It’s LakerTom heaven, through and through. Of course, it being basically the NBA dog days, especially on non-game days, this is as reliable as the weather man.

Here’s the important part (most of the article is about Ben Simmons): Yet it’s worth noting that inevitable rumbles of Lakers interest would not merely emanate from Simmons’ status as a Paul client like LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Word is that the Lakers, on top of their well-chronicled need for more shooting, covet one more difference-making playmaker who would allow James and Davis to spend more time at power forward and center.

Expect to eventually hear of them searching for potential pathways, however obstacle-strewn they would be, to reacquiring restricted free agent-to-be Lonzo Ball for that reason.

Here’s the link: https://marcstein.substack.com/p/finals-tomorrow-trade-talk-today

It happens every off season. A few players who have been elite in one or more areas hit the age where the big deals do not exist for them. They have entered the dreaded, but essential for all parties involved, Vet Minimum era of their careers. Kobe avoided it by the grace of Mitch and Jim (and would have retired before he ever hit it, IMO, he didn’t need to go chasing rings. Happened to Mitch Richmond, got his ring as a minor part of the 2001-02 Lakers. Happened Dwight Howard. It happens. For teams like the Lakers that are looking at a high probability at having to hard cap themselves in order to improve the team, veteran minimum deals can be a lifeline to decent role-players. Let’s take a look at the 5 best we might be able to land.

1. J.J. Reddick. Reddick has been linked to the Lakers and/or LeBron James for years and with good reason. He hits threes and he gets himself open to do so. Reddick is one of the old school shooters who can catch and shoot off of weak-side picks, standing still and has a mid-range game that translates to the playoffs. He may not be an elite defender but it’s not a career long weakness of his, he’s got some grit and grind to his game. Reddick will not have a shortage of offers this summer, literally every team needs some shooting off the bench, so if he’s on the Lakers’ radar they need to strike hot and fast. if someone offers him more than the vet minimum then good on them, Reddick and his agent.
2. Carmelo Anthony. The only problem I see here is that we had ample time to secure Melo’s services when he was out of the Association. Carmelo may have cooled on becoming a Laker out of personal pride and respect. having said that, there’s still a spot on his trophy wall for a championship ring and the likelihood he wins one in Portland feels more and more distant. What better place to make it happen than alongside friend and fellow banana boater LeBron James? Melo would (likely) come off the bench so if there’s a team that offers him a starting role he may take that. A New York reunion isn’t out of the question and they could certainly (although unlikely) offer him more than the vet min. Melo brings shot making and gravitas to a team that needs both off the bench, he’s not a plus defender but he’s still one of the strongest players in the league and can hold his own.
3. Tony Snell. If the Hawks don’t hold onto to Tony Snell the Lakers should try and snag him off the free agent market ASAP. Snell canned a ridiculous 56.9% of his three point shots last season. In case you’re wondering if that’s a one-season mirage, it’s not. The man is a shade under 40% for his career and isn’t a hole on defense which fits in with both the Lakers’ needs and identity. While it would be amazing if one of the teams with cap space that needs outside shooting a decent defender didn’t offer him something tastier than the vet minimum there are always a few players that either want to secure money and their next team early before the money dries up. Tony Snell and his agent should at least get a early morning call from the Rob Pelinka when free agency starts to gauge the interest with a vet minimum deal that expires in a couple days should they not jump at it.
4. Paul Millsap. Is this the season Paul Millsap enters the realm of the veteran minimum deal? Could be. At 36 Paul still had a solid role on the Denver Nuggets and has been a huge part of their culture. Injuries, a reduced role and a desire to get younger/quicker could spell the end of his Nuggets tenure. If he does look for greener pastures the Lakers should come-a-calling. Millsap would be the perfect upgrade over Montrezl Harrell. Don’t get me wrong, I have a tremendous amount of appreciation for Trezz and the heart and energy he plays with but Millsap brings that plus better defense and an outside shot. While he is getting on in NBA years (15 years in the Association) and has had his share of injury-plagued seasons the Lakers would be the perfect spot for Paul to start the twilight of his career.
5. Kent Bazemore. Reunited and it feeeeels so gooooood. This is a longshot, at only 32 Kent has some miles left in him but he’s right at that age where, if you haven’t been a part of a winner yet you might be looking at bad deals on bad teams. Kent could, maybe, in theory, hopefully, be looking to put some shine on his career and what better place than in Los Angeles where his rise began? A better defender than a lot of the three point specialists out there Kent has a solid all-around game that would fit in perfectly with the Lakers. He has solid defensive skills, a solid three point shot and can still get to the rim and score or make simple plays. It’s debatable whether this is Kent’s first year as a vet minimum player but if it is the Lakers could be the ideal fit.

