Reality begins to set in for the click bait crowd. Took ’em long enough…

Utah won’t be trading LM unless it’s for a “can’t refuse offer”. Unlikely the Lakers have one they can offer, if they even wanted to in the first place. Also it’s unlikely most teams see that as doing good business when they’d have to turn around and pay him a ton of money for what was essentially one good season. He could just as easily be the next BI where he does well enough on a bad team but either can’t stay on the floor or can’t win at the playoff level. Or both, since he hasn’t managed to get there on Utah.

Chicago “resigned” to starting the season with LaVine. So much for getting draft picks for taking him on? Honestly, Chicago might as well wait and try and rehab his value. They have this odd belief they’re on the cusp of contending. Which I don’t get at all.

Speaking of Mr. Ingram, BI likely to stay in NOLA. Again, not surprising. He took a step back and nobody is probably excited to offer him a multi year max contract and/or send NOLA the haul they likely feel entitled to for him in a trade. Might as well hold onto your picks and let the market dictate his value next summer.

Welcome to the new CBA, folks. Big contracts for under-performing players are the new albatross in ways we can only imagine to actual GMs. It’s funny when the league signs an incredibly profitable deal and the players probably won’t see the half of it in terms of salaries simply because they agreed to a max 10% cap growth every season. 15-20% probably would have made more sense.

Also, shout out to whomever owns TNT for suing the league when they rejected the match. Hard for Silver to arbitrate the oddity that is the Timberwolves not selling to the A-Rod group now since this is, basically, the same thing.

Gotta love the dog days man…

Might be the best fit for him if his goal is to win a ring, could end up starting which is important to him. Takes a lotta pressure of Jokic and Murray in the first 3 quarters. Would be surprised if he ended up anywhere else.

After listening to Tom tell me how bananas I was for suggesting quality NBA players may not sign for the vet minimum but rather play for a lot more money overseas (and how that idea was stupid, I believe, his words lol) today we see that Pat Bev is considering playing overseas for a lot more money than the vet minimum.

Wow. How surprised am I? Zero, it doesn’t take a genius to understand (or I dunno, maybe it does and I’m a genius?) that these guys aren’t video game trade chips that just do whatever you want or tell them to do in your mind. They have a tremendous amount of pride, they have a small window to earn money playing a game, most of them aren’t all that worried about where the paycheck comes from. They do worry about the size.

So if you want to keep playing with other people’s money, feel free. It’s never really been a game that interests me. These guys will find paydays and some agents might get fired. The NBA free agency is like an ever more dangerous game of musical chairs. Money that was on the table 10 minutes ago is gone now, you sat too slowly.

I don’t believe Pat Bev will be the exception, I think that, at this point in the summer and seeing how most teams have zipped up the cap space, you can either choose the Schroeder Route (play overseas, rehab value, get in earlier the following summer, maybe do well in FIBA if at all possible).

La Melo played overseas rather college or the G-League. There is money to be made and no salary cap to strop you from maximizing what you believe your worth top be. You can play in a vacation destination like Spain or Australia all while playing a decent role for the game you love. Heck, you might be the “star” of the team.

This is the flip side of globalization, that good players aren’t forced to play for pennies. They do have options.

Patrick Beverley Weighing 'Historic' European Contract amid NBA Free Agency Offers

It would take DLO and Rui and probably at least 2 unprotected FRPs. Maybe some more swaps. BI likely looking for the max extension which, between Bron, AD and that deal ($60 something mil).

Anyhoo, I am of the opinion we are probably either a few ponies short, would balk at the price of that odd-fitting trio, the optics of giving up as much for BI as we did AD, the difficulty of building a decent team once we rocket past the 2nd apron just to keep Reaves or any number of logical reasons why we wouldn’t make that deal but it’s the dog days and I’m bored.

Source NBA.com:

The National Basketball Association today announced that the Salary Cap has been set at $140.588 million for the 2024-25 season. The Tax Level for the 2024‑25 season is $170.814 million.

