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

:THT Heart Hands:

 

Westbrook could opt out. Figure the odds on that one. I keep saying that trading Westbrook for long term money doesn't do anything to clear up enough space to resign Irving. He could only get a 20% increase in salary taking the MLE. However he could be resigned to whatever cap space we would have available. It's the exact same situation Monk is in. 20% pay raise, the MLE or if we had the cap space, he would resign into that.

 

Sign and trade for Kyrie?

Lakers get: Kyrie (3 years/ 60 million)

Nets get: THT, Nunn and 2027 Lakers 1st

Use MLE to sign Bamba

 

do you mean this year? that would be SPICY! lebron could opt out, and maybe we move THT and nunn into someone's space for a couple 2nd rounders.

now you've got about 35 million to play with. maybe we give kyrie a bunch of it, lebron takes very little, then we use lebron's still-existing bird rights to give him the max next year.

far as i know, lebron could basically opt out, sign at vet min, we use the leftover to sign kyrie, then we retain lebron's bird rights next summer and give him the max.

would need lots of trust. and man, popovich would eat his HAT!

 

hard cap. won't be an s&t. either opt-in and trade (best for everyone, but bkn seems to be playing hardball there) or he walks into whatever we can create.

 

Bamba is only an option if Orlando doesn't give him a tender. Other than that, picking up Bamba comes through a sign and trade as well. He's way down the list of options as a sign and trade candidate for anyone IMO.

 

could mean they lose a chance to get out from under a contract that might doom their chances at a rebuild (looking at you, charlotte).

charlotte's about to have a huge bill on their hands for a middling team in a market that doesn't know they exist (i live near there). they should try to get off hayward asap.

 

Lebron can't opt out this year..he's under contract for this season.

 

thought he had a player option.

edit: maybe not. i just assume it in every star's contract nowadays.

 

No just Westbrook and Nunn. A lot of guys have it as their last year, but James didn't do that.

 

depends on what comes with it, but mostly yes. again, russ was an actual net negative last year. that's 40% of your cash going to someone who's actively harming the squad on and off the court. 1 extra year of dramatically lower salary (i feel people don't understand how much russ makes and how much that hurts team-building) for a guy who at worst just gives you nothing. but does he come with a couple guys that might play and help you win? that might be packageable with other players to find better-fitting parts?

 

yeah, i looked it up. weird. i actually thought lebron would have considered doing that for this (and many other) reasons.

would be tragicomic if the lakers insisted on the guarantee and then realized this loophole too late.

anyway, i'll amend my earlier statement then:

if kyrie signed for the mini-mle, lebron could do the same thing next summer. play for less so that kyrie could sign a bigger deal, but build in an opt-out so that he could recover cash on the back end.

we stand to have what, 70 million in space next year? and that's assuming THT opts in. if lebron really wanted to finish his career as a contender, he could take a lot less on a one-year deal and make a ton back later.

 

I meant next year. With Russ and Lebron expiring, would we be able to pay Irving if he takes 6m this year? re-sign Irving first and then James? Or would we need to renounce Janes and lose his Bird rights?

 

I meant that we could re-sign LeBron with Bird rights in 2023 and then sign Kyrie to a full max with cap space (I think this is the case but I'm not cap expert). Definitely won't get Bird rights by signing him to the MLE.

 

Right.

Teams don’t want to help the Lakers. And while I’m not a fan of it, I look at the the situation with Irving and I do get the jealousy to a certain extent. Any other team with our issues doesn’t get interest from LeBron, AD, etc.


That said, teams have to do what’s in their best interest regardless of who the other team is. It’s why I still feel like once the noise dies down and the bottom lines start becoming clearer teams will be interested in Russ’ expiring.