Aloha,

The last couple days have been crazy and who knows who is available anymore. The Warriors have reached out to the Lakers about LeBron again. Now I doubt if LeBron wants to leave but perhaps he could have felt disrespected by the Lakers for not letting him know about the AD trade. After all he has been the de facto GM everywhere he’s been. So what if he did want to end is career with the Warriors. Perhaps a trade would look something like this.

The Lakers send Lebron and Bronny to the Warriors for Wiggins, Dennis, Kuminga and 2025 first, 2029 first round picks and a 2nd.

The Lakers send Kuminga, Gabe and our 2031 pick to the Raptors for Poiltl. They get another young building block.

We send send Poiltl the Warriors 2029 first to the Pacers for Turner. That’s a valuable pick by the way. And they receive the quality starting center they require in a Turner trade.

Then we send the Nets Wood or Hayes and 2 seconds to the nets for Sharpe.

We still have a first. Wiggins is an upgrade at defense over Lebron a 2 way back up PG, a quality center to replace at least some of what we lost with the AD trade. and a quality backup center. I actually think we would be a better team. Like I said, I doubt LeBron asks out but if he did this actually isn’t far fetched like a lot of trades you see.

Aloha,

After watching the Lakers beat the Knicks for our best win of the year, I get a notice on my phone that we traded AD for Luka. Wow, speechless. Who will play center?For those that say Rob isn’t doing enough, well this stunning. Max was also part of the trade and hate that. He gave Brunson all he could handle. This is bizarre.

Aloha,

Well that was ugly. Now there is context here. We were ahead when AD went down and Jackson demonstrated again that he shouldn’t be the primary back up to AD. Even Koloko is a better option.

Then Gabe was still out. Gabe is always in about every trade proposal for a center. But we saw what that would look like with Shake and Bronny as our 2nd unit ball handlers. Both were awful. You can’t trade Gabe unless we do something about another guard as well. At least Gabe’s defense has been pretty good. He would have been helpful against Maxey for sure.

Vando also would have helped against Maxey but they are not playing him
on the 2nd night of back to backs yet.

Now Rui came back but he was on a minute restriction due to the injury recovery. And DFS was in foul trouble and only played 17 minutes.

Considering it was the 3rd game in 4 days and the 2nd game of a back to back. So They looked tired. One could say that the 76ers had it worse. And they did without PG and Embid but they have been playing surprisingly well. They beat the Cavs without Embid. And the last 3 with PG out as well. They beat a completely healthy Kings team today.

Can a stat line of 31 points, 8 boards and 9 assists be considered a bad game? Yes, because LeBron accomplished that last night. We gave up 28 points on 22 turnovers and LeBron had 8 of the turnovers. That’s now 13 in the last 2 games. It seemed like every Lebron turnover led to points and so many were just stupid. And it wasn’t just turnovers. For the 2nd game in a row his defense was nonexistent. Even half his points came in the 4th when the game was over. He could use some rest but that probably won’t happen until AD is back.

So any bright spots? Well Dalton continued his hot shooting but he was picked on, on the defensive end and with so many of our best defenders out or crippled by fouls, it was hard to hide him.

This game highlighted our biggest weaknesses. We need a decent backup center. I know a lot of folks would like another starting center, but then LeBron would have to guard the 3 and we keep seeing what that looks like.

What we do need is a center that can defend, rebound and protect the rim at a reasonable level. We are not getting someone like Kessler.

And unless you love Shake and Bronnys game we could use another playmaking guard and hopefully he can score a little.

The problem is the trade market currently is stalled. Until Butler, Fox and LaVine situations are settled nothing is going to happen. All these sellers are not only holding out for teams willing to overpay for the few players on the market, they are also waiting to see if they can get a an asset or two by becoming a third or 4th team in one of these trades because they will be complicated deals.

I don’t see anything happening until the last day or two before the deadline. Hopefully there will be a deal available that can help the Lakers.

Aloha,
If you are why Rob hasn’t got anything else done the Hornets traded Richards to the Suns for 3 2nd round picks and Josh Okogie. Okogie is a good young defensive minded wing who has also raised his 3 point percentage to 38%

The Lakers had interest in Richards but in the NBA brave new world, they couldn’t compete with an offer like that.

Aloha,

It’s trade season again but not much is going on. There have been only two meaningful trades and the Laker had one of them with the trade for DFS.