Obviously there are plenty more potential vet minimum players out there, these are just my personal top five. What are yours?

In this edition of 5 Things we take a look at what happens if things break incredibly wrong for the Lakers in the off season. With well-documented cap issues, few draft picks left to trade and holes throughout the line up the Lakers need a lot of things to break right for them this summer in order to best assure themselves a chance to win another banner.

1. None of our free agents agree to a sign and trade? The sign and trade has become very en vogue in the modern NBA. Small market teams looking to keep their costs deflated, big market teams wanting an artificial ceiling to bump up against so as not to spend themselves into oblivion and teams trading an under-contract player to the team of his choice in return for at least something. The thing is these kind of deals require a lot of permission. Permission from the other team involved in the negotiation who may want to simply sign said player instead of providing the Lakers with anything of value. Permission from the player(s) signing the new deal, unless one of the players under contract as a no-trade clause. That pretty much closes the door on Montrezl “I finally got some run in LA” Harrell. The only way I see Trezz acquiescing to a S&T is if the money and role are so good he can’t pass it up. Hard to see where that could be. Trezz is also unlikely to pick up his PO for next season although if his agent gauges the market for his client, which was surprisingly low given his run with the Clippers and winning the 6motY award prior to coming here, he may actually be back. That leaves either guys like Wes Matthews Jr. or the mercurial Dennis Schroder. Schroder made $17.4 million last season and is looking for a $20 for 5 or $25 for 4 year deal. If one is honest, that’s absurd. That puts him in the same earning category as Fred VanVleet/Malcom Brogdon. For reference they both scored more points per game, took and made more three pointers per game, had better assist to turnover ratios, and rebounded the ball better. Fred VanVleet was a key cog on a championship team, Malcom Brogdon upped his game this season despite losing to the Bucks with Indy. Schroder shrunk, his numbers dipped across the board and he missed crucial games this season…twice…because he had to enter the NBA health and safety protocols In short there is no metric that makes me believe Schroder is worth more than the money he earned this season, at best. The fact that he could have signed a 4 year deal for $20 mil from the Lakers is something I expect Dennis may end up regretting as I don’t see him getting that money on the open market on a team as high profile as ours along with the title expectations. If that’s not important to him, swell, thanks for all you did and good luck to you.
2. The Lakers can’t stay healthy? This is the conundrum every season. Every season health of the team ranks near the top of my priority list. When you have an aging superstar, like we do, it’s even more important. There are of course no guarantees just ask Giannis and the Bucks or Kawhi Leonard. Leonard is the load management pioneer and still suffered a seriously sprained knee, Giannis just landed awkwardly and could be done until next season. Accidents happen. What can be done is to minimize the risk with an elite training staff and good practices. Practices that don’t involve going into the NBA H&SP…twice…in a three month span. In short this is the most unguaranteeable point as it involves a modicum of good luck. Where the Lakers can do more to join elite company is to assemble the best training staff money can buy. There is no salary cap for coaches and staff.
3. Speaking of coaches, what are the Lakers going to do about re-vamping the offense? This point was originally about specifically replacing Jason Kidd but since we just hired Fizdale it’s safe to say that we’ll be maximizing our flow and space as much as possible. Whether that heralds the end of the, as LakerTom likes to call them, low-post dinosaurs in center form remains to be seen. Frankly, I find that school of thought to be highly one-dimensional.. Zubac, Cousins, Lopez, and of course Ayton are all bigs with varying degrees of stretch to their games. Rather I think we need a better shooting coach than perhaps Mike Penberthy can be. We need a shooting whisperer like…Mike D’antoni…who will encourage his shooters by never telling them it’s a bad shot, especially when they are wide open. We cannot rely on the law of averages. Therein lies the true fool’s gold. While I feel we’ve done more to address the three point shooting than some have I am also of the opinion that we have lacked schemes and sets designed to get specific guys specific shots.
4. We start off terribly next season? It’s safe to say that there is at least one reason why coach Vogel has yet to be extended. One is potentially, but not likely, the money. We can’t cap ourselves with coaches so if they’re quibbling over a few million bucks that would be surprising. Rather I think the front office wants to see what we can really do outside the Bubble. Much was made of the no fans aspect of the Bubble but I always thought the biggest advantage the Lakers had in the Bubble was the lack of travel. It meant LeBron could instantly start treatment, that the coaches could instantly start watching film, that all of your time was maximized and focused on one thing because there were no distractions. At least not many. If we start off rough I expect that Vogel won’t last too long, Fizadale can easily come in and replace Frank and that may just the reason he took our job over some other teams out there.
5. What does all this mean for the offseason and free agency? It means the following: we’re picking at #22 and we can’t trade that player until free agency starts. While some are hasty to include that pick in trade scenarios, and I wouldn’t be adverse to it for the right kind of player(s), there is also something to be said for simply making the pick. That pick comes with a scaling salary that starts at $2, 042, 600. By year 3 it’s only $2,246,900. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what’s known as cost-controlled talent. As we saw with THT who played for the bargain basement price of $1,517,981 and Alex Caruso ($2,750,000) you can get a lot of on court impact from rookie deals. While you certainly want to surround AD and LeBron with the best available talent there is also something to be said for the Lakers ability to scour the various gyms of planet Earth and find impact players. From Jordan Clarkson to even Devontae Cacock the Lakers have always done a great job at finding NBA-level talent that other teams pass on. We really need to maximize that skill with LeBron and AD on the team. Otherwise we’ll have to ship out pretty much every decent role-player and fill the roster out with vet minimum deals. As it is we’ll have our fair share of vet minimum deals this season anyhow.

