2019 NBA Offseason Thread -- Trades, Free Agents, Firings, Retirements, Etc

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

18 minutes ago, Llogg said:

Yeah but he's terrible. Just bring jr Smith in

He's good every 10th game or so.

[Carl Spackler 3501]

20 hours ago, Burt Macklin said:

Is this a joke or are you just regarded?

AD’s agent might as well be Lebron himself. 

There are no sure things.  AD and the Lakers won't extend prior to AD becoming a free agent for various reasons, including cap space and AD not wanting to limit his own market value.  And who knows what his mindset will be after the 19-20 season.  Most of the scuttlebutt is that he'll sign with the Lakers, but nothing is guaranteed at this point.  Shit can change in a hurry -- case in point = the Warriors.   

Edited June 16, 2019 by Carl Spackler

[Slacks 6862]

Is that real? If so, Shaq is awesome!

that's really fn funny.

[Francisco 2.0 32424]

Pretty good telling of the situation from the Lakers blog.   Also, they aren't exactly filled with glee after the details have came out.

This trade might be as one sided as the Cowboys heist sending Herschel Walker to the Vikings.  You young 'uns here who aren't aware of that trade ought to read up on the history of that deal, and what it did to both franchises.

 

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In the immediate aftermath of the Los Angeles Lakers finalizing the details on their blockbuster trade for Anthony Davis, there was a lot of reporting on who the team would go after next, because it appeared they had maintained enough room for another maximum contract. Would they chase Kemba Walker? Try to woo Kyrie Irving? The possibilities seemed endless, for about 9-10 hours at least.

 

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That’s when the news came down from Adrian Wojnarowski and Bobby Marks of ESPN: It appears that the Lakers were not able to convince the New Orleans Pelicans to wait to finalize the deal, and it will probably be completed on July 6. That, combined with their reporting that Davis will most likely not waive his trade kicker, means that the Lakers will probably not have anywhere close to max cap space in free agency.

 

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So, full disclosure, I’m not a cap expert. So I reached out to Jeff (@jgsiegel) — a cap wizard who runs the excellent and must-use earlybirdrights.com — to explain this to me as simply as possible, and I wanted all of you to see it as well, just in case you (like me) need some help to wrap your head around all these numbers, and why they mean what they mean.

Jeff, take it away:

 

Spoiler

There are two ways to do this trade, from a timing perspective. Either the Lakers and Pelicans can execute the deal on July 6, or wait until the end of July. Moving forward with it on July 6 means that Los Angeles has to use cap space to take in Davis. Using cap space to trade for a player means a team can ignore the usual salary-matching rules and simply use the space available to them to trade for the player. The Lakers will have more than enough cap space to cover Davis’s salary because Ball, Ingram, and Hart will be off the team and off their books.

The second path is to wait until late July and complete the trade as an over-the-cap team. This would mean holding onto Ball, Ingram, Hart and the picks they’re sending to New Orleans for the month of July and behaving, from a cap space perspective, as if that trade isn’t happening. 

In this scenario, they’d have the cap space they would have had if the Davis deal wasn’t happening at all, about $32.5 million. Then, after they used all their space, the trade would be made official, but this time the Lakers would have to abide by the salary matching rules, since they wouldn’t have the cap space to just take Davis. Matching Davis’s new $31.2 million salary (after his trade bonus, he counts at the new value in a trade) requires the Lakers to cobble together at least $24.8 million in salary, since teams at that level are allowed to take back up to 125 percent (plus $100,000) of the salary they send out. Ball, Ingram, and Hart don’t make enough money by themselves to add up to $24.8 million, but adding in the No. 4 overall pick’s salary makes the math work. The issue there is that draft picks can’t be traded until 30 days after they’ve signed their first contract, which would push the trade to late July at the earliest.

The Lakers and Pelicans have decided to move forward with the trade on July 6, rather than waiting until late July 30, which will eliminate about $8.9 million of the Lakers’ available cap space this summer, leaving them with $23.7 million.

 

 

 

 

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The elephant in the room here is that, as Woj mentioned above, it apparently is still possible that the two teams could wait to complete the deal, or for Davis to waive his kicker. But if Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka didn’t already negotiate the first part of that into the deal, it’s pretty unclear why the Pelicans would wait. Surely David Griffin is not looking to go out of his way to help the Lakers create a superteam when he doesn’t have to, so right now his incentive to do so doesn’t seem to be there.

