there aren't obvious good trades to be made this summer. there weren't at the deadline. is what it is. like when we waited on westbrook, waiting is the wise choice here, too. every target we're interested in has other teams with more assets also interested in them. rob needs to make his money handling the dlo situation. i'm very curious to see how we navigate that. could go lots of ways, and this is where being a good manager can pay dividends.
Well said Abeer. Nothing out there makes sense for us - and if there IS a trade to be had, it won't be a major one. One player I wouldn't mind trading for is a guy like Jarrett Allen - he's making $20M this year and next year, and he averaged a career high 16.5 ppg last year, to go along with 10.5 rpg and 1blk ppg shooting 63%. He would be a perfect fit next to AD. Another player I wouldn't mind trading for is Wendell Carter - he's only making $12M next year and then $11M in the following season. Feels like trading Gabe Vincent and our 2024 first round pick would be a no brainer here - and if anybody like Christian Wood or Jaxson Hayes opt in, I would dump one of them there too (jaxson hayes feels like he'd be a good fit in Orlando as a backup big). Also - someone like Andre Drummond via free agency might be good too. He's played here before and he's been very solid against Jokic for some odd reason - Jokic has averaged only 18/9/6 against Drummond which is quite insane BUT this is dragged down by some earlier matchups in Jokic's career when he was a rookie...he's been better later in his career (had a 39/10/11 game against him in 2020, and a 32/9/5 game in 2021, a 30/10/7 game in 2021/22 season, and a 28-16-9 game in 2023/24 season) I also wouldn't mind getting Nikola Vucevic - he only makes $20M, and seems like the Bulls are going young judging by the Caruso/Giddey trade. Maybe you can nab Vuc for Vincent/Wood/Hayes (if they opt in) and give up the 2024 pick? I would also throw a serious offer at Memphis for Marcus Smart - give up Vincent/JHS/Wood plus 2 first round picks for Marcus Smart. Game changing trade imo.
No trades might make sense for US, but Rob gets paid for this, this is his literal job lol, he can get creative. Because again, this team as is, is not a title team, Denver just beat us 8-1 2 years in a row, I don’t know what could be more proof of that. And had we somehow avoided them and gotten to the Finals (which I don’t think we do, I think Minnesota and Dallas were better too), we probably lose to Boston because they were also deeper and better overall, and losing to Boston again is not something I want to experience. So yeah, figure it out, if there’s Laker tax, hire a different guy to actually talk to other teams that isn’t hated around the league but instead has good relationships. I’m not asking for a 3rd star, I’m asking for some 2-way players that JJ referenced today, we aren’t winning without those, and DLo, Austin (much as I love the dude), and Rui are not those. I agree patience is good, I agree it was good to not make a move at the deadline last season, prices were insane. But, it was made to look better/more optimistic because in the summer we’d have 3 picks to work with, so now we have arrived there, it can’t be both ways, this is what Rob said his patience was for, right now. Improve the roster, this year is our last year to go all in for a title if that’s the plan, and if it isn’t, and we’re coming up on a rebuild, that’s fine, just don’t sell it as something it’s not. Again though, nothing had happened or not happened yet, this could all be Pelinka moving in secret like he does, I’m only talking about it because it’s the offseason, nothing else to talk about.
You have to actually have players that teams want in a good trade. We may get lucky and DLo gets a new deal. Even then, he’s not a super desirable trade asset down the line. Nobody wants Rui, JHS, Gabe, or Max Lewis. I’m higher than most on Christie, but it’s not like his numbers were great last season. Vando may spark some interest, but he’s coming off of a season where he missed nearly all of the games. I’m just being realistic.
the summer and after. i'm positive we have and will offer everything for any difference maker that comes available. right now, there's not even one that seems available at any price. just like in the past, let's see who's moved and for what. my guess is that nobody we really want is going to go for what we have to comfortably offer. this idea that we're holding back on this stuff doesn't make sense to me. i'm still glad we didn't give up two unprotected 1sts (and probably more) for buddy hield and myles turner. and things like reaves/rui/unprotected picks for murray make me equally nervous right now. many times the best moves are ones you don't make. it's not like rob hasn't shown the willingness to make moves. with the exception of the russ trade, i've been pretty happy with everything, post-magic. that we haven't been more competitive is mostly about lebron's decline and lebron and AD's health issues.
right. i'm not that down on our guys, but if they're someone else's, you're definitely like...meh. we've got guys like that we want to get rid of, too! i'm just bummed there are so few teams in active tank mode right now. that's what we need, and all the teams that are tanking have basically emptied the chambers already.
Called it once again - nobody is in tank mode really and that's essentially the issue. Everybody is gunning for it now...and seeing that the last 2 champs essentially have had the same core rosters over the last 5-6 years...teams are def moving towards continuity vs trying to blow it up.
