i know it’s early, but all this horrid Lakers news has got me feeling blue. Be the Lakers GM and type down what you would do for the upcoming summer. I’d throw the max at kawhi and klay, see who bites first, obviously we want kawhi more. Then I’d throw contracts at Kemba and Julius Randle. Resign McGee, try to get back Brook Lopez. I’d go get Wayne Ellington on a smaller contract. Slide the young core to the bench. Kemba/Lonzo/Caruso Klay? Or kawahi?/Hart/Ellington Lebron/Ingram Randle/Kozma/Williams Lopez/McGee
Lonzo/Seth Curry/Caruso Kawhi/Hart/Jemario LeBron/kuzma/korver AD/Wagner/Jeff Green McGee/J Williams/Noah Kawhi opts in and informs the raptors kindly to trade him to us. We trade Bonga and future first round pick. Griffin loves LeBron and does Klutch a solid and trades AD to us for Ingram, KCP (s&t), 11th pick. The rest, MLE, veteran bandwagoners and G league bird rights come in handy to fill out the rest of the roster. Is this possible @vasashi17 lol??
Sign Kawhi Ingram/Kuz/Bonga/11th for AD Resign McGee Sign Seth Curry Try and resign Brook Ball/Curry Kawhi/Hart/Caruso LBJ/Vet min AD/Williams/Wagner McGee/Lopez
@OmarE the beauty with an opt-in & trade for Kawhi is that you don't need to s&t Kcp to make another deal for AD. Lakers have 38.3m in cap space. Kawhi will make 21.3m if he opts in. AD makes 27.1m. Let's say we trade Kawhi completely into our space and just provide future 1sts, then we still have about 17m in cap to absorb the bulk of AD's deal. That means we only have to trade about 5m in outgoing salary to bring back AD. I know you like Zo and I would definitely try to keep him 2nd to BI...but if we trade AD for BI, Kuz and our pick, we still would have enough cap space to keep Bullock's caphold on the books to keep him. Now if Kawhi doesn't opt-in and chooses to sign the max of 32.7m then we would have roughly 6.5m in capspace to absorb AD's deal. With this scenario, we would need 16.5m in outgoing salary, which means Zo can still be spared, but BI, Kuz, Hart, Moe, Jones, Bonga and our pick would have to be outbound for the salaries to match. Money wise, long-term it makes more sense for Kawhi to opt-in and get traded so that his bird rights come with him. Play out next year at 21.3m, but then be eligible for a 5yr 225m 35% max deal next summer. Also we wouldn't have the MLE to use to round out the roster, but we would have the room exception. But Omar, your scenario would be a nice Endgame
Not vash but Bongo and future 1st for Kawhi is pretty funny aside from salaries not quite matching. ....
I’m going to approach this a bit differently, with the assumption that the Big K free agents (Klay, kawhi, Kevin, Kyrie) have no serious interest to join the Lakers and sign elsewhere. Obviously I would offer any one of these guys the max spot we have but all would decline. I am not optimistic that a AD deal could be agreed upon either. Both of these cases are out of the Lakers hands if the other party doesn’t want to agree. From there, ironically, I would offer D’Angelo Russell a max contract at the full four years. Russell’s max contract would start at $27 mil because it’s his first contract outside of his rookie deal. However he is a restricted free agent and there’s a good chance Brooklyn matches, but there are things a player can say and do to deter them from matching. Maybe D’Lo is open to coming back to LA because it was very clear he loved the LA lifestyle. Magic Johnson is no longer part of the team so there shouldn’t be any major grudges about him being traded due to “lack of leadership” comments. All it would take is for D’Lo to request Brooklyn not to match, or else they will only accept the qualifying offer and demand a trade... which will kill a lot of leverage for the Nets in any trade scenario. We might have to compensate the Nets by agreeing to a sign and trade, where we actually give them a decent asset in return for them to cooperate. I would agree to send Mo Wagner and a future 1st for a S&T D’Angelo. The reason why I want to do this is because a lot of us actually were looking forward to seeing a Lonzo/D’Lo back court prior to D’Lo being traded. After watching Lonzo play at the pro level, it actually gives me further confidence this backcourt pairing could work. D’Lo at shooting guard while Lonzo plays point fits because D’Lo is actually a pretty good 3 point threat, so he can help with floor spacing. In addition to this, I think because Lonzo can’t shoot at all... it makes it difficult for him to create for others in half court sets. Lonzo is not able to break down a set defense, penetrate and pass to a open teammate. He also isn’t a threat If a teammate sets a screen for him because the defender dares him to shoot by going under the screen to take away the drive. D’Angelo doesn’t actually have any of these issues and can be another viable option (besides LeBron and Ingram) to create for himself and others in the half court. I think it’s fair to say that 23 year old D’Lo is very much a poor mans James Harden. Another benefit of this is since it’s fair to say Lonzo is injury prone and a slow healer, when he goes down you can slide D’Lo to be your starting point guard and just move up Hart or Bullock to be your starting SG. This leaves about $10 mil in cap space. I would use this to... again, ironically, sign Julius Randle to a long term deal (4 years) starting at $10 mil. So it could be something like 4 years for $45 mil... I know you could give incremental salary increases for the subsequent years of a deal. Considering Randle