As for the Davis part of this, the Lakers have worked extensively with his agent Rich Paul, who also represents LeBron James and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. If there haven’t already been signals that Davis will waive his kicker, that probably isn’t happening, either.

 

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So where does that leave the Lakers? With this trade not looking as great as it did yesterday, for one, although as noted above, that could change again if Davis ultimately does waive the kicker and the trade completion date is pushed back. But how that wasn’t already agreed to as part of the conditions of the haul Pelinka is already sending New Orleans, with pick swap options that will likely take place after LeBron James retires or leaves, is sort of baffling. If this is how things ultimately shake out, it would appear that somehow not even acquiring a top-five to top-ten player can be an infallible win for this front office.

 

But wait, there's more:

 

https://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2019/6/16/18681161/lakers-rumors-free-agency-pelicans-unlikely-delay-anthony-davis-trade-no-max-cap-space-yikes

 

Quote

The Lakers paid a heavy price to acquire Anthony Davis in a blockbuster trade that essentially gutted the entire roster outside of franchise cornerstones LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma. One of the theories behind surrendering so many assets was that clearing out all of the team’s young players would give the Lakers enough cap space to sign a third superstar to complement James and Davis. 

The cap mechanics required to make that happen are quite complicated, however, and it doesn’t appear that the Lakers negotiated cooperation from the Pelicans to ensure max space during their trade talks.

 

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Currently, because the trade has not been officially completed, the Lakers have maximum cap space for a 7-to-9 year free agent, like Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, or Jimmy Butler. The Lakers can use that space before consummating the Davis trade, which was assumed to be the plan. Because the Lakers would then be operating over the cap, they would need to send matching salary to New Orleans to facilitate the Davis trade. That matching salary includes the no. 4 overall pick, and that player cannot be traded until 30 days after signing his contract, which puts July 30 as the earliest day such a trade could be executed. 

Assuming you followed that, and feel free to read that paragraph again along with capologist Jeff Siegel’s explanation until you do, you may have noticed a complication. The Pelicans intend to complete this deal as early as possible on July 6, and according to a report from Tania Ganguli of the L.A. Times, they have no inclination to delay in order to help the Lakers, even if it’s apparently possible they could be swayed to do so:

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Although the Pelicans are open to working with the Lakers and delaying the trade, it’s unlikely that will happen, according to multiple people familiar with their thinking. New Orleans’ priority will be to make the fourth pick as attractive as possible to another team.

It’s likely that whatever team they trade the fourth pick to will want the player in their building as quickly as possible, and will want him to play at the Las Vegas Summer League, which will be held July 5-15. If the Pelicans opt to keep the pick, they might also want him to participate in Summer League.

 

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Given that New Orleans views the no. 4 pick as an asset for a future deal, they want to move that pick as soon as possible, which means they can’t wait around for the end of July, when most free agents will have already signed contracts. Whichever team ends up with that player will also probably want him in Summer League to learn their system as soon as possible, as Ganguli noted in her story. Lottery picks also drive a lot of business in Summer League. 

There has been some discussion that the Lakers will try to convince the Pelicans to wait on the trade if they need the max space, but that would probably require surrendering even more assets to New Orleans, because otherwise the Pelicans have no incentive to help L.A. The line in that story about them being open to the idea is all but an official request for the Lakers to offer another pick for the Pelicans’ ever-growing war chest.

 

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Furthermore, even if the Lakers don’t get a superstar, completing the trade on July 6 limits the space they have to go after other free agents, and the team will need plenty of those to build its roster. 

Basically, Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front office screwed up. Either they’ve put themselves in a position where they can’t realize their free agent grand plan, or they’ve given the Pelicans even more leverage to squeeze them dry. We knew that the Lakers were risking their future in the Davis trade, but now it has become clear that some poor negotiating may have forced them to sacrifice more of their present as well.

 

Edited June 16, 2019 by Francisco 2.0

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

So Anthony Davis demands a trade, but won't waive his trade kicker?  What an asshole.  You'd have to think he'd make up the trade kicker in LA endorsements alone.  I wonder if LA  backs out of this deal.  