No I know, I agree with this as well, but the picks are what is desirable, especially since we probably won’t be good when those picks come time to use, so they’ll likely he high. But yes, I do think a player like Vando is still desirable, DLo not so much, which is why people bring up 3 team trades I guess, at most he’s a salary dump probably if he opts in. Reaves is our most desired player though, and for the right player I’d trade him, if we’re truly in win now mode. Those are fair concerns, my thinking isn’t really too different from yours IMO. I do not want a 3rd star, because 2 and depth are what has been winning for a while, but I am interested in Murray for sure. His contract doesn’t make us a 3 star limited roster team, and before July 1st we only have to send out 18 mil to get him. Having someone like that in place of DLo, who doesn’t absolutely crap the bed at the worst possible times, is probably what gets us over the hump vs Denver. The margins of victory were so thin, we were ahead on the scoreboard in that series like more than double the amount of time Denver led, we just blew it in the end almost every time. I’m not asking for Trae here or anyone like that, just a clear upgrade as some position that caused us to lose. To me that’s the difference in having a KCP, a Caruso, even a Kuz over Rui. Kuz isn’t amazing, but he’s just that little bit better in the key areas when it matters.
i'm VERY interested in murray and will be mad if he goes for less than we have to offer. i just don't think it's happening. i think NO has already offered ingram for him. can we top that? i don't even want to talk about losing kuz, caruso, and kcp for basically nothing. but i do think dlo is the new kuz (everybody wants to dump him for something better and we'll wish we had him back). sadly, we don't even have a caruso or kcp to lose anymore. and i don't know if redick's the guy or not, but ham most certainly wasn't. i can't discount that a more competent coaching staff could get more out of austin, rui, wood, gabe, vando, etc. and in the latter cases, simply better health would be great.
I think if DLo played any defense at all or used his height to get some boards I might call him the new Kuz, but he doesn’t. We cannot replace what ge gives us if he just walks, so I don’t want that, but we absolutely need to upgrade at his spot or we will just keep being knocked out in May. Kuz could play some pretty solid defense when he wanted to, and one thing I liked was he at least attacked the offensive boards and could help there sometimes, he’s another guy I’d want back if it only took one first.
eh, kuz only averages 6 boards to dlo's 3, and that's at pf instead of pg. and he grades out basically the same or worse on defense. i'll annoy by saying that i hated moving kuz, but i don't want him back. not sure if he actually provides much over rui, and he costs more now.
This isn’t really something I care to argue about to any deep level, because yeah, it’s just Kuz, and Kuz wasn’t the difference between a title and not winning, but I will say I think context and role matter. In 2020 he played 23mpg for us off the bench in the playoffs, I think he would often close games at the 3 or 4 depending where Bron was listed, but he was in that finishing lineup a good deal, again if I remember right. He’s in Washington now, he’s there to collect big money and score, here he played a role, and I thought when he focused on defense he was better than Rui. Also, he pretty much puts up 0.9 offensive boards regularly, like he’s averaged that exactly 4 separate seasons which is kind of wild, but I’m probably remembering his ‘21 season with us. That seems to be when he focused on that, and his average jumped to 1.6 per game. I’m just saying, I liked Kuz in his role as an all around player more than Rui, I think the only thing Rui does better is dunk more. Yeah, he costs more, but his contract actually goes down over the next 3 seasons, 23, 21, then 19 mil, I’d love to have him back. I like Rui, but man his defensive awareness killed us at the worst times, it’s hard to erase from my memory right now.
Whoa... Big game James throwing shots at Rob Pelinka here. https://athlonsports.com/nba/hall-o...ers-rumored-nba-draft-pursuit-of-bronny-james
Lol terrible take. We weren't winning with Ingram or Randle (they have no relevant playoffs record). We got AD from Ingram. KCP went on the Russ trade, which he then says we should be keeping (LOL). He mentions Malik who's from a different era and we couldn't pay him. On Rob, we have been the most active, and surprising, team every single offseason with Rob. He always pull something out of his hat. So I don't get the antics. I'm with Abeer and fabfourlakers
lol, so many layers to how bad a take that is. pika hit most of it, but...even the premise that boston really built through the draft falls apart pretty quickly, imo (holiday and horford were not draftees, and they're why they won). and boston tried to move brown for durant, they just didn't get it done! anyway, ingram and randle and lebron were not going to win anything, and lebron would have left.
Exactly! Until that huge get is available, I think we have to also wait for teams to get desperate with dumping players. Hopefully, we can get a few of these pieces around the trade deadline.
Magic, Worthy, Byron, Rambis = all great contributors to Lakers championships in the 80s…. Not so much now 40 years later.
btw, if people agree with worthy that boston did it the right way, then i guess the play right now is to trade lebron and AD for a bunch of draft picks and hope it works out that we hit on two of them, then in 7 years with some serious luck around the margins, we might get a ring! honestly, one thing i do agree with--in sentiment, not specifics, as worthy is clearly drunk here--is that we need to be very judicious with trading future unprotected picks. boston's picks from the nets were both #3 overall. that killed the nets and remade boston. we don't want to be the nets here, sending fully unprotected picks several years into the future for anyone who we can't project as being a superstar at least that far into the future (this is where a guy like murray falls off my list). we're talking about potentially moving an unprotected pick in 2031(!) this week. there's an incredibly short list of guys i would feel comfortable doing that for. we didn't even go that far out in the trade for 25 year old AD!
Worthy most of the time has been great in his role for SSN but those quotes above for the "most" part are like he completely forgot our history these past 5 years bemoaning the loss of Ingram and such (hello we got AD ... remember him) but to lump in at the end Westbrook like he just needed (more patience??) for what .... a 3rd season, and we didn't get better with him GONE and the trades and go to the WCF is Shaq worthy .... Worthy.
