RealGM

If the Lakers could have any one of these three players who would you want and why?

Kuzma: Probably the best pure scorer of the bunch, and the youngest/cheapest with a higher ceiling.

Bogdonavic: the best shooter and playmaker. The only playmaker of the 3 in fact, and creator of his own offense. But can't play the 4, so would leave us with no backup besides Dudley there.

Covington: the best 3/D player of the bunch, elite defender that answers our problem of guarding players like Kawhi, the most limited offensively, though he still puts up points.

Covington fits perfectly as the starting SF. Lakers biggest concerns are:

1. Back up PG (can't solve it here - hopefully that's Collison)

2. Shooters to spread the floor and hit down open shots

3. Wing defenders and shooters who can square up against Kawhi/George/Giannis in the playoffs.

I voted for Covington because he covers off 2 and 3 with 30 minutes per game. Kuzma, for all his talent, doesn't fit into this team anymore. He's not a shooter, he's a scorer, big difference. He's also not a particularly good defender.

Within a vacuum, I say the best player to keep is Kuzma. He is overall, the superior player in a comprehensive sense and potential (i know, this doesnt mean anything right now, in our context). But what I see w Kuzma (and it is no knock against him) is that our current championship focus is not aligned w his focus or lack of focus. He seems disgruntled about the amount of pay he is receiving and more so, the expectations (or grandeur expectations) the media and fans have placed upon him and he sees it perhaps not fair (and i can see that perspective and see it a bit unfair as well..despite whatever level of maturity that perspective is, it is still a valid perspective).

He is a kid (20s yeah he is a professional but still a young man and career aspirations of advancement and getting paid, at this young age is Huge) i know his current salary is no one's fault, he is not faulting anyone, but it is the discord between his and the team's focus now. He sees his peers getting some exposure in other teams and getting paid and so forth, and I think his situation could be better (yeah, i want the best for him , even maybe at a slight cost to us) if he is quickly traded to a team who can build on him. this would accelerate his career trajectory much better than being a helper on a championship run team that will always be about lebron and AD for the next couple years or so.

An even better option perhaps (that would benefit him and us at the same time), would be a management meeting with him to say, give him some sort of informal incentive to being integral in our championship aspirations? maybe some sort of financial incentive (besides the nba sanctioned ones) to kind of re vitalize psychologically his state to start a unified focus w the team, and thus playing consistently much better at an elevated level like we expected at the beginning of the season. I dunno. just brainstorming here.
just sometimes we see too much these kids as being assets and pieces , but they are human w feelings too. again, i get it, we have to be pros, but if I was suddenly shifted into working a job w huge expectations placed on me let say they make me in charge of a huge region, but then i find out that my subordinates elsewhere (not doing as much as me) getting paid twice as much as me , dude, i would feel disillusioned a bit too.
If management pulls me in and says let say" hey, we see you got put into this position and we know the pay you and your subordinates receiving now are not congruent but it is what it is, and it ended up like this nothing we can do about it, but ...we want to sort of compensate by getting you a new car if you finish this project out w flying colors, only you, no one else, what you feel about that?" hey, i mean, that would pep me up a bit , no?


my point in a nutshell is: you have a small, 2nd round type rookie salary albatrossed around this kid's neck , and if he was on a building team (like last year and the previous), it would have been perfect and im sure he knew this was going to be perfect.
But when AD came and the situation changed immediately to championship mode NOW, (maybe he didnt really expect that) , his situation of having too much expectations placed on him , hurts him a bit. and i see it from his shoes.
tldr

thus,
i didnt vote

Depends what we can get in free agency

Voted for Covington. We need someone to do the bulk of the work guarding bigger wings like Kawai. It's a tough task to ask Lebron to do that as well as initiate our offense. Sorry Kuz, but Covington just fits more. Getting Collison and Covington would be so sweet.

Not in favor of trading Kuz for Bogz doe.