I would not have allowed Caruso to walk knowing that the Clippers and Nets were spending $100 million more and the Warriors $150 million more in taxes than the Lakers. Only Knicks make more or are worth more as a franchise than the Lakers.
The Lakers went into this offseason not willing to spend what the other main competitors were willing to spend. That may come back to haunt them once the season starts, especially since the only trading chips they will have at the deadline is THT’s $10M and Nunn’s $5M.
Re-signing Caruso and Schroder to tradeable contracts would have given the Lakers a lot more flexibility when it comes to making moves at the deadline or next summer. Losing Caruso and Schroder for nothing when we had their Bird rights is simple the Lakers being cheap and not wanting to incur major luxury taxes. Spin it however you want, Michael, but it smells and looks cheap because those moves were all about not paying luxury taxes.
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Here’s the issue. It would be dumb to just dedicate every other position on the team to 3-point shooters. The team has other needs like a backup point guard behind Russ, a rugged defensive center to guard Jokic, a bigger 3&D wing defender to guard PG and Durant.
But the idea that the Lakers can solve their 3-point shooting and spacing problems by signing a half a dozen veteran minimum players who make 1 or 2 threes per game is ludicrous. To start with, none of those guys is going to start and at best one or two could come off the bench.
The two most important players as far as the Lakers go right now are the two players who are going to start and finish games with LeBron, AD, and Russ. For the Westbrook move to work, these two starters need to be high volume, high percentage 3-point shooters like Buddy Hield or Reggie Bullock. You can’t waste one of those spots on a low post center.
I think we can get one of those two high volume and percentage 3-point shooters with the mini MLE. Maybe a guy like Reggie Bullock, who’s also an excellent defender. The other player has to come from the expanded Westbrook trade or a new trade. It may or may not involve Dennis Schroder but it very likely could involve Talen Horton-Tucker and/or Alex Caruso because the luxury tax situation is going to be a major factor.
Yup. Well put. Only so many arrows in the quiver.