He must be feeling humbled being an afterthought of the 4th order and 3 possible acquisitions. Guess that’s the stuff that keeps you hungry.
When PG and Lebron come, Randle will not be a Laker. Randle is a limited player. We are blinded by it because of the years of horrible talent and basketball play. Lakers have to keep money open for next year if they cant trade for Kawhi so they have a chance at him in next years free agency. Lakers are in a good position right now. They can not over pay for a player who is not a star and he never will be.
July 16th is the earliest the Spurs can sign Kawhi to a supermax deal and if he does then he can't be traded till summer '19. But if he doesn't... July 8th is the earliest LA can match a Jules offer sheet. I honestly believe they match any offer, but they ask Mintz/Jules for an extension to put pen to paper. If all parties agree, LA can match and then trade Jules to SA especially if Kawhi's supermax (if offered) remains unsigned. I fully expect LA to offer a QO to Jules before free agency starts and if both parties agree to a deal before free agency starts, we just might have a Kawhi deal in place.
I agree with you that we should not re-sign Randle for that insane money, but if we sign LeBron and PG this offseason there will not be enough money to sign Kawhi next offseason. The only reason it would work this season is because he makes 20 mil this upcoming season and I believe if we unloaded Deng or include him in a trade for Kawhi and don’t re-sign Randle, then there IS enough money to sign LeBron and PG and get him. If we sign LeBron and PG to the max this summer, the money for free agents next summer is gone, the only way to get a 3rd star is a trade.
This is correct. Kawhi fits now at 20. He won't fit as a free agent at 30. I'm not even sure we can do it if the other 9 people on the roster are all vet minimums.
If Kawhi is traded, his contract will be 20.1 million for the season. It's possible we build a package using Deng's salary maybe if we don't trade for Kawhi now? Maybe he goes somewhere else like George did and we can trade for him at some point during the season. I agree, that trying to preserve room would be very difficult, but Houston never preserves room and they somehow get in every FA conversation.
No, what I was saying is as far as I know, if we sign LeBron and PG to max deals this offseason, AND we don’t re-sign Randle, AND Deng is traded, we STILL don’t have enough money to sign Kawhi to his max next summer as a free agent. Unless I’m mistaken, we only have 2 max slots available for free agency, and any other star player on a big contract would have to be brought in via trade either using Deng, or some combination of Zo or Ingram because they make the most money of our rookies. I know some crazy scenario of getting LeBron, PG, Kawhi, AND re-signing Randle was laid out by Pelton or someone like that, but it seems incredibly far fetched to me, none of these guys are giving up money to come her together imo, they want to play together AND get max contracts.
I sign Bron and then flip him for assets at the trade deadline. I’m thinking Sacramento Seems fit for a king
I'm not sure why ox is getting bashed so much on how he feels about Julius... He wants to preserve cap if needed in these discussions but I will say if we strike out on say Kawhi but able to still sign Lebron and PG... You could keep Randle and pay him 18-20 mill if Deng is gone then at worst ship out Randle for a 2nd to make room for Kawhi right?
just have to keep the possibility open. another reason that waiving deng is not the best route. you never want that much dead money, much less for five years. you must find a way to move deng's salary or keep it on the books while making other moves. btw, the more i think about it, the more annoyed i am that the lakers didn't pay randle the 12 million he asked for last year. it's less than his cap hold, and he'd be so easy to move if you needed the cap space this year. that was a reasonable number, even before this year, and his FA status is really complicating things. for example, a trade for leonard or lillard or whomever would be so much easier with him as the centerpiece instead of his RFA issues throwing wrenches into things.
Who would have known he'd have such a breakout season? At the time he lost a bunch of weight, but he wasnt the force he turned out to be yet. It could have easily been another Clarkson situation. Not to mention, the Lakers wouldn't know if the FAs they wanted would have wanted to play with the 2017 version of Julius Randle.
I'm with you. My point was if we go back to the old plan and use picks to dump Deng, we can have enough room to add George and LeBron and keep Julius. At some point we can use Randle and one of the kids to get Kawhi during the season assuming Kawhi is healthy. That's the threat Houston always uses.
As one of the biggest Jules supporters here, im taking Giannis and AD over him. Healthy KP probably too. Draymond, Gordon, Griffin, Aldridge... meh.
Porzingis, Green, Davis, Giannis, Durant. There's some other guys probably on that list too like you said with Aldridge, Griffin, maybe Gordo . The five I named are easy though.
