Wow less then a minute after I hit post I get an update that Iggy has been released. Welcome to the Lakers Iggy.

Damn, that’s some good stuff you posted, Michael. Don’t know if I will be able to sleep tonight, but I can’t wait to see how this team looks like this season. You made great points about the players we have to retain including Wesley Mathews, THT, Caruso and McKinnie. I like all of those players. I will be looking forward to your updates.

Aloha, Michael,

Were having a live Lakers Fast Break Podcast tomorrow at 2:30 pm PT in case you were interesting in joining the conversation. Let me know if you are and I will have Gerald send you a link. Should be a fun show that will last a couple of hours and be live on Facebook. Love to have you join us.

While the Big 3 does make it tough to fill out the rest of the roster, I prefer to focus on the benefits, especially since the Westbrook deal has been committed to and that part of it is not going to change. We now have a Big 3 and the challenge is to turn the roster into a super team. What we need to do that is players who are volume 3-point shooters. Guys who shoot 2 to 4 threes per game are not going to solve the problem. The Lakers need shooter who take 6 to 10 threes per game. That’s the only way they can create the spacing to make the Westbrook trade a success. Otherwise, teams are going to pack the paint mercilessly.

I would love to keep Alex and THT but not at the cost of not being able to add a volume 3-point shooter like Buddy. Much as both contributes, neither is a starter and neither even averages a single made three per game. My greatest worry after calculating how much it would cost the Lakers in taxes to trade for Buddy in addition to Russ is that the Lakers will make the same judgement mistake you made and believe keeping THT and Caruso is more important than adding Buddy. If that happens, you will be correct that the Westbrook trade was a mistake. There is no way in the win now world of the Lakers that the Lakers will win if they keep THT and Caruso instead of adding Buddy.

When it comes to the vet minimum players, we’re in agreement. Wes and Keef are essential to re-sign. The other guys on your list also make great sense for the Lakers. I also love the idea of Bullock, Porter Jr., or Batum for the mini MLE.

I’m even willing to take Dwight back as a backup center although I’m concerned that most of the pundits somehow still seem to be ignoring the news about AD playing the five and are presuming that Gasol or maybe even Dwight would start at center.

Let me be clear. Only an idiot of a coach would start a center like McGee or Howard who cannot shoot alongside a point guard like Westbrook who cannot shoot. What does it take for these idiots to understand you cannot have only one shooter on the floor with LeBron, AD, and Russ. You must have two shooters on the floor and they should be the shooting guard and small forward. Russ only works if you start AD at the five. Starting guys who average less than one made three per game is not going create any spacing. Russ at the one, LeBron at the four, and AD at the five requires shooters at the two and three. Period.

It’s an interesting idea, Michael, but there are four reasons why it won’t happen imo:

(1) I think the Lakers will likely stagger LeBron and Russ so one of them is running the offense at all times.

(2) Dennis does not want to come off the bench,

(3) We need his slot for a volume 3-point shooter.

(4) Even $16M for him would end up costing $50 in luxury taxes. Lakers trade him or let him walk.

Dennis’ agent is not going to burn bridges with the Lakers as he may need us to get paid. Even if Dennis decides to sign with a team with cap space, the Lakers will have an opportunity to offer then a second round pick to do a S&T to get a Trade Exception. I doubt Dennis is going to get an offer over $19.2M.

I think Russ will get alotta run with the 2nd unit. Don’t see a realistic path to Schroder remaining a Laker..

Frankly, there’s a good chance Dennis is not going to be able to find a team with cap space willing to pay him what he wants. There’s a glut of point guards on the market and a half dozen at least who are better players than Dennis. When the music stops, there’s a good chance Dennis is going to need the Lakers’ help to get paid. That’s more likely than not.

I am of the same opinion with you, Michael. I have made several comments on Dennis already and it will make more sense to bring him as a sixth man, but there has to be a reasonable resolve contract wise. I can only see an upside to this move, but if he doesn’t want to come off the bench, then we move on.

Thanks, Michael. I actually believe this is going to be a multiple team deal just like the AD acquisition were. Pelinka is copying the same framework but updating it with what happened to the Bucks, which is why the whole deal can’t be revealed until after August 2nd when players can be approached about sign-and-trades. At the deadline, the Bucks announced a trade that could not have happened without they violating the tampering rules.

The perfect tell to their being a deal is the Wizards saying they don’t plan to keep Kuzma or Harrell, basically telling their fans that these guys are going to be moving on for other players so don’t get attached into thinking these guys are going to Wizards or criticizing the trade when it is not done. Anyway, we really need volume 3-point shooters and Buddy is hopefully ours.

We’re in total agreement that OPJ would be perfect for the Lakers at the taxpayer MLE. He may be willing to settle for less than the full MLE on a 1-year deal to set himself up for next season.

