A Whirlwind of Activity

That was a flurry of activity. Have to give the Lakers credit for diving into what quickly became a pretty fluid environment where second rounders were the currency du jour. Looks like 38ish second round draft picks were moved over the last 24 hours. Crazy.

Some thoughts and notions:

The Russell Westbrook Trade – I give Rob props for preserving all but Malik’s salary in expiring deals and protecting the FRP out to top 4. That’s a solid GM move and I’m quite stoked to see him making the push to value draft assets better. D’Angelo won’t make the plays Russ does and he’ll be worse on defense. Malik is possibly an upgrade over Reaves and should help reduce Schroder’s role further as an off-ball guard. Likely could take minutes away from either Reaves, LW4 or both, which I’m OK with. Austin started hot, cooled down, then got hurt. LW4 is pretty inconsistent in his overall contributions so I’m OK with a little Malik-B audition, although there will be no camp to get him up to speed. For me the real catch was Vanderbilt whom I can see having more upside and impact on both ends than expected. makes the pass, plays decent defense and has some good tools to develop which we’re usually good at. I expect more from him next season, however, as like the rest he’ll need to find his way and role on the fly.

Overall grade without seeing anyone play: B+

The PatBev and Thomas Bryant for Mo Bamba, some dude, and some draft picks trade – This one I didn’t like as much. In essence we traded Thomas Bryant and Patrick Beverley for a back up center, a guard who can’t shoot, and what turned out to be 4 second round draft picks, half from the Clippers so they’re not likely to be great. Furthermore, Bamba is under contract for next season to the tune of $10 mil. Now, should we waive him before June 29th his deal for next season isn’t guaranteed which means we can either keep him for $10 mil (a lot for a backup center who doesn’t really do much) or let him go for nothing. Davon Reed looks like a smaller version of JTA, don’t see him getting many minutes and was really just filler. Might even straight buy him out now and open up a roster spot. The second round draft picks are nice, pile enough of them on a decent player and you can make a move if today is an indicator. But for PatBev and Thomas Bryant I kind of expected more than just cap relief. I’d honestly rather have kept Bryant, poor attitude to decreased PT and everything, and Beverley who was shooting better and defending well enough. I don’t see the Lakers holding onto a Mo after the season simply due to his price point. He can shoot threes but doesn’t shoot many, doesn’t rebound and isn’t a good defender. He’s like a taller version of THT: long-limbed with little else to bring to the table. I prefer the fire Bryant plays with to arms an inch or two longer than expected.

Overall grade without seeing anyone play yet: C

This could all work great, Lakers could make a late season push, vault themselves into the playin, maybe even a playoff spot (highly unlikely given the talent that just came west and the number of remaining games coupled with AD and LeBron’s on/off availability). But, in a lot of ways, this feels like a push bet on the season. D-Lo doesn’t take the team anywhere it wasn’t already going on his own and who knows if he has any real interest in sticking around. Mo Bamba is either over-priced or costly cap relief. Reed won’t play. Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt are the two most intriguing players acquired because it’ll be interesting to see how they do playing off guys like Davis and James.

We also still lack a solid wing defender to match up against KD, KL, PG and other elite to great wings. Maybe that’s Vanderbilt, maybe even Reed, we’ll see. Neither has much of a defensive rep but hopefully that’s as much about the situation they came from as the heart and will to excel on that end. We gave up a lot of fire and heart for a lot of youth and question marks in terms of fit now and going forward. The best part about everything that happened was the GM job Rob did in acquiring useful assets that can either be used in-house or to make margin improvements in a trade this summer or next season. We preserved a lot of cap potential for this summer although I think that’s going to be less than we’d need to get someone like Irving or Grant, should he refuse his extension. All in all I don’t see any of this as a move that vaults us past any of the top 5 teams in the west.

So here’s hoping the thing that’s mattered from the start can break our way: we need a healthy LeBron and Anthony to have a shot at anything meaningful. Nothing’s changed except the guys along for the ride.