Any chance the Bulls jump at Westbrook and FRP for Ball and DeRozan? I don’t think so but the Lakers need to either get creative or shut the rumor mill down publicly. Nobody will believe them if they say “we’re keeping Russ the whole season!” and, while that may be a possibility, it shouldn’t be the goal to let Russ expire as it does limit trades we can make.
However it does open up the door for S&Ts next summer. FRP and a TPE aren’t the worst things you can get for a player who is already out the door. Problem will become the hard cap but, since we don’t have anyone’s Bird Rights to worry about and Jeannie hates over-spending it’s not the end of the world.
Still a lot of ways this can go down as a positive for the Lakers. The first 20 games still might pretty much doom the season, though. That’s a brutal stretch.
What you need to understand is the Lakers can NOT keep Russ all year as that would mean his $47 million contract would expire and the Lakers would only have LeBron and AD to match salaries since everybody else would be free agents. He has to be traded at the deadline for contracts that can be aggregated in a trade along with draft picks, Lakers have to decide to go for free agents or trade targets by deadline. Then collect expiring or Lt deals. Can’t do both.
Yes, but by the same token, nobody’s taking contracts just because you have them as evidenced by the lack of absolutely anything happening.