NBA General Discussions | Lakers Trade Ideas/FA Discussions

[tamaraw08]

Hmmmm, nah. I wouldn't give up #2 pick for Lopez if I can get Ball..

I would consider giving up Russell for Lopez though...

Russell/Mozgov/future 1st round pick.. I'm not sold on Russell at 2-guard after his performance this season.. His shooting is way too streaky to play 2-guard + he is undersized and slow. I don't want Russell for SG, and he is too expensive for off the bench. Quite frankly, if I can land Lonzo Ball, I would part ways with Russell.

I strongly believe that Luke is not a fan of slow bigs like Mozgov, Lopez and even Zubac. He finds every excuse to play Ingram extensive minutes and yet it took game 46, Jan 17, to finally play Zubac for more than 25 mins with a TON of DNP's coach's decision before that.
Even when he showed a lot of promise, he will bench the kid for some mistakes and have shut him down for the season with a sprain injury.
I've been a fan of Brook since his Stanford days but I just don't see Luke maximizing his strength and I think Mozgov is a little faster than him.

[bladefd]

hmmm, 6 games left and we just won today.. Suns are back to below the Lakers in seeding. Suns are clearly all out tanking going 0-10 last 10. Lakers have the tie-breaker.. We may be screwed, guys. We will have to forget about Lonzo Ball..

[dd24]

This article that I saw today says that if the Lakers lose their 1st round pick this year they also lose their pick in 2019... unprotected too.
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/lakers...153514035.html

[qrich]

This article that I saw today says that if the Lakers lose their 1st round pick this year they also lose their pick in 2019... unprotected too.
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/lakers...153514035.html

Yup, one of the reasons I wrote y'all should be tanking from tip off.

If Lakers keep the pick, Orlando gets the Lakers 2nd Rounder this year and next year.

[bladefd]

That Steve Nash trade continues to torment us into 2019... 5 years later.. One of the stupidest trades I have seen.

I am okay with the Orlando deal - at that time, that was a risk worth taking for a Dwight still in his prime. Even though we didn't know if he would re-sign, I would do that deal 100 times over.

But that Nash deal - how could anyone be THAT foolish to give up that many picks? Nash didn't even fit the team considering we had Kobe on the squad, both ball dominant players. Kobe from scoring perspective and Nash from setting up others. That was destined to never work from pure basketball personnel perspective, even if we forget the injuries for a moment.

I don't know where do we go from here if we lose our top 3 pick. We were banking on that pick giving us a huge asset going forward. If we could have acquired Ball, it would have allowed us to potentially part ways with Russell through a trade. Ball seems highly unlikely at this point so we are looking at Josh Jackson or Fultz if we get 3rd pick. If the scouts and mock drafts are right, Fultz will be gone 2nd (I prefer Josh Jackson anyways). Ball is looking more and more likely to be the top pick.

If we lose our top 3 pick altogether, Lakers future is in jeopardy unless if we can sign a #1 player like PG.. That would mean we will have to wait another season of hell. All we can do at this point is intentionally all out tank like Phoenix is doing and just hope they win a game. Screw it, we have to tank remaining 5 games. I wouldn't even bother trying - let 2nd unit get majority of minutes. Organization future is at stake.

[dd24]

Well, it looks like Phoenix has secured the 2nd worst record. Beating the Spurs last night was not how anyone thought that game would go.

[tamaraw08]

Well, it looks like Phoenix has secured the 2nd worst record. Beating the Spurs last night was not how anyone thought that game would go.

There's a 5 loss deficit bet Nets and Lakers, I just wonder if Jeremy Lin was able to come back healthy by mid Jan instead. Nets racked up about 16 straight losses around that time and they were about .500 when he came back on Feb 24.oh well.
I cringe at the tought esp when NY which was the 2nd worse team dropped to 4th pick overall 2 years back.

[bladefd]

Still a 15.6% chance of landing that top pick, guys. Keep your fingers crossed!

