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

Reading between the lines, I don't think Ham or Jeannie are in on trading Russ. There seems to be some weight in the organization, that is keen on seeing how he plays with Lebron and AD IMO. I think Rob did a pretty good job of collecting some tradable assets...Nunn, Walker and Bev represent 25 million in salary. That can snag Hield or Turner, I'm not sure we even need both, definitely not for two FRP. As it stands, I'd like to see what Walker and Brown bring to the table first. I know Dennis is a lot better than Pippen or Austin as a PG, at his salary, he's a better bargain than Bev. I'm not sure why everyone is ready to write Walker off for some reason without seeing him play. He can score and he's bigger than Nunn and has a 6-9 wingspan. Brown is 6-6 and he says that he prefers to guard the smaller guards. We'll see how they look shortly, but I'm holding tight with what we got at the moment. I still think that we are going to go big a lot more than folks expect this season.

 

both of these. hield/turner doesn't move the needle enough to effectively end the AD era (not to mention the lebron era) as a 4-6 seed. we have a shot at that without any moves!

i'm also not sure about the "balance" issue on the roster, but i've been fighting the "we need big wings" since before we won a title without any such players. teams have been successful playing two bigs and two small guards, just like they've been successful playing 3 big sfs, a c, and a pg. people become a slave to trends. there are lots of ways to win.

why are we fixated on indy? there's no telling what might be available as the season progresses. or maybe lebron or AD has a career-ending injury and we REALLY wish we didn't sell off the latter half of the decade for FA-to-be myles turner.

as for the pelinka tax: i totally believe it with indy. pritchard's still mad we helped paul george force his way out, and he didn't like how we went about it.

i'm not sure the "everyone hates pelinka" story holds water league-wide, though. everybody hates the lakers, though--that's been true regardless of who's in charge (btw, this is where it's supposed to come in handy that jeanie is popular with other owners, right?).

i do think that obviously hiring from the fraternity of assistant gms is going to be more helpful for trades, but rob's experience as a former agent has helped raise the team from the lotto to a title, too. maybe winning piddly trades isn't as important as forging relationships with the right people.

anyway, rob's got through next summer for me. he got dealt a bad hand in russ and needs to get out from under it before i can fairly evaluate.

 

We don't need to give up two FRP for Buddy and Myles. No team in the NBA is going to go for that deal either, it's way too much. Hield is still owed salary next season, and Turner will most definitely wan to be extended at 20 plus. I don't see why we need to jump into that kind of commitment this early at all. Lebron, AD and Russ are going to win games with these kids IMO. The big 3 is going to be potent, all we need is for these other guys to play their roles. If a good deal presents itself later , we can evaluate it then, but Hield and Turner for two FRP aint it.

 

turner's said he doesn't want an extension, right? which means he thinks he has a shot at more than his extension value. again, we've been burned pretty badly twice by such a move.

 

Even bigger gamble if he's thinking about 100 million for 4 years or something.

 

Well, I won't rehash all my rants, but I think he is as much to blame for the Russ trade as anyone else and that his overall moves have been a mixed bag.

As far Indiana though, I mention them because they are the team most thrown out there and that's deal that was leaked yet again in the press. I'm not sold there is a better deal because I think we would've made it by now.

Could something shake out through the season? Hopefully. But, I don't know that our leverage improves especially if we have a bad to mediocre record. If Russ is having a good season then maybe we get someone to bite. But I'm not seeing the reason teams will deal with us rather than just let us fall flat again. Especially if we don't want to give up picks / take on longer term deals.

I also don't see the superstar that a team is going to give us for two picks. I think another team would just swoop in and outbid us.

We need a guy to force his way here like AD did and I'm just not sure if lightning will strike twice with that.

 

If I had to call it now though, I don't think there will be a deal. I think that if we couldn't get one done in all this time, its unlikely one will materialize now. This is the team. We will get leaks and rumors but I don't think anything will happen and we will head into the summer with the cap room.

 

I honestly don't think we are going to make a trade period. I think this is the team absent some kind of legit miracle.

 

We definitely lack shooting, that’s fair.

But I’m not seeing the imbalances?

Westbrook / Schroeder
Nunn / Bev / Walker
Lebron / Reaves / Brown / Christie
AD / Gabriel / JTA
Jones / Bryant

Is it because Nunn and Bev aren’t 6’4 and over? I’m curious though if their heights are a problem, which SG is going to burn us?

As for wings I consider Reaves, Brown, Gabriel and JTA all wings. Alongside Lebron.

We’re not some team with an abundance of talent 1-15, but we are young and athletic with a few top nba players.

 

A healthy Lebron, AD and Russ is a contender period. Nunn, Bev and Walker aren't min talents, and Reaves and Schroder are more than min level players. We need 3-4 more guys to step up and play their roles. If the stars play like the stars they are, the role players will find their roles. Lebron, AD and Russ are three unique talents at their positions, we don't have to follow the conventional wisdom wisdom in our makeup IMO.

 

We won a championship with the 21st ranked 3pt shooting squad in the NBA at 34%.

 

I'm not backing off of anything I posted.The season starts in two weeks. I guess we'll see what's what shortly.

 

guards thats aren't good 3pt shooters either

 

walker is one of the worst defenders in the league and shot 31% from 3 last season

really not much different than what ariza brought to the table last season

 

Yeah. I definitely agree that we can't continue just having 3 max guys and a constant switching of minimum guys every year. At some point, we need to build a roster that will for the most part be around for a few seasons. I think we are definitely still trying to make a move but I don't know if it will actually materialize.

I honestly think the price tag of a deal could go up once teams see we are floundering.

Hoping for the best but prepared for the worst.

 

Yeah. While I'm optimistic on the missing guys helping, I don't think expectations of their contributions should be too high. I think they will play hard and expect Brown to give us good minutes. But we've got a good idea of their plusses and minuses. If they exceed expectations then great, but no one should have huge expectations of any of those guys.

And this isn't shots at any of our players honestly. They are who they are.

 

Interesting trade idea beyond the Hield/Turner noise.


https://heavy.com/sports/los-angeles-lakers/lakers-trade-rumors-mo-bamba-magic-nba/