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

You say it's just 2 years but that may be all that we have with LeBon and AD will be post-prime. Hayward can play 20/25 a game but how many games? Based on the last 2 years he'll play 3 out of 5 games. Based on the previous 5 years' stats he would play 11 out of 20 games, Basically 1/2. At 30 mil per year. How and in what fantasy world is this a tremendous asset? There's no guarantee that there would be some player out there we want and could get for his expiring in year 2. Highly unlikely.

Hayward is almost a guaranteed injury and going to miss a large number of games. Assuming his expiring will be worth anything is a crazy risk.

 

Pretty sure if that were the case Lebron would have taken the cortisone shot and played out these 2 games.

 

Yeah, this would be a huge bail out for the Lakers. You take that deal and run.

 

Trade that enables us to bring back Monk:

Westbrook, 2027 1st and 3 million cash to Charlotte for Rozier, Oubre and Thor.

PF-James/Anthony/FA
SF-Oubre/THT/FA
C-Davis/Howard
PG-Rozier/Nunn/FA
SG-Monk/Reeves/FA

 

I can only think about next year, and turning Westbrook's contract into something. These feels oddly like Kobe's final years as a Laker, and I can only recall how damaging it was for this franchise to let Pau and Dwight walk for nothing. Or how damaging it was to stretch Luol Deng's contract. I want to avoid these two things with Westbrook as much as possible.

Even just having Hayward and LeBron platoon the forward spot on a minutes restriction would be an upgrade from this year. Hayward can at least run the offense. There are lots of guards to play, forwards are a luxury.

 

Hayward has been hurt 2 of his 3 seasons in Charlotte what is he gonna provide on the bench filling in that k.nunnnrole?

 

i thought about this, but this puts a bunch of cash on charlotte's payroll for next year. not sure they go for it.

i agree that all the guys we've let walk for literally zero in return while they were still useful has hurt us a bunch (both back then and recently), and stretching is generally a bad idea unless you're going to be over the cap for the duration of the stretch (we aren't this time, i don't think--or at least we need to plan is if we might not be).

the only way i stretch/waive russ is if he's giving back a substantial chunk in the process. i'd want 15 million off, minimum.

feel like this is where the FO needs to be creative.

either is fine with me. honestly, westbrook hurt us more playing this year than hayward would by not playing next year. and hayward's not a locker room problem, either.

 

Yeah you are right. Charlotte is looking to dump salary. Also, after further looking at the numbers, that still would not be enough to keep Monk anyway. The more realistic scenario would be trading Westbrook and cash to Charlotte for Rozier and Hayward. Then hopefully, Monk could take the Tax Payer MLE. If he doesn't then, we use it on somebody like Gary Harris, Daniel House or Brynn Forbes I guess? Still looks like a solid roster. It would be great if we could execute this trade without giving up draft picks, since it's a significant salary dump for Charlotte. We would then still have THT, Nunn, the player we sign with MLE, and picks for further trades. Also, bring back Anthony, Howard and perhaps Bradley with vet minimums.

Roster after moves:

PF-James, Anthony, Gabriel
SF-Hayward, THT, Johnson
C-AD, Howard
PG-Rozier, Nunn, Bradley
SG-Reeves, Harris, House

 

I really liked what Melo brought on offense this year but he can’t defend anyone. Since LeBron doesn’t play a full game of defense, we Can’t fill out the roster again with guys who either refuse to play D, or are too old to.

 

I’m in the minority but I keep Westbrook and get an offensive mastermind as a coach with a good defensive assistant. This is a joke but the MDA and Mike Brown combo. Or in a better world Quinn Snyder.

We probably want to move AD back to PF and get a 3&D Center. There is only really a few good, gettable options, Myles Turner, Brook Lopez and Christian Wood. I’m going after them in that order and using THT as the trade chip, you’ll probably have to give up a first for Turner and Wood and a second for Lopez.

That means we have Lebron and AD manning their forward positions so we need a 3&D player at SG. I’d take strong D with 35% shooting honestly. But a name isn’t really popping to mind. If we rang Toronto up and asked them for OG for THT and Gabriel they probably laugh at us. If we can’t get anyone for the SG, I’d give Nunn the starting spot.

This leaves us with the following lineup:

WB / DJ
Nunn / Monk / Reaves
Lebron / Johnson
AD / Melo / Gabriel
Turner or Lopez / Dwight

That’s an achievable team with what we have and we’d be using THT to net us a 3&D Center instead of being redundant with Westbrook, Nunn and Lebron all kind of playing his role.

I’d expect Reaves to play 1-3 depending on matchups, Stan to play 3 and 4 and Gabriel to play 4 and 5. We know Nunn, DJ, Monk, Melo and Turner can all shoot. And we’d have a solid SG as a point of attack defender with a great PF and C defensive line behind them.

If it doesn’t work, you blow it up with Westbrook and Lebron coming off the books.

 

My assumption is you get 65 games from Lebron, AD, Nunn and Turner. That’s a major difference.

This year we had Lebron for 56 games which at least 10-15 he was banged up in. We had AD for 40 with 10 banged up. We had Nunn for zero. We had no Center who can play like Turner. It’s basically having a new starting SG and Center with your two best players being healthy for 25 and 35 more games. If you think that doesn’t change things, then no point in us having this discussion because it’s just irrational.

I also quite like the rest of our team when they’re playing smaller roles. DJ for a full season is a great backup, Monk is a great 6th man microwave scorer, Stan is useful defensively, Gabriel is someone we can develop into an interesting forward, Reaves is a great prospect, Melo can shoot and Dwight is decent as a 3rd string C. But having them shoulder the load for the lack of 3 of our 4 best players will make alot of them look bad.

 

I agree on the young guys who stay, along with Melo, DJ and Dwight. I just think Lebron will be a weak link defensively and AD at Center asks him to do too much on that end.

I also think we shouldn’t fall in love with only one way of playing, we’ve seen Lebron win throughout his career in more offensively strong teams that could get key stops. It’s the same way the Lakers were run under Phil. I don’t see why we should put all our chips into being a D only team.

Regarding Russ fit, we never really put this team into positions it could succeed. We saw an interesting adjustment by Frank and his coaching staff at the end of the season. It allowed Russ to attack players who were playing off of him by taking a few quick steps into a post up. This was done by loading up the opposite side of the floor with shooters and having a bit set a pick so the Center couldn’t come over to help. Simple things like that meant he was much more efficient for a good 10+ game stretch.

I just don’t believe we can’t make sets to take advantage of our talent, to free up shooters, to have a more free flowing offence. Currently we hold the ball for long periods of time and iso a lot so we can get back on transition D. I’m not the biggest fan of that style of basketball without more subtleties added to it to create a modern offence.

 

there is an old adage of the financial markets that says when a trade goes against you, the best thing to do is take the loss quick and live to fight another day.

hoping for the trade to turn around when it's clearly not working, is how the losses mount and how you can get wrecked.

I think this analogy can be applied to the Westbrook trade.