RealGM

I come here in peace. I am one of the original REALGMers and once in awhile I want some true insight from fans of a certain franchise. The Lakers are at a key turning point that happens once a decade or two for each team.

Do you rebuild before a team ends its run and get more value acting now or wait two or three years too late if _______ goal was not reached.

I am unsure what the goal of LAL is now for the next season or two.

Which would you prefer?

a) TRADES GALORE; you lose all of your tradeable 1sts, obtain Cam Johnson and Zach Lavine to go alongside with AD, Lebron, and Knecht and make it to the West Conference Finals for sure (with a 40% chance of advancing to the NBA Finals)

OR

b) SIT THIS SEASON OUT; you lose in the play-in; Lebron flips out; AD is hurt and not a great trade asset after ending the season on a sour note; and you attempt to make something happen in the off-season at a much lesser scale than A and end up likely misplaying this altogether

OR

c) SIT THE NEXT TWO SEASONS OUT; do not make any big move, miss the playoffs for two seasons in a row and Lebron walks off into the Sunset and goes off like Kobe in his final game (meaningless but meaningful at the same time). You held onto those two key 1st round picks. One of them turns into a All-Star in 2033 and the other is a total bust. The All-Star has no one to support him for a few years so with that player you do not make the playoffs again until 2034.

We have the best defense in the league over the last four-five games. Adding LaVine would ruin that. So, for the moment, given that we have four key rotation players on the IL, I’m fine with staying put AND winning now. So my choice is neither a, b or c.

We’ve been in win now mode since LBJ got here.

I want a third two way star, like Ingram, but for now, I’m happy with our defense as is and I trust that our offense will settle in soon.

Regarding our ‘rebuild’, let’s discuss it once LBJ retires. I say let’s build around AD, Knecht, Christie, Reaves…

All in on Kessler

Defense is kicking ass atm AD needs help

I get that Rob is very hesitant to trade those very valuable FRP’s esp if the incoming players would not make them legit contenders.
I have a feeling they’ll rather do smaller trades with SRP’s and pick swap at the most for guys like Harrison Barnes and CP3.

tamaraw08 wrote:I have a feeling they’ll rather do smaller trades with SRP’s

Hayes 2 SRP's for Nick Richards ? <> Richards Is due for a new team and think he'll thrive In Laker land.
CP3 Is a UFA next year can come here then, not trading a SRP for him.

JKiddy wrote:I come here in peace. I am one of the original REALGMers and once in awhile I want some true insight from fans of a certain franchise. The Lakers are at a key turning point that happens once a decade or two for each team.

Do you rebuild before a team ends its run and get more value acting now or wait two or three years too late if _______ goal was not reached.

I am unsure what the goal of LAL is now for the next season or two.

Which would you prefer?

a) TRADES GALORE; you lose all of your tradeable 1sts, obtain Cam Johnson and Zach Lavine to go alongside with AD, Lebron, and Knecht and make it to the West Conference Finals for sure (with a 40% chance of advancing to the NBA Finals)

OR

b) SIT THIS SEASON OUT; you lose in the play-in; Lebron flips out; AD is hurt and not a great trade asset after ending the season on a sour note; and you attempt to make something happen in the off-season at a much lesser scale than A and end up likely misplaying this altogether

OR

c) SIT THE NEXT TWO SEASONS OUT; do not make any big move, miss the playoffs for two seasons in a row and Lebron walks off into the Sunset and goes off like Kobe in his final game (meaningless but meaningful at the same time). You held onto those two key 1st round picks. One of them turns into a All-Star in 2033 and the other is a total bust. The All-Star has no one to support him for a few years so with that player you do not make the playoffs again until 2034.

There is a flaw in your premise. You only give LAL two options. 1, Give you (AKA the Nets) everything you want for Cam Johnson (two 1st round picks) or 2. Do nothing. There are other moves out there that LAL can look at.

DNP-Old wrote:

JKiddy wrote:I come here in peace. I am one of the original REALGMers and once in awhile I want some true insight from fans of a certain franchise. The Lakers are at a key turning point that happens once a decade or two for each team.

Do you rebuild before a team ends its run and get more value acting now or wait two or three years too late if _______ goal was not reached.

I am unsure what the goal of LAL is now for the next season or two.