The Salary Cap and Tax Level go into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday, July 1. Teams are permitted to begin negotiating with free agents today at 6:00 p.m. ET — six hours prior to the start of the league’s “moratorium period.” The moratorium period ends at noon ET on Saturday, July 6.

The Minimum Team Salary is $126.529 million for the 2024-25 season.
The First Apron Level is $178.132 million for the 2024-25 season.
The Second Apron Level is $188.931 million for the 2024-25 season.
The Collective Bargaining Agreement provides for three different Mid-Level Exceptions depending on a team’s salary level. The Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level for the 2024-25 season is $12.822 million, the Taxpayer Mid-Level is $5.168 million, and the Mid-Level for a team with room under the Salary Cap is $7.983 million.

Okee dokee, so as I understand it, we currently have access to the taxpayer MLE because we are over the 1st apron but under the 2nd. The taxpayer mid-level exception belongs to teams who are above the salary cap and in the first luxury tax apron. Teams above the second apron do not have a mid-level exception. The non-taxpayer mid-level exception belongs to teams who are over the salary cap but not in the first luxury tax apron.

Currently we’re over the 1st apron and about $10 mil under the 2nd so we can use the $5.168 million MLE to sign anyone…if we cut someone since we’re at the maximum roster size. This is because of the cap hits for LeBron, Prince. We could renounce whatever rights we have but I doubt that’s happening.

To gain access to the NTPMLE, worth $12.822 million, we’d need to be above $140.588 but still end up UNDER $170.814 million after we use it, you can’t use that and punch your way into the tax area…which isn’t an actual apron…which makes all of this a lot harder.

If you get all the way under the salary cap itself but above the minimum salary you, are some reason, kind of penalized and I think you only get access to the Room Exception which is the one worth $7.983 mil.

We haven’t even factored in Bronny or Knecht yet, either, right? I’m not 100% sure but I think works out to adding roughly $4.9 mil in added salary on top of the already guaranteed money and the cap holds worth mentioning. If I’m not crazy…no guarantee…that leaves us at $170,229 million in guaranteed salary. So LeBron would have to take a pretty hefty pay cut to keep the salary under $170.814 million and have the room to use the full exception. I believe roughly $20 mil

I am not a cap expert, by any means so please feel free to double-check my math lol. One thing I’m 100% certain of is that somebody needs to be cut in order to free up a physical roster space. That $$$ still counts against the salary cap, it only opens up a roster spot.

Ooops. My brain just exploded.

With the news that Christian Wood and Jaxon Hayes are opting in on very cheap/cap friendly deals I think we need to look almost exclusively at wings and big, mobile guards under 87 years old. That takes Klay and CP3 out of the mix. With the Lakers extending Castleton the 2 way QO it shows they intend to keep him unless another team actually offers him a contract (and maybe even they choose to match it). At the very least it looks like they did the young man a solid by guaranteeing him a raise if someone else wants him.

AD, Jax and Wood, LeBron and Vando are enough big bodies. Between the 4 there’s enough good, shooting and skill to compete in the regular season. If we have the ponies for LM from Utah or KO from Toronto I’d be cool with that, I’d also be cool trading one if Wood or Jax along with Rui to Chicago for Vucevic.

But then we have to use the MLE, should it be available, on a wing. Kinda doubt Tobias Harris will come for the full MLE but we could slot DeMar DeRozan at the 3 (doubt he’d be happy coming off the bench, at least to start the season but who knows…insert wish for a coach who has done this before and understands how to talk to vets properly…) but that still trends toward old and under-sized. Grant looks too pricey given his impact in winning but there’s an argument that it’s his situation and not specifically him. Still, not sure we have the ponies for that race.

So here’s a list, in no particular order, of wings under 35 who can contribute on both ends that could be had for the MLE (IMO):
-Precious Achiuwa
-Tobias Harris (this one is a stretch in logic honestly)
-Kelly Oubre (personal top choice)
-Saddiq Bay
-Naji Marshall (could challenge for a starting spot honestly)

Staying away from the Covington’s and Hayward’s as my hope is we get younger and not older and that we focus as much in defense as much as shooting.

