Official roster tranactions: to hillbilly mamba or not to hillbilly mamba?

[stan francisco]

I see no reason to trade anyone right now. Especially not Bron, Reaves, Donćič. Lol.

Knecht’s value will go up with his 3PT%. Deadline in February could be good timing for a trade of Knecht and Vando in a two-for-one with a tanking team.

[loveshaq007]

Lakers send out:

LeBron James — $52,627,153
Jarred Vanderbilt — $11,571,429
Gabe Vincent — $11,500,000
Maxi Kleber — $11,000,000
Bronny James — $1,955,377

TOTAL OUTGOING:
$88,653,959

Lebron says No as explained already he has NTC and can say yes no to any trade, need to stop including Lebronny in any trades, It's just not happening, if he some how comes out and says he wants trade then we can talk again.

lebron, herro, bam, jovic and ware... is better starting 5 than ours... he says yes to make it to the finals... chances of beating OKC are slim

we get deeper in this trade and have more formidable defensive players. powell is one of the best catch and shoot players and extremely clutch. another option if Luka and AR get trapped.

we can compete better with that team vs depending on LeBron. with more people to throw at OKC.

you have to include bronny with every bron trade

[LAKESHOW]

Im looking directly at Houston. Denver. And OKC. Each have A Twin Towers. Each can put lengthy Defenders out there. If Coach can cook up a scheme to combat those 3 teams with what we currently have, I'll buy into this team goin far. If not, then get the pieces on the market to get us over the Top

[SlimShady83]

Im looking directly at Houston. Denver. And OKC. Each have A Twin Towers. Each can put lengthy Defenders out there. If Coach can cook up a scheme to combat those 3 teams with what we currently have, I'll buy into this team goin far. If not, then get the pieces on the market to get us over the Top

We have Ayton/Hayes if need for twin towers if need and I think we've played them together for some minutes, that said If we do that need to look at getting a 3rd big off the bench behind Ayton/Hayes incase of foul trouble etc... I'm looking at Nurkic from Utah, someone who won't complain about minutes shouldn't cost any more then 1 maybe 2 SRP's (also opens roster spot) and this playing solid for Utah atm has something left in him his the type of player that knows his role, unsure which players to include, Gabe/Vando/Knecht for Nurkic/Svi +SRP's unsure about that one.

I'm working on a new thread bare with me

[Anderson Hunt]

Hachimura, Vincent, Kleber, and LaRavia
for
Zach LaVine

Bench James and LaVine.
Start Smart and Vanderbilt.

PG - Doncic - Smith - Bufkin/buyout
SG - Smart - Manon - James
C --- Ayton - Hayes - Markieff Morris
PF - Vanderbilt - James - Thiero
SF - Reaves - LaVine - Knecht

[LAKESHOW]

Hachimuras play is saying, hell naw, im ballin right now. See my game winner?!?

[loveshaq007]

Hachimuras play is saying, hell naw, im ballin right now. See my game winner?!?

now is the time to sell high, but not for freaking Lavine

rui, gabe, vando, and 4 FRP SWAPS for trey and herb

[SlimShady83]

Hachimuras play is saying, hell naw, im ballin right now. See my game winner?!?

now is the time to sell high, but not for freaking Lavine

rui, gabe, vando, and 4 FRP SWAPS for trey and herb

I love you bro hahaha, see my new signature

Hell I'll throw in Knecht for free

[LeGoat23]

Hachimura, Vincent, Kleber, and LaRavia
for
Zach LaVine

Bench James and LaVine.
Start Smart and Vanderbilt.

PG - Doncic - Smith - Bufkin/buyout
SG - Smart - Manon - James
C --- Ayton - Hayes - Markieff Morris
PF - Vanderbilt - James - Thiero
SF - Reaves - LaVine - Knecht

Wait.. you're serious about this

[Anderson Hunt]

Hachimura, Vincent, Kleber, and LaRavia
for
Zach LaVine

Bench James and LaVine.
Start Smart and Vanderbilt.

PG - Doncic - Smith - Bufkin/buyout
SG - Smart - Manon - James
C --- Ayton - Hayes - Markieff Morris
PF - Vanderbilt - James - Thiero
SF - Reaves - LaVine - Knecht

Wait.. you're serious about this

If you're speaking about starting Smart and Vanderbilt together, abso-"effin"-lutely.

Set the tone to start games with defense and bring firepower off what was a weak bench in James and LaVine.

Smart and Vanderbilt start but only average about 20 minutes a piece with James and LaVine gobbling up most of the minutes and finishing games.