No one believes we are done yet. A quality backup center is the top priority. I can single out at least 3 games we lost because we didn’t have one. Our other need is at least a decent backup PG with some offense. Our 2nd unit doesn’t have a lot of scorers.

Unfortunately things have changed. The new CBA has made it extremely difficult to get trades done. And the play in game has cut down the number of sellers.

And this is what makes it weird. The play off race is so tightly packed that that there isn’t the urgency yet to make a deal. For instance the Spurs are in the 12th seed but only 3 games out of the 6th.

And the bottom feeders are tightly packed as well. Only a couple of games separate the worst teams from the very bottom. So the sellers are not motivated at this time either. I believe they are all holding out for overpays.

I doubt the Lakers will overpay. Primarily because there isn’t a Trade that would catapult them into true championship contender status with OKC or the Cavs.

The Lakers have said they will only trade a first for a player that will play the next 4 or 5 years with the Lakers. That eliminates a substantial amount of the rumored players. Kessler fits that timeline but he may not even be on the market. And if he is, don’t expect him to be moved until the last possible minute. Danny will hold out as long as possible. Although I don’t think he will get multiple firsts because Kessler isn’t that good.

So I guess we wait. That maybe best anyway. Maybe other players become available. Or perhaps one of the sellers becomes realistic like the Nets did and let a guy go at a fair price. As much as our backup center situation is killing me It will also be good to see how we look with a healthy squad.

I will be surprised if we see anything happen for another couple of weeks but would be delighted if something did.

Aloha,

This was a good win. It really feels like this team is really coming together. And it was a team effort. We shot the ball well. 43% from 3 and 49% overall. And 5 guys were in double figures.

the Hawks are not a good defensive team. But it was our defense that impressed me the most. The Hawks are a very good offensive team. They are 5th in the league in scoring at 117 a game and we held them to 102. We also out rebounded them by 17 boards. If We didn’t have turnover issues again we would have won by more than 17.

We are now 4th in the west and climbing. The DFS trade was a great move that will pay off more as he becomes familiar with our system.

I believe we have a real shot at the 4th seed.

Aloha,

While we lost last night, I was encouraged by a few things.

First our starters beat their starters and that is one of the best starting units in the game. And we got enough good looks but be had some bad luck. Rui had two 3’s go in and out and Max and Dalton had two as well. Lebron and Cam each had one. Like they say, close but no cigar.

The problem was their bench beat ours by 20. This is our biggest problem that needs to be addressed. Struss beat our bench by himself. Once Shake and DFS our integrated into the offense that will help. And Wood can score and he will be back soon. Since there isn’t many microwave scorers out there, I think it’s kind of up to Dalton. Hopefully he can regain his confidence. He has demonstrated that he can score in a variety of ways but we really needs his 3 ball to start falling.

It’s looking more and more like we have our point guard and 3rd star in Austin. He’s over 18 ppg now and his assist numbers are rising. With DLO gone, that should continue. He was great again as a scorer and play maker, against one of the best defenses in the league. He’s fearless and successfully challenged their bigs inside and won. One columnist called him Luka light. I agree with that. Neither are particularly quick but they each have the handles and IQ to manipulate defenses.

I look at the rumored available players for trades and I don’t see any that will elevate us enough to be worth a first round pick. Even Kessler wouldn’t be a great fit next to AD. While Danny would trade his children for the right price, it might take more to get Kessler then one his kids.

I think adding DFS and Shake allows us to wait and see who might become available. At some point we will need to address the back up big spot and perhaps look for another 2nd unit scorer. If we did a 2 for one trade for the backup center we could look at Lonnie Walker who is drawing a lot of interest from multiple teams as he plays overseas.

It’s not often that I’m encouraged by a loss but I was this time. I even thought the defense was pretty good. It’s just that they made a lot of tough contested shots, so you have to tip your hat. And with Vando back very soon he could have helped with our Struss problem. The Cavs went 18 and one in December and have lost only 4 times. To trade runs with them like we did. Gives some hope that as we become more familiar with JJ’s system and maybe more growth from the young guys, we may end up in the top 3 to 6. And if you get there, who knows what could happen. I’m not saying we are a true contender yet but I think we’re closer then we have been this season.