Edited June 16, 2019 by dingleberryswitzer

[Vic Mackey 47138]

This is not even close to the Herschel trade. For one, football is not basketball. The importance of one player in basketball compared to football is not even comparable. Another, AD is a superstar in his prime in his mid 20s. Herschel was hardly that.

[aggie08 21527]

1 minute ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

So Anthony Davis demands a trade, but won't waive his trade kicker?  What an asshole.

That jumped out to me too.

[Patrick Bateman 3925]

22 minutes ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

So Anthony Davis demands a trade, but won't waive his trade kicker?  What an asshole.  You'd have to think he'd make up the trade kicker in LA endorsements alone.  I wonder if LA  backs out of this deal.  

Why is he being an asshole if he negotiated the cost into his contract?  LOL at the Lakers pulling out of the deal.

[Patrick Bateman 3925]

24 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

This is not even close to the Herschel trade. For one, football is not basketball. The importance of one player in basketball compared to football is not even comparable. Another, AD is a superstar in his prime in his mid 20s. Herschel was hardly that.

Herschel was 27.

[Francisco 2.0 32424]

38 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

This is not even close to the Herschel trade. For one, football is not basketball. The importance of one player in basketball compared to football is not even comparable. Another, AD is a superstar in his prime in his mid 20s. Herschel was hardly that.

Sure it is.  One franchise took advantage of another.  It took the Vikings years to recover from what they gave the Cowboys.  Time will tell if the Lakers are going to be affected to the same degree, but remember---the Lakers are largely out of control of their own drafting and picks until after LeBron is 40.  And he may be retired by then.

At that time, the Vikings felt all they needed was a RB to contend.  They gave up everything they could to make it work.  

The Lakers felt all they needed to contend is to get AD and one more piece.  They gutted their roster, blew up their cap space, ditched their youth, and gave away the next 7 years worth of draft picks.  Maybe it works.  Maybe we all look back on this and proclaim Rob Pelinka as an incredible GM.  Then again, maybe we will all look back on this and agree the Lakers were fucking fleeced.

That's the comparison you can make to the Vikings.  

Edited June 17, 2019 by Francisco 2.0

[Message Board User 12396]

If I'm the Lakers, I blame Lebron.

They were basically bidding against themselves and the only reason there was any pressure on them to get a deal done was Lebron...and David Griffin probably knew this.

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

1 hour ago, Patrick Bateman said:

Why is he being an asshole if he negotiated the cost into his contract?  LOL at the Lakers pulling out of the deal.

Well first he's an asshole for demanding a trade on a contract he signed.  But presumably he negotiated the kicker because he wanted to stay in New Orleans at the time.   Aren't the kickers meant to be sort of a "fuck you" to a team trading a player?

[HtownHorn 14766]

Just now, Message Board User said:

If I'm the Lakers, I blame Lebron.

They were basically bidding against themselves and the only reason there was any pressure on them to get a deal done was Lebron...and David Griffin probably knew this.

The Lakers mistake was stupidly signing 34 year old Lebron instead of developing their young core. Now they have a 3 year window to win a championship and traded away every asset they had for a guy that is injured 20% of the time.

[Francisco 2.0 32424]

7 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

The Lakers mistake was stupidly signing 34 year old Lebron instead of developing their young core. Now they have a 3 year window to win a championship and traded away every asset they had for a guy that is injured 20% of the time.

An incompetent front office was taken over by a player and his agent.  That's how you get to this point.

The Lakers really had no choice here.  They HAD to make the deal, and the Pelicans knew it.  Credit the Pelicans for getting a competent team president who knew a thing or two, and mock the Lakers for having Rob Lowe's twin running the show.

 

 

[fellside 1114]

If the trade doesn't go through until July 6, then how is New Orleans shop the 4th pick in the draft like they allegedly are doing? The Lakers will pick for the Pelicans who are picking for someone else?

Does the draft pick have to wear a Lakers hat and pretend he's going there?