Which would you prefer?

a) TRADES GALORE; you lose all of your tradeable 1sts, obtain Cam Johnson and Zach Lavine to go alongside with AD, Lebron, and Knecht and make it to the West Conference Finals for sure (with a 40% chance of advancing to the NBA Finals)

OR

b) SIT THIS SEASON OUT; you lose in the play-in; Lebron flips out; AD is hurt and not a great trade asset after ending the season on a sour note; and you attempt to make something happen in the off-season at a much lesser scale than A and end up likely misplaying this altogether

OR

c) SIT THE NEXT TWO SEASONS OUT; do not make any big move, miss the playoffs for two seasons in a row and Lebron walks off into the Sunset and goes off like Kobe in his final game (meaningless but meaningful at the same time). You held onto those two key 1st round picks. One of them turns into a All-Star in 2033 and the other is a total bust. The All-Star has no one to support him for a few years so with that player you do not make the playoffs again until 2034.

There is a flaw in your premise. You only give LAL two options. 1, Give you (AKA the Nets) everything you want for Cam Johnson (two 1st round picks) or 2. Do nothing. There are other moves out there that LAL can look at.

I can see why you might have first thought this. But, in #1, you would do the best thing for this current team and have a real shot at title. You would likely have to give up a 1st and a 1st swap to BK and the same to CHI to get the two most important players on the market in Cam Johnson and Zach Lavine.

JKiddy wrote:

DNP-Old wrote:

JKiddy wrote:I come here in peace. I am one of the original REALGMers and once in awhile I want some true insight from fans of a certain franchise. The Lakers are at a key turning point that happens once a decade or two for each team.

Do you rebuild before a team ends its run and get more value acting now or wait two or three years too late if _______ goal was not reached.

I am unsure what the goal of LAL is now for the next season or two.

Which would you prefer?

a) TRADES GALORE; you lose all of your tradeable 1sts, obtain Cam Johnson and Zach Lavine to go alongside with AD, Lebron, and Knecht and make it to the West Conference Finals for sure (with a 40% chance of advancing to the NBA Finals)

OR

b) SIT THIS SEASON OUT; you lose in the play-in; Lebron flips out; AD is hurt and not a great trade asset after ending the season on a sour note; and you attempt to make something happen in the off-season at a much lesser scale than A and end up likely misplaying this altogether

OR

c) SIT THE NEXT TWO SEASONS OUT; do not make any big move, miss the playoffs for two seasons in a row and Lebron walks off into the Sunset and goes off like Kobe in his final game (meaningless but meaningful at the same time). You held onto those two key 1st round picks. One of them turns into a All-Star in 2033 and the other is a total bust. The All-Star has no one to support him for a few years so with that player you do not make the playoffs again until 2034.

There is a flaw in your premise. You only give LAL two options. 1, Give you (AKA the Nets) everything you want for Cam Johnson (two 1st round picks) or 2. Do nothing. There are other moves out there that LAL can look at.

I can see why you might have first thought this. But, in #1, you would do the best thing for this current team and have a real shot at title. You would likely have to give up a 1st and a 1st swap to BK and the same to CHI to get the two most important players on the market in Cam Johnson and Zach Lavine.

No one is trading for Lavine with Frp.

What if it was a very highly protected aka LIKELY 2nd round pick and the Bulls took all the garbage players you do not want on the Lakers?

JKiddy wrote:What if it was a very highly protected aka LIKELY 2nd round pick and the Bulls took all the garbage players you do not want on the Lakers?

You forgot option D: The Lakers move AD for picks/young players, and rebuild. Lebron can then get traded, or stay. He has a no trade clause...so it's up to him. Option D is the vastly smarter option. The Lakers are not a couple upgrades from winning a title.

Levine comes with a ridiculous contract. Nobody wants to look at what the 2nd tier does to a team, and any flexibility afterwards. And teams like OKC are not interested in picks....they have tons of them. They want good players. They are not going to trade guys like Caruso for picks....they're trying to go the other direction. AD for OKC picks.....that would be a better plan.

danfan you might be right here. This might be the route. But, you would have to do this now when AD still has the value he has now before the season ends.

I guess we shall see soon!

JKiddy wrote:danfan you might be right here. This might be the route. But, you would have to do this now when AD still has the value he has now before the season ends.

I guess we shall see soon!

You can look around these boards....I've been saying this for a while now. After we got swept by Nuggets a couple seasons back, it was time. AD is getting into his 30's and his value declines every day. I'd have pulled the trigger last year. I'd most definitely do it now. If there was an "earth-shaking move" out there......maybe I'd think different. But there really isn't.

Now I understand our FO is too cowardly, uncreative, and stupid to do a rebuild. But it's what we need. If done even semi-correctly, it would cut our rebuild time in half.

Given Lebron's age....wasting first round picks on trying to build a competitive team is just foolish, and will just double the length of time it takes to rebuild...which is something we will need to do. Either now...or in a couple years. AD is at that age where he's got a couple maybe 3 years left at really high level as well...so it's not like he's the future either.

