Lakers still nearly have cap for a full max (Kawhi, KD etc)

[cipher]

Kawhi already "lost" $30 million when he was traded from San Antonio. You seriously think he's going to say goodbye to an extra $50 million to go play for another team?

The Raptors are in the financial drivers seat here and the championship sealed the deal.

[eagereyez]

ya they should learn from the Warriors....we know that AD is injury prone, so all it would take is for AD to get injured during the playoffs and they're done.

This is literally the first thing I said in my group chat. We know that the 3rd star always under performs with Lebron teams. Lebron is just to good to take the ball out of his hands in clutch time for a guy like Kemba. You have your 2 superstars, if I'm the Lakers id go after 3 guys to fill out my roster.

Marcus Morris
Patrick Beverley
JJ Reddick

Those 3 would be my main targets. Then hope that Rondo, Tyson or Javale, and Lance come back for cheap.

Bev/Rondo
Reddick/Lance
Lebron
Morris
AD/Tyson

This is a tougher team than Lebron, Kemba, AD and a bunch of vet min guys.

I agree. That line up is better than a big 3 Lakers lineup outside of Leonard. This is why I think the Lakers should avoid using the rest of the cap room on a max contract (after they make Leonard say no) and instead get a few good players with the rest of the cap space. The law of diminishing returns is very real. Maybe if KL says no I would go after Butler since he is a supreme defender and unlike offense where there is one ball on defense all 5 defenders defend so there is no such thing as too much defense. The big 3 model is overrated and unless the 3 players are supreme players (like LBJ, KL, AD) or 3 players with perfectly complementary skill sets especially all 2 way players (which is rare- an example would be say Lebron, AD, and Thompson or CP3) it is better to have a big 2 with depth. A big 3 looks good on paper, but it is almost always overrated and nowhere as good as it seems.

Kemba would be a great on offense, but his defense is trash and his offensive production would be subject to the law of diminishing returns anyways. He is not a max player imo bc of his poor defense, especially on this LA team because he would basically just be a glorified up spot up shooter on a max contract. Now if he was a good defender that would be different.

I agree with your post. Kemba is not a max-worthy player on the Lakers. He put up large offensive production on a bad team. He will not have a superstar impact on the Lakers. They should avoid that bullet and go for real two-way difference makers like Kawhi or Butler. If they strike out on those two, then they should use the money to fill out the rest of the roster with quality role players, instead of garbage vet mins.

[Dr Aki]

Kawhi already "lost" $30 million when he was traded from San Antonio. You seriously think he's going to say goodbye to an extra $50 million to go play for another team?

The Raptors are in the financial driver seat here and the championship sealed the deal.

the difference between two years (the time it takes to qualify for the 10 year max) in LA and toronto is 1.4 million dollars,

or if he takes a 1+1, and re-ups at the max next year, the difference drops to <800k

[cipher]

Kawhi already "lost" $30 million when he was traded from San Antonio. You seriously think he's going to say goodbye to an extra $50 million to go play for another team?

The Raptors are in the financial driver seat here and the championship sealed the deal.

the difference between two years (the time it takes to qualify for the 10 year max) in LA and toronto is 1.4 million dollars,

or if he takes a 1+1, and re-ups at the max next year, the difference drops to <800k

Highly unlikely. Kawhi missed a season, had to manage his games this year (load management) and was visibly in pain in many games throughout the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised if he has to manage his game time for the rest of his career and it would surprise pretty much anyone if he risks a max deal right now to follow any of the above scenarios.

[Dr Aki]

Kawhi already "lost" $30 million when he was traded from San Antonio. You seriously think he's going to say goodbye to an extra $50 million to go play for another team?

The Raptors are in the financial driver seat here and the championship sealed the deal.

the difference between two years (the time it takes to qualify for the 10 year max) in LA and toronto is 1.4 million dollars,

or if he takes a 1+1, and re-ups at the max next year, the difference drops to <800k

Highly unlikely. Kawhi missed a season, had to manage his games this year (load management) and was visibly in pain in many games throughout the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised if he has to manage his game time for the rest of his career and it would surprise pretty much anyone if he risks a max deal right now to follow any of the above scenarios.

there's zero chance the lakers do not max his ass to high heaven given all the draft picks in play 2021 and onwards.

that 50 mil difference from the 5th season and bigger raises don't mean as much as you think to max level guys

[TimRobbins]

It's short of a full max and nobody will take it. Kawhi definitely won't and KD/Klay are hurt.