[Chad 1728]

If the Lakers miss out on Kemba or Kyrie who are they going to sign? Jimmy Butler? I'm sure Jimmy and LeBron would co-exist peacefully and nothing could go wrong pairing up a malcontent with a diva. Klay is going to miss a good chunk of the upcoming season and was rumored to favor the Clippers if he did leave the Warriors. I'm going to laugh if the Lakers are unable to lure a 3rd star and have to fill out their roster with a bunch of Beasleys and McGees then flop out in the first round to a team like the Thunder.

[d2o 1602]

19 minutes ago, Chad said:

If the Lakers miss out on Kemba or Kyrie who are they going to sign? Jimmy Butler? I'm sure Jimmy and LeBron would co-exist peacefully and nothing could go wrong pairing up a malcontent with a diva. Klay is going to miss a good chunk of the upcoming season and was rumored to favor the Clippers if he did leave the Warriors. I'm going to laugh if the Lakers are unable to lure a 3rd star and have to fill out their roster with a bunch of Beasleys and McGees then flop out in the first round to a team like the Thunder.

If they don't get a 3rd star they will have money to get a couple quality guys.

 

[alincoln 2384]

I have heard the phrase "a still in his prime LeBron James" approximately 134 times since this trade went down.  

[conVINCEd 21469]

17 minutes ago, alincoln said:

I have heard the phrase "a still in his prime LeBron James" approximately 134 times since this trade went down.  

My primary concern about Lebron at this point is not his game or his health, it’s his attitude.

[BigOrange1 6470]

1 hour ago, Chad said:

If the Lakers miss out on Kemba or Kyrie who are they going to sign? Jimmy Butler? I'm sure Jimmy and LeBron would co-exist peacefully and nothing could go wrong pairing up a malcontent with a diva. Klay is going to miss a good chunk of the upcoming season and was rumored to favor the Clippers if he did leave the Warriors. I'm going to laugh if the Lakers are unable to lure a 3rd star and have to fill out their roster with a bunch of Beasleys and McGees then flop out in the first round to a team like the Thunder.

should have picked a team other than the thunder for this scenario because lebron + AD + whatever is enough to beat the thunder in the playoffs.

[Francisco 2.0 32424]

8 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

My primary concern about Lebron at this point is not his game or his health, it’s his attitude.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8817]

My primary concern about Lebron at this point is not his game or his health, it’s his attitude.

Haha touche. A lot of miles on that body but his holier than thou approach has become toxic the last few years

[Chad 1728]

56 minutes ago, d2o said:

If they don't get a 3rd star they will have money to get a couple quality guys.

 

They've been a complete shit show under Pelinka, you believe he can fill out the roster with quality players after the pieces he brought in to "compliment" LeBron last season?

[d2o 1602]

3 minutes ago, Chad said:

They've been a complete shit show under Pelinka, you believe he can fill out the roster with quality players after the pieces he brought in to "compliment" LeBron last season?

My point was more that if they miss out on a superstar they don't have to resort to the Beasley/MCGee types to fill out the roster like you mentioned.   Still I don't see why Pelinka wouldn't be able to get a couple decent guys to compliment LBJ/AD

[52-80 19237]

is chris paul the 3rd available?

[Underdog 28768]

Watch them talk DWade into one more run. 

[Patrick Bateman 3925]

11 minutes ago, d2o said:

My point was more that if they miss out on a superstar they don't have to resort to the Beasley/MCGee types to fill out the roster like you mentioned.   Still I don't see why Pelinka wouldn't be able to get a couple decent guys to compliment LBJ/AD

He should be able to get at least 2 and maybe 3 decent role players if they don't get another "star" to play with them.  Trevor Ariza is an interesting name if he'd take like 9-10 million for a short-term contract.  

[d2o 1602]

1 minute ago, Patrick Bateman said:

He should be able to get at least 2 and maybe 3 decent role players if they don't get another "star" to play with them.  Trevor Ariza is an interesting name if he'd take like 9-10 million for a short-term contract.  

Yep Ariza and if they can somehow manage to get JJ Redick in that space too I'd say the offseason would be a huge success for them.   IMO, its better if they don't get a 3rd big time guy.     Now if the 3rd guy is Kawhi then scratch that last statement but I don't think he would be a real possibility.

[SilasCoade 2622]

Jamal Crawford is one guy the Lakers should try to get cheap. He's not what he once was, but he can still put the ball in the hoop.

