5 Things: Lakers wrapping up free agency

The feeding frenzy has subsided, the game of musical chairs nearly concluded and, incredibly, With two roster spots remaining, the Bird rights to Dennis Schroder and not many impact players left on the market I wanted to take a minute to look at the potential ways we could fill it out or why it might be best to keep some flexibility and leave a spot or two open.

1. The big fish left swimming in the pond. It certainly isn’t Dennis “Soon to have a new agent” Schroder. It’s Kawhi “You don’t want to pay me to rehab and bail?!” Leonard. The league has adjusted to the stunt he pulled in San Antonio where he pretty much quit on the team because he didn’t want to play there. There doesn’t appear to be a flood of teams willing to play the “I want to rehab for $40 million dollars AND have a players option for the 2nd year so I can bolt” game this season. That’s good because while Leonard (when healthy) is certainly a game-changing talent it would seem that the organization and team he is attached to must go through more hoops than a Jack Russell terrier at the circus in order to keep him happy. While the organization and his issues with that aspect of the NBA is nothing knew I feel like where Leonard is a bigger issue is with the team he’s on and how it affects the players. Is he going to play? He’s like the Scottish prince in Braveheart, always promising to show up with his army but then he always lets Mel and his hair extensions down. Freedom indeed, Kawhi. Might he end up in Philly in a S&T for Ben Simmons? Dallas has some cap space and could trade Porzingis and while that would arguably weaken them this season Luka and Kawhi (should he deign to stay) would be a scary matchup for any head coach to deal with.
2. Dennis Schroder and his ever-dwindling payday. This is a cautionary tale for all the young ballers out there: make your money when you can however you can. That’s why I don’t begrudge Alex Caruso for choosing a couple mil over the cheap Lakers offer. Mansculpt may not be there every time he needs a little windfall and he’s 27, get that bank account up while you can. Injuries are a part of the game, poor choices are avoidable and Dennis made a doozy. After rejecting a reported $21 million 4 year deal from the Lakers because he wanted, one would assume, a couple million more Dennis has seen that the market does not bear his demands. Now he’s the odd PG out as just about every other name PG has signed except Reggis Jackson. Whoops, nope, Reggie just signed a 2-year $22 million dollar deal to stay a Clipper.https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2945238-reggie-jackson-to-re-sign-with-clippers-on-2-year-22m-contract
   At any rate, Dennis may have to face the music and take less money, a lesser role, or both if he wants to stay in the NBA. Other than that his best option could be to go overseas and play his azz off.
3. Having said that, neither of those guys are going to be on the Lakers next season. We have 2 more spots up and needs to fill in the form of a decent wing-defender and some size in the front court. The Lakers are rangy but not big with only Gasol, Dwight and some minutes for Anthony Davis at center to close out halves (my prediction). For my part I wouldn’t mins seeing Paul Millsap come here. He has range from deep and can play at the 4 or the five. It would allow AD to play power forward in name if not reality and he’s a rugged defender. James Ennis would be a nice fit, as well at 6’6″ and with decent range. I have long been a huge fan of Boogie Cousins and he showed that he can have flashes of decent impact in Houston but I don’t see him coming here and we need to get faster not slower. His shooting is legit, though. If one wanted to go for upside there are some younger players on the market yet to find homes, Isaiah Hartenstein, Josh Hart (restricted so would have to be a S&T which we can’t do unless it’s a 3 team deal and we use the TE to bring Hart onboard, feels late in the game for that kind of move) and Lauri Markkanen (same situation as JH) are all on the open market.
4. The reasons I don’t think we’ll fill the roster out to the max of 15 players. You may notice I have yet to fill the honorary NBA EZ-Chair roster spot named after our own Jared Dudley. That’s because I think that the Lakers are considering going with 14 players and the 2 ways. the enw 2 way rule allowing those deals to go up and down as desired with no restrictions on NBA level playing time helps a team like the Lakers a lot. We’re capped out and well into the luxury tax. When one takes into account that we tried to play Caruso on the cheap I don’t think the Lakers want to incur any additional tax penalties so for every player we bring in it’s important to remember the cap hit is magnified signifcantly (LakerTom has the low down on the cap hit calculator but I found this one with a cute cat in a suit, not sure if it’s the same one: https://www.dangerc.art/nba-calculator). Anyhow, it also makes sense to keep at least one spot open for a buyout. I suppose we could talk Duds into a non-guaranteed deal but that still has a cap hit and the Lakers like to pinch pennies when they can. I have a sneaking suspicion (formed even before Reggie Jackson was signed) that Rondo will ask for a buyout and come to to the Lakers at some point. Call it a hunch, if you will.
5. Current off-season grade for Rob and the front office would be: B+. I think we’re going to have some issues on defense. We’re going to need Anthony Davis healthy and playing DPOY levels to crack the top ten and even that I see as being unlikely. Bazemore and Nunn need to find a higher level of intensity and stay on the court (both have had injury-plagued seasons of late and Nunn is young for that kind of thing), LeBron won’t be able to just guard the guy in the corner as often and we’ll need Gasol and Howard to be solid when AD sits or they share the floor. Feels like one of the themes of the season, alongside the always and eternal “we need to stay healthy”, is that Frank is going to have to earn that extension with a defesnive coaching job for the ages. That along with “Anthony Davis needs to be a major player in the MVP/Defensive Player of the Year convo” will define the Lakers’ regular season. Should we come through the regular season intact and playing well together I like our chances in any 7 game series.

So that’s where I’m at these days in terms of the Lakers. I absolutely loved the Westbrook trade, I think we got the requisite shooters to compliment Russ, AD and LeBron, wish we had retained Alex Caruso for fit and defense, and I think our defense took a really big hit overall with the players we traded out or did not retain. How this all works out on the court remains to be seen. I could throw pasta line ups at the wall to see what sticks but I’ll wait to here from Frank and Rob during the upcoming press conferences to get an idea of what the thinking is ion terms of rotations as one would assume that question will be posed to them at that time and into camp whenever possible. I like this iteration of the Lakers and I hope my concerns about the defensive end are either mitigated by an elite offense or a better than expected showing. Go Lakers.