5 THINGS

The balanced and cohesive Golden State Warriors proved to be too large a load for the Lakers as the home team fell to the visitors 121-114. The Warriors are returning the majority of a core that surprised some but came up just short of making the playoffs last season as they lost both of their play-in games and failed to qualify. They looked a lot more like a playoff team last night than we did but, take heart, it’s still early in the season and great things take time and effort. Still, the road to greatness will likely be filled with potholes and landmines so buckle up.

1. The Grind. I’m not talking about the regular season, which is indeed another kind of grind. I’m talking about the length of time a process like this takes to come to fruition. When the Lakers traded for Westbrook they assured themselves of one thing: that the gelling process would be a major aspect of the regular season. Whenever multiple, ball-dominant, All-Star/HOFers are on the same team the question arises and it arises quickly: who will be the lead dog? Generally talent wins out in that debate and it should here, as well. LeBron James is still the best and most complete basketball player on planet Earth, thus, he should and needs to be the lead dog in order for the Lakers to attain their goals. The question raged all summer as to which Laker ought to change their game to accommodate the team best. Frank Vogel answered that question in his post game comments when he labeled Westbrook as both the new guy and the one who had the most to catch up on as well as being the one to fit in. That reads correctly to me, Westbrook is almost beyond elite in the areas in which he excels but where he doesn’t excel he has middling impact. I believe Russ will get there but that it will take some time. The big question being ‘how much?’
2. The Warriors bench kicked our benches butt. Warriors starters 66 points, Lakers 85 points. Dubs bench 55, Lakers bench 29. The legendary Stu Lantz has a pre-game segment called Stu’s Views and he often has a View called ‘No New Stars’. That would have applied to last night’s game as we saw guys like NeManja Bjelica, Damion Lee, and old man Andre Iguodala all score in double-digits. Of the three I felt like Bjelica did the most damage as he often out-fought Davis, Howard or anyone else that tried to grab a rebound when he was nearby. Can’t let guys like that beat you. Injuries have affected the composition and rotation of the Laker bench but the bottom line is when you are called upon you gotta go out and deliver.
3. Playing defense without fouling. We sent the Warriors to the free throw line a staggering 30 times and they made 25 of them. Now, while a point could certainly be made that they made more free throws than we took (19) we didn’t do ourselves many favors by missing 10 of those freebies, with Anthony Davis shooting a disturbing 2-7 from the free throw line. AD needs to be better, he struggled from the line last season, too, but doesn’t have the quick turnaround excuse handy any longer. We won’t get where we want to go shooting 47% from the free throw line. Can we do a better job of getting to the line more? Not really, that kind of thing ebbs and flows throughout the season based on the refs (which weren’t great last night, especially the travelling call on Russ that could be called on any guard in the NBA all game long). Can we do a better job of playing defense without fouling? Absolutely.
4. Hey, that’s Avery Bradley! Dude almost came in and helped swing the win our way with no preseason, no camp, and not much time to even say hello to the new squad. AB was one of the guys I felt like got away to our detriment after the Bubble Banner and I, for one, am happy he is back. Knows our defense, can run an offense and is class A dude. Welcome back, Avery.
5. TIME TO HIT THE PANIC BUTTON!!!!!! Well, not yet, while the same trends that had been disturbing continued from the preseason into last night I did see enough improvement, especially in the first half, that gives me a lot of hope for the future of this team. The things I’m not fond of are seeing Russ and Rondo share the floor. Rondo will dominate the ball and we need Russ to get time with the ball in his hands, some shooters and a screener for him to get comfy. Put Bradley on the floor for those minutes and save Rondo for his best season: the playoffs. Same goes for DeAndre Jordan as a starter. “The Stein newsletter be damned!” says Frank and while I agree that there a small number of compelling reasons to start off with a traditional big man it shouldn’t be DAJ. You’re not doing him any favors playing him only 13 minutes, basketball is a game of rhythm and no player will get into a groove barely playing, better to give those minutes to Dwight or Melo. Malik Monk needs to see the floor more, as well, especially since he’s healthy. Maybe they were easing him back, I didn’t hear that but it seems logical. Regardless, it can’t be all old guys; we need some youth.

