Aloha
One thing I noticed this year is teams guys that were considered possible vet minimum player a little more then the minimum. And teams with the full MLE gave players a little more then the tax payer MLE. The Lakers were really handcuffed by this, since we had so little to work with. With that in mind the Lakers did pretty well. The only bummer was DiVencenzo was let go after we committed to Walker IV. Although Walker is a Klutch guy so that was probably pre-ordained
Three things that caught my attention.
First, almost every player the Lakers were supposedly targeting ended up getting paid more than the Lakers could pay with just the MLE. Waiting to confirm this but that’s the sense I got. Lakers would have needed somebody to take less and they didn’t.
Second, was Klutch Sports the backup? Who was helping whom is always the question. Hopefully a win-win. I value the Klutch/Lakers alliance and hope we continue to take advantage of it so I’m happy to see
Third, I agree with you that we really got a lot younger, taller, and longer with the players we added. The guys we got we’re probably guys Darvin thought could be plus defenders and competitors. Now we will need to develop them but that’s supposedly our staff’s strength.
But we need the shooting, scoring, and playmaking Kyrie and another shooter could bring us. It’s a gift from the basketball gods if it happens and the perfect solution for the Lakers. If it works, it could be multiple championships for Lakers and each of their three stars.
Kyrie and I think a rebounding LeBron and AD will transform the Lakers superstar long range shooting game. Frankly, we could even win with Reaves at the 2 and Jones at the 5 for defense. Suddenly, the Lakers Big Three fit problems are solved.
May as well have blown it up. This team has a 47 win ceiling currently.
I’d say 55ish if health is on our side all season long which is a huuuuge if.
I’m taking into account reasonable health from AD (60 or so games) and maybe a handful or more from Bron while only showing a slight decline from his already slight decline. Throw in a bunch of “hey, he’s still in the league?” guys and that’s where I come up with my number – a possible avoidance of the playin. Get Kyrie without sacrificing too much depth and relative health, and I could see that 55 number come to fruition. The floor in both cases with bad injury luck (or do we call it luck or just who they are at this point) is another struggle to make the play-in.
I think the ‘more than the Lakers could afford’ is more a reflection of the level of competition the playin and lottery odds have created than anything. Houston, San Antonio and Orlando…maybe Sacramento are the only 4 I have as being 100% not competing for a playoff spot. After that it’s wide open to at least get in and make some noise. Second we had chump change to offer. Lastly , and mainly due to teams embracing building from an analytics model, everyone is looking for the exact same thing. It’s why Cleveland so surprised everyone playing in a more traditional style with two bigs who don’t really can threes. Lakers had an uphill climb and got players in their price range. No surprises from where I’m sitting.
This will be a far better defensive team than last year. The two way guys were out of our price range so you pick something a guys does well. In every case each guy can defends. Walker IV is as athletic as Monk, can really defend and attacks the basket well. But he’s not a good 3 point shooter. Troy shot around the league average from 3 and defends. I think they were both signed because they still have upside. Both are younger then Malik. A guy like Tony Sell is still out there. Very good defender and .398 from 3 lifetime. He’s just 30 so he can be useful as is Thomas Bryant if he can stay healthy and return to pre injury form. Unfortunately we may not make any further moves until the Kyrie situation is resolved. The more I look at it, the less optimistic I am that something will happen. The Nets have stated they won’t help him. And really why should they? It’s not like he is a beloved long time Net. If they can get a haul for KD and the Nets go full rebuild, then maybe. But KD has no leverage so they will not trade him for anything less then they feel is a fair return.
💯
We did what we could with what we had to work with.