The good news here is it gives us leverage with both teams. The Kings held all the cards. Now it’s a 3 way card game now.

Plan B was always to re-sign Schroder unless the Lakers were able to get a deal for Lowry or Lonzo and were going to be hard capped. One of the reasons I was so angry about the Lakers not making the Lowry trade is I knew it would leave us with too few trading chips heading into the offseason, when it is easier to make big moves than at the trade deadline.

I still have hopes that the Lakers can pull of great moves this summer, partly because their trading chips are better than what Lakers fans think, especially Kuzma, and there are too many good point guards and not enough cap space to sign them all. I would even consider DeMar DeRozan as meeting the description of a ‘difference-making playmaker.’ We just need more shooting and LeBron and AD to play the 4 and 5 to make it work. But add Buddy and another high volume/percentage 3-point shooter and it would be a great lineup. DeRozan could be our point guard.

I totally agree Michael. Been saying similar things for a spell. Coukld be that we keep the whole team.

Thanks, Michael. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post and I totally agree with you. I especially like how you juxtapose the players you mentioned to match the reality of our current situation in order to produce a favorable outcome and swing the pendulum in our favor.

Even though I was all for Buddy Hield, I find your take on Harrison Barnes to be very appealing and tantalizing, and to me, it is an avenue worth exploring. The same goes for Malik Beasley.

Honestly, Rob Pelinka might want to consider having a sit down with you, if not the whole Lakerholics bloggers, to discuss the state of affairs of the Lakers.

There are seasoned veterans on this blog whose views and expressions give me a healthy dose of what I need for my day, and help keep me afloat on my daily routines. And I do agree with most of their opinions which makes this blog a great place to be. Great take.

Solid and realistic post Michael. We often get caught up looking at the Maserati and Lambo’s when what we really need is a sturdy pick up and an economy sedan. Guys like Barnes and Sexton can definitely help the Lakers and there won’t be the same kind of “how can we fit all these alphas on one squad?” I love the idea of adding Barnes because he’s in a very similar timeline as AD and is good enough to man the three. His defense fits in with what we do and he’s improved his playmaking. I’d be quite happy with any of the players mentioned

Well thought out and reasoned post, Michael. There’s definitely a strong argument to be made that the role players we surrounded LeBron and AD with last season were not a great fit. Schroder could score but not shoot and make plays but not without turning the ball over too much. Harrell became more and more unplayable as the season went on. KCP became afraid to shoot and Kuzma afraid to score. And Drummond was a disaster. Etc.

Barnes and Sexton would cleasrly be major upgrades but I’m going to have to disagree with your Maserati and Lamborghini vs sturdy pick up and economy sedan analogy because the Lakers need more than additional role players to compete with the Brooklyn Nets Superstar Big Three next season.

I think Barnes would be an excellent addition, especially if LeBron is going to move to the 4 and AD to the 5 to open up a starting spot at the three. Sexton is intriguing as a scorer but his low salary, horrible assists to turnover ratio (1.57 to 1), and subpar defense make it hard for me to see the Lakers pursuing him. I think there are better options for a point guard who is a better 3-point shooter, playmaker, and defender. If I were going to gamble on a 22-year old, I would keep THT rather than trade for Sexton.

Finally, it’s naive to think the Lakers can build a championship team for Anthony Davis reign at the same time as trying to optimize LeBron James dwindling championship window. Lakers should have only one focus right now and that is to win another championship. Sorry but we need proven championship caliber players to go with LeBron and AD, not 22-year old kids putting up big numbers on one of the worst teams in the league.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prioritize players in their mid to late 20’s instead of 35 and 36-year old veterans who might be on their last leg, assuming everything else is equal. For example, I could see a S&T for Lonzo Ball as having some advantages (and disadvantages) compared to a S&T for Chris Paul. Lonzo is younger, shoots more threes, and is a better defender. CP3 is older but a better playmaker and proven winner. In some ways going younger in this case might make sense as Lonzo is not some 22-year old kid scoring big numbers for a losing team.

Anyway, give me a Maserati or Lamborghini or Porsche over a sturdy pick up and economy sedan any day of the week. That beat up old picking and Hondo is what we have right now. We need a third star to mactch up with the Nets more than we need slightly better role players.

No I’m not saying that your line up couldn’t win sure it could. I’m just saying I like mine better. It has enough offense and a better defense which is key to another ring. Plus I worry about guys like Lowery in their mid thirties. His body has already been breaking down. Also I think you need to develop some young talent. Sexton and THT will both make some young player mistake but they are both talented and will be a net positive for the team. I don’t know what Harrell will do but assuming he opts out I ran some numbers and even paying THT and Alex 10 mil and adding a one 2nd round buy in player or undrafted player for the end of the bench you could do it with only go over the tax apron by about 6 or 7 mil which isn’t terrible.