signed with the Pelicans for 2 years $20 mil just last year, he gets more security this way with the longer term deal... plus he gets to move back to LA. Why I do this is because Randle actually is a great small ball center. He rebounds extremely well for his size and has the skill set to grab the rebound and go on the fast break. Imagine having the options of Randle, LeBron, or Lonzo... all who are very good rebounders for their positions, being able to grab a defensive rebound and just run the fast break. To round out the roster, I would resign McGee for the minimum, Bullock for the minimum, sign Trevor Ariza with our Mid level, draft Darius Garland (Klutch client) with #11. Bring back Caruso at the minimum. Sign one more rotational capable center (at the minimum) as insurance if either Randle/McGee go down due to Injury... in this case I think Robin Lopez might be an option. Lonzo/Garland/Caruso D’Lo/Bullock/Hart Ingram/Ariza LeBron/Kuzma Randle/McGee/Lopez A lot of work needs to be done by Pelinka to rebuild relationships with a lot of agents. In this specific case, we need to mend fences with Aaron Mintz because he reps DLo, Randle and Ariza. I think ultimately they can be professional enough to see the big picture that it’ll be better to have a mutually beneficial relationship. We wouldn’t be giving bad, low ball offers to his clients in my scenario so they will all be taken care of. Mintz will see the bright side that in the future he can actually have a landing spot for his clients with the Lakers if he and Rob work well together moving forward. The appeal to this idea is two fold. Laker fans can actually see “what could have been” if we kept the young core together and let them develop together. The core kids would all still be under 25 and I’m sure would get along extremely well. In addition to that, the rotations you can throw out there are extremely interesting. Because DLo, Randle, LeBron, Ingram are versatile enough and have the skill set to play multiple positions... you can always have 2 out of these 4 out there when it’s time for the other 2 to get their rest. You also now have the luxury of Kuzma being your sixth man of the year, Lou Williams microwave scoring option. Vet players that can actually play defense and be 3 point options like Ariza and Bullock give us the depth to roll against any other deep bench in the league. Think about the depth Toronto and the Nuggets have this year. We don’t have to have that feeling of “ugh watch the lead disappear because it’s the watch KCP jack 3 pointers show” when the starters sit. Rotational lineups could include: DLo/Hart/LeBron/Kuz/McGee Ball/Bullock/Ingram/Kuz/Randle Ball/Ingram/Ariza/Randle/McGee (we can call this one our Defensive lineup rotation) You just have so many options to matchup with any team in the league as well as actually have fully competent lineups for the full 48 minutes. As well, from a long term perspective. When LeBron is 36-37 years old and his contract expires... we are still in great shape with a core of Ball/DLo/Ingram/Randle/Kuzma/garland. All these guys would be 25-28 years old when LeBron turns 37.
Believe me, I would if it was a realistic option and we were able to get a younger ascending asset in return. It would fit better with the grow the core movement. Even If it would be possible to trade LeBron for Paul George, or ideally sign and trade with Toronto for Kawhi... that’s something I would personally do. I just don’t think it would be ever possible to trade LeBron unless he demands a trade himself. However that’s not a bad thing. If your honest with yourselves and just think about our current squad (including LeBron) + DLo and Randle, filled out with actual complimentary role players... that’s actually a top 5 western conference team.
IF this is a scenario where everything goes as planned then here goes Leonard-Max (Tor will NOT do a SnT unless we give them value and Leonard will want his $ regardless) Brook-3yrs 24mill (roughly all of our FULL MLE $) Mcgee-2yrs 8mill (he and Brook can compute for starting role but if Brook needs to start in order to come here then he'll start) #11 pick-Garland (not an ncaa guy but reading that he has great shooting skills with Dame like potential is worth the risk at 11 if he's still there) Buy one of Atl 2nd rders- Draft Jontay Porter (we need bigs that can shoot in today's nba,having Porter and Mo should give us some potential there and both would learn greatly from watching/practicing against Brook) Bogdonvic (Pacer guy)-3yrs 30mill (this comes out of cap space left over post Leonard contract) Ball/Garland/Caruso (still 2 way until injuries happen) Ingram/Hart Leonard/Bogdonvic/Bongo James/Kuzma/Mo Brolo/Mcgee/Porter
My thing is, you gotta decide. Commit to lebron, or commit to the development of the young guys... do one only. Can’t do both. I’m for committing to lebron. But in a way to does not compromise our youth. Sign Kemba, offer klay the max (yes overpay), get Julius Randle back, and then slide BI, Lonzo and Kidman to the bench. You have a really good bench, and a great starting lineup. Not star driven, but great, balanced, and should be good defensively. Try to get brook lopez back, and McGee, entice them with a 2 year deal or something. No more 1 year deals... they don’t work.
is kemba n klay opt an either or opt or both together? cause we dont have that kind of cap room to do both n add randle to that fold
Brolo ship has long sailed when they Horry'd his a**...stay classy Maginka Other than that I like this plan
