SG & we should still be very good. Looking beyond this season, assuming Kobe retires, Middleton's flexibility makes life much easier for us in free agency. If we can land Durant or another elite SF, Khris can slide to SG without missing a beat. If we can land an elite SG, Khris stays at SF. If we can land an elite PG & Clarkson moves to SG, having a great defender like Middleton at SF takes a lot of pressure off of Jordan. He just seems like a perfect fit for this team in every way I can imagine.