1) Trade AD for what you can (don't be afraid to take some garbage contracts back, to sweeten the deal and get more picks).
2) Now that AD gone, and we've announced we're in 'rebuild mode' ....Lebron can goto GS without looking like he quit on team. Take back any bad contracts there...try and sweeten the deal...maybe get 2 picks....or 1 and 3-second rounders...something like that.
3) Try and trade DLo's expiring for some overpaid dude with 2-3 years left....and try to get 1st for that. With the 2nd apron, there's bound to be a desperate team out there. Throw Rui in there to make it $40+ mil worth you can take back....whatever it takes to get any pick(s) you can.

That would be my plan. Yes....the next couple years would totally suck. But we're playing worthless .500 ball anyhow. We need to rebuild while there's still value. We wont....but we should

danfantastk32 wrote:

JKiddy wrote:danfan you might be right here. This might be the route. But, you would have to do this now when AD still has the value he has now before the season ends.

I guess we shall see soon!

You can look around these boards....I've been saying this for a while now. After we got swept by Nuggets a couple seasons back, it was time. AD is getting into his 30's and his value declines every day. I'd have pulled the trigger last year. I'd most definitely do it now. If there was an "earth-shaking move" out there......maybe I'd think different. But there really isn't.

Now I understand our FO is too cowardly, uncreative, and stupid to do a rebuild. But it's what we need. If done even semi-correctly, it would cut our rebuild time in half.

Given Lebron's age....wasting first round picks on trying to build a competitive team is just foolish, and will just double the length of time it takes to rebuild...which is something we will need to do. Either now...or in a couple years. AD is at that age where he's got a couple maybe 3 years left at really high level as well...so it's not like he's the future either.

1) Trade AD for what you can (don't be afraid to take some garbage contracts back, to sweeten the deal and get more picks).
2) Now that AD gone, and we've announced we're in 'rebuild mode' ....Lebron can goto GS without looking like he quit on team. Take back any bad contracts there...try and sweeten the deal...maybe get 2 picks....or 1 and 3-second rounders...something like that.
3) Try and trade DLo's expiring for some overpaid dude with 2-3 years left....and try to get 1st for that. With the 2nd apron, there's bound to be a desperate team out there. Throw Rui in there to make it $40+ mil worth you can take back....whatever it takes to get any pick(s) you can.

That would be my plan. Yes....the next couple years would totally suck. But we're playing worthless .500 ball anyhow. We need to rebuild while there's still value. We wont....but we should

You are right. This is the unbiased correct non emotional logical path that is the best for LAL. I have nothing more to add. You have to either do choice A now or your option of D to make any sense of anything moving forward.

JKiddy wrote:

danfantastk32 wrote: That would be my plan. Yes....the next couple years would totally suck. But we're playing worthless .500 ball anyhow. We need to rebuild while there's still value. We wont....but we should

You are right. This is the unbiased correct non emotional logical path that is the best for LAL. I have nothing more to add. You have to either do choice A now or your option of D to make any sense of anything moving forward.

Now I just need to become really good friends with a couple of the Buss kids....maybe we'll get somewhere =0)

danfantastk32 wrote:

JKiddy wrote:

danfantastk32 wrote: That would be my plan. Yes....the next couple years would totally suck. But we're playing worthless .500 ball anyhow. We need to rebuild while there's still value. We wont....but we should

You are right. This is the unbiased correct non emotional logical path that is the best for LAL. I have nothing more to add. You have to either do choice A now or your option of D to make any sense of anything moving forward.

Now I just need to become really good friends with a couple of the Buss kids....maybe we'll get somewhere =0)

Good luck!

Choice E: trade for a guy like Ingram or Butler and keep AD around. JJ is running an eight man rotation anyway. What other teams are rebuilding, looking for a big expiring? Who is dumping a star? Who is tanking?

The way I see it, what if we use for trade bait any combo of D Lo (his expiring) plus a two man combo of Vando, Woods, Hayes, Reddish, JHS; plus picks plus two SRPs. I’d like to keep Knecht, AR, Max, Rui, Koloko, Traoré and one of Woods and Hayes as well as one of Reddish and Vando.

d Lo + 2 + 2SRP = ?
d Lo + 2 + 2SRP +1FRP (protected) = ?

We need a third star (wing) and a defensive C. Who can we get for such pieces, legitimately?

Maybe not the names I put up top but why be shy. Hayes, Woods are coveted C projects. Reddish and Vando’s defense; well known. D Lo’s expiring is a big one for any tanking team. D Lo could teach PnR offense to any young PG rest of season.