Spoiler: 2021-22 Will update as the team fills out but so far we have: Russell Westbrook / Kendrick Nunn / Rajon Rondo Malik Monk / Wayne Ellington / Talen Horton Tucker Lebron James / Kent Bazemore Anthony Davis / Carmelo Anthony / Trevor Ariza Dwight Howard / DeAndre Jordan 13/15 Austin Reaves and Joel Ayayi on two-way contracts ------ -Definitely going to need Mills and Melo/Gay types for the 1 and the 4. -If AD is more comfortable at the 5 now I think we're good with Marc and Dwight. -Still not liking how we don't have size on the wings. Baze is 6'5 and THT is 6'4. Ariza is 6'8 but also 36 -I understand the appeal of Dudley again but I really hope he picks up an assistant coach gig instead of taking up a roster spot. I'd give that spot to one of our undrafted steals cause we're old enough already. Spoiler: 2022-2023 2022-23: Kendrick Nunn / Russel Westbrook / Dennis Schroder Lonnie Walker / Patrick Beverley / Max Christie Austin Reaves / Matt Ryan / Troy Brown Jr Lebron James / Wenyen Gabriel / Juan Tuscano Anderson Anthony Davis / Thomas Bryant / Damien Jones Scottie Pippen Jr. and Cole Swider on 2-way contracts 2022-2023 Playoff Run: D'Angelo Russell / Dennis Schroder / Shaq Harrison Austin Reaves / Malik Beasley / Lonnie Walker Lebron James / Troy Brown Jr / Max Christie Jarred Vanderbilt / Rui Hachimura Anthony Davis / Mo Bamba / Wenyen Gabriel / Tristan Thompson Scottie Pippen Jr and Cole Swider on 2-way
I think whether we win a championship with the Westbrook, Lebron and AD combo will largely be dictated on the rest of the team's makeup. Can we can keep our defence strong while improving our shooting? I'm assuming the team will play Lebron and AD at the 4 & 5 for significant minutes here: Westbrook/ Ellington/THT Bazemore/Ariza Lebron/ AD/Howard Shooting Bazemore and Ellington can both shoot 40%, so we have two good shooters. Ariza shot 35% last season but 40% the season before so it's a coin flip. Lebron can shoot a bit and AD can step out and knock some down too. I'd love to pick up Melo (40%) and S&T Schroder for someone solid (Hield?). Patty Mills (40%), Rudy Gay (38%) and Danny Green (40%) are all still out there. When we think about shooting, we need to think about the fact that we will be playing 5 out with AD at center during the key moments. When Westbrook or Lebron drive, the quality of catch and shoot looks for our shooters should be very high and IMO this should help us improve as a shooting team. Would still love 2 more shooters though. Defence We're not quite there yet here, but we should be a top 10 defensive team on the back of the AD/Howard/Gasol big rotation. If Lebron and Westbrook share the offensive duties they should be above average to great at times. Ariza will continue to be a good wing defender. I would love for THT to turn into a great wing defender as we could really use one more. Rudy Gay could be a solid defensive addition here, as well as an Avery Bradley. Injuries Westbrook and Dwight will help take the pressure of Lebron and AD during the regular season. If we can add a Melo/Gay for some added scoring and something with the S&T of Schroder, we should be in a good position to stay relatively healthy, play our stars lower minutes while getting a good seed. It's all about the play-offs for this team. In an ideal world but with realistic targets available: Westbrook/Mills/Bradley THT/Ellington Ariza/Bazemore Lebron/Melo/Gay AD/Dwight/Howard Is this enough to get it done?