Yes, I'm absolutely serious. The Lakers need speed, toughness, and defense around Reaves and Doncic, so I start the game with clearly the two best defenders on the roster.

It's not an insane concept. Do Vanderbilt and Smart need to confidently shoot their open three-pointers? Of course. Might they struggle doing that. Yes, indeed, but I believe in those two being able to positively impact the game in such a way in their limited minutes to where their defense negates their offense, even with the spacing being compromised.

I also believe those two can become improved shooters if their encouraged to get their feet set and keep shooting. They'll both get multiple wide-open "practice-level" threes a game, and that in and of itself should be empowering and comforting to two guys who are searching for confidence in their deep-ball.

[stan francisco]

AUSTIN REAVES
Year 1 — 7.3 PPG
Year 2 — 13.0 PPG
Year 3 — 15.9 PPG
Year 4 — 20.2 PPG
Year 5 — 28.3 PPG

KOBE BRYANT
Year 1 — 7.6 PPG
Year 2 — 15.4 PPG
Year 3 — 19.9 PPG
Year 4 — 22.5 PPG
Year 5 — 28.5 PPG

They’re relatively even in assists and rebounds, too, lol, but of course there will only be one Kobe etc.

It makes the funny hillbilly mamba thread title prophetic.

[dAdo dA dEvil]

Nice comparison. That is fun. Can Austin keep up with Kobe's stats in the next 5-10 years? I doubt but I hope so.

[LeGoat23]

Hachimura, Vincent, Kleber, and LaRavia
for
Zach LaVine

Bench James and LaVine.
Start Smart and Vanderbilt.

PG - Doncic - Smith - Bufkin/buyout
SG - Smart - Manon - James
C --- Ayton - Hayes - Markieff Morris
PF - Vanderbilt - James - Thiero
SF - Reaves - LaVine - Knecht

Wait.. you're serious about this

If you're speaking about starting Smart and Vanderbilt together, abso-"effin"-lutely.

Set the tone to start games with defense and bring firepower off what was a weak bench in James and LaVine.

Smart and Vanderbilt start but only average about 20 minutes a piece with James and LaVine gobbling up most of the minutes and finishing games.

Yes, I'm absolutely serious. The Lakers need speed, toughness, and defense around Reaves and Doncic, so I start the game with clearly the two best defenders on the roster.

It's not an insane concept. Do Vanderbilt and Smart need to confidently shoot their open three-pointers? Of course. Might they struggle doing that. Yes, indeed, but I believe in those two being able to positively impact the game in such a way in their limited minutes to where their defense negates their offense, even with the spacing being compromised.

I also believe those two can become improved shooters if their encouraged to get their feet set and keep shooting. They'll both get multiple wide-open "practice-level" threes a game, and that in and of itself should be empowering and comforting to two guys who are searching for confidence in their deep-ball.

If you wanna set the tone defensively, there are 4 other starters that didn't get All Defense votes last year, so explain why you pick Lebron > Luka, Austin, Rui. Lebron was defending Maxey 1v1 during the game & just made this play to seal a W this very week, but you still managed to pick him instead of 3 absolute disasters on the defensive end. Very very interesting..

Read on Twitter

Lebron was 6th MVP, 2nd team All NBA & by far our best player in the Wolves series. He's still getting his lungs back after being off any cardio till about 20 days back. Considering the kinda conditioning he's used to, this isn't even preseason for him yet.

Side note - Stop clubbing Smart and Vando as if they're the same player. Smart is an incredible high IQ defensive stud whose positive impact shows in every metric there is. Vando, for the defensive aura Laker fans hold him in, has never sniffed an All Defensive team, and if it weren't for Rob's useless ass, would probably be in China rn. Rob's paying two dudes(Gabe) that shouldn't be in the NBA 12m/yr rn, while he didn't think AC was good enough for more than 6.5m.

Two facts about this roster that we kinda have to learn to live with -
1. This triplet of Luka, Austin & Bron just can not work because of the lack of defensive athleticism, and one of them is still considerably more athletic and just flat out better defensively than the other two
2. Rob & Jeanie sold so hard on constructing anything meaningful around AD+Bron for 4 years, that the roster doesn't have enough depth to bench any of them, regardless of how bad they are playing

[Anderson Hunt]

Wait.. you're serious about this

If you're speaking about starting Smart and Vanderbilt together, abso-"effin"-lutely.

Set the tone to start games with defense and bring firepower off what was a weak bench in James and LaVine.

Smart and Vanderbilt start but only average about 20 minutes a piece with James and LaVine gobbling up most of the minutes and finishing games.

