Lamarcus Aldridge: Going "home" to the Spurs

Because that's not THIS season and he's only got so many years left. It's not dumb if it means you're competitive today. I don't want to trade the youth either... but for the right price? For the price to compete in the playoffs again?... There's very little off the table. We need to make noise this summer or we're never attracting those big name FAs next summer.

Depending on the players we get in return, there shouldn't be anything off the table. I'd rather not trade the young guys because they're cost controlled, but we need to stay open minded.

 

There's very few players I would trade for 3 players that could potentially be our starters next season at 3 important positions, for relatively cheap. Russell hasn't played a game yet, Randle hasn't played a full one, and for all we know Clarkson could be a product of putting up big numbers on a bad team, and I still don't trade them for almost anyone. In my mind, Russell, Clarkson, Kobe, Randle, FA signing > Kobe, Cousins, bunch of role players on one year deals we scraped the bottom of the barrel for. If we wanted to make a trade that bad, the only one of those 3 I could live with losing is Clarkson because we have Russell now, but I still don't want it to happen.

Yes, yes they did. OKC also built their core through the draft. It can be done, I can only hope this is all rumor and we are truly not that impatient.

 

I don't disagree at all. I'm just saying if landing Aldridge means having to give up ONE of our young guys... Well depending on the return, I'm okay with it. I'm still VERY skeptical that the return would be Cousins. I think the return would be maybe some salary relief, maybe a veteran PG? Maybe a veteran Center that's worth roughly 8 million (our remaining cap after Aldridge + Young and Clarkson's contracts).

What if say you could sign and trade Clarkson/Young/Kelly for Tyson Chandler? You go into the season with:

Russell/vet pickup with Room Exception
Bryant/J. Brown
Randle/A. Brown
Aldridge/Nance Jr.
Chandler/Black/Sacre

Would you do that?

 

I would too and I'm not saying I agree with the tactic. I think it's Mitch's job to convince the FA that the young guys are not only capable of helping right now, but are there FOR the veterans like Kobe and say Aldridge. They're there as a cost-controlled support system. The Lakers would immediately start marketing for that player as the new face, not necessarily Russell (which is a large part of why Aldridge is leaving).

Also: the LA market is enormous and just BEING a Laker means more exposure and face time even WITH a young dynamic player like Russell as opposed to Portland which went full blitz on Lillard and left Aldridge's name behind.

 

They'd have roughly 3-5 million left, maybe a little more. The numbers aren't concrete until the 9th when they set the cap figure. Right now it's being reported they sit at roughly 23 million in cap space.

If you dump Sacre, Kelly, and Young, you're looking at just about 30 million left over maybe a little more.

They've got the Room Exception I believe which is in the 3-4 million dollar range.

@Doc Brown is the resident cap expert here though, he'll know more than anyone.

 

Not sure I would do that, real. Chandler is on the downside of his career, and he'll be overpaid. I wouldn't have much of problem losing Young and Kelly though, they each seem to have reached the max potential already. I'd rather keep Clarkson and go after cheaper options at center. That's just me though, I really don't want to break up this young core before we've even seen what they can look like playing together. It could be awesome.

 

True or it could be just enough to get us near the playoffs and never over the top, we just don't know.

Again, for me it's on Mitch to convince these guys that we can field a great team without giving up the core young players. Clarkson, Randle, and Russell are our future and they should stay that way BUT if Aldridge says "Hey Mitch I'm in, but you've got to give me (Insert obtainable Center here)"...

Could Mitch reasonably say, "No Lamarcus, we like you but we prefer to build around Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle". I think that'd be a huge mistake.

If there's a Center that Aldridge likes that we could go get or that we could clear room for, then I do it. Koufos is a FA, maybe he's the guy? I don't know. All I know is I want Aldridge or Jordan and I'll do a lot to make that happen.

 

I think IF we can find a taker for those guys without taking salary back, then yes we could get those players. A guy like Koufos would be a tremendous get if we CAN'T get rid of Young or Kelly or Sacre.

Remember last season Houston had to throw picks at us to take Lin in a similar situation. Are we willing to throw picks away for a shot at Aldridge/Lopez or Aldridge/Koufos or Aldridge/Asik?