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

No.

 

Well ....

The season's over, our season is in the refrigerator, the door's closed, the light's out, the eggs are cooling, the butter's getting hard and the Jell-O's jiggling!!!

Next year cannot come soon enough.

 

I don’t know who we can dump Russ on but we gotta find a way to move on from him.

 

Yeah. Rob needs to really show what he can do. Get Russ out of here and bring in real NBA players.

 

Unfortunately, the Wall for Westbrook swap is all that exists in that regard. Or a Myles Turner trade. Sometimes deals come out of the woodwork that you didn't see but in this case, I think it's safe to say there are no takers for that Westbrook contract.

148.8 mil on the books for next year if Nunn and Westbrook pick up their options, both likely to. That's just above the tax threshold and the hard cap to be set at approx 154 mil which means we can't offer the standard MLE (10) so it is going to be Lebron, AD, Westbrick, THT, Nunn, Reeves, Stanley J, vet mins and a tax-payer MLE (6). Maybe a swap of Wall for Westbrook and try it again. I'm not too excited about Wall either but I just feel Westbrick is bad juju for this team. Send him back to the east and he can sneak a team into the playoffs like he and Beal did with the Wiz or he can entertain fans down in Houston.

We desperately need Monk though I don't see how to get him unless out of the goodness of his heart he takes the MLE @ 6 mil knowing we can offer a lot more the following summer. And we need wing defenders to sign for the vet mins. Maybe swing a deal for Myles Turner with THT/Nunn/'2027 1st pick or some other pick available this summer, bolster our big position with frail AD and Dwight getting old.

 

still think we might get russ at a buyout under his salary. either that or we can swing a trade in which we throw in cash to lower our current bill and the other team buys him out.

i actually trust rob to get creative with this.

 

It’s a huge expiring contract, so I think we will have more options than we are considering, but they might not be until the trade deadline.

but that’s unattractive

 

I know most fans are leaning towards just ditching Westbrook for anything and building another vet min team around Lebron + Ad and give it one last go.

I'm definitely more in the camp that thinks the above isn't doable with the assets we have and we'll be wasting another year and the little assets we have. We should start rebuilding now.

Most on this board, and I assume the FO overestimated the likelihood of being able to replace solid NBA players like KCP, Caruso or Kuz for vet min guys.

I'd trade Lebron in the summer to a contender for a nice young piece or two. I would not waste any asset trying to get rid of Westbrook, let him expire if we have to or buy him out. I would not trade AD at least yet because his value is at an all-time low. However, I would be open to trading him next year if we can get his value up and we can get a younger superstar in return.

call me crazy but I think there is no chance Rob can turn this mess into a contender next year. We painted ourselves into a corner with the Westbrook trade.

what I think will happen is that Rob will try again, but blow it up mid next season if it's not working.

 

I’m all for trading Lebron, but think there is 0% chance of that happening.

 

We are stuck with LeGM mainly for business reasons.
If our FO hadn’t turned a Championship Squad into one of the worst in the West over the past two seasons, we would have more options.

 

Lebron isn't going anywhere when the most coveted record in the NBA is within reach. Lakers want him to break that record in a Laker uniform.

 

That’s the plan. No more titles in the immediate future. Just break some records and social media posts from now on.

 

the problem as I see it is that Lebron will end out leaving on his own and then use the press to badmouth our FO and say how they ruined the team and refused to keep the championship squad together. It will take them 20 years to dig out of that hole. There goes beating out the all time rings record. This has just been a giant smelly piece of krap. We are screwed.

 

Lakers have had drama at some point or another the last 42 years. That drama has resulted in 11 Championships. Lakers will be fine.

 

I just scraped this from a report on LeBron heading home to rehab his ankle:
>The Lakers star LeBron James has left the team's road trip early to continue his ankle rehabilitation in Los Angeles, according to the team.<

Also: who'd wanna actually be in Utah right now? What's the over/under on how many they'll lose by? I'll take the Lakers if you spot me 47 points. Anyone interested?

>James was ruled out for Thursday's game at the Utah Jazz. He has been dealing with a left ankle sprain since Sunday and didn't play in Tuesday's 128-110 blowout loss at the Dallas Mavericks.<

Odd reporting. LeBron "didn't play" against Dallas. Define "play." 'Cuz if you define it as, at least in part, "putting effort into winning", then few guys "played."


>Meanwhile, Anthony Davis is listed as doubtful for Thursday. He hasn't played since Feb. 16, when he sustained a right midfoot sprain.<

Still now word on when AD comes back. If he comes back before the regular season ends, will he somehow get injured again before the final buzzer of this nightmare 2021-22 season? Sets the mind to wonderin'...

 

disagree. that was a (very) vocal minority saying those guys were easily replaced.

really not sure if you can get that, and as ox said, it's not happening anyway. contenders will try and just send their worst players out like they always do. for example, who does philly send to us? tobias harris (whose contract is considered among the worst in the league, i think)? do they add thybulle or maxey, whom they kept out of the ben simmons deal? seems unlikely. most contenders don't really have good young players.

agree--unless the deal returns a good player, in which case it will require an asset. due to the size of russ's contract, it's not out of the realm of possibility.

part of why it was go great to get AD was that young superstars simply don't get traded. for those with incredibly short memories, this is why we are able to go from non-playoffs to title in an offseason, too. AD is 28. who's the younger target?

this is likely true. why compound it by being totally non-competitive while we still owe draft picks all over town? why make the mess worse? because we're mad? we still have lebron and AD, and if they're healthy, we're competitive. the league really isn't that strong. phx is destroying right now, and that's not a super impressive team, imo. better luck with injuries and some less stupid moves in the offseason and we could be back in puncher's chance range next year.

tbh, we weren't even "favorites" before this season.

i'm still here. unless we do something silly like trade our stars, we'll weather the current storm and find a way to the other side. it will take longer than most fans want, probably, but them's the breaks.

 

Significant when you're a penny pinching, every red cent counts mom and pop organization.

At the very least, maybe it'll help Jeanie avoid this come Christmas time

 

Hypothetical off-season trade scenerio here.

Would any of you trade Westbrook to Indiana for Myles Turner (26 years old, center who can block shots and hit the 3 on a expiring contract) and Buddy Hield (Overpaid for what he provides but still relatively young and can actually fit in with AD/Bron, 2 more years left on his contract)…. Where the Pacers would actually agree with the intent to just buyout Westbrook, but they only do the deal IF the Lakers include the 2027 1st rounder unprotected?

It fills 2 holes in the starting lineup for the Lakers with players that may actually be good fits to have one last run in the Lebron era….


… I think I would do it.