Yes, I'm absolutely serious. The Lakers need speed, toughness, and defense around Reaves and Doncic, so I start the game with clearly the two best defenders on the roster.

It's not an insane concept. Do Vanderbilt and Smart need to confidently shoot their open three-pointers? Of course. Might they struggle doing that. Yes, indeed, but I believe in those two being able to positively impact the game in such a way in their limited minutes to where their defense negates their offense, even with the spacing being compromised.

I also believe those two can become improved shooters if their encouraged to get their feet set and keep shooting. They'll both get multiple wide-open "practice-level" threes a game, and that in and of itself should be empowering and comforting to two guys who are searching for confidence in their deep-ball.

If you wanna set the tone defensively, there are 4 other starters that didn't get All Defense votes last year, so explain why you pick Lebron > Luka, Austin, Rui. Lebron was defending Maxey 1v1 during the game & just made this play to seal a W this very week, but you still managed to pick him instead of 3 absolute disasters on the defensive end. Very very interesting..

Read on Twitter

Lebron was 6th MVP, 2nd team All NBA & by far our best player in the Wolves series. He's still getting his lungs back after being off any cardio till about 20 days back. Considering the kinda conditioning he's used to, this isn't even preseason for him yet.

Side note - Stop clubbing Smart and Vando as if they're the same player. Smart is an incredible high IQ defensive stud whose positive impact shows in every metric there is. Vando, for the defensive aura Laker fans hold him in, has never sniffed an All Defensive team, and if it weren't for Rob's useless ass, would probably be in China rn. Rob's paying two dudes(Gabe) that shouldn't be in the NBA 12m/yr rn, while he didn't think AC was good enough for more than 6.5m.

Two facts about this roster that we kinda have to learn to live with -
1. This triplet of Luka, Austin & Bron just can not work because of the lack of defensive athleticism, and one of them is still considerably more athletic and just flat out better defensively than the other two
2. Rob & Jeanie sold so hard on constructing anything meaningful around AD+Bron for 4 years, that the roster doesn't have enough depth to bench any of them, regardless of how bad they are playing

I picked James to come off the bench because the writing is on the wall that he won't be back next year and he is also be load-managed, so it's easier for the team to maintain continuity when he takes games off.

But I'm with you. With the fate of the world at stake and the game on the line, I'd much rather have a 41 year old James defending an All-Star to win the game and save the world.

Me suggesting that he come off the bench is purely to add two consistently good defenders into the starting lineup.

Nothing more.

[LeGoat23]

If you're speaking about starting Smart and Vanderbilt together, abso-"effin"-lutely.

Set the tone to start games with defense and bring firepower off what was a weak bench in James and LaVine.

Smart and Vanderbilt start but only average about 20 minutes a piece with James and LaVine gobbling up most of the minutes and finishing games.

Yes, I'm absolutely serious. The Lakers need speed, toughness, and defense around Reaves and Doncic, so I start the game with clearly the two best defenders on the roster.

It's not an insane concept. Do Vanderbilt and Smart need to confidently shoot their open three-pointers? Of course. Might they struggle doing that. Yes, indeed, but I believe in those two being able to positively impact the game in such a way in their limited minutes to where their defense negates their offense, even with the spacing being compromised.

I also believe those two can become improved shooters if their encouraged to get their feet set and keep shooting. They'll both get multiple wide-open "practice-level" threes a game, and that in and of itself should be empowering and comforting to two guys who are searching for confidence in their deep-ball.

If you wanna set the tone defensively, there are 4 other starters that didn't get All Defense votes last year, so explain why you pick Lebron > Luka, Austin, Rui. Lebron was defending Maxey 1v1 during the game & just made this play to seal a W this very week, but you still managed to pick him instead of 3 absolute disasters on the defensive end. Very very interesting..

Read on Twitter

Lebron was 6th MVP, 2nd team All NBA & by far our best player in the Wolves series. He's still getting his lungs back after being off any cardio till about 20 days back. Considering the kinda conditioning he's used to, this isn't even preseason for him yet.

Side note - Stop clubbing Smart and Vando as if they're the same player. Smart is an incredible high IQ defensive stud whose positive impact shows in every metric there is. Vando, for the defensive aura Laker fans hold him in, has never sniffed an All Defensive team, and if it weren't for Rob's useless ass, would probably be in China rn. Rob's paying two dudes(Gabe) that shouldn't be in the NBA 12m/yr rn, while he didn't think AC was good enough for more than 6.5m.

