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

It's the price to pay. We also got AD because we have superstars who say "I'm only going to LA".

It's odd to get Conley now that we got Pat, for such a hefty price. Don't think we make a move on in. Clarkson should be hard to get so I'm starting to think Russ path to Utah is trickier than it seemed to me yesterday

 

just to be clear: conley has been better than clarkson for every single year of the respective careers, mostly by a wide margin, and this includes last year. and clarkson makes less but has a player option (whereas conley has a partial guarantee) on his contract after the upcoming season.

i have no idea why clarkson is being touted as the more valuable asset, tbh. and if russ goes out, we do actually need a pg, and clarkson is not one.

 

6 to 8 YOU SAY!? (I know it isn't Christmas Season yet, but still.....I had to)

 

Minnesota was a special case, they can’t sign a clothes mannequin during free agency - so they weren’t letting their guy slip away.

AD is absolutely worth more, but as a selling team, I imagine we’d get some Shaq like deal and not great value.

 

He defended the opposing teams PGs in the bubble. Lakers got a chip. Not too bad for a 6-5 wing.

 

Agreed, I frankly have no interest in Clarkson. I don't think he adds anything we need to this roster. Having Conley, Beverley and Nunn seems redundant, but the first two are older and will miss games and Nunn just missed a whole season. Conley/Beverley/Nunn/Reaves/Walker IV is a solid guard rotation.

 

yeah, it's part of why i felt like the beverley deal meant we were out on conley. but really, nunn can't be counted on at all, and bev/conley both tend to miss time, too. so having three might be necessary.

anyway, i think that ship probably sailed.

 

Reason why we might be interested in Clarkson:



Seriously though, I like Clarkson. This team can certainly use a scorer off the bench who has some level of shot creation ability. Maybe the hope is that Lonnie Walker can play that role, but I think Clarkson is simply better. Sure that makes Walker redundant and a bad spending of our TPMLE, but at least it makes him expendable for salary matching purposes in a mid-season trade.

But I want Conley too. Yes Lebron is the de facto PG, but we have to account for him missing some games at his age. And I think Conley has the shooting and IQ to play well off-ball with Lebron too. This also makes Nunn expendable to trade, especially if his health is still an unknown. Also for what it’s worth, Jazz fans like Conley but don’t think he fits with the rebuild and are currently under the impression that he’s a negative asset that they’d have to pay draft compensation to get off his contract.

Nothing too substantial in this report … but I could’ve sworn this Tony Jones guy had tweeted yesterday something along the lines of “watch out for the Lakers and Jazz next”. Interestingly it looks like he deleted it now. I didn’t think too much of it when I saw that tweet yesterday, but that’s because I thought he was just some random NBA media guy. Didn’t realize he was the Jazz beat reporter for The Athletic. Makes me wonder if his previous tweet was based on some actual knowledge that the Lakers and Jazz are close to the deal, but his Jazz sources wanted him to retract that tweet while they’re still negotiating.

Russ + 1 FRP for Conley, Bogdanovic, Clarkson

I think that makes sense for both sides. We take an extra ~$8 million in salary, but the trade still works. This aligns with Windhorst’s report that the Jazz want to minimize taxes.

Since Conley’s contract with large partial guarantees for next season is a negative asset, him for Russ is almost a wash value wise. So one FRP for Bogdanovic + Clarkson, the fact that we help the Jazz clear salary and get under the max roster spots, Jeanie has to pay more luxury tax in the process, we eat heavily into our cap space for next summer, all seems more than fair to me.

 

Thanks for connecting the dots, that's pretty much what I'm hoping for right now.

 

It is Russell Westbrook, and no one is overly excited about taking on his $47 million; just to have to buy him out.

The Pacers don't seem to be budging on 2 1st rounders for Hield/Turner and I don't even think a future 1st would secure Turner alone (which is ludicrous); so the Jazz do seem like the most logical trade partner.

Ainge is going to want a 1st round pick to take on Westbrook and he might ask for two. You "could" get him to come off of that, but that would mean taking on contracts longer than past this season.

They know they can probably get a decent return for the expiring of Bojan Bogdanovic alone, so for them it would be looking for someone to take on the contract of Mike Conley (who has $14 million guaranteed already for next season and up to 25) and to a lesser degree Rudy Gay, who has a 2nd year player option for $6.5 million.

The ONLY way the Lakers are getting out of trading both first round picks is by taking on both Conley and Gay and eating most of the cap space they just cleared up by trading THT. I would mention Clarkson's 14 million, but that is cap space we don't have in 2023 since he is owed a guaranteed 14.3 million.

Would Ainge make the trade for just one 1st rounder and save $30 million of his books next season by getting rid of Conley and Gay? I don't know, but he should, because one could argue Conley's deal isn't much better than Westbrook's since his $47 million is spread out over two seasons (only 14 guaranteed for 2023 though).

The Lakers however would lose their cap space for next season but SHOULD be able to keep one of those first rounders.

Gay is a shell of his former self, but would offset the loss of Johnson a bit and oddly enough has shot 36-37-40 and 38 from distance in each even year the last 4 times as he enters another.

