**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins

[BIG LEEMELONE]

When has woj ever been right about the Lakers?

 

[pmatic]

Ever since Mitch left, he's been getting fed more info.

 

[BIG LEEMELONE]

Ever since Mitch left, he's been getting fed more info.

Like what tho? Not writing him off, just can't think of any examples

 

[atlsfinest]

a Lot of us knew this would happen, knew about LeGM, knew about Lebron Ball, knew he would dominate the ball and hinder youth development (Ball/BI).....I guess it’s the price you pay to become a 50 win team again and 5 years of trash. they could’ve went a different route; but we all knew the day Magic was hired it was to get the big fish

I'll give you BI but I think the thing that's holding Lonzo back is literally being one of the worst shooters in the league and his inability to even make layups on a consistent basis. Don't act like LeBron is the reason Lonzo can't make shots.

Also, what other route was there? I've been saying this since last season, but none of our young guys are ever going to be great NBA players. Honestly, how good would an Ingram, Kuzma, Hart, Zo and Randle led team be? A friend playoff team? Some of them might be good pieces, but none of them will be all stars. We have a bunch of complementary players and needed an alpha.

We try the tanking route and our front office botched three consecutive top 2 picks. We tried recruiting other stars and we struck out for 5 consecutive years. I'd rather roll the dice with LeBron and cap space as opposed to our other plans.

 

[pmatic]

Woj couldn't even get the draft picks before, but can now get details of Magic-Pelinka wanting to pick their own coach, the Magic-Puke meeting, etc.

 

[sohi 23]

Woj couldn't even get the draft picks before, but can now get details of Magic-Pelinka wanting to pick their own coach, the Magic-Puke meeting, etc.

He didn’t get details of the meetings until like 3-4 days after it happened.

 

[grittyman]

Ingram, Lonzo, and even Kuz for that matter are all nice young players to have for now.... but I don't think I'll feel the same way about them once their rookie deals are up and they're paid to produce on a nightly basis.

Case in point. How many of you guys are cool with the Lakers extending BI next summer for $20 plus million a season? Cause if we don't trade him, it's going to happen. Might be a similar situation with Kuzma, and I don't even want to start thinking about Lonzo's next contract yet

 

[BIG LEEMELONE]

He still didn't get the draft picks did he?

He didn’t get details of the meetings until like 3-4 days after it happened.

It was also Dave Mac, LeBron's guy, who broke that story at the same time

 

[pmatic]

To be honest, the Lakers have to extend Ingram to make the money work for a Davis trade down the line.

Only way they can trade for Davis next summer is if they didn't use their cap space, and traded the youngsters for him using their salaries and cap space.

 

[sohi 23]

Ingram, Lonzo, and even Kuz for that matter are all nice young players to have for now.... but I don't think I'll feel the same way about them once their rookie deals are up and they're paid to produce on a nightly basis.

Case in point. How many of you guys are cool with the Lakers extending BI next summer for $20 plus million a season? Cause if we don't trade him, it's going to happen. Might be a similar situation with Kuzma, and I don't even want to start thinking about Lonzo's next contract yet

100000%

Lonzo is playing himself into a very feasible deal tho

I would hate to be the team that pays Ingram 20 mil a year plus

 

[MVP]

To be honest, the Lakers have to extend Ingram to make the money work for a Davis trade down the line.

Only way they can trade for Davis next summer is if they didn't use their cap space, and traded the youngsters for him using their salaries and cap space.

2nd scenario seems likely once the free agents go elsewhere. Think we'd still have 20 mil in cap to fill out the roster if that happens (Bi/Zo/Hart centered deal) maybe Juju reunion if he ditches Mintz.

 

[atlsfinest]

Ingram, Lonzo, and even Kuz for that matter are all nice young players to have for now.... but I don't think I'll feel the same way about them once their rookie deals are up and they're paid to produce on a nightly basis.

Case in point. How many of you guys are cool with the Lakers extending BI next summer for $20 plus million a season? Cause if we don't trade him, it's going to happen. Might be a similar situation with Kuzma, and I don't even want to start thinking about Lonzo's next contract yet

That's what I'm saying. Those fans who say "roll with the young guys and see what happens" don't understand the economics ofthe NBA. Ingram is up for an extension next year and the following year, Lonzo, Hart and Kuzma are all up for extensions. Very soon, we're going to have to make a decision on whether or not we're going to commit big money please players for the long term. Are you ready to give Ingram 5 year, $100m contract? Are you ready to let him walk?

