Trade Down To Obtain Player And Retain A To Top Pick?

I'm not sure that SAC would part with Cousins alone for the #2, I would imagine that Cousins/6 for just 2 would be out of the question. If the Lakers had Cousins I certainly wouldn't part with him just to move up 4 spots in a draft that seemed to have a handful of guys who could all end up being All-Stars.

Now if SAC were to offer that I would expect LAL to do it and grab Hezonja or Winslow, whichever is available. It would take away most the the Lakers available cap space, but they wouldn't find anyone better than Cousins in free agency this year anyway (IMO).

 

I agree that cousins and the 6 makes me think, but I wouldn't be the one making the phone call. I like having a top two pick this year.

 

I've said several times and I'll say it again - I hope we don't overthink this. There are 3 to 6 great players in this draft. Pick the highest guy on the board and keep it moving.

 

I keep seeing and hearing about Cousins, but no I wouldn't do it for him. Beyond all the character stuff, there is another glaring thing to me. He's been in the league 5 seasons and his team has never cracked 30 wins. No, that's not all his fault, but it's hard for me to ignore. It's one thing for me to look past a guy's record if its a free agent like Kevin Love. When we're talking about giving up a #2 pick I think everything should be on the table.

I think there are a lot of potential negatives with Cousins. I'd much rather take Okafor or even one of guards and just start fresh with a guy we can shape and mold from day one.

 

I think that is best summary of how most of us feel. Can not disagree.

 

one thing I will say is that it's quite a rarity for a team to be wholly homegrown. I suppose the Jordan/pippen bulls were to some degree, and the most recent example would be okc. but most of the time, you draft one star and you have to look to FA and trades to get the rest of the team together. as much as I like Clarkson and randle and whomever will be the #2 pick, my guess is that when the lakers are ready to contend again, there might only be one of these guys left.

hope I'm wrong, though. it would be fun to see a young team grow up together and become a winner.

 

100% yes i would. obviously it depends on the circumstances but its foolish to not even consider. no doubt mitch and co are considering.

 

If I'm Mitch receiving this offer, I make them submit this trade to the league for approval before they hang up the phone so that they don't have a chance to come down from whatever substance they're on.

Even if it was just the #2 for Boogie straight up, we're talking about getting the best C in the league (Anthony Davis is listed as a PF & plays most of his minutes with Asik at C). The only way this is a bad trade for us is if Okafor is the best C in the league. Not a good starter or perennial allstar, but the absolute BEST C in the league. Is that possible? absolutely. But if you can predict it with 100% certainty, I'm going to need you to go ahead & shoot me a PM with the upcoming Poweball numbers. You add in the #6 & this becomes such a robbery that I'm glad Stern isn't around to veto it. Of course the fact that it's such a no brainer for us means it would never happen. Realistically they probably start by proposing #2, Clarkson or Randle, #27 for Cousins. The #6 would never be on the table & they wouldn't pull the trigger without Randle or Clarkson. The best I could see it getting for us is Giving up #2 + Clarkson, keeping #27, & getting them to include Collison since he doesn't really fit a rebuild. I'd love to be wrong about that though.

This isn't the case at all. Cousins isn't on a huge veteran Max, he only makes 14.7 next year. So while the rest of the league is handing out 30M max contracts to every star on the market next summer, we'll have the best C in the league locked up for the next 3 years for half of that. Not a bad position to be in if you ask me. Also let's not act like #6 is chopped liver. That's 1 spot ahead of where we grabbed Randle, & most fans have him penciled in as anywhere from a solid starter to allstar for the next 15 years.

Back on the topic of cap space though.The rookie salary for #2 is 4,252,600 while #6 is 2,831,900. #27 makes 963,000. A combined savings of 2,383,700. With Kobe, Cousins, Randle, Clarkson, Young, Black, #6, Kelly, Sacre + 3 cap holds we're at 56.7M, leaving us with roughly 10.4M in cap space. That's probably right around what Monta Ellis will sign for. Or we could split it between multiple smaller targets, if the Rondo attraction is more than a media creation it seems like his value has dropped to right around 5M. That's about right for Mo Williams too but I think he'll try to finish his career on a contender, probably rejoining Lebron. With the other 5M we target guys like Biyombo, Ed Davis, Matthews, 1 of the wings that misses out on a big payday.

If Mitch is targeting someone that will command more than that, it shouldn't be too difficult to clear additional space. I'm sure there are teams that would give up a mid to late 2nd rounder for Kelly. That's an additional 1.7 minus a cap hold, giving us just under 12M in cap space. That should be in the neighborhood of what Tobias Harris signs for. If that still isn't enough, with the #6 putting us in the range to draft 1 of Winslow/Hezonja/Johnson(unless Mudiay or Russell fall this far), it makes sense to dump Young. 5.2M for a 6th man level scorer is better value than teams are going to find in free agency so I'm sure we'd find some takers. We could probably package Sacre with Young for an additonal 981K but I don't think it'd be worth it since it would probably hurt the return we could get. We'd be better off giving up a future 2nd or something for someone to take Sacre. This puts us over 17M in cap space, enough to offer the 15.8M max to any FA with 6 years or less in the league (Kawhi, Butler, Middleton, Monroe, etc). Enough to sign Tobias Harris + 1 of the FA's in the 5M range. Enough to sign Monta + a FA in the 7M range.

Long story short, this trade doesn't prevent us from signing anyone outside of the older max FA's.

 

I believe. All 3 of them are keepers. Randle and maybe Clarkson too have the makings of alpha dog competitors. I don't imagine Jahlil is going to be a shrinking violet out there either. When you're that big and have that much game and you want to come to the Lakers with its history of Great Big Men, you're going to have some alpha dog going as well. And they get to see up close and personal every single day they are around Kobe just what "Alpha Dog" really looks like. That's golden. Exciting times are back starting next year regardless of outcome. Keeping the pick and having it be at top with these 2 accomplished big men from winning, big time college programs ..... changed everything.

 

Difference in salary equates into a starter or that much more cap space. But at the end of the day i do the trade if we work something out for cousins plus number 6. Thats a future starting sg/sf for us POSSIBLY from day one.

Clarkson/?
Kobe/Brown
Winslow(Or Johnson)/Young
Randle/Kelly
Cousins/Black

How much cap left now? That is definitely a nice chair to be in with endless scenarios for free agents, trading on top of being able to take on more salary in return.