It’s definitely the ‘the Days of Smoke,’ Michael.

I’m actually surprised there has not been more stories since we all know everybody is talking behind the scenes already regardless of the rules about tampering.

I still believe the Lakers will go big but will be interested to see what they actually do. Will they go the hard cap or luxury tax route? They will add a third star if at all possible.

Next week should be great fun with the draft and free agency hitting. Have my toes, fingers, and eyes crossed.

“The days of smoke”. The title says it all, Michael. Even though the title might have an element of humor to it, you are very right. Tom also top it off with the right notes. Thank you.

One note I forgot. If we couldn’t get any of the SF I mentioned I would play THT there. He’s solid at 230. He’s not going to get bullied by taller small forward and he has that incredible 7’1” wingspan. That allows him to play taller.

Can’t wait for 2 weeks from now when we’ll finally have some actual facts to evaluate & scrutinize instead of all these wild-azz-guesses & speculation. We’ll know if Stein and his ‘Difference-making playmaker’ and AD at center stuff was actually real or pure bull-sheeeeit….lol. There’s more than 1 way to skin a cat and there are several scenarios that I think can get us deep into the playoffs (ANYBODY we put around AD & LBJ will get us through the regular season). I won’t try to predict which scenario is “best” nor how co-GMs Rich Paul & Pelinka will navigate the rest of summer….my Magic 8-Ball is still at the damn dry cleaners!!

I’m into this scenario, not sure how available Malik will be. I think we need to have both defenders and pony generators off the bench. I’m very into resigning as many of our guys as possible, I’d love to figure out a way to S&T Dennis w/o hard capping.

I’ve been playing around with the luxury tax situation, specifically if we were to trade for Westbrook and the tax numbers are scary. LeBron, AD, and Russ alone exceed the luxury tax threshold and the apron, which means every players you add after those three will have a luxury tax attached. By the time you fill out the roster with minimum salaries, the tax for adding a fourth star to start could cost $20-30 million in taxes.

Basically, there are solid reasons why being hardcapped could be a smarter move. You get access to better prospects and get the full MLE. Those are two huge advantages. While you get hardcapped, you also don’t end up with being so far over the cap that you can’t make moves without incurring unreasonable taxes.

First of all, Michael, I miss your posts. So, it’s great to see this one. You have pretty much said everything I have been trying to throw out there. Everything you said in this article is cash. The one thing that stood out to me was your take on THT. I have been saying this for a whole while that the Lakers need to keep him and not trade him. There is greatness in this kid and they should do whatever it takes to keep him in the fold.
This article was well written and well thought out Thanks for posting.

Howdy Michael, thanks for popping round and I personally am pretty much onboard with your vanilla take on the state of the Lakers prospects at a major overhaul this summer. Honestly, even signing Schroder for “what he wants” isn’t the terrible outcome we make it out to be. If he’s balling hard we can trade him, if he’s not we can look to do so later and relegate him to back up. He’ll be getting paid, he’s an elite back up and it’s not my money.

I like your take on THT and the Kuzma to Minny deal although I think it would take more to make that happen, maybe taking back a bad contract of theirs, as well. Could they be looking to move on from Rubio? Possibly and he should be another potential Schroder trade destination mid-season. the sign and trades come with needing player permission. Midseason trades? Notsomuch. If we’re not loving what we’re getting from Dennis and Russ gets hurt again or is just inconsistent like he has been so far I wouldn’t be surprised to see Minny looking for an offensive/defensive upgrade and they’d be getting younger without sacrificing a ton of experience in a trade like that.

But those scenarios are far on down the line. I also love you ring-chasing vet list, we have a lot of players on each others’ lists, actually. So, indeed yes, August is going to be verrrrry interesting around here.

Aloha and welcome back, Michael.

Good post although way too vanilla for me, although I prefer to hope we see that the team we had in the bubble is not good enough to win vs. the competition we’re goiing to see this coming season. We desperately need volume 3-point shooting and a third superstar to be able to go all the way this year.

I do like Malik Beasley and would be happy with Hield or him to replace KCP. I just think Buddy is more attainable since the Kings covet Kuzma and a trade of him and McKinnie would do the job. One thing for sure is we can’t have a shooting guard who can’t aveage 10 ppg the last two years and rarely makes multiple threes per game. Kenny could not start for most playoff teams. Need a major upgrade there and Malik and Buddy are the best two prospect.

I also agree we’re going to be short of wings once we trade Kuzma. That will probably be where we spend our MLE and maybe whom we draft if we keep our pick. Will definitely have to be a 3&D player though as we need volume 3-point shooting. Can’t run it back with the same shooters as last year.