All in all, I had this pegged as a loss and there it is. I didn’t like a single thing about our 4th quarter except Avery Bradley. Too many lazy threes when we just needed to score points of any kind (too many threes in general). We started the 4th down 85-83 and came out and missed several threes as the shot clock wound down, another bad carryover from last season where we fiddle seconds away while Rome burns. The turnovers were OK, still a lot of unforced turnovers which is maddening. NBA playoff rematch on Friday, might be a rough start to the season, I need to see Phoenix/Denver tonight before I form an opinion but if you asked me now I’m seeing another loss on Friday while we continue to integrate.

Go Lakers.

We’re here, the day when all the theories become practice, where the paper team takes the floor in the flesh, and when the game start counting. Tonight the Lakers face the Golden State Warriors but the real question a lot of Lakers fans want answered don’t stem from whom the Lakers are playing but rather whom the Lakers are playing at what positions and when. While opinions and notions fly around the internet only one man’s thoughts matter on this and that man is Frank Paul Vogel.

1. Will AD start or at least play the majority of his minutes at the center position? I think so, but it’s a slight majority. While some took the now legendary Marc Stein newsletter as gospel for the the future, I took it as a theoretical blueprint or framework for how the playoff version of the Lakers will look. I still am of the opinion that, no matter what AD or LeBron says/thinks, Frank trots out his regular season line ups with an eye towards reducing the physical toll and load so as to better save their legs for when the games take on a whole new meaning. With the Warriors on the schedule and seeing Looney in the line up for the Dubs it throws the door open wide for Frank to counter with DeAndre Jordan to start. In terms of a purely strategic discussion there are some valid points on starting DeAndre or Dwight, my preference is Dwight but Vogel’s on record saying he wants Dwight to abuse second stringers like he did for us 2 seasons ago. First off is foul trouble, because we are limited in the size department (long, but not big…not the same thing and both have their uses) keeping AD out of foul trouble is vital. Being forced to play Jordan or Dwight major minutes is not a recipe for success. The other point I consider valid is Ad’s off-ball defensive chops, which are elite. He has excelled as the weak side shot-blocker and being able to rotate around on the perimeter knowing that there is a viable shot blocker behind him. These points don’t overcome the positives that AD at the 5 bring to the table overall, but knowing Frank’s penchant for the defensive side they loom larger.
2. The Lakers didn’t complete the ultimate goal of preseason: get through it healthy. We’re all sorts of banged up with, as of now, THT, Trevor Ariza and Wayne Ellington listed as being out and Kendrick Nunn and Malik Monk are listed as day-to-day. While those names don’t shake the Earth like LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis do for a Lakers team that added 9 new faces and overhauled it’s offensive approach missing anyone who figured on being a key part of the rotation is a fairly large obstacle. It didn’t take a genius to see that during preseason the Lakers weren’t just getting acclimated to each other but also to a new way of doing things. This was later confirmed by the coaches when it was revealed the Lakers overhauled their offensive system (which wasn’t much to speak of). Further complicating things for the Lakers dream scenario of seeing more AD at the 5 are the injuries to THT and Ariza both of whom can guard a size up when called upon. With no other real power forwards on the team except for Lebron or Melo the Lakers lack mobile big bodies to deploy to shore up these missing players.
3. The Lakers brought in a lot of three point specialists, they’re making about the same amount of three so far and the team is taking about as many as they did last year. Like a lot of the lofty notions bandied about I didn’t buy into the “we need to up our volume of 3 point FGA!!!!” one much, either. If we shoot 30-35 three pointers/game I’ll be fine with that volume of attempts, we’re a team designed to excel in transition and in the paint. It would be worrying to me if we averaged more than 40 three point attempts/game as it would likely mean we’re settling or unable to generate off-ball action. I continue to think we need to work on how we generate higher quality three point looks. Solely relying on Russ or LeBron to set them up with paint attacks is fine, it’s worked for both guys for a long time. But I think the guys we brought in also have unique and individual ways they can get that shot off and, for some of them, especially out of time outs. This may have already occurred, we haven’t seen us in a situation yet where we needed a three off an inbounds play and Frank wouldn’t tip his hand yet, either. The quality of the shots still has a lot of room to improve, in my opinion, if they’re falling on a given night then take more.
4. The new faces are acclimating OK. I have a lot of mixed reviews about all of the new guys. It’s safe to say they’ve all had a good showing, a clunker and a game where they had very little impact. The age of our bench is a worry and it didn’t get younger with the addition of old newcomer Avery Bradley, although I am a big fan of his overall impact to our team defense. In preseason we saw the on and off versions of all the key role-players and the “off” side is kind of frightening. It looks like a matador on defense and a bad shot on offense. It has no cohesion or identity as it usually occurs when Russ is on the floor and LeBron is on the bench. Russ has the most to integrate of any of the guys on the team and it showed in preseason. My hope is that in 10, maybe 15, games Russ will have it in his head where the ball needs to go when he passes it and the other guys will know to be in that spot. Too many completely unforced turnovers sunk us both last season and in the preseason and a lot of that is on LeBron and Russ as they are the primary initiators. If we can weather an early storm of sloppiness and be a couple games over .500 10 to 15 games in I think we’ll start to see a whole new look and get a more complete vibe from this squad.
5. “What about tonight’s game, don’t you even care Jamie?!?!?!” Yes, yes I do and I have it penciled in as an L. Steph and the Warriors look like they are in mid-season form, Jordan Poole is breaking out in a different way every night, and they’re ready to start winning basketball games right now. We still have as many questions as we did at the beginning of camp. So, with that in mind, I see us letting a close game get out of reach with some late-game defensive miscues that will make for some great fil sessions for the team to learn from and improve on. Our training camp is extended for another month, the rest of the NBA just doesn’t really care. At any rate, I still see this squad as 3ish seed with a top ten defense and top 15 offense. We just need to keep up with the pack until these guys can find some cohesion and put it all together…together.
   
