Being realistic, though he may look indestructible right now, the kid has had a pathetic career in terms of health, averaging just 34 games per year in his 5 seasons (early on some of that was probably just DNPs). So I don't think he can command the big bucks yet and let's see him get through a season first and hopefully a long playoffs as well. Respect though, last 5 games 21.2 pts 13.6 reb 72% FG
The past is the past, and the present is the opportunity, he's stepped into the moment. Let's see what happens, we can't lock him up until the summer.
Lebron in his postgame conference right now: “I’ve already had visions of what that could look like with a frontcourt of myself, AD, and Thomas on the floor together. I think it can be extremely beneficial for our ball club.” You can tell just watching the game how confident Lebron is in Bryant. Felt like there were a lot of late game possessions where Lebron orchestrated the offense to a position where it was pretty much a two-man game between him and Bryant. The guards all on the opposite perimeter, with Lebron and Bryant setting up the pick and roll. Lebron attacking or looking for Bryant on the pass. Glad to see the stars develop chemistry with Bryant and realize how they can take advantage of his skillset! AD and Bryant together really could be exciting and with Lebron publicly vouching for that lineup I’m sure we’re going to get it!
Was he this good in DC? I mean he's more or less replaced AD on offense. An AD who was just putting Wilt numbers. He's got so many things you want in a big offensively; Soft hands. Post up small dudes. Shoot the 3. Cut hard. Anticipate plays. Pin your defender to make a lane for a pass and quick score. Defense blows but the rebounding helps off set that
Most of us recognized his potential in his first stint with the Lakers and did not want to let him go. He played well in WAS before his surgery, averaged around 14/7, shooting over 40% for 3. Right now, he's playing at an all-star level, almost. Very impressive.
therealdeal's early comment in this thread: "We've got a glut of bigs." Oh how the turntables, LOL. We weren't sure what to do with both Zubac and TB. So, we got rid of both of them, of course, and problem solved -- no bigs on the team anymore. My early feedback on him in this thread: " Such a good player. Great potential, and he would fit with our team nicely." Most people recognized his rebounding potential, coupled with the ability to stretch the floor very early. Reading this thread from page 1 is very enjoyable. I think TB's only problem right now is the D. It's not that he's not a willing defender, he just gets lost sometimes. That needs to improve. So, anyway, how do we keep this dude? Ideas?
he put up good numbers with the wizards in 19-20 and 20-21 before dealing with injuries last season. 14 and 6 in 20-21 don't recall him having a stretch this good, but he was definitely solid with them
In Netflix Selling Sunset, he bought a house in LA months before resigning with the Lakers. Maybe he just loves being in LA and we could do what the Bucks did with Bobby Portis keep resigning him until we grow his Bird rights into a cushy contract.
He ruptured his ACL in 2020 and has only played in 37 games since and prior to this season. Maybe it was a freak thing but it's an ACL, no one can slap him with huge paper without great risk. We give him the MLE (7 million) and after next season we would have early birds rights and could bump him to 12.25 million and after that, we have full bird rights. Doing so would also mean we likely lose Reaves unless we let Russ expire (no trade) so that we have the cap to sign him as well. We'll need a little cap for Schroder as well. Bringing back Reaves, Bryant and Schroder is paramount. The way I see it is: LBJ 46.7 AD 40.6 D Jones 2.6 Max C. 1.7 -------------------- 91.6 2023 Salary Cap = 134 134 - 91.6 = 42.4 = 7 million MLE cap holds on Reaves, Schroder, Walker & Bryant not really significant if the intention is to resign. I suspect we will use up a good chunk of that on those 4, Reaves, Schroder, Walker & Bryant then we have vet min deals and whatever rookies we acquire.
Props. Thomas has been playing beyond what was expected. He has always been talented and Laker fans didn't want to let him go in the first place. Sadly Rob is an idiot who likes to trade/give away 80% of the squad every season.
cap holds are significant in that they limit total cap space. if we renounce all except reaves, we still have 8 min holds at about 1 million per, which is why our space is always advertised around 33-34 million. you're right that we probably won't bother holding bryant or schroder's holds, as they'll both be up for bigger raises than the holds would help us with. depending on other things, we may opt to keep walker's hold, as his raise next year could fall into the 120% range, depending on his number of suitors and how much he likes it here. also, we can't use the mle on top of space, so we're limited to the room exception, which is a little under the mini mle (closer to 6 vs. closer to 7 mil). not a big difference, but a difference nonetheless. i still think we could operate over the cap. trade nunn/bev/jones for a small forward before the deadline making about 20 million-ish. re-sign russ at 10 per for a couple years. sign walker starting at 8. you can then use full MLE on bryant if you want or split it up between him and schroder if they're feeling loyal/happy. we still have a lot of flexibility, tbh.
Also the NBA reimburses us so that vet min are about 1.8 each only even if we are paying full 2.9 for 10+ years. You left out Reaves in your calculation.
It all depends on how we finish the season, there is a lot of ball left to be played. It's very possible though, that finding a way to take care of Bryant and Schroder financially, might just turn out to be more of a priority, than Walker and Reaves.
I’m not a cap expert... however here is my take from what I understand. The projected salary cap is $134m for next year. I'm going to make two assumptions: A) We get rid of Damien Jones with a second and/or, B) We trade Nunn and Bev for an $18m piece (and maybe Jones in that trade as well). With that in mind we have: $46.7m Lebron $40.6m AD $18.0m Trade Piece $1.7m Max Christie We also want to factor in the cap holds of Walker and Reaves so we can retain them using the various exceptions and provisions available to us for each. $6.8m Walker $2.0m Reaves That’s $115.8m in guaranteed salary and cap holds. Which leaves us with about $18.2m in cap space plus the room MLE at around $5.8m. At this point we should also adjust the cap space with the incomplete roster charge. It's about 1m for every player below 12 roster spots. So that would be an additional $3m of incomplete roster holds if we sign 2 players into cap and 1 for the RE. So in reality we'd have about $15.2m in cap space and the $5.8m RE. We have three players that would be nice to resign in Bryant, Schroeder and Russ. I'm not sure how the breakdown would go, but maybe Russ takes the equivalent of the MLE in cap space and one of Bryant/Schroeder take the RE with the other taking the remaining cap. We give both Bryant and Schroeder a KCP like promise of a raise the following year? In an ideal world we resign all 3. We'd then give Walker a 120% raise to $7.8m and match any contract on Reaves which will probably start at $11.3m. Add some vet minimums and we end up with: $46.7m Lebron $40.6m AD $18.0m Trade Piece $11.3m Reaves $11.3m Russ $7.8m Walker $5.8m Bryant $3.9m Schroeder $2.5m 1st Round Pick $1.7m Christie $1.1m 2nd Round Pick $5.4m Cap hit for 3x vet min TOTAL: $156.1m AD / Bryant Lebron / Gabriel SF / Vet Min / Christie Walker / Reaves Schroeder / Russ We'd need to find one additional productive vet minimum wing that wants an ability to audition for a larger contract like Walker/Monk/Nunn/Bryant have last 2 years. Or TJ Warren did this year at the Nets. ------- I forgot to add we have the pick swap with NO's to add another young player and a second to do the same. And importantly we may be able to get below the Tax Apron which would be very helpful for going over the cap in future seasons.
