Aloha,
Well the big names are coming off the board now. And it’s like I’ve posted a couple of times, we just didn’t have assets to land a top tier star. Actually I think we did really well landing Dennis. So I believe it’s going to come down to who we can land with the MLE and other exceptions. One guy to keep your eye on is Joe Harris. Will the Nets resign him, now that they are focusing on Harden? If they let him walk, I would really make a serious push for him. He is tall enough to play either wing, shoots 44% from 3 and is a decent defender. There will not be a lot of cap space out there, so perhaps he could fall into the MLE. One thing is for sure, resigning KCP becomes even more important now.
With only 3 forwards under contract and Danny who played on the wing gone, I think we will keep Kuz. At 3 mil he is a bargain. He made a huge leap as a defender, and was vastly improved as a playmaker. He runs the floor and moves well without the ball. He was one of the few guys on the team that could create his own shot and get to the rim. At 25 he will continue to improve. If he can straighten his 3 point shooting he could be huge. I think he can. He shot 38% his rookie year. Last year he took 4.5 3’s a game and hit 1.4 of them. If he can hit 1.8 of them, he’s a 40% 3 point shooter. I don’t believe that’s an outrageous goal for him. And no matter who it is, if you want a legit 3rd scorer he will need more then the 11 shots a game that Kuz got. One can have fantasy trades, but realistically There really isn’t anyone out there that we have enough assets left to land, that would be much of an upgrade. They might even consider extending him. That would give them a contact to trade next summer if needed.
Aloha, Michael,
Yep, going to be a transcendent offseason. Another sign why the NBA needs the Lakers to be the champions. Nothing seems to ignite exciting change as much as teams wanting to beat the Lakers. Giannis forcing the Bucks to go all in. Harden holding an axe over the Rockets. No way Houston is going to trade him to Brooklyn without getting Kyrie or KD in return. What irony if the Nets traded Kyrie after he engineered joining the Nets with KD. Waiting for the Clippers to panic and make the trade for Westbrook. LMAO.
I think there’s no way the Lakers can stand pat right now. We’re in the middle of an arms race and we need another big gun and Kuzma is unfortunately a water pistol. Right now, everybody not named LeBron or AD is on the table, including Caruso and THT. We’re set at the 1, 3, and 4 but need to upgrade at the 2 and 5. For me, the 5 is more important than the 2. We need Ibaka and a healthy Boogie at the 5 and could live with paying KCP at the 2 if we can’t upgrade both positions and still maintain depth.
I do like Harris and Redick for the Lakers. Best of all would be Kuzma and KCP S&T for Victor Oladipo, provided Lakers medical people feel he will recover 100%. He’s the two-way shooting guard that would take the Lakers to the next level and be the young stud guard we need for AD once LeBron retires. I would be satisfied if we could sign Matthews but he may be looking for more than we want or are able to pay.
Key to me still comes down to Ibaka or Wood or Boogie giving us a modern center to replace the Howard/McGee traditional low post duo. Benches may be the difference maker. LeBron and AD are still the #1 and #2 players in the league but we need a stretch five so teams can’t pack the paint to diminish their impact. That makes landing Ibaka or Wood or Turner critical. Our ace in the hold could be a healthy Boogie but I hate to go into battle needed that.
Well-reasoned and I agree with a lot of this. I think that we’re entering the realm of players that, for the amount of talent we would be required to ship out, are going to struggle replicating the overall impact of the talent going out the door. While some may not hold championship pedigree or the value of being on a team that’s won it all in as high regard as I do, I think we all agree that the talent that is currently on the roster is enough to be highly competitive. Adding some of the players I’ve seen bandied about (guys like LaVine, Rose, DeRozan) are all fine players but they’re only one guy. As we saw, it takes a team willing to sacrifice for one another to win. That characteristic can be preached about and urged from a coach but it takes player buy-in.
So, personally, I see no reason to trade the now well-documented impact of Caruso, the still remaining promise of Kuzma or the potential contract of KCP for anything less than a bonafide superstar. Frankly, even Jrue Holiday falls pretty short of that. He is a helluva player, would have been one of the better fits alongside AD and LBJ (on paper…all of this is just mind dreams and paper pushing is another thing I feel needs more reporting on) but he’s on his way to the Bucks. A lot of the other names are not a good return on our player investment.
The team that won it all does not need to hit a grand slam in the offseason, we have a championship team already. We did well in adding youth and versatility for naught but Danny Green whom I am pretty sure everyone thought under-performed. If we take care of our bench through free agency, maybe sign Kuzma and Caruso to higher value contracts so that we don’t need to include so very many player simply to match salaries I think we’ll have put ourselves in a great position to make a bold move, should it be needed, at the deadline.
Now all of this changes if we can’t re-sign Rondo, Bradley opts out and signs elsewhere and we can’t bring in decent, cheap talent to bolster the bench. But in the modern NBA you need cheap impact players. Controlling cost and keeping out of the repeater tax or blowing past the apron are vital stratagems to keeping the best options to improve the team at hand. You’re not going to easily replace what Kuzma and Caruso do and when you toss in that if it’s a high-value contract we’re looking to trade for that likely means we’re losing KCP in a S&T. Combined those players averaged 27.6 ppg, 8.6 rpg, and 4.8 apg in the regular season and 27.2 ppg, 7.7 rpg, and 4.9 apg in the playoffs. That equates to an elite player but without elite player usage. That’s the most important part of all this, these aren’t players who need the ball, have plays run for them or even get big minutes (none of them cracked 26 mpg in the regular season or 30 mpg in the playoffs) to impact the game at an elite level.
Some may, and likely will, disagree and that’s fine. My eye test, the overall stats and the fact that we’ll be hanging a banner at some point in the future are all I need to confirm that the players we’re searching for are, for the most part, already wearing Laker uniforms.
Very good points, Jaime. That’s exactly how I feel, but everyone of the comments here are on point. Love the discourse.