[aggie08 21527]

4 minutes ago, Llogg said:

Jamal Crawford is one guy the Lakers should try to get cheap. He's not what he once was, but he can still put the ball in the hoop.

His age was only one percentage point away from his field goal percentage last year.

[Francisco 2.0 32424]

4 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

is chris paul the 3rd available?

This needs to happen.  Nothing like having an often injured, defensively limited guard who will be pulling in (checks notes) $85 million combined in 20-21 and 21-22.

 

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

Spurs will trade patty Mills for cap space.

[Slacks 6862]

I'm going to look at this another way....

LeBron, Ball, Ingram and a #4 would not contend for a championship.

LeBron, AD, an all-star + decent role players will.

people can shit on LeBron, but the dude knows what a winning team looks like. The current Lakers staff has no idea what a winning team looks like.

If they want to be relevant, they call Magic and tell him and LeBron to do wtf they want. Pelinka and Buss can't run that thing, and they've proven it by running it into the shoreline.

Maybe they'll take Chris Paul... yay.

[Patrick Bateman 3925]

2 minutes ago, Snacks said:

I'm going to look at this another way....

LeBron, Ball, Ingram and a #4 would not contend for a championship.

LeBron, AD, an all-star + decent role players will.

people can shit on LeBron, but the dude knows what a winning team looks like. The current Lakers staff has no idea what a winning team looks like.

If they want to be relevant, they call Magic and tell him and LeBron to do wtf they want. Pelinka and Buss can't run that thing, and they've proven it by running it into the shoreline.

Maybe they'll take Chris Paul... yay.

Gonna be very hard to get what you just listed.  They can go with a near max guy (All Star) and have a bunch of minimum dudes with one MLE guy or they can have what they got with 3-4 good role players/bench guys.  Very difficult to do both except for getting ring chasers who aren't very good like Beasley or Lance.  Still, a healthy Lebron, AD, and Kuzma along with 3 solid role guys and then a ring chaser or two should be good enough to be a top 5 seed in a suddenly vulnerable West.

 

[Francisco 2.0 32424]

47 minutes ago, Snacks said:

I'm going to look at this another way....

people can shit on LeBron, but the dude knows what a winning team looks like. The current Lakers staff has no idea what a winning team looks like.

If they want to be relevant, they call Magic and tell him and LeBron to do wtf they want. Pelinka and Buss can't run that thing, and they've proven it by running it into the shoreline.

Maybe they'll take Chris Paul... yay.

 

Yeah, about that.

 

 

Edited June 17, 2019 by Francisco 2.0

[HtownHorn 14766]

57 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

Gonna be very hard to get what you just listed.  They can go with a near max guy (All Star) and have a bunch of minimum dudes with one MLE guy or they can have what they got with 3-4 good role players/bench guys.  Very difficult to do both except for getting ring chasers who aren't very good like Beasley or Lance.  Still, a healthy Lebron, AD, and Kuzma along with 3 solid role guys and then a ring chaser or two should be good enough to be a top 5 seed in a suddenly vulnerable West.

 

How is the West suddenly vulnerable? Sure the Warriors are hurt, but that doesn't make the rest of the Western Conference vulnerable. It's hilarious that people think Lebron is 28 year old Lebron and not 35 year old Lebron and Davis will not miss 20% of his team's games.

[Murfdogg21 4423]

Hey Morey, offer CP3 for the Lakers 2025-2028 first rounders!

[Vic Mackey 47138]

3 hours ago, Snacks said:

I'm going to look at this another way....

LeBron, Ball, Ingram and a #4 would not contend for a championship.

LeBron, AD, an all-star + decent role players will.

people can shit on LeBron, but the dude knows what a winning team looks like. The current Lakers staff has no idea what a winning team looks like.

If they want to be relevant, they call Magic and tell him and LeBron to do wtf they want. Pelinka and Buss can't run that thing, and they've proven it by running it into the shoreline.

Maybe they'll take Chris Paul... yay.