That’s why I don’t see us keeping Schroder. We’ll find some team to sign-and-trade for him at $24M per year. Maybe Harrell too. No hardcap for signing-and-trading your own free agent. I still like the idea of signing-and-trading KCP and Harrell for Terry Rozier to replace Schroder at point guard. Saves money and Terry is a high volume, high percentage 3-point shooter.

I do agree we’re not likely to make a move to be hardcapped and I also agree we re-sign THT and Caruso. Need their continuity. I also think Morris and some of the other minimum salary verterans will return. I like your mininum candidates and would add Boogie to the list.

Center is where I disagree vociferously. AD should play the five as I outlined in the article I posted today. I would look for Nerlens Noel and DeMarcus Cousins to fill out the center rotation as well as bully ball fours like PJ Tucker.

Nice points Michael, Kuz is I think both LT and my choice to replace KCP in the starting 5, weakens the bench though. Hard to disagree with this and the Lamar Odom comparison is an excellent one. More Kyle.

I completely agree, Michael. Good observations.

Kuz is also up to 5.0 3PA per game now. He’s not whom we want to trade if we’re looking to add volume 3-point shooters. Working on an article regarding 10 Laker trades and trying to keep Kuzma out of all of them. He’s part of the evolving solution rather than the problem. Should definitely be starting imo.

Aloha, Michael,

Playing the right way is obviously critical but as we’ve seen when key players are out and shots aren’t falling, that can go away in a hurry. Sean made a great point in the last podcast that the in a way, everything fell in place perfectly for the Lakers in the bubble. The Clippers and Bucks stumbled. Frank made all the right moves. LeBron and AD dominated. KCP, Keef, and Rondo played brilliantly. The result was three 5-game series and a 6-game Finals. 16-5 record and the Lakers 17th NBA championship.

So even though I’m always the glass half full proponent looking for the silver linings in every cloud, I think there is no question the Lakers are going to have a much tougher challenge to repeat. No home court, an AD who has not looked like the DPOY this season, a team that suddenly can’t shoot straight, a better Clippers team, and a Nets team most prognosticators rank as favorites to win it all with three superstars vs. our two. Even though LeBron and AD are the best two of the five superstars who will be playing in that Finals, we’re going to be playing 2 against 3 or 1 against 2 for the entire series.

Hence, I still believe the Lakers need to make major moves to improve their rim protection, upgrade their 3-point shooting volume and percentage, and add a third star who can even the odds when we play the Nets in the Finals. I also am convinced Rob Pelinka and the Lakers understand this and will be looking to go all-in to fill the above three holes in our roster. Lakers have always thought big and, assuming the right opportunities arise, I think they’ll make major moves to improve the roster before March 24th. They’re not going to waste a chance to win another championship by standing pat. They clearly understand that this is not last season and the bar has been raised and the Lakers need do respond.

I completely agree with Michael on Kuzma and especially LeBron running out the clock before the offense could be set. It usually ends up with rushed shots or turnovers. That’s one of the biggest headaches I have to deal with. So, yeah, we have to play the right way to remain viable.

“If you listen to Stu on Spectrum you know he complains about this every game. All game long.” – Yes he does and I agree with Stu on this 100%. Basketball is a game of flow and when we get into our offense with 10 or fewer seconds on the clock we are not in a flow of any kind. I don’t put the onus on James, he’s doing what he does and the man is dog tired. This needs to be where the coaches tell the team the PG is someone named Dennis Schroeder: get him the ball on inbounds plays and let him do PG things. On the break there’s no better human to start, continue or finish a fast break than LeBron James. Anyone of James, Schroeder or Gasol are adept at downcourt passes to streaking Lakers. This is not rocket science and should have well drilled into the team by now. It has not been. We stifle our own plays searching out LeBron and we squander untold seconds dribbling out the clock when some in-paint exploration by any number of players would be more fitting to the moment. This is one of my biggest issues with Frank as a coach. Simplistic offense that overly relies on LeBron James and, to a lesser degree, Anthony Davis.

More could be asked of several players, Kuzma among them. Guys who have a clearly defined role on the team aren’t making shots, especially and specifically from three. This is killing our efficiency and creating turnovers and fast break points (also known as open threes or points in the paint). Until we solve the issue of efficient offense our defense, no matter how well it’s ranked, will have extra pressure applied to it. Pressure that is by and large avoidable.

I would still like a more mobile/athletic 5. We saw how we could at least stymie Jokic with Dwight (who also was DPOY one time and multiple ALL NBA Defense, not an easy skill set to replicate as excellent defense is more than jumping high or running fast). While AD will certainly finish games at the 5 and may even play the bulk of the minutes there we need insurance against injury, COVID and even plain old foul trouble. Currently, even with Damien Jones on the roster, we don’t really have that player in the fold.

Locking in a future to surround AD… and some excellent trading chips for another superstar.

And let’s not forget LBJ is mind and body 30, until proven wrong.