Two facts about this roster that we kinda have to learn to live with -
1. This triplet of Luka, Austin & Bron just can not work because of the lack of defensive athleticism, and one of them is still considerably more athletic and just flat out better defensively than the other two
2. Rob & Jeanie sold so hard on constructing anything meaningful around AD+Bron for 4 years, that the roster doesn't have enough depth to bench any of them, regardless of how bad they are playing

I picked James to come off the bench because the writing is on the wall that he won't be back next year and he is also be load-managed, so it's easier for the team to maintain continuity when he takes games off.

But I'm with you. With the fate of the world at stake and the game on the line, I'd much rather have a 41 year old James defending an All-Star to win the game and save the world.

Me suggesting that he come off the bench is purely to add two consistently good defenders into the starting lineup.

Nothing more.

I can respect that, but I just see the Luka+Austin back court combo as a faaaaaar bigger problem, as is being exhibited by the Spurs rn.

[Anderson Hunt]

If you wanna set the tone defensively, there are 4 other starters that didn't get All Defense votes last year, so explain why you pick Lebron > Luka, Austin, Rui. Lebron was defending Maxey 1v1 during the game & just made this play to seal a W this very week, but you still managed to pick him instead of 3 absolute disasters on the defensive end. Very very interesting..

Read on Twitter

Lebron was 6th MVP, 2nd team All NBA & by far our best player in the Wolves series. He's still getting his lungs back after being off any cardio till about 20 days back. Considering the kinda conditioning he's used to, this isn't even preseason for him yet.

Side note - Stop clubbing Smart and Vando as if they're the same player. Smart is an incredible high IQ defensive stud whose positive impact shows in every metric there is. Vando, for the defensive aura Laker fans hold him in, has never sniffed an All Defensive team, and if it weren't for Rob's useless ass, would probably be in China rn. Rob's paying two dudes(Gabe) that shouldn't be in the NBA 12m/yr rn, while he didn't think AC was good enough for more than 6.5m.

Two facts about this roster that we kinda have to learn to live with -
1. This triplet of Luka, Austin & Bron just can not work because of the lack of defensive athleticism, and one of them is still considerably more athletic and just flat out better defensively than the other two
2. Rob & Jeanie sold so hard on constructing anything meaningful around AD+Bron for 4 years, that the roster doesn't have enough depth to bench any of them, regardless of how bad they are playing

I picked James to come off the bench because the writing is on the wall that he won't be back next year and he is also be load-managed, so it's easier for the team to maintain continuity when he takes games off.

But I'm with you. With the fate of the world at stake and the game on the line, I'd much rather have a 41 year old James defending an All-Star to win the game and save the world.

Me suggesting that he come off the bench is purely to add two consistently good defenders into the starting lineup.

Nothing more.

I can respect that, but I just see the Luka+Austin back court combo as a faaaaaar bigger problem, as is being exhibited by the Spurs rn.

The Doncic/Reaves backcourt is a backcourt label in name only. They function as guards on offense but not always on defense.

On most nights these are there defensive positions:
PG - Reaves
SG - Hachimura
C --- Ayton
PF - James
SF - Doncic

Doncic guards Vassell. James guards Barnes. Ayton guards Kornet. Reaves guards Fox, and Hachimura guards Castle.

The Reaves/Doncic backcourt isn't as much of a problem when they're surrounded by defensive players.

Reddick seems to think he can out offense the league and team defense his way to a top three seed when in reality he needs to start games with one defensive guard and one defensive forward.

There is no way that Reaves should be tasked with guarding Fox, no way that Hachimura should be guarding Castle.

In an ideal starting lineup against the Spurs:
Reaves guards Vassell, Doncic guards Barnes, Smart guards Fox, Ayton guards Kornet, and Vanderbilt guards Castle.

Teams with good starting fives are way too comfortable from the tip. The opposing team starts off with way too much confidence because they're licking their chops knowing the Lakers are guarding out of position from the giddy-up.

Reddick needs to balance out his lineups, but he won't. He has a very rigid offensive philosophy, and he doesn't believe teams need stoppers. In his mind, Reaves can guard Fox and Hachimura can guard Castle because of his masterful scheme, but he doesn't realize he needs personnel that have defensive pedigree, guys who have been playing hardcore defense since high school. Guys like Hachimura, Reaves, and Doncic haven't ever played defense, and James hasn't played consistent defense for almost ten years.

They need to add some dogs into the mix, even if they can't shoot straight yet. They need to bench two guys not named Ayton and replace them with gritty defensive guys who strike at least an iota of fear into the opponent.

Right now it's very reminiscent of Paul Pierce and Ray Allen salivating in The Finals being guarded by Luke Walton, Sasha Vujecic, and Radmanovic.