Take heart, Laker faithful, we have 2 of the best players on planet Earth. We just need them to be healthy and for the team around them to be semi-in sync when the playoffs roll around. My wish for next season is for both LeBron and Ad to do a little more load managing and for Frank to try and manage their regular season minutes a little better. Realistically we’re only a piece or two away from being a dominant team. Everyone thought Schroder was the missing piece and who knows, maybe he can be if he gets his big deal and feels secure about his future. I don’t see Andre’ Drummond as one of the main pieces we need but there’s also no denying his effectiveness rebounding the ball and his quick hands on defense. Maybe all we have to do is…(insert LakerTom nightmare dream footage here)…run it back.

While it’s never fun to look back at defeat and so much of what went wrong can be chalked up to so many missed games by our Big 2 there can,
I believe, be some lessons learned. Rather than assign every player a grade I’m breaking this up into squads the content of which shall be revealed below. Let’s dig in.

1. LeBron and Anthony. The place where all things Lakers start and end. The most eye-pooping stat these 2 put up this year is obviously games missed. Between the 2 of them they missed 63 games. In the shortened and compressed 2020-21 season Davis played exactly half of it (36) and James not much more (45). The fact that those games came on the back half of the schedule only added to the miasma of issues that plagued the team. When they played they generally played well although Davis never really looked right for any real stretch of either the regular season or the playoffs. While the sheer volume of games missed should cause a few bells to go off in alarm it’s not the end of the dream for Laker Nation. With a long summer ahead of them and what should be a normal slate of games next season (82, more spaced out, even more space if they end up keeping it at 72) the duo has ample time to heal, train and get set to challenge for another NBA title. Grade: B for both because you can’t impact the game if you’re not playing. It would have been lower but LeBron’s injury was not of his own doing, he needed help.
2. The rest of the OG starters. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Marc Gasol and Dennis Schroder all were slotted as a part of the opening day starting five. From the beginning there were some issues in terms of fit. KCP started off his season like he finished last: on fire and having a large impact on the game. That quickly evaporated and he never became a consistent force after the first quarter or so of the season. Schroder had not one but two lengthy stints on the league’s Health & Safety protocols the second of which was particularly devastating as it came at a time when we were trying to integrate several new pieces. Marc Gasol ended up having about the level of impact expected, not much. All in all the trio of players that filled out the OG starting five had an underwhelming campaign. Grade: C+
3. The OG Bench. The Laker bench started off fine, after all, they’re bench players for a reason. Montrezl Harrel did not have the level of impact he had on the other LA team but that is kind of to be expected as his usage and role were vastly different on this squad. Alex Caruso had a what would appear to be solid season shooting from three point land but in my opinion Alex took a bit of a step back this season. I would trade a few % points of three point shooting for the higher level of overall imp[act he had on basket ball games last season when he led the team in +/- and had terrific synergy with LeBron. He took a long time to adjust his attack to compensate for team’s playing him to pass, as well. Talen Horton-Tucker wowed the NBA with a stellar preseason and started hot off the gate but also struggled to adjust when defenses started sitting on his drives. Wesley Matthews had a really streaky year in terms of his shooting but was fairly solid on defense which earned him solid playoff minutes. Markieff Morris was most effective as a starter which led me to wonder why he didn’t ever get the starting nod in the playoffs but likely that was due as much to his broken three point shot as anything else. 2 way players Devontae Cacock and Kostas Antetokounmpo did not have much impact. The main issue I had with our bench, this applies to the OG starter group as well, was that as a whole they seemed unable to step up and win basketball games in the regular season. They treaded just enough water to squeeze into the playoffs and fell a pretty long way in the standings. This will, likely, affect some of their value in their various upcoming free agency negotiations. Grade: C+ after all, they are reserves.