Also, by giving these players big money you're also taking yourself out of the mix for big-name free agents. We'd be in a Randle situation all over again.

 

[Lizakers]

No Lonzo fan here but I think he’s better controlling the offense, pushing the pace, having the ball and making decisions. Lebron is doing a lot of that now.

 

[grittyman]

To be honest, the Lakers have to extend Ingram to make the money work for a Davis trade down the line.

Only way they can trade for Davis next summer is if they didn't use their cap space, and traded the youngsters for him using their salaries and cap space.

I'm okay with THAT

I like BI, but something about him on a huge deal has Nic Batum written all over it to me.

If Lonzo's offense doesn't improve, I'd be okay with giving him a deal maybe 2-3 mil about the Marcus Smart contract...but not a penny more

 

[atlsfinest]

2nd scenario seems likely once the free agents go elsewhere. Think we'd still have 20 mil in cap to fill out the roster if that happens (Bi/Zo/Hart centered deal) maybe Juju reunion if he ditches Mintz.

But what is that team achieving? That's essentially the same team we have now except we would have no cap space to improve.

This is why it's such a big advocate of treating the young guys four stars. We run the risk of becoming Portland, where we overpaid for bunch of complementary pieces and roll players and become a treadmill team.

 

[pmatic]

Don't trust Lonzo to do any of the above besides push the ball.

 

[pmatic]

You can do a lot worse than Bron and Davis in 2020.

Especially if Durant leaves the Bay. That's a wide open field.

 

[MVP]

Everybody knows the economics of the young guys. Maginka did everything to set the table to make take advantage of these 2 seasons when so many marquee guys were available. And before the young guys would have to be paid.

What many didn't think is that signing Lebby would facilitate us getting rid of the young guys when we have another max slot just there for the taking. I don't think anybody would have a problem with another guy joining then trading for AD. But that's not what's looking like will happen. Just gotta hope Kuz continues to develop into an all star caliber player.

Ideally it was Bron + max guy + AD (trading young core) with a long term window after Bron is done with the other 2 guys .

Looks like Bron + AD (trading young core) with maybe a 2 year window at best.

If no max free agent joins this summer our window shrinks in half to be contenders.

 

[grittyman]

Don't trust Lonzo to do any of the above besides push the ball.

Seriously.

Ball's always been more of a pass first shooting guard to me, going way back to when I first saw him at Chino Hills. I don't get the ball dominant point guard stuff...AT ALL

 

[atlsfinest]

Everybody knows the economics of the young guys. Maginka did everything to set the table to make take advantage of these 2 seasons when so many marquee guys were available.

What many didn't think is that signing Lebby would facilitate us getting rid of the young guys when we have another max slot just there for the taking. I don't think anybody would have a problem with another guy joining then trading for AD. But that's not what's looking like will happen. Just gotta hope Kuz continues to develop into an all star caliber player.

Honestly, we have no idea what's going to happen in free agency. Last year around this time, people thought LeBron coming to Lakers with a pipe dream. We really have no idea how things are going to play out.

 

[pmatic]

Seriously.

Ball's always been more of a pass first shooting guard to me, going way back to when I first saw him at Chino Hills. I don't get the ball dominant point guard stuff...AT ALL

Always his destiny to be a SG in the half court unless he unexpectedly developed some wiggle in his dribble game and shot creation.

 

[MVP]

Honestly, we have no idea what's going to happen in free agency. Last year around this time, people thought LeBron coming to Lakers with a pipe dream. We really have no idea how things are going to play out.

Not really. Most ppl in the know had that pegged. There was so much smoke even going back to last summer. Similarly how there is now about the feelings among stars preference to not play with him.

 

[pmatic]

I wouldn't even blame Bron. A lot of these guys are either in great situations (Klay/Kyrie), want to blaze their own path (Durant/Kawhi), looking to get paid (Kemba/Butler) or a combo of all three.

 

[MVP]

I wouldn't even blame Bron. A lot of these guys are either in great situations (Klay/Kyrie), want to blaze their own path (Durant/Kawhi), looking to get paid (Kemba/Butler) or a combo of all three.

Heh but when Ko...nevermind. Happy birthday G!

 

[pmatic]