With nothing but the contracts of Hachimura (semi-valuable), Gabe Vincent (barely played), Jarred Vanderbilt (barely played but with still decent upside) and the Tax-Payer MLE were basically running it back. Could we see some trades in a week? Maybe, but Rob is either too slow to pull the trigger or teams aren’t interested in our talent and/or picks still 5 years out. Compounding the issue is we still can’t offer salary relief the season after next for anyone except Russell, whom we have all acknowledged would be difficult to replace.

For all the folks whining about nepotism in the instance of Bronny James, while turning a blind eye to Giannis and his family team in Milwaukee, all the kids of great players who have jobs on their old teams, and so on: grow up.

It’s the 55th pick, it was always going to be a G-League level prospect. Heck, players who averaged fewer points than Bronny went in the 1st round to other teams. He comes into the league with his head on right, decent defensive skills, and the willingness to embrace the process of improvement rather than the shortcut of entitlement. What more is anyone truly expecting from a late second-rounder?

I think that Bronny will be given the same opportunity to shine as JHS, who did go in the 1st round and looks like a two-way player, at best. He’ll be in camp, maybe play some minor minutes with Pop in preseason, and play a lot in the G-League.

If having Bronny around infuses new excitement into The King for the regular season the pick is worth it. If Bronny is better than expected it’s doubly worth it. If Bronny doesn’t work out, oh no….gee whiz…it’s no worse than Maxwell Lewis ended up. Ergo, nothing lost. In short I only see positives from this.

Getting bent outta shape because you see this is as nepotism means you’re just very, very late to the party. It’s been alive and well in America for centuries . Get used to it and find something that matters to get pissed about.

Looks like we (maybe) learned another NBA GMing 101 lesson! Rob simply made the best choice available, didn’t get it muddled with illusions of drafting the next Wes Unseld at 17. They picked the best player available. Easy, right?

Based on last summer’s draft, evidently not. With questions as to what Jalen Hood-Schifino is even good at and Max Lewis struggle to shoot at a rec league level there were no guarantees we wouldn’t all be left scratching our heads when the dust settled.

Rob didn’t draft Bronny in the first round, something that didn’t seem plausible but was certainly possible. It would have been borderline criminal if he had. He just didn’t impact winning in a meaningful way. It could be argued not being drafted at all and playing overseas somewhere would benefit him more than trying to carve out a role in the NBA while still learning the game.

He didn’t pick a center that would just as likely (if not more likely) be a project that doesn’t align with LeBron’s timeline in any meaningful way. Just didn’t make sense to me with the number of available, serviceable centers on the free agency market, Hayes possibly picking up his option, Wood having already picked up his option, but mainly because we have AD at the 5. Plus we have a project center on a two-way deal in Castleton and some of our best line ups will probably have LeBron at the 5 in small ball situations as the “stretch 5”.

He picked Dalton Knecht, who on some boards I saw was as high as a top 5 pick but generally fell into the 7-12 range. To have him fall into our laps…like Whitmore and Jaquez did last season…seemed almost too good to be true. The only left was Rob not blowing it. Thankfully he did not.

It’s bittersweet for me because the bar for Rob doing his job is set to toddler low. We get excited when he does the obvious thing right. That’s unfortunate because there are better minds out there available right now. Maybe they don’t want to come work at The Lakers Family Circus, and honestly that gets more and more understandable as the years go by, but it would be nice to see someone who does the job well at the helm.

Basically I’m tired of watching guys learn on the job around here. When your relationships matter so much more than your experience, that’s problematic. When the head of the organization values loyalty more than savvy or honesty, that’s a biiig problem (see America, United States of). So, while I’m happy we picked the most NBA-ready talent out there who looks like he can contribute right away, I’m also annoyed that it doesn’t seem to be the norm. That we need to constantly learn these simple lessons the hard way.