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

meh. not a fan of hield

another "shooter" who would of course struggle to make a 3 here and he can't defend. he shot 36% from 3 last season so with the lakers he'd be shooting 25%

 

I mean, its been well known he is Rob’s crush. Indy won’t play ball with us though.

 

lol, if we exercised the options on stan and gabriel just to roll them up with THT and nunn to make enough salary to match hield, i'll riot.

not sure that's possible, though, which is good. it would mean any hield deal means russ goes.

edit: and i'm not a hield fan, either, but it opens up other options for us if it moves russ.

 

Too early to tell yet. Most teams are making their kinks to the roster with player and team options, etc and trying to decide who to keep or not. But there will be a dozen or so candidates I am guessing from one spectrum or another.

You aren't getting one at that number without some questions or concerns, but you have to try. Lakers are cupboard bare on those types of players with nothing but projects and rookies they recently signed, so the more you add to the room, the more likely you get 2-3 that can overachieve and excel with James and AD.

Right now our roster is exactly that....the two stars and 3 undersized guards (RW, Nunn and THT) who struggle to defend and a bunch of PROJECTS, a few that have the capability to develop as a wing.

We need more wings and a 5 or two, preferably one that can space the floor. Those are our goals period...

 

Report: Lakers interested in everybody.

 

didn't see the list of names.

 

The NBA's salary cap for the 2022-2023 season is projected to come in at roughly $123.6 million, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
This would be an $11.6 million jump from last year's salary cap of $112 million. This number will reflect an increase in Basketball Related Income (BRI) that will be generated next season.

SOURCE: Tim Bontemps on Twitter
Jun 29, 2022, 1:13 PM ET

 

FYI, if anyone else is like me and was confused/concerned why Reaves wasn’t listed along with SJ and Wenyen in the report about us picking up team options, apparently Reaves doesn’t actually have a team option.

We had kinda discussed his situation as if it was a team option, but in actuality I believe his second year has just been non-guaranteed (or partially guaranteed, can’t recall which). So there was no team option to pick up, he’s already on the roster and in theory the Lakers could cut him by some later deadline if they didn’t want to pay him the non-guaranteed money (highly unlikely).

On that note, regarding SJ and Wenyen:

 

Well it would be foolish to shoot one out until all the options are decided on now wouldn't it?

But I repeat, it isn't going to be an ideal signing- really good ones aren't available for 6 million, hell just good ones aren't...

Lakers have no choice but to roll the dice on someone though....

 

your logic feels exactly like the teams that pass on the best talent in the draft because they are lacking X position. That's almost always a mistake.

It's how you end up with Bagley instead of Doncic.

best player available for the MLE is Monk by far, he was easily our 3rd best player last season. Take him and sort out the rest with the mins. and the Westbrook trade.

 

I'm going to continue to hold out hope for Bamba while acknowledging its probably not happening. TJ Warren is probably the highest upside swing we can take with the MLE. He was 43% and 40% from three in 2019 and 2020, respectively, on 4.2 and 3.4 attempts per game and was a pretty versatile scorer before the foot injuries. He's never been a plus defender, but at a stout 6'8" I think he'd hold up fine next to AD and a version of LeBron that's actually trying on defense.

The C Bags and Heat have expressed interest in him for the MLE, but I think Warren will be looking more at role and opportunity. He's been out for essentially two years but is only 28, he could still get himself a pretty big deal next offseason if he looks anything close to his previous self this year. This isn't an older guy looking to be the last piece on a championship team type of situation. Even with Russ back, a LeBron-Warren-AD frontcourt is pretty potent offensively so long as the fifth guy isn't completely ignored by the defense.

 

nope. i'll forgive you if options change the list. i just want to see you name something other than "not monk" or "a good defensive wing".

 

Buddy rumors at least don't make me puke, we're making progress

 

oh, and those concerned about monk's defense shouldn't look at warren's numbers (career-long issue, like monk). it's not like being tall makes you a good defender.

also, for those that just like "height" instead of actual defensive ability, monk's standing reach is 1/2 inch shorter than warren's.

warren's just tall monk. coming off foot surgery and 4 years older.

 

You take the best talent in the draft because (1) you're typically drafting high because you suck, so fit doesn't matter and (2) you control that player for a long time, so they're still an asset even if they don't work with your roster construction. Neither of those is true in this circumstance. Fit and function are imperative for us right now because we have two top 10-15 guys in LeBron and AD. We're trying to win games and compete for a championship if at all possible. We saw last season that Monk's scoring prowess really didn't do much for us since he and Russ are so bad defensively as a backcourt.

Monk also isn't an asset on the MLE. If you give Monk the MLE this year he's almost certainly opting out next year and asking for a long term commitment on at least $10 million per year. Right now he's reading the landscape and seeing that his best offers will probably be short-term deals on the nontaxpayer MLE, so the idea of re-upping with us for a few million less and trying again next offseason is fine. Monk may be more talented than someone like Otto Porter, but he's less useful to our team in the as currently constructed and his superior talent doesn't translate to much benefit for us because he's not a long-term asset.

 

Not even remotely the same. Best talent is what you look for in the Draft, but even then need is taking into consideration if you have a young talent already holding the position said player plays. I can give you endless examples of that, even in the last draft that just transpired. Of course a lot of that depends on how deep the draft is and where you are selecting, etc but it isn't the same as free-agency roster construction at all, especially for us.

A draft pick is for the next four year with that player, perhaps longer. We aren't signing any player for that length. This is about constructing the best team for a single year. And I repeat our roster is LBJ, AD, 3 undersized guards (RW, THT and Nunn) and a bunch of wishful hope and dreams.

No big men and more importantly no wings to speak of, not ones you can automatically mark down as being in an 8-10 man rotation for sure anyway (and I say that liking Johnson). We won in 2019-20 with Kuzma (13) and everyone else averaging under 10....hell, I dont know how the whole thing with Westbrook winds up (not good lol) but he is getting 13 and I guarantee you can find someone to get the single digit numbers (hell, Anthony was right behind Monk with 13.3) and can be had for the minimum on a return.

Bench scoring is not NEAR the priority as finding people WITH THE POTENTIAL that can guard all the Western Conference wings we are going to be faced with.....PERIOD....

Sooner people get off the Monk train (and my guess is Pelinka and c. already have unless he is taking the minimum), the better....

 

fit and function are great. who are these guys again that fit and function here for the money we have?

and monk's absolutely an asset on a mini mle. you now have his early bird rights, which allows you to keep him at an over MLE deal whilst going over the cap. it also caps your investment so that you won't overdo it.

if he's not helping us win, there might be a team with an excess where we have a need, and now we have a player making less than his value who's cost-controlled going forward. win.

 

Ya, try reading slower...

You aren't getting a "good defensive wing" for 6 million.

What you can get is someone taller and better than Monk who could surprise, and we have no choice but to try and net one or two (split if possible)....