Aloha,
While Frank is under a lot of heat, some of it well deserved, I still look at Rob as the biggest culprit, outside of injuries for our poor play. We run a LeBron centric offense. And in a LeBron centric offense the goal is to find the open man. When it’s Melo, Malik, Wayne or even Avery, great. But it’s often Russ, THT, Trevor and Austin. Not so great. LeBron centric offenses never feature volume 3 point shooters. I was not in favor of the Buddy trade because of this and was foolish to believe this would change this year when we brought in shooters this year. Also thinking that Russ would change the approach was wrong headed as well. Rob should have known this, I mean I did and I’m just a lowly blogger.
What makes LeBron centric line ups work is defense. Rob should have know this as well but our defense was traded away or let walk. When you look at our guard play, the best rated defense is Bazemore and Russ at around 110 and it goes down from there bottoming out with Austin at 114. Now it has hurt not having AD in the middle because everyone gets beat in the NBA but we were without him for long stretch last year and still were able to maintain that number one rated defense. Rob never took any of this into consideration when he traded for Russ.
So what can be done. Well of AD coming back will be huge but it won’t matter without us playing harder as a team.
I don’t think we we will be able to land any meaningful players with our assets. because of the play in tournament and the decreased odds of landing a top 3 pick, there are very few names on the market and a lot of competition for the names from teams with more to offer. As far as the buy out market, I’m not hearing any rumors at all about who will be let go. In past years one already had an idea about several players.
The good news is we have an opportunity to add two impact players. The first is Stanley. He MUST be offered that 15 roster spot. If a trade or a buyout player surfaces, we a couple of guys we can cut. If Jeanie is worried about the tax then she will be just as responsible as Rob and Frank.
You also have to look at Nunn as a mid season acquisition. He was a big part of the plan coming into the season. He defends and he is a 3 level scorer. All Nunn has to do is play as well as he has in the past., he doesn’t even need to improve. A starting line up with LeBron, Russ, AD, Stanley and Nunn give us a younger more athletic starting 5 and upgrades our defense, which is a must with a LeBron centric offEnse. Our bench would also have a mix of youth and vets with a lot of fire power in Malik and Melo.
This is what continues to give me a little hope. Hopefully the front office won’t blow it and Frank will realize that we have played some of our best ball with the kids and not stubbornly give some of vets more minutes then they deserve.
“What makes LeBron centric line ups work is defense. Rob should have know this as well but our defense was traded away or let walk.” This 100%. It’s why I’m far less concerned about getting a shooter/scorer and would much rather see an elite defender come back in a trade.
I’d love to see us do THT and Reaves/Monk and 1st rounder for Marcus Smart, for instance. I’d do a deal THT for Caruso straight up. I would really kick the tires on a Gary Trent Jr. for THT, Monk (Raptors would have cap space to keep him), filler and 1st rounder.
Hard for me to see any of those happening though. THT has been underwhelming, those teams are more “retool” than “rebuild” and really only teams with cap space can retain Monk if he keeps up his level of play. Our pick might as well be in another dimension it’s so far out there. Reaves is the one cost-controlled player of impact and youth that we have, hard for me to trade him and I also think he might need to be added to a potential Russ deal this summer when that becomes even possible.
I think unless we can land a star, the Lakers stand pat Jamie. There was a reason the team was excited to land Nunn. He’s a very good player on both sides of the ball. Of course they offered him for Grant. That makes sense but I think they will see what he can bring to the table before trading for a lesser player.
I don’t see GT Jr. or Marcus as lesser than Jerami Grant. If anything I think both those guys fit better into the kind of team Frank likes to coach than Grant does.
However, I also expect us to stand pat until the summer.