‘Lakerholics’

Good comments, Jamie. All signs point to Avery declining his player option, which I think is good for the Lakers. As I said before, I like him a lot and think he brings a lot to the table but I also think it’s naïve to think the Lakers aren’t going to be looking to hit a home run, especially since there are likely to be some big moves made by the Warriors, Clippers, and Bucks to make a leap. If you look back at the initial championships we won at the start of our two repeats and one threepeat, we never stood pat and I don’t see us doing it this time, not with LeBron at 35.

Your question about KCP versus Christian Wood is interesting. First, Wood would be such a signing for the Lakers that it seems too good to happen. All these trade ideas are mostly pipe dreams, even if they make great sense. Wood only earned $1.6 million per year and if the Knicks or Hornets offer him $15 million for 3 years, I don’t see how he declines that and takes $9.3 for a year from the Lakers, even if that might be a very smart move to bet on himself. Would I rather have Christian than re-sign KCP? Absolutely for the same reasons you stated. We could plug Bradley or Caruso in and not miss a beat like we did in the playoffs. I see Wood as being a mini clone of AD. A modern big who can play both ends of the court at all three levels. We have nobody like him except for AD. The idea of having two of them is intoxicating.

Timing is as you said the key. We re-sign AD first, then the MLE. Then we sign the Bird, Early Bird, and BAE, all of which allow us to go over the cap.

Here’s an interesting thought. What if KCP gets an offer we don’t want to match? And what if Rondo and Morris accept their player options. The Lakers have $68.5 million guaranteed plus $28.8 for AD for a total of 97.3 million. Cap is $109 million. If the league approved the Lakers removing Deng, they would have $16.5 million in cap space to sign Wood. They couldn’t then use Bird or Early Bird to sign KCP or Rondo but they would still have their $9.3 million MLE.