   Go Lakers.

Last season the Lakers scored 109.5 points per game. LeBron James scored 25 ppg, Russell Westbrook 22.2 and Anthony Davis scored 21.8 which would, when totaled, add up to the tidy sum of 69 ppg over the course of an NBA season. By my math that means we have to account for account 40 more points to bring us up to the scoring potential of last season’s team. Let’s just say that the 3 superstars above will be able to replicate their performance from last season, that they will score roughly the same amount of points despite there being more players of gravity on their squad than last season. Where will those other 40 (or hopefully more) points come from?
The Others.

1. The Other guards. Much has been made of the shot-making potential of the guys we brought in this offseason. Much like last season, really. The Lakers last season brought in guys coming off career seasons from three (Schroder, Wes Matthews) a stretch 5 (Gasol) and saw decent marks from returns KCP and Alex Caruso in terms of efficiency. This season we brought in Kendrick Nunn, Malik Monk and professional shooter Wayne Ellington along with the trade for Russell Westbrook to shore up the guard position. With Russ we got instant intensity and the ability to get to the rim or out on the break. In Nunn and Monk we got guys who have shown themselves to be decent three point shooters albeit in a small sample size. Wayne Ellington is the only proven commodity among the three when it comes to scoring from the outside and his inside game is nascent, at best. As a trio, Nunn, Monk and Ellington averaged 35.9 ppg on teams where they had defined roles. If they can come anything close to that as Lakers our offense will look great. Coupled with the 69 ppg we hope to get from the Trio if they manage, as a group, to average 30 ppg (accounting for fewer minutes since they won’t all be playing 20+mpg every game) that would get us right about to where we stood last season. I don’t think it likely as at least one of those three will be fighting for minutes and you can expect there to be a fairly sizable dip in production for at least one, if not all, of our guards. They each averaged 20+ minutes per game (Nunn at 29 mpg stands to see the biggest decrease). If one slots THT as a guard those numbers from those three will take a bigger hit and put more pressure on the 20 year-old Talen to show off an improved jump shot, or a floater, or something to up his efficiency. In short, I expect the guards to average fewer points than they collectively put up last season. One of the reasons being the flow/super-star driven nature of the Frank Vogel “offense”. The Lakers, as a team, really don’t know where their shots are coming from. For guys like Ellington that’s a killer, professional shooters like Wayne seem to function better when they know where the butter for their bread is coming from. Can the opposite prove true? Of course. Time will tell which way this breaks. Oh yeah, Rajon Rondo. I don’t expect him to play much, I think he’ll be this team’s better version of Jared Dudley. Seeing as he averaged 5.4 ppg last season I’ll be happy if he’s not hurt, racking up some dimes and hitting a couple shots a game. Not offense saving stuff.
   