Aloha,

Well it appears that Rob isn’t just sitting around after all. DLO goes to the Nets, along with Lewis for Finney-Smith and Shake Milton. This is a good deal for the Lakers giving them a quality 3 and D wing. I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t bring back Sharpe as a back up center, because they could have fit his salary in instead of Milton. They will be around 2 and 1/2 mil under the 2nd apron that could be helpful. We also gave up 3 2nds but no firsts. So we still have those to work with.

Rob kind of reminds me of Mitch in one respect. He never shows his hand. Everyone thought we were trading for Buddy but he trades for Russ. The Rui, DLo and Vando trades came out of the blue. And now this one. We still need a back up center. I’m hoping that will happen soon.

Aloha,

28 points off of turnovers. Ball game.

Aloha,

Now that was fun. Our defense continues to roll along and what’s the most impressive, it’s been shutting down very good offenses. We are now the 5th seed in a very tight western conference. If there is going to be a trade or two, the way we are playing Rob can wait for a better deal. Just a few thoughts.

For me this might have been LeBrons best game, primarily because he was pretty engaged on defense, with the exception of a couple of uncontested Murray 3’s. On a night where the Kings were determined to not let AD score, he repeatedly attacked the holes that was created all the way to the rim.

Rui hasn’t shot the ball well the last 2 games but he was still huge in both games. There is a good reason why despite Laker Tom’s best efforts, he is not on the trade block unless it’s for a superstar. He has become a very good defender and can guard 3 through 5 like last night. Neither Murray or Derozan could do much against him and he held his own against Sobonis when we went small. And he has been great on the boards as well. That game winning tap out is something he has been doing all year. What made that even more special was he moved Sabonis under the basket to get to the ball and Sabonis is a strong dude. But so is Rui.

Over the last 10 games or so, DLO seems to have rediscovered his offense. He had another fine game and he competed on defense as well. He is always mentioned in pretty much every trade but they better have a plan for the second unit because he is most of our offense on that unit.

Gabe has been looking like the guy we were hoping to get when we signed him last year. He plays tough defense and his shot has been falling. The last 2 games he went 6 for 8 from 3 and one miss was a half court heave at the buzzer.

Man it’s a shame that Cam can’t find his offense. Because he has been playing some great defense. And he came up with 2 big offensive boards.

AD had a big game on defense and rebounding. I really wasn’t that concerned about his scoring because they sent two or three guys at him all night, which allowed Lebron to score at the rim pretty much whenever he wanted to.

Austin is definitely this teams glue guy as he does a little bit of everything including completing on defense. It’s no wonder we struggled during those 5 games he missed. He’s perfect as our 3rd option.

One sour note for me was turnovers. On paper 13 turnovers isn’t bad, but as usual it was the kind of turnovers that is maddening. I counted at least 6 of what I call WTF turnovers. Sloppy unbelievable turnovers that lead to easy baskets. A lazy out of bounds pass by AD. A couple of passes by LeBron that I couldn’t figure out who he was passing to. A fumbled hand off, a 5 second count. He goes on and on. The Kings had 12 points off of turnovers in the first half alone. Stupid turnovers kept the game close and continues to plague the team.

If we can pick up a couple of wins at least he end of the month it could set us up for a great January where we are home for almost all of the month. Go Lakers.

Aloha,

It’s funny, I never feel like we are doomed when LeBron has to miss a game. Over the last 2 years we have won more than we have lost. It’s when AD had to miss a game that I panic.

While AD was AD, it really was DLO and Rui driving the win. This was reflected in plus minus AD was +4 but DLO was +29 and Rui was +31.
Yesterday was the first game this year that DLO has dominated. It happened a lot more last year. It was good to see and I hope this wakes him up.

As for Rui, this an example of what he can do when the team involves him in the offense. From an efficiency standpoint point it was one of his worst recently he was only 9 for 13. He missed 4 shots! And only 3 for 5 from 3! I’ll give him a break on one of the 3’s the ball was dumped off on him and he had to throw it towards rim to beat the shot clock.

I kid of course. I have been calling for Rui to get more touches because he is our most efficient scorer. And JJ said something in post that was surprising. He said that this was the first game since pre season that he drew up an ATO for Rui. And it was not just offense. Rui had 4 steals, a block and Grant didn’t score a point against him.

While I would like to see Rui more involved, we have enough weapons to get multiple players more involved. Sometimes I believe we force feed AD and LeBron too much. I would love to see a more balanced attack. We have a lot of days off coming up, maybe JJ can work on that.