Certainly could do worse than Conley (.409% and 2.5 makes from 3 the last two seasons) joining Beverly (career 38%) and Nunn (36%) as your primary ballhandlers outside of LeBron.

The key would be Bogdanovic of course, who is one of the better volume 3-pt shooters in the game (career 39% on 2 makes a game).

Perhaps then, since they would be guard-heavy; they could trade Lonnie Walker (after October 4th) and perhaps a 2nd rounder to get Cam Reddish out of NY.....or perhaps dangle Nunn

PF Bojan Bogdanovic (41%, 2.5 makes per game last four seasons)
SF LeBron James (36%, 2.6 makes per game last two seasons)
C Anthony Davis
SG Austin Reaves
PG Mike Conley (41%, 2.1 last two seasons)

PF Rudy Gay (37%, 1.4 last four seasons)
SF Juan Tascano-Anderson
C Damian Jones
SG Patrick Beverley (career 38%, 1.8)
PG Kendrick Nunn (career 36%, 2.0)

F Troy Brown Jr.
F Cam Reddish
C Thomas Bryant
G Max Christie

Lakers could still sign another FA, should they find one they like- preferably a wing....

Not sure this moves the needle enough to get us into top 5 in the West unless Ham is able to really get some guys to play defense and AD returns completely to form, but it is probably the best we can do.....

 

They're completely different players. Conley seems redundant with Pat. Clarkson give us a pure scorer, that we don't have, while being as good or better shooter than Conley (in open looks. Without looking at data I imagine Jordan's 3pt% is lower because the guy shoots a lot of contested shots).
I prefer a backcourt of Pat/Clarkson than Conley/Pat.

But I think Utah can more easily deal Clarkson alone and get a pick or 2 for him than with Conley

I can't see them dealing those 3 for a single pick. I think they can get at least 2 if not 3 picks with those guys

 

We are top 5 in the West right now as is.

 

yes. and one is much better. and also fits what we need if russ goes.

no. pat's a pg-sized sg. conley is a pg.

you should have looked. 67% of clarkson's threes were assisted (52% for conley), and conley shoots 39% from the corner (35% for clarkson). conley is a much better shooter.

no.

maybe. but i think clarkson only nets them 2 2nds maybe, depending on what salary comes back. his player option at 14 per is problematic and means only capped out teams should have interest, imo.

i think they can maybe get a 1st for bogdanovic--maybe. doubtful on clarkson, very doubtful on conley due to his salary.

now, if they want to try to get players for these guys, we're out. but if they just want to dump them, getting one 1st from us is fair.

ainge has demonstrated he's not interested in fair. but imo, that already burned him once this summer.

 

Westbrook's exit comments were made when Frank Vogel was the coach. It's time to be fair to Darvin Ham. He has a plan. If a starting Russ is willing to be patient and shoot from the corner as a second opportunity (when available), he'll have a chance to stay fresh. If Russ maintains the stamina to stay in long enough and run with the second unit he can become the primary threat when Bron and AD are off the floor.

The second unit is going to rely almost completely on playing fast. It's no coincidence that, this year, the Lakers targeted big, young, athletic centers that could spread the floor and block shots (leading to fast breaks). This opens it up for Russ. Troy Daniels, Kendrick Nunn, Austin Reeves, Patrick Beverly, can also spread the floor, are athletic enough to recover and play fairly solid D at the point of attack, and generate turnovers (leading to fast breaks). Russ probably won't play much D since he'll be tired at that point (or just Russ--lol). Like last year, he'll probably cheat off his man and camp for the rebound (which also leads to fast breaks).

This plan ups Russ' minutes per game (keeps him happy and the team happy) and his efficiency rating. If the Lakers can skyrocket Westbrook's value this year at the trade deadline and the Nets end up disheveled again, our chances of grabbing Kyrie without losing picks will be through the roof. Hell if we pull this off, it might be more valuable to keep Russ on a team friendly deal next year.

Darvin Ham to win coach of the year.

 

definitely better on paper:
gs
phx
clippers
denver
memphis

has luka:
dallas

were better last year and should improve:
minny
NO

so definitely not top 5, could see anything between 6 and 9 right now. and i'm sure portland and maybe even sac fans might argue they're close (i disagree).

a russ trade for conley/bogdanovic would put us firmly in the top 5 on paper, imo.

 

I think the same arguments for why the Jazz would want to trade Gay would also apply to Clarkson. Clarkson is obviously the better player, but he also makes more money. So we’d be lowering the Jazz salary even more (compared to them sending out Gay) both this season and next (assuming he’d pick up his player option), while costing ourselves more in luxury tax this season and cap room next summer. So that hopefully gives you some ammo to push back on Ainge when he asks for two picks.

In terms of losing our cap room next year, I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world because at that point Clarkson and Conley’s expiring contracts are probably pretty easy to trade.

If the Jazz think they can get more for Clarkson elsewhere and want us to take Gay instead, I probably wouldn’t let that be a dealbreaker. But anything more than that, just walk away. ANY inclusion of both FRP’s, even if one was heavily protected, is just way too much for any package of the Jazz roleplayers because they just don’t move the needle enough.

 

remember Clarkson before all the body graffiti?