You know, after I've had some time to think about this, my opinion is that we're actually doing pretty well here. Yes, most people are hurt that we gave up on Caruso. We really liked him, maybe even overrated him a little - but he did fit well with the team and could have contributed for sure. So, him being gone sucks. On the other hand, it's pretty obvious we're getting some old Miami HEAT flashbacks here. You have your main guys who need most of the touches and you're trying to win by adding experienced players who play their roles perfectly and can't be shaken in the playoffs. That's exactly what we're doing here. Everyone wanted Dwight back and Rob has done that. Dwight helped us win the championship and did very well as Embiid's backup last year. He is a perfect role-player right now, rim protector, defender, fits extremely well with the Lakers. Ellington is one of those "golden hands" of the NBA. He was on our radar, most of us were wondering if it would be possible to sign him. He shot over 42% for 3 while getting some truly awful shots. This is an elite shooter who can really play a crucial role for us and doesn't need to be "cradled" as much as KCP, for example. Bazemore and Ellington shot 41% and 42% for 3 respectively. Kent is a good energizer who knows his role, has a ton of experience, the Warriors wanted him back for more $$ than what we offered. Good contributor with that size that is currently very "popular" in the league these days: a wing player who is around 6-5, 200lbs can play multiple positions. Ariza is the only guy here who could maybe be described as "washed" but he is an NBA champion, still a good defender and Miami fans seem to think he helped them last year. Just come off the bench in limited minutes and play good D on whoever is hot on the opposing team. You know you can trust him when the time comes, he is loved in LA and in the WORST case, he's better than Dudley and we thought having Dudley was good for us for multiple reasons. Being old is not an issue when you are in win now mode and you are signing guys for vet minimums on 1-year contracts. It's truly win or go home mentality right now. I read some other fan forums and fans of other teams generally think we're doing quite well here. Obviously, we're not done yet. We could add Melo for the minimum, and he's a very good backup for Bron at this point in his career. There's still talks about Mills & Gay who could be incredibly useful. Stay tuned, right? IMO, as I stated many times before, Bron and AD need to be moved up a position to PF & C. Westbrook/(Mills?/Bradley?) Ellington/THT Bazemore/Gay or Melo?/Ariza LBJ/Gay or Melo/Kieff AD/Dwight/Gasol And then you have some rookies there that could step up when the time comes if given opportunity. I mean, if healthy, that team can win the championship this year. We just need to flip Dennis somehow.
For everything Howard does on the court, I think bringing some of that energy/chemistry back from the 2 years ago is just as big. We never quite found ourselves last year, seemed to have a good amount of "me " players. Could blame the pandemic as well. I'm happy with we went with a guy like Ariza over Iggy. I think whenever he does play he can offer some solid defense with some average 3 shooting, which is huge for us. Ellington is the perfect fit really, you can complain about age but what do you expect with what we are working with. Bazemore caught me off guard a bit, but as stated above he brings a good energy and his a very willing defender. If he can shoot 37% or better its a great value for the min.
Yeah, Howard, Bazemore, Ellington and Ariza for less than $10M is a huge win, however you slice it. Let's get Mills and Carmelo for another $5M.
I think we have to start getting comfortable with the idea that this season's team isn't going to be a top defensive team. BUT we won't be at the bottom offensively and especially when Lebron is off the court. How far we slip on the defensive ranking or how high we climb offensively is still tbd with the rest of the roster build. Watching the past two seasons teams lock down the opponents was great but seeing them sometimes struggle to put up points made me pull out my hair.
And we have a defensive minded coach. So adding offensive power with the talent of player to a defensive approach with the talent of the coach
All of the min signings have been fine. Rob is killing it there despite age and such. Obviously, there's more holes to fill, and I'm hoping one of these two way players work out.
OK, to update my chart above, now we can have: Westbrook/THT/(Mills?) Ellington/Monk Bazemore/Melo/Ariza LBJ/Melo/Kieff AD/Dwight/Gasol We're still not done.
Westbrook / Monk / Ellington James / Bazemore / Ariza / McKinnie Davis / Anthony Gasol / Howard Is what I’m looking at now. Still have the MLE, and rights for Schröder and THT. I’m hoping us retaining THT is a sure thing, but I still see him as more of a situational guy that we can let slowly develop. Not sure if we can pencil him in as our main back-up PG.
Best team ever, a superteam, right? Russ: MVP Bron: MVP AD: 1st team all-NBA Dwight: DPOY Gasol: DPOY Melo: Scoring champion
Vogel is an NBA coach, he needs to make it work. There's plenty of solid defenders on this team. We needed shooting/scoring/playmaking more than D and we got all that.
Some team stats -- Lakers now have a combined: 5x MVP 4x DPOY 55x All-Star 46x All-NBA 17x All-Defense 4x Scoring Champion 5x Rebounding Leader 4x Assists Leader 5x Blocks Leader
Suddenly, we have a lot of guys who can shoot and make plays, which was our main concern last year. It seems that Bazemore and Ariza will spend some time on the bench and will have to be ready to shoot and defend respectively when their number is called. The main rotation now includes: Westbrook/Nunn Monk/Ellington THT/Bazemore LeBron/Melo Davis/Howard +Ariza, +Gasol. Still need to figure out Dennis Schroeder.