Yep. I used to be under the belief that trading away that many players for AD was not a good idea. But when you step back, you realize it's just quantity. Not much quality going to the Pelicans. AD is a superstar, although a bit overrated in terms of how valuable he is. He's a great player but does he really elevate his teams? And he's injury prone. Maybe it is because he has not been paired with someone else like a Lebron (although you will have some say he makes his teammates worse and that's fair). But there was absolutely no way the Lakers were doing shit with this core they had. The last 2 years proved that. They had to make a move. And they get AD in his prime, not over the hill like what the Nets got in their trade for KG and those guys.

If the Lakers struck out on AD or any superstar this offseason, it would have been a monumental failure and Lebron's last years would be slowly going into the toilet. And they got to keep Kuzma. But now lets see what they do from here. They still have work to do.

[Vic Mackey 47138]

2 hours ago, HtownHorn said:

How is the West suddenly vulnerable? Sure the Warriors are hurt, but that doesn't make the rest of the Western Conference vulnerable. It's hilarious that people think Lebron is 28 year old Lebron and not 35 year old Lebron and Davis will not miss 20% of his team's games.

I mean without the Warriors, who scares you in the West? We have to see what the Clippers do with all their space (many think they land Kawhi). With the injuries for the Warriors, there is now not a team you point to as head and shoulders above the rest of the teams. Blazers and Nuggets still haven't proven anything. The West is as open as its been since the 2014-15 season for sure. 

[cmontexas 3279]

Lebron + a bunch of scrubs=no playoffs

Zion+ same bunch of scrubs= exciting young team!

[Sbbruin 21867]

46 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

Yep. I used to be under the belief that trading away that many players for AD was not a good idea. But when you step back, you realize it's just quantity. Not much quality going to the Pelicans. AD is a superstar, although a bit overrated in terms of how valuable he is. He's a great player but does he really elevate his teams? And he's injury prone. Maybe it is because he has not been paired with someone else like a Lebron (although you will have some say he makes his teammates worse and that's fair). But there was absolutely no way the Lakers were doing shit with this core they had. The last 2 years proved that. They had to make a move. And they get AD in his prime, not over the hill like what the Nets got in their trade for KG and those guys.

If the Lakers struck out on AD or any superstar this offseason, it would have been a monumental failure and Lebron's last years would be slowly going into the toilet. And they got to keep Kuzma. But now lets see what they do from here. They still have work to do.

Exactly.  I am just now getting my arms around this as I was on vacation and my mind was elsewhere.  But if the endgame is to hoist a championship- and that should be everyone's endgame- then this move gives us a legit shot.  Maybe better than legit.  But the group we had, plus one other FA like say a Jimmy Butler or Kemba (we wouldn't have gotten anyone better), wasn't going to do much more than a mid-round exit from the playoffs. Between being "pretty good" for an extended period, or pushing our chips and trying to win it all now and having a real shot to do it, I think there is no question which direction you go.  The Laker mentality has always been championship or bust, and they back that up.  It has been bust for a looong time now, at least as far as our organizational history is concerned, and now we are in the hunt overnight.  We will add one more big piece, so a lineup of LBJ, AD, all-star x, Kuzma, and then a bunch of complimentary players, who may be better than people think because this is a team that can win and players will recognize that, has a very legit shot.  And we will have an AD in his late 20's to build around when LBJ is done, so we won't be at ground zero like we were when Kobe retired.

[HtownHorn 14766]

52 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

I mean without the Warriors, who scares you in the West? We have to see what the Clippers do with all their space (many think they land Kawhi). With the injuries for the Warriors, there is now not a team you point to as head and shoulders above the rest of the teams. Blazers and Nuggets still haven't proven anything. The West is as open as its been since the 2014-15 season for sure. 

Open yes, doesn't mean old ass lebron + oft injured Davis + a slew of rejects is going to crash the party.

[Zonahorn 8079]

Laker fans actually think the Pels are going to just wait until the 30th.

[Sbbruin 21867]

3 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

Open yes, doesn't mean old ass lebron + oft injured Davis + a slew of rejects is going to crash the party.

This is incorrect.  First, LeBron is one season removed from arguably his best playoff performance of his career.  I wouldn't characterize him as "old-ass" and he is getting 2 more months of rest than he usually gets.  And I am pretty certain every GM in the NBA would put AD in their top 6-7 targets if the entire league were free agents.  Plus a slot for a mid $20 mil player, and I would guess better than average role players who want to chase a championship, and I will take that roster over the Rockets current roster all day long.  