   Prediction: 25 PPG averaged between the 3, 35 if THT mostly plays at the 2.
2. The Other forwards. We added some big names to the forward spots and, to a man, they’re all getting up there in age for the NBA. Combo guard/forward Talen Horton Tucker goes a long way towards reducing the cumulative age of the forwards on our team at 20 but after that the youngest one is Kent Bazemore at 32. Ariza is next at at 36 and not far behind him is Carmelo Anthony. This trio averaged 30 ppg last season but where I take some hope is that they each are reprising roughly the same role just on a different team. Here again a breakout season from Taken Horton-Tucker could really boost the forward’s scoring fortunes if he can either simply improve upon what he was able to accomplish last season or show us all a little something new. The minutes here will also be impacted by how much LeBron plays at the 4 and so, until we get a better sense of how that will factor in (since, as of preseason game 1, we saw AD at the 4 and LBJ theoretically would have played at the 3) so, depending on Frank’s rotations, one of these guys could essentially sit out every game or so. My theory is Trevor will start on the IL, let him really ease his way into the season. He’s battled several injuries over the last few seasons and I think we’d all rather see him effective in the playoffs rather than come out of the gates hot and fade. Bazemore and Melo ought to have fairly sizable and stable roles.
   
   Prediction: 20 ppg between the 3, 30 if THT mostly plays at the 3.
3. The Other centers. or the only centers, depending on how Frank plays this thing out. The biggest storyline of the Lakers offseason is easily the news that AD is willing to play more (when he talks sounds like a lot more, when Frank talks it sounds like not to much) center. How that shakes out will affect the other line ups on down the roster. More AD at the 5 opens up more minutes for Melo at the 4 backing up LeBron when he either slides back to the 3 or even potentially seeing the return of Carmelo Anthony: starting NBA player. The more we rely on Dwight and DeAndre Jordan to score the worse our offense will look. Both are past their NBA primes, both averaged just over 7 PPG last season and neither has any range to their game. It’s dunks off of lobs and offensive put-backs or it’s nothing. OK, OK, the occasional Dwight Howard three-bomb. Point is, neither of these guys even has much of a traditional low post, back-to-the-basket old school game. They really do rely on the guard setting them up or crashing the glass. So, based on how many minutes AD takes away from this duo it’s hard for me to see even 10 ppg coming from the other Laker centers. If they come close to 15 we’ll have what appears to be an elite offense in the making. 5 more ppg from Dwight and DAJ doesn’t necessarily mean fewer shots for anyone else, just that they’re doing their jobs well providing a paint release for drives or cleaning the offensive glass.
   
   Prediction: 10 ppg…if we’re lucky.
4. What about all the three point shooters we picked up? Frankly, I don’t see us transforming our offense or playing much differently than we did last season. We’re not going to lead the league in 3 point FGA, we’ll be in the top 1/3 most likely. We shot 32 three pointers/game last season, I don’t see that number going up too much. We hit 35.2% of those. If that could creep up over 37% it will help open up the paint a little bit but the honest truth is that, with LeBron and Russ handling the ball 90+% of the time, teams will dare us to make threes. They are not going to open up the paint for those guys to breeze to the rim from rim-rattling dunks or crowd-juicing lobs. It’s not going to happen no matter what kind of line up we trot out. The Lakers will need to prove that they can hit three pointers at a high clip to alter ay of the tried and true stratagems against Russ and The King.
5. But won’t AD playing at the five make our offense better? In theory, yes. More Davis means less Dwight or DAJ and so that means a more dynamic offense. But AD likes to shoot inefficient step backs and off-balance twos. A lot. Couple that with Russ who is not a knockdown shooter and LeBron who can get hot from the outside but is far better at scoring in the paint and we have a lot of guys who like to play an older brand of basketball, which suits me fine, just that we’re seemingly built for a newer brand. That’s where Frank and his new extension come into play. While not relegating him to lame-duck status Rob didn’t cement his status as long-term future coach of the LA Lakers, either. Frank is going to need to show a little something more, especially on offense, than he has in seasons past.
   
