Marc may be untradable at this point so Lakers may have to include a sweetener to move him for a more mobile defender. What we need is not necesarily a rim protector but a modern center who can block shots and defend on the perimeter. Nerlens Noel from Knicks or WCS from Mavs.
What Does Championship Run Reveal About What Lakers Need to Repeat?
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October 18, 2020 13 Comments
The Lakers could use a third scorer, second playmaker, wing defender, and modern center. You could argue they filled those needs last year with KCP as the third scorer, Rondo the second playmaker, LeBron and AD the wing defender, and AD the modern center with help from Markieff Morris playing the four.
With AD exercising his player option, the Lakers will have to pay him $4 million more, won’t have his Bird rights next season, and will lose their MLE and only have the room exception, which is going to make it hard to re-sign KCP, Rondo, Morris, and Dwight. And forget about having any money left for any free agents. We’re going to lose somebody for sure and my guess is Dwight Howard. KCP and Morris are essential. Rondo will hopefully give s a home town discount. Dwight looks headed to the Warriors or Celtics. Hopefully, Boogie will replace him.
That means we aren’t going to be able to roll it back, which means trading Kuzma, Green, and the pick becomes our only way to pgrade the team in any major way. If we can keep KCP, Morris, and Rondo, great. Then we need to trade or sign-and-trade for a stretch four or five to play with AD. One that can play defense. My ideal target would be Turner. A defense with LeBron, Myles, and Anthony would suffocate defenses and open up the floor on offense. Going to be a fun offseason. Keep your fingers crossed.
Aloha Tom, Rob has a lot of decisions to make. The biggest one is does he want to chase a 3rd star in free agency next year, when it is a deep class, or does he want to stick with a two star approach with a deep versatile roster that just won a ring. The most glaring problem I see in trading Kuz is the fact that we only have 3 forwards under contract and AD plays center half the time. We got away with our shortage of forwards because we had 3 talented defensive guards 6’ 5” or taller that can defend forwards in our switch everything defense. If you trade Kuz and Danny for anyone other than another forward we are now down to one forward and a part time forward and down one of the big guards that made our system work. That’s why I’m really against trading for any of the small PG out there if it includes Kuz. We already have the best PG in the world and the defensive guard rotation to make it work. As for Turner, there is a lot of interest for him with teams that have more to offer including the Warriors who have the number 2 pick and the T-Wolves pick next year. We really only have the MLE to work with because our trade chips are not the best. I also don’t believe in the ring chaser solution. An example of a quality ring chaser is a guy that could make 10 mil but signs for 8 to chase a ring. With exception of David West I cant think of another quality player that left a pile of money on the table and signed a minimum contract to chase a ring. Dudley is more the typical veteran ring chaser. Personally I like the 2 star, deep team approach. Unless you draft someone that blossoms into a star, it’s really hard in today’s cal environment to have 3 stars with enough depth to still win it all.
Aloha, Michael,
Thanks for commenting. You’re right what we are going to do to improve our roster to try and repeat this season will depend entirely on whether Pelinka continues the plan to maximize cap space to chase a third superstar in the offseason after next season.
Personally, I would prefer that we went all in to win now as we need to get better if we want to win the championship next season because none of our competitors are going to stand pat. I also don’t want to get into the same situation we did last season where waiting for Kawhi cost us opportunities to become an even better team. Finally, having valuable players on good contracts could put us in a better position to land a player like Giannis than just having cap space. We saw sign-and-trades become the preferred transactions among many teams last offseason.
One factor I think strongly favors the Lakers protecting their cap space after next season is the reality that the third superstar plan doesn’t work unless LeBron James is willing to take less than a max contract, which kind of indicates LeBron must be amenable to doing that in the right situation, like Giannis deciding to join the Lakers. I don’t see Pelinka protecting that cap space without at least a token understanding LeBron would be amenable.
Bottom line, while I think Pelinka and the Lakers will still be shooting for the superstar after next season, I also think winning the championship has made taking advantage of the opportunity to repeat more important. Lakers have shown they have the best team in the league right now and it would be foolish not to be in a win now mode to repeat, especially knowing everybody else is going to be loading up to try to dethrone us. We also know some things we didn’t last offseason, including that LeBron is still the King and AD is now the second-best player on the planet.
The result is more of a win now attitude and hopefully an approach that recognizes cap space alone is not the answer. Our overreliance on cap space has at times limited what we were able to do with respect to trades and sign-and-trades. If we can get a player like Oladipo or Turner now, we’re not going to hesitate. If we have to pay to keep Rondo, Morris, KCP, and Howard, we’re not going to hesitate. We’ll still try to keep contracts as flexible as possible but won’t let cap space alone undermine improving the roster to win it again next season.
Michael, you make a good point about trading Kuzma for a guard. Unless we are unable to keep Rondo, which I am strongly in favor of, I think it’s important to trade for a stretch big, ideally a center or at least a big power forward who can at least play small ball center. Right now, we have too many guards and not enough forwards. For me, the biggest way to improve the team right now is to add a stretch four or five.
I do agree it’s going to be tough to trade for Turner, although I would offer the kitchen sink, including Kuzma, THT, the pick … and even Caruso if it would get the deal done … with Green and McGee as filler. That’s a pretty good offer for the Pacers. If that didn’t work, I would give the Pistons the same offer in a sign and trade for Christian Wood. Turner or Wood playing alongside LeBron and AD would make the Lakers a deadly team at both ends. Turner is the better defender, Wood the better shooter but both could play the five leaving AD to man the four.
Best of all, that still leaves us the MLE and BAE to fill out the roster.
Caruso is all but untouchable in my book. Synergy with LeBron? Can fill in for either guard spot? Consummate teammate who still has some upside on a cheap deal? That’s not Kuzma impact, it’s far higher. Has to be a future of the team kind of addition and Myles Turner ain’t that kind of player.
LOL. Nobody is untouchable other than LeBron or AD. I love AC too but he won’t be a deal killer.
Jamie, I am completely with you on Caruso. There is no way I would entertain his name in any conversation with another team if I am pelinka. I would even hang up the phone if the conversation goes that far.
Michael, you made some great points. Always love your takes.
Turner is a thumbs up!
Agreed.
Great read LT, lots to agree with and the proposals seem pretty fair. Not sure anyone will be excited by our packaging of Kuzma and filler. Our picks also won’t be that great. Trades may be best held off on until whenever the trading deadline ends up happening. This squad both won the west and the NBA Finals, might be best to let it ride for the first 1/3 of the season and gauge the desperate sellers so we don’t have to buy high.
Might be best to use our cap tools (BAE and MLE) to re-sign the vital in-house talent.
Thanks, Jamie. If the Lakers can’t find the right deal this offseason, waiting until the trade deadline is certainly a smart option. There always are teams who want to see what happens the first half of the season before reevaluati ng their option. Byers can suddenly become sellers and vice versa.
Oladipo might play great but the Pacers may crater. Kuzma might also play great and increase his value. THT might become part of the Lakers rotation. Green might prove he was injured.
So you’re right, the Lakers may have two bites of the apple. Dwight may be the one to leave with Boogie replacing him. I do think we need to include McGee in a trade as he has almost become unplayable.
I also the agree the Lakers will likely use Bird rights to re-sign and reward KCP, Early Bird rights to do the same for Rondo, and the BAE to sign Morris. If we can do that, then we may be able to use our full $9.3 million MLE to add a scorer, playmaker, wing defender, or stretch center.
That will reduce the pressure to make a trade and give us an option to wait until the trade deadline.