I get the Laker hate.  I hate the fucking Yankees.  But take the blinders off and this is going to be a good team.  Well, the wiseguys think so, but hey, what do they know, right?

[HtownHorn 14766]

2 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

This is incorrect.  First, LeBron is one season removed from arguably his best playoff performance of his career.  I wouldn't characterize him as "old-ass" and he is getting 2 more months of rest than he usually gets.  And I am pretty certain every GM in the NBA would put AD in their top 6-7 targets if the entire league were free agents.  Plus a slot for a mid $20 mil player, and I would guess better than average role players who want to chase a championship, and I will take that roster over the Rockets current roster all day long.  

I get the Laker hate.  I hate the fucking Yankees.  But take the blinders off and this is going to be a good team.  Well, the wiseguys think so, but hey, what do they know, right?

Lebron also is coming off a season where he missed nearly 30 games, and looked disinterested for almost the entire year. I get it, the Lakers have been trash since Kobe entered the stat chasing part of his career, but not many teams in the West are going to fear Lebron+Davis+ a bunch of other players on the wrong side of 30.

[d2o 1602]

8 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

This is incorrect.  First, LeBron is one season removed from arguably his best playoff performance of his career.  I wouldn't characterize him as "old-ass" and he is getting 2 more months of rest than he usually gets.  And I am pretty certain every GM in the NBA would put AD in their top 6-7 targets if the entire league were free agents.  Plus a slot for a mid $20 mil player, and I would guess better than average role players who want to chase a championship, and I will take that roster over the Rockets current roster all day long.  

I get the Laker hate.  I hate the fucking Yankees.  But take the blinders off and this is going to be a good team.  Well, the wiseguys think so, but hey, what do they know, right?

Not just Laker hate.    Laker AND LBJ hate.    That's some pretty powerful stuff.    It's wild how deep it seems to go here.

[d2o 1602]

6 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

Lebron also is coming off a season where he missed nearly 30 games, and looked disinterested for almost the entire year. I get it, the Lakers have been trash since Kobe entered the stat chasing part of his career, but not many teams in the West are going to fear Lebron+Davis+ a bunch of other players on the wrong side of 30.

You guys keep saying this but its not the reality.   Maybe its what you are hoping for but its not how it will be.   Also LBJ avg'd 27/8/8 in the games he played "disinterested" imagine what he would do when they are in a championship chase.

Edited June 17, 2019 by d2o

[hobbes2702 13061]

5 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

Lebron also is coming off a season where he missed nearly 30 games, and looked disinterested for almost the entire year. I get it, the Lakers have been trash since Kobe entered the stat chasing part of his career, but not many teams in the West are going to fear Lebron+Davis+ a bunch of other players on the wrong side of 30.

Well their first two are better than every other teams first two in the west. 

[Jhawk 1075]

31 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

Well their first two are better than every other teams first two in the west. 

Yeah.. But the warriors just had a first 4 that was better than any first 4 in the league (maybe even 5 if you count cousins).  KD gets injured and they're on life support.  Klay goes down and they are done.  You can't have quin cook be your back up plan if you want to win.  With Davis and his injury history you have to have more talent than just him and lebron.  Lebron didn't exactly take the lakers far this year and they are going to have less assets than they did in 2018-19.

[hobbes2702 13061]

9 minutes ago, Jhawk said:

Yeah.. But the warriors just had a first 4 that was better than any first 4 in the league (maybe even 5 if you count cousins).  KD gets injured and they're on life support.  Klay goes down and they are done.  You can't have quin cook be your back up plan if you want to win.  With Davis and his injury history you have to have more talent than just him and lebron.  Lebron didn't exactly take the lakers far this year and they are going to have less assets than they did in 2018-19.

Quinn cook can absolutely be the backup plan if you don’t have to go to your backup plan. I mean if AD gets injured then they are fucked anyway. 

Quinn cook was the backup plan for a title winner last year. They didn’t need him then because their best was healthy. 

And 1 AD is worth all three of the “assets” that they traded him for. Those guys provide basically nothing to a team trying to win a title.

I mean if you’re having to rely on a backup plan you’re losing in the NBA.

Edited June 17, 2019 by hobbes2702