   So, if you add up my predictions we seem to have the potential to score an amazing and near NBA record 124 ppg this season! Don’t bet on it, my predictions are based on feel and notion as much as anything else and we haven’t even seen the full team play, yet. It’s going to be hard for each group to hit my predictions simply because there likely won’t be enough shots to go around. For a little dose of reality we didn’t even crack the 100 point mark in our first pre-season game. For another dose of reality the top scoring teams in NBA history are all from before the 90s. In fact during this, the glorious offensive renaissance of basketball, no team from the 2000’s cracks the top 50 list except for two: The Milwaukee Bucks from last season and the season before. Yeah, that’s right, that misbegotten group of not the New Jersey Nets, or the high octane Mike D’Antoni Phoenix teams or the Shaq/Kobe Lakers are the only modern NBA team to crack the top 50 highest scoring teams in the regular season.
   
   That’s because they do it with defense as much as offense. Which is exactly what we better do. More on that point next time.
   
   Go Lakers.

If you are a casual purveyor of NBA news then you realize what polarizing topic of debate Mr. Russell Westbrook can be. He’s the guy who was the last man standing of what was once the youthful trio of the future in Oklahoma City after first Harden and then Kevin Durant left town. He’s the guy who didn’t just break Oscar Robertson’s triple-double average for a season record he obliterated it by doing it 4 out of the last 5 seasons to the point it’s now an after-thought. He’s the NBA version of a wrecking ball and what a wrecking ball doesn’t destroy on the first hit it takes care of on the second. He’s unapologetic, plays with an edge and has a healthy disdain for NBA punditry. He is all of that and so very much more. In my opinion, he was the coup of the off-season and the Lakers stole him away from the Wizards for a trio of role-players and solitary first round draft pick. Of all the descriptors that have been used to quantify Westbrook’s game the one I think applies the best is fearless.

