LABron James Discussion: Are The Wheels Falling Off?

He's a FA the same time as George. The talk of LeBron coming here is almost 100% contingent on us also landing George.

George plus a crop of young talent? That's something a Kang can work with.

 

Won't James be due about $40m? George at 30m? I don't think it's possible.

 

Yeah. Either Lebron has to take a huge paycut, or we have to attach our kids to Deng and Mozgov. We'd also have to probably get George in a trade via Clarkson and Randle? The amount of wheeling and dealing to make something like this work would be staggering.

Trade the #2 pick to the Kings for #5 and #10.
Draft Fox.
Trade #10 and Nance with Mozgov for expiring deals.
Trade Russell with Deng for expiring deals.
Trade Randle, Clarkson and #28 for Paul George.

Go into the summer of 2018 with Fox, Zu, Ingram and PG13 as our only contracts? That's 40 million or so. Sign Lebron to another 40. That's 80. Then what? Melo opts out and we sign him? Wade's corpse signs with us?

33 year old Lebron isn't worth all that. Not to mention that they would still get crushed by Golden State. Heck, unless Ingram and Zu made HUGE strides and Fox is the best player in this draft, that team probably doesn't get out of the second round. If this is 26 or 27 year old Lebron, you try it. But this is actually kind of silly. If Lebron wants to come here for 5 million a year, I'll hate it, but I'll still root for the Lakers. If we gut our team and sell off our youth in order to have a past his prime Lebron, that might be the last straw for me as a Lakers fan.

 

I'm not sure it's worth it though. Is PG13, Lebron and one other star enough to contend with the Warriors? One thing we have seen with Lebron is there isn't room for 3 people to shine with him. Bosh and Love had to take huge steps back in their production to make room for Lebron/Wade and Lebron/Irving. Lebron kind of has the ideal team for his skill set surrounding him now in Cleveland. Shooters, a bruising big and one other ball dominant player. Maybe you could switch out Love for PG13 and PG13 is OK with essentially becoming a spot-up shooter on offense.

Point is, why construct a team that can't beat the Warriors in their window, then leave us with bare cupboards after Lebron and friends leave and the Warriors window closes? At least now we have a glimmer of hope with our young assets that once the Warriors' run is over, our guys might be coming into their prime. Trade away the assets we have to clear caps space to build a super team around 33 yr old Lebron? You're guaranteeing over a decade with no shot at a ring.

 

You're all one step ahead anyway. They're not FAs until 2018 so there's no rush.

1. Find a way to preserve cap space with either trading for an expiring or signing someone to a big 1-year deal.
2. Find a way to get out from the Deng deal (this can happen later).
3. Find a way to dump Mozgov (should be easier than Deng).
4. You'll have to likely package the kids at some point and send them for a veteran.

As of today (well technically as of next Friday) the Lakers salary looks like this for 2018:

Deng- 18
Mozgov- 16
Clarkson- 12.5
Randle (cap hold)- 12.5
#2 pick (estimate)- 7.8
Russell- 7
Ingram- 5.8
Nance Jr.- 2.3
Nwaba- 1.7
#28- 1.6
Zubac- 1.5
Total (with two minimum cap holds estimated) = 87.7 million.

The expected cap of 2018/2019 will be 103 million. That leaves us with just 15.136 million to spend.

We would then (like San Antonio, Houston, and Miami do every year) meet with both LeBron and George and tell them we can clear room for them if they're willing to come to play together. They can hand-pick which kids to keep and which to send out to clear space.

LeBron at that stage is worth the 35% max deal with a new team. That would be roughly 35 million dollars. He'd be 34 years old. He would be eligible for a 4 year deal I believe with a new team meaning his max offer would be 4/150 million.

George at that stage is worth the 30% max deal with a new team. That would be roughly 29 million dollars (maybe a bit more). He'd be 28 going on 29 years old. He would be eligible for a deal I believe around 4/125 million.

We'd need to clear 48.864 million off the books. You can attach picks to Deng and Mozgov (separately) to move them out. Deng would likely have to take an unprotected pick. Mozgov probably a protected pick and maybe a second round pick.

Then you either trade one of Clarkson or Randle. Randle probably gets you a better return and with LeBron, Ingram, and George around makes the most sense to move. Clarkson has the lower ceiling of course. Either move is fine. I'm positive you could get a protected pick for either player. Either a protected first or a couple seconds. Not a great return, but who cares? Hell you could make this move first and then use these picks to move Mozgov/Deng. After Mozgov/Deng/Randle, that clears 46.5 million.

Then all you need to do is shuffle out the #28 and waive your rights to Nwaba and you're there. You've got room now for both LeBron and George.

It would not be an insurmountable amount.

 

The minute we sign Bron, he turns into old man Nash.

 

Their SG could easily be Redick. He's already comfy there.