4. The new additions. Drummond and McLemore weren’t brought in to watch games, they were brought in to have an instant impact on a team that, at the time, was sorely in need of some fresh wattage. Of the 2 I would argue that McLemore offered the most potential to alter the outcome of our season. While not a great defender his shooting was sorely needed as guys like KCP and Caruso shot fewer and fewer threes down the stretch to preserve %s and, in Caruso’s case, reflected a return to the mean (if you’re hoping for Alex Caruso: Microwave Scorer you will be disappointed for a loooooong time). McLemore has a quick release, isn’t shy about shooting and does solid work to get open for his shots unlike what we ended up getting from KCP. Andre’ Drummond faced an uphill bvattle from the moment he signed here. I’ll forever feel his better fit would have been the Knicks but he ended up here. After bumping Gasol and eventually Harrell out of the rotation, playing to form and not being able to make an impact on the playoffs it’s hard for some fans to see why the noise coming from the Lakers camp is so positive. If you factor in AD’s desire to play alongside a bonafide banger (one reason that, despite their success in NOLA that Boogie’s services were not retained due to his myriad of injuries), Drummond’s elite rebounding (which is legit) and the fact that he was expected to make an immediate impact without the benefit of camp there is hope that Dre’ can be a solid addition to the squad. The price point of said services being of course a serious issue for a team as cap strapped as we are.
5. Coaches and front office. I’ll start off saying it’s easy for fans to cherry pick things like this. We get the benefit of hindsight. We get to make repercussion free observations, these guys do not. So to that end all of this should be taken with that grain of salt in mind. I think we all gave high marks to the front office early on, no grades lower than maybe a B/B+ by yours truly. I thought Gasol would have been a great add like 5 years ago. I was very high on Schroder. I though Wes would be more consistent with his shooting but he showed me a lot on D. I wouldn’t really change Rob’s grade and that includes not making a knee-jerk trade at midseason. I never saw Lowry as a savior, would have loved for us to get Normal Powell and I don’t think guys like Turner were available for a fair price and we’d have gutted the team to get him. It’s neither here nor there as the Lakers didn’t make a move to trade anyone and were content to improve via the buyout market. While we will never know how healthy Kyle Lowry truly was, if Powell was attainable or what reasons there were for the Lakers standing pat I can honestly say I would have liked to see us be more competitive in terms of signing some of the guards that came onto the buyout market (I’m looking at you, Reggie Jackson). In terms of our coach…I have to say I thought this was also a step-back season for Frank Vogel. Plenty of other teams sustained injuries to key players and they made adjustments or squeezed more out of role-players. I don’t want to lay this all at coach Vogel’s feet, we suffered ridiculously long injuries to our 2 best players which cannot be over-emphasized. But this was the 2nd season where more than one of the blog contributors openly wondered what offense we were running. If I could hope for one area of improvement from Vogel it would be in working on specific sets to get guys specific shots. We have shooters who I’m sure the staff has data on where they shoot best from. Let’s get better at maximizing those shots next season. The defensive side is solid, we need to juice the offense a little more since The King ain’t getting any younger. Grade: C+

Overall, B-/C+ kinda season. Any season that doesn’t end with another banner is a season where expectations were not met but I would hardly characterize this as a lost season. We discovered that THT is NBA ready, that the Laker defense can be elite without AD and LBJ, that we need some more oompf in the scoring department. Above all we’re getting ample rest time for our best players. Reload and come out ready to rock.

If he opts in it means nobody wants a 15-20 ppg threat off the bench who plays with heart and energy. Nah, nobody wants that in the NBA… Feels extremely likely that he was who ‘Kieff was talking about in his exit interview and this is Trezz (not so) subtly firing back.

Sorry DJ, feels like he’s on his way out.