1. The edge. Russell Westbrook plays the game the right way: hard from the jump to the final horn. If you want to nitpick some of his defensive metrics and insist that he doesn’t try on defense I invite you to check out the team around him in some of those seasons, all recent. It was either Russell Westbrook and the Thunderneers featuring whomever GM Sam Presti could wrangle onto the squad after Harden and Durant departed town (Hint: it’s not top tier NBA talent), the Houston “aaaaaahhhhhh, who needs a center?!” Rockets which featured zero rim-protection and put the onus on stopping the ball on the perimeter and finally the Washington Wizards also known as the team that gives up halfway through the season cause half the squad is hurt. Russell Westbrook can bring at least the same level of skill and intensity Dennis Schroder brought. His intensity can rub people wrong because it’s born of hard work and dedication. I, for one, have no problem with curt post-gamers or short answers to mediocre questions. The man doesn’t have a lot of time to waste. So, for those that take umbrage to the edge that Russell displays in media sessions or his utter exuberance at dunking on people I am not only fond of it but feel like that kind of fire and edge was lacking on last season’s team.
2. The shooting. A lot was made on the day the trade was announced about how Westbrook’s shooting was an albatross to the Laker offense. While Russ may not be the second coming of Ray Allen in terms of a silky smooth jumper he has other areas he is elite at and some of those, incredibly, involve scoring the basketball. While there is some concern for Russell’s overall shooting efficiency (I like to use StatMuse for these kinds of discussions: https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/russell-westbrook-career-shot-chart) there are some specifically good things about how Russell Westbrook can be used on offense. His free throw line to the top of the key jump shot is at or above the league average. He scores at the rim slightly below the league average but the volume is what stands out to me. Russ is relentless, putting pressure on defense at all times and he has never had teammates as skilled and polished in their careers as Anthony Davis and LeBron James. Durant was not the Warriors version we saw after leaving OKC, not yet. James Harden wasn’t the elite shooter and facilitator he became in Houston. When he joined Harden in Houston a couple season’s back they couldn’t figure out how to make it work and I put a lot of that on the constraints Mike D’Antoni put on the offense with his disdain for the center position which left huge defensive holes to fill and got rid of the screen and roll which Russell uses at an elite level.
3. The playmaking. This is the reason why the Lakers pulled the trigger on this trade. Russ may not be the most efficient player (hey, neither was Kobe Bryant but he got the job done through sheer force of will as much as by skill and talent). Russ will make the Lakers better via his elite playmaking. I don’t know that LeBron has ever played with a guy who makes plays at the level and skill Westbrook can. Other great scorers? Sure, D-Wade of course, Chris Bosh and Kyrie Irving are all great scorers who are willing passers but they’re not really elite play-makers. The screen and roll with either Russ and LBJ or AD could be one of next season’s more devastating weapons because it will force the defense to collapse and either one of AD or a new Laker jump shooter will be open on the perimeter. Just need to let those shots fly. I think Wayne Ellington’s off-ball movement alone will open up lanes for Westbrook to exploit. Add in slashers like Bazemore, Ariza and, yes, LeBron James and it’s easy to imagine Russ sneaking passes through the defense for easy buckets. We’ll still have Davis and his array of jumpers, back-down moves and floaters to make the half court offense workable but I think LeBron and the Laker front office understand that if LeBron is continue his career at an elite level something has to give. With Westbrook onboard that will likely be a decent portion of the half court offense. I think that’s wise. LeBron can save himself in the first half, even the first three quarters and then grab the reigns as the game demands down the stretch. Like how the scoring, passing and defense of Pau Gasol helped extend Kobe’s championship window adding an elite passing PG next to LeBron should do the same for him.
4. The transition offense. This is where the Lakers have instantly become a juggernaut. Sure, it’s all on paper now but Russell Westbrook leaking out on the break with any number of able passers outletting to him is a nightmare for the opposition (this is one area where I see having Gasol on the floor is a big bonus, actually). In theory Westbrook will be defending on the perimeter and can start his down court run as soon as we secure a rebound. If that player is either LeBron James or Marc Gasol get ready for an explosive dunk highlight. Same goes for when Westbrook secures a rebound, seeing as he’s an elite rebounder, as well. The downcourt weapon for the Lakers will be a featured weapon once again, one that seemingly fell to the wayside last season and saw our transition points drop. We went from the 2nd best team on the break in 2019-202 at 17.6 ppg to 11th at 13.2. Those 4.6 points were essentially lost to us last season. They weren’t recovered in any statistical way as we averaged 3.9 fewer ppg as a team. While a decent amount of that can be attributed to injuries to LeBron and AD we were still middle of the pack on the break and Russ should go a long way in bumping that number higher.
5. The defense. Again, a lot of the negative “reporting” one reads in regards to Russ these days are questions about his defense. It’s nigh impossible to maintain the stamina and effort needed to be an All-Defense caliber player in the NBA while shouldering the entire offensive load for your team or when you don’t even have a player over 6′ 8″ in the paint to funnel your man into. That is the reality Westbrook has played with for the last 5 seasons: No other All Star level talent on his team until he got to Houston…where they proceeded to abandon the center position and essentially make a defense an after-thought. Followed by he and Bradley Beal having to outscore teams in Washington. Incredibly both teams not only made the playoffs but thanks to an elite offense in Houston advanced to the second round. Russ came into the league with a defensive reputation and certainly has the athleticism and skill to be a plus defender. I think we’ll see a different Westbrook on defense in the Frank Vogel schemes. Coach Vogel likes to throw different looks at the opposition and he likes to deploy them at odd times. Under Vogel we also seem to work on defense throughout the year evolving coverages and schemes to adapt to the guys on the team better. With Dwight and Marc we have two different types of centers we can deploy and I expect both to get some decent minutes during the regular season. Marc can open up the floor with his passing and shooting, Dwight can set wipe out screens to free Russ for rim runs that result in scores or kick outs. The Laker defense might take a hit when the bench comes in but should still be good enough for a top ten placement in the NBA next season. If it’s better than expected and we’re in the top five tier…watch out, this could get scary for 29 other teams pretty quickly; that includes Brooklyn, Blake, thanks for playing.

In short I don’t see many issues with fit when it comes to the Lakers and Russell Westbrook. We got plenty of shooting that can be deployed, we can go with a rugged lineup with a traditional center and we can go small with James at the 5, 3 shooters and Russ when AD sits. I’ve always been a big Westbrook fan and can’t wait to see him in purple and gold, hopefully at STAPLES center at some point this upcoming season.

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.