Publicly, I want to avoid all things Lonzo and I don't want him bc I'm trying hard to not jinx things Privately, I want Lonzo Ball to be a Laker even considering all of the distractions from the father. It is not tough to overcome the distractions once basketball season starts. If that happens, I'm ready to trade Russell - he isn't a true PG better than Ball and is too small/inconsistent shooter to play SG next to Ball.

47% of being in top 3. If we drop out and philly gets that pick, I am going to be pissed off. Potentially, philly can end up with 2 top 5 picks. Philly doesn't deserve that after 8yrs of blatant tanking then they still trade Nerlens Noel for scraps to Dallas just last month.

I wonder what we are going to do with the Houston pick? Is the draft this year that deep to 28th pick?

[bladefd]

Lakers swingman Metta World Peace, 37, said he was told during exit interviews today by Magic Johnson, the team's president of basketball operations, that the team would not be bringing him back next season. World Peace said he hasn't made any decisions about his future, such as retirement. He hopes to one day become a coach, but World Peace does hope to play in the NBA next season, even if it's not with the Lakers. In his 17th NBA season, World Peace played sparingly, averaging 2.3 points over 6.4 minutes in 25 games with the Lakers. "I appreciated them giving me a chance to play," World Peace said. "It was fun."

Thanks MWP aka Ron Artest for the memories!

The shot heard around the world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-mT99HCFFI

=]

[kkinchen]

Westbrook/Ball/George/Randle/Cousins
Ennis/Nwaba/Ingram/Ojeleye/Black

It could happen. Westbrook could decide to go team up with Ball and George who are also from L.A. And consider the fact that Ball averaged a triple double in high school, and that is looking like the perfect backcourt mate for Westbrook.

[$LakerGold]

Who are you guys hoping to get this offseason? Getting rid of Mozgov x Deng's contract would be nice.

[tamaraw08]

Who are you guys hoping to get this offseason? Getting rid of Mozgov x Deng's contract would be nice.

I can't see other teams absorbing those relatively huge/lengthy contracts unless the Lakers would be willing to accept an equally bad contract/s say Brandon Knight of the Suns.
or Reggie Jackson was seemed to be out of place now at Detroit.
Pelinka would be an instant manager of the year if he somehow work his magic and convince Deng and Mozgov to agree on a contract buy out (assuming the they can increase their cap space ofcourse

[dd24]

Knight signed for 5 years 70 million I think. That's not too bad. There's a lot of guys that will be getting that this off season. At least Knight is young still and seems to be an up and coming kind of guy. He's in a bad situation in Phoenix with too many people at PG there plus he just can't stay healthy. Even with that said there's no reason to go after him. Russell seems to have a decent ceiling still. Possibly even higher and he's on a rookie contract. Same idea for Reggie. Not sure why the Lakers would want him over their youth. As a Pistons guy I'd do some type of Reggie for Russell based trade though lol. PG's typically take a few years to really develop. I would expect this season and the following we'll really start to see if Russell can play at an all-star kind of level.

I don't see the Lakers making a big splash in free agency again so saying who they should get is kind of irrelevant to me. They aren't getting Durant, Curry, Hayward, Paul, Griffin, or Lowry. It doesn't make sense to pay a guy like Paul Milsap. They have two young players they are developing at that position. Do you really want Jrue Holiday at PG over what they currently have? The numbers aren't much different. Gallinari would make some sense but they just drafted Ingram. Gotta let him develop too. Dwayne Wade, Otto Porter, Greg Monroe? Wade makes a tiny bit of sense. Porter at SF again doesn't. Monroe at C does a bit but Zubac is going to be playing more next season and is probably already a better defender. Monroe is much more polished offensively though. Are you going to give Redick 15 million per season? Not me. Rudy Gay, Dion Waiters, Rajon Rondo, Zach Randolph, Tyreke Evans, Deron Williams, Javale McGee, etc etc. I just don't see a great fit among the top FA's for the Lakers.

