Alatan wrote:The Rebel wrote:Alatan wrote:
If we make it to the 2nd round and i think that there is a chance for that TOP free agents will consider us. But im not so sure about PG. He has a childhood dream of playing for LAL. Even when LAL shows they suck i still think they will pull some other star and PG will hop on to the wagon. I dont think Ball is anything special and frankly think he will be a bust but LAL will pull some tricks and might make a big three in the ofseason. If we could get PG that would be sick.
They have been talking about a big 3 for years, guys want to win more than play for the Lakers. The Lakers don't have the cap space to sign 2 max deals next year, they will have to move Deng and last I heard they do not have their pick next year to help move Deng. They are going to need one of their prospects to really hit to attract a top free agent, and they are going to need one that shows enough potential to convince someone to take Deng. Unless they can pull that off they are not going to be attractive destination to someone that wants to win, if they would prefer to go to LA without another max guy than I don't want that guy anyway.
I dont think its a good idea to go to the Lakers but they do have the brightest spotlight in the business.
There is a possibility of them moving Clarkson alongside a 2nd to some rebuilding team and then pairing Dieng and one or 2 young guys to some other rebuilding team. That would clear them enough space for 3 max players if they are wiling to go 120 million deep. The problem is i dont see a big three that is good enough and fits together to challenge the Warriors anyway.
LeBron, PG and maybe Boogie. They would still be swept because the Lakers have no supporting cast.
I hope PG sees that its futile to go to LAL and that we show we mean business by reaching the 2nd round because he fits perfectly of what we need. Id just like if we had more defensive role players on our team because they are the difference that wins championships. It would be awesome if we could both be in the playoffs and trade away the vets for some assets but its unlikely.
Hmm, if those vets are that impactful does making the playoffs really mater since we will get rid of them anyway... So maybe trading away Chandler, Barton and Faried would be a better option and then show off our young guys. They still could make the playoffs but it would be hard...
Maybe not. Maybe PG sees how successful we are with Chandler and thinks about what we could do with him instead. And there will always be veteran 6th men to replace Barton. Still id like one 3nD wing of the bench... And one defensive pf roleplayer... Decisions, decisions...
That is not how the cap works, they cannot just go over the cap to sign guys. They have to have the cap room or the exceptions to sign players without the cap room.
Right now the Lakers are projected to have about $55 million in contracts and cap holds for next year with the cap projected to be $102 million, meaning they have $47 million in cap space. Cousins & George will get a max contract of $30.6 million, and LeBron will be qualified to get the max 35% contract which is projected to be starting at $35.7 million a year. They will have to clear 19+ million from their cap to get the room to sign 2 max deals next summer, which means they need to move Deng and one the young guys like Ingram or they have to move Deng and Clarkson to create the cap room to sign 2 max deals.
There is literally no way for them to sign 3 max deals for guys who have been in the league for at least 7 years if one of them is Lebron, that is 95% of the cap alone, and with cap holds taking up $7.5 million or so of cap space they could not bring in 3 guys on true max deals. Now theoretically they could get some of those guys to take discounts, but how big of a discount? How excited are 3 guys going to be to take discounts to sign with a team that will have 3 stars and a bunch of guys on minimum contracts? The Heat were able to form their 3 guys to max deals, but they had 3 guys who qualified for the 30% willing to go there and take discounts paying them about 15% less than their max should have been and they still had to wait a year before the Heat could really add the role players they needed to fill out the team. Do you think George who reportedly wanted out of Indiana due to losing is going to line up to take a discount to join a team that is a year away? Do you think Cousins will? Lebron has already said he is never taking a discount again, so that will not happen either.
George may really want to go home to LA and be like Melo with the Knicks, but I do not see Lebron doing that, and I really don't care if they sign Cousins as I don't want him and think he will actually hurt a team's long term potential.
At this point Barton and Faried are both projected to be coming off the bench, and if Mudiay or Beasley work out than Barton is not going to be needed next year, we will have a 3 or 4 guard rotation that is of good quality. Faried will still be under contract but reality is he is going to be a back up big, no star is going to turn down a team that lost their backup PF especially when we already have plenty of depth at the position and one of our stars is a PF. So to me it is an easy sell if we make it past game 6 of the 1st round. Realistically we would have to dump Arthur to have the cap room to sign a max contract free agent, resign Harris and Jokic, and stay under the tax. Meaning we would lose Nelson, Chandler, Barton, and Arthur (who may not even be able to play this year) but could add a 3rd star and another draft pick to the current roster next summer while staying under the tax.
Just have to tell guys look at what we did with a very young rotation full of guys still growing. Look at how much easier playing with Jokic makes the game. Come be the leading scorer and big name on a team ready to contend with you on it, or do you think you are not as good as Chandler? One of the star SFs are going to take a look at this team and realize that we could be the next rising contender.
As for role players, you know a funny thing happens when you build a contender. Not only do you not have to pay a premium for role players, the role players take discounts to join your team and they are usually a higher quality type player than you will get as a low tier playoff team. Hell the truth is a year from now Craig and Hernangomez could have proven themselves as developing 3 and D Sfs and then we don't have to sign anybody to take the next step in a year or two.
We are in a prime position right now, we have 2 guys we know are stars, we have at least 2 additional young guys with star potential in Hernangomez and Murray, and we have several young guys with potential to be starters and rotation players on a championship caliber team in Harris, Mudiay, Beasley, Lyles, Lydon, and Morris. We may not even need a 3rd star depending on how this season goes, but I would prefer they go get that 3rd star since there is the cap space and ability to do it, and move this team firmly into contender status. Why waste money on a type of player that will be begging to join the team in a year or two? That is one of the reasons the Melo years were always such a disappointment, when we did spend money it was always on role players never creating the cap room or ability to go sign a 3rd max deal after they wasted the money on an injury prone KMart.
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but yeah, I'm not hyper-optimistic 
- at least not about the short-term. Although this year, mostly due to signing Millsap, gives me strong hope of making the playoffs with a potential 1st round win - depending on 1st round matchup of course.