2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

I think you're under selling his basketball IQ by a lot. Players (including Kobe) and coaches have raved about his IQ for years to degrees they haven't about our vets you listed, Bron included. Just because you're a smart vet doesn't mean you see the floor or read the defense to the point you know what they're running better than the players on the other team. Which gave me a thought... while they're irrelevant this season without Kawhi, it'd be hilarious for Rondo to give Vogel the Clipps playbook and we use that to humiliate them all season.

While I agree, that's irrelevant. The team clearly disagrees. We're adding a point guard and maybe another guard as well... depends whether the wing we add is more of a 2 or a 3. All the reports point to us going on that direction and the only players we've brought in for workouts are PGs. It seems the only way we add a big is if Marc bolts.

 

I take Rondo back in a heartbeat if he gets waived by the Grizzlies.

Rondo is CP3 without a jump shot.

 

Look, I’m not ready to retire his jersey or anything, but the way I see it, if you come to the Lakers and help us win a title, you’re my guy. It’s that simple. It’s always gonna be weird with ‘Do given his history, but as far as I’m concerned, his C Bags debt is forgiven.

 

Don't disagree that he has a high basketball IQ, not even a little bit. He just doesn't have much left in the tank. We have 4 players that can legitimately bring the ball up the court and filling a roster spot for a guy that's hardly gonna touch the floor when we need 4-5's isn't a good look.

When we won the title we were big and although we played smaller more in the playoffs then during regular season AD didn't have to play the 5 allowing him to save his energy for the playoffs. That's proven to be a good template for us already.

Who do we have for the 4 & 5 right now? AD, Gasol & Dwight? Arriza can play a little 4 and maybe Melo but that's a stretch for either guy.

I know Rondo wants to play and a bench coach role is probably not an option but that's the only real place I can see a fit.


Edit*

Bron can also play some 4 and we have played a lot of positionless basketball so who the hell knows..

 

Lets look at some of the 4's for others contenders:

• Boston - Tatum/Horford
• Nets - Durant/Griffin
• 76ers - Harris/Scott
• Bucks - Antetokounmpo/Portis
• Heat - Tucker/Morris
• Nuggets - Porter/Gordon
• Warriors - Green/Bjelica
• Clippers - Ibaka/Morris
• Suns - Crowder/Saric
• Mavs - Kleber/Powell

Who there is over powering us at the 4 with AD playing 12 mins and Lebron + Melo covering the rest of the 36 mins.

And out of those teams, who can out muscle us and over power us at both the 4 and 5? 76ers have a lot of size with Embiid/Drummond/Simmons on top of Tobias/Morris. Bucks have Giannis and Brook Lopez with decent size backing them up. Nuggets have Jokic to go alongside Gordon/Porter/Green. That's about it.

I'm not worried about our size at all.

 

Right now we're constructed pretty well:

Westbrook and Nunn at the 1.

Ellington and Monk at the 2.

Bazemore and Ariza at the 3.

THT can fill minutes anywhere from 1 to 3.

Lebron and Melo at the 4.

Marc and Gasol at the 5.

AD can fill minutes between 4 and 5.

We'll carry 14 into the season as normal. So we just need some deep bench backups for worst case scenarios.

Rondo honestly wouldn't be a bad choice for one of those two spots. He would be a great 3rd string PG who can fill in as starter or backup - but he would be invaluable in film sessions as well as helping develop Nunn and Monk.

Then we need either a SF/PF defender or a 4/5 combo. Just as short term injury cover.

 

i agree; we could add nothing and be fine. and i think adding a pure pg as the third option there is good, with rondo being an excellent fit for several reasons.

my only concern would be rondo taking minutes from nunn during the regular season. coaches sometimes lean on vets too much because it's comfortable, and rondo would need to be an in-case-of-emergency/playoff situational sub.

 

I think we can channel his energy to be a good defender, nagging the opposition guard for 20min. Most superstars are guards, so having a guy like him can be beneficial.

There's a line between being aggressive and dirty. I don't think we are a dirty team, but I think there's place for a guy playing a bit below the dirty level, if we keep him contained and channeling that energy.
And hell, yeah if a game goes south it's good to have him and Dwight stepping in with physicality.

Again, I don't WANT him. But if he comes, he definitely would have a role. And I think it's one of those guys that when is on your team you like it

 

Which is why he'd be a good fit, he doesn't need much left in the tank. This is a position that I think most here agree we don't NEED but the Lakers want another. So a guy who can't eat into Russ or Nunn's minutes is a good thing. Where Rondo separates himself from the pack of the retired guys we're looking at or a Bev (who'd expect minutes) is he's a basketball genius, so he's contributing when he's not playing... even more than he would in any regular season game.

He might not have much left, but last time we thought he was washed, Playoff Rondo emerged from he ashes like a Phoenix. I think he can still win a playoff game for you on the court and at least another one in the coach's room.

I'm sure he does want to play. There's not a single hall of famer in the NBA who doesn't want to play. But he was out of the rotation in ATL and saw some DNPs with the Clipps. He knows he wouldn't be walking into his old role.

I'd like to add a big, as well. I've been banging the Ed Davis drum for a month now. BUT the Lakers aren't showing interest in signing one. So it's a moot point right now. Again, that changes if Stein's report on Gasol means he's out... that changes everything.

 

I guess we will see what happens. We definitely need more size and for 2 reasons:

1) we don't have enough if one of those guys gets injured, then we'd be really short on that end. Brons been injured a lot recently last couple of years. If we get hit with the injury bug this year at the 4-5 we're gonna be short fast

2) we have plenty of guys to cover at the wing position even in postionless basketball & even in case of injury

Those are my concerns. It's not about being overpowered as currently constructed its about having a stop gap when one of those guys goes down and also to be able to give our bigs valuable rest. Rondo doesn't provide any of that. I'd take washed Milsap over Rondo

 

When I see this listing, I consider it a feast for AD at the 4. Besides Giannis, that's a bunch of total mismatches for AD IMO. Lebron can hold his own against that bunch, but Melo would get roasted by just about everybody. This is also why I think Ariza will play more than Melo. I would still like to see one more big, preferably a young, athletic guy, that can run the floor and get to the front of the rim on the break, and give us some spot minutes.

 

I'm not so convinced about all the Rondo, the basketball savant stuff either. We had him in Bron's first year too, he didn't impart much wisdom to Lonzo. I give him his due for the playoff run in the bubble, that being said, he did have 6 months off before playing in the bubble. His body of work in Dallas, Atlanta, Clippers and his time with the Lakers, besides the playoffs, wasn't all that impressive IMO. The guy stays hurt, and plays mostly at a lackadaisical effort level during the season. Getting 6 months off before the playoffs, is a situation that will probably never happen again.

 

Any of them, Melo can't guard a parked car at this point of his career. His scoring ability could balance it out over 20 mins or so a game. I can get with that.

 

Lmao I totally agree. Horford, Portis, Morris (claps), Gordon, Saric will all eat Melo up on the block. We are thin at the 4 but we want more guards? This is a complete head scratcher imo

 

1. i actually don't think so.
2. show me that team that structures their offense around their backup pf's post ups.

 

It's not about "structuring" their offense it's about mismatches which all NBA teams try to exploit. And who says he's only going to be playing against backups? Now we're talking semantics..

 

Aldridge's name is still floating around out there too. He's at least as serviceable as Gasol and can play both 4-5. Idk if he is actually going to come back for sure or not but he would be a another option