I think a guy like Tim Hardaway Jr would work in the back court. He's an under rated young guy that can score well. Beasley would be a guy who could score off the bench that might be able to be had for cheap. He actually was efficient scoring this season. Maybe see if the Kings match on McLemore. I think it's more the 2nd/3rd tier kind of guys the Lakers may go after. Fans just gotta cross their fingers the team keeps that pick. That will probably be the biggest change in the roster this season.

FA's may not work out but they could trade for George or Butler. That is what I would go for. Those guys both carried their teams to the playoffs in the East. Sure it wouldn't happen in the West with this roster, but it would be a great start.

[bladefd]

Very astute points, dd. I think you are spot on!

-I would look at signing Dion Waiters if there are plans on trading Clarkson. I think Dion looked good for Miami and would be a solid replacement for Clarkson if we trade Clarkson. Dion would be cheaper as well
-Same with Tyreke Evans as with Dion. I think we can get Tyreke for even cheaper, but Dion is better
-good point on Beasley and tim hardaway jr. I forgot about those guys.. You can get them for cheap to bolster the bench. I would give them 3yr deals with team option after 2yrs.
-I wouldn't trade for George. Better to sign him outright next summer - he seems to want to come to Lakers. I would try to trade for Jimmy Butler in the meantime. We have some assets, but I feel like the Celtics will outbid us with the assets they have. I would definitely not unload Ingram for Butler, but I would seriously consider Russell.

Everything depends very much on what happens in the lottery/draft before we can discuss this further. Only 2 weeks away! Keep your fingers crossed, friends!

[tamaraw08]

Very astute points, dd. I think you are spot on!

-I would look at signing Dion Waiters if there are plans on trading Clarkson. I think Dion looked good for Miami and would be a solid replacement for Clarkson if we trade Clarkson. Dion would be cheaper as well
-Same with Tyreke Evans as with Dion. I think we can get Tyreke for even cheaper, but Dion is better
-good point on Beasley and tim hardaway jr. I forgot about those guys.. You can get them for cheap to bolster the bench. I would give them 3yr deals with team option after 2yrs.
-I wouldn't trade for George. Better to sign him outright next summer - he seems to want to come to Lakers. I would try to trade for Jimmy Butler in the meantime. We have some assets, but I feel like the Celtics will outbid us with the assets they have. I would definitely not unload Ingram for Butler, but I would seriously consider Russell.

Everything depends very much on what happens in the lottery/draft before we can discuss this further. Only 2 weeks away! Keep your fingers crossed, friends!

We can talk all day on which players they need to go after but I strongly believe management should take a long hard look on the staff.
I see very little development with Clarkson, even regressing on his 3pt shooting. Lakers wasted their pick on Anthony Johnson even spent money on Yi Lian Lian, both failures.
On the other hand Miami has found a gem in Whiteside. Tyler Johnson went undrafted and now has been an important piece on their rotation (higher PER than 2nd pick Russell).
You mentioned Waiters, well he averaged less than 10pts, 2 assists at OKC but significantly thrived at Miami with 16pts, 4 assists and almost 40% from the 3pt line. Coincidence?
Well James Johnson was a big disappointment at Chicago (3pts/game), was so so at Toronto(5pts-2 rebs/game), went to Miami and recently averaged 13 pts/5 rebs.
even the freaking Wayne Ellington became decent at Miami, most of his numbers were up as compared to when he had a more solid role with the Lakers.
Is it just coaching? I don't think so, it's Pat Riley's ability to find the right staff, motivate these guys to be the best they can be. Lamar Odom was not great mentally and emotionally with the Clips until Pat had a great talk with him. Haslem was severely overweight in college, then became a solid role player during their championship run.
Reggie Miller kept crediting Spurs shooting coach Chip Engelland on the amazing shooting accuracy of Kawhi Leonard....
I read a few months back that D'Angelo Russell in his first 15 months with the team NEVER had a routine to work on his game, as in he shoots or practice dribbling only when he "feels" he needs it.
btw, no on Tyreke Evans. Before there was Chandler Parsons, there was a guy like Evans collecting money while spending countless hours on the IR lists.