[Big_Aristotle]

It's short of a full max and nobody will take it. Kawhi definitely won't and KD/Klay are hurt.

Interesting how confident you are predicting the future and behavior off others

[TheGOATRises007]

IF somehow(99% it won't), Kawhi joined the Lakers....

I'd love to see the Lebron fans play down the team.

No excuses for Lebron next season. If he's still in his prime, Lakers must make the WCF at a minimum.

[TimRobbins]

It's short of a full max and nobody will take it. Kawhi definitely won't and KD/Klay are hurt.

Interesting how confident you are predicting the future and behavior off others

Predicating the obvious sis easy.

[kobyz]

Lakers should call D Wade ask him to renounce his retirement and come play for another ring with his best friend..

[John Murdoch]

Missing the playoffs is the best thing that could have happend in hindsight. Without that 4th pick i doubt Griff deals with us

[ratul]

Not even sure this works for LA in terms of fit. AD becomes Kevin love. Great

[dreamshake]

Not even sure this works for LA in terms of fit. AD becomes Kevin love. Great

Kevin Love used optimally is a high-post passing hub who needs the offense run through him. That largely overlaps with LeBron's skillset. Love is also terrible on defense.

AD is an off-ball genius who can operate in the PnR, PnP and get all kinds of garbage cleanup buckets. He's also great defensively.

They're totally different players. Love's shooting was a nice complement to LeBron, but his fundamental offensive game didn't fit with LeBron as well as AD's should. That said Kevin Love was severely underrated with the Cavaliers. The 16 & 17 Cavaliers with LeBron & Love on the floor were some of the best offenses of all time. It was defensively that they struggled.

[ratul]

Not even sure this works for LA in terms of fit. AD becomes Kevin love. Great

Kevin Love used optimally is a high-post passing hub who needs the offense run through him. That largely overlaps with LeBron's skillset. Love is also terrible on defense.

AD is an off-ball genius who can operate in the PnR, PnP and get all kinds of garbage cleanup buckets. He's also great defensively.

They're totally different players. Love's shooting was a nice complement to LeBron, but his fundamental offensive game didn't fit with LeBron as well as AD's should. That said Kevin Love was severely underrated with the Cavaliers. The 16 & 17 Cavaliers with LeBron & Love on the floor were some of the best offenses of all time. It was defensively that they struggled.

What you are saying is AD is a better player. That’s correct. And obvious. However playing with Lebron has had fairly mixed impacts on big guys (love, bosh, mozgov even). Lebron needs to get into the paint. That impacts AD

[nbhadja]

Lebron made Mozgov a rich man. AD is a totally different style of player than Love and Bosh. For one he is a supreme defender and is great off-ball. Love was a terrible defender and AD is a far superior player, defender, and rebounder than Bosh. Love was a player who the game passed him by and he put up empty stats on a team that never made the playoffs in Minny. The rise of small ball made Love a dinosaur in the NBA by making him even worse on defense. He was basically unplayable against the Warriors.

[xdrta+]

Lebron made Mozgov a rich man. AD is a totally different style of player than Love and Bosh. For one he is a supreme defender and is great off-ball. Love was a terrible defender and AD is a far superior player, defender, and rebounder than Bosh. Love was a player who the game passed him by and he put up empty stats on a team that never made the playoffs in Minny. The rise of small ball made Love a dinosaur in the NBA by making him even worse on defense. He was basically unplayable against the Warriors.

Unplayable? How could that be? I remember that (everyone said) him being out that first year is half the reason the Warriors won the title. The great Kyrie being the other half.

[ropjhk]

IF somehow(99% it won't), Kawhi joined the Lakers....

I'd love to see the Lebron fans play down the team.

No excuses for Lebron next season. If he's still in his prime, Lakers must make the WCF at a minimum.

Forget WCF. Anything short of the title would be a failure with Lebron, Kawhi and AD on the same team.

[XxIronChainzxX]

the difference between two years (the time it takes to qualify for the 10 year max) in LA and toronto is 1.4 million dollars,

or if he takes a 1+1, and re-ups at the max next year, the difference drops to <800k

Highly unlikely. Kawhi missed a season, had to manage his games this year (load management) and was visibly in pain in many games throughout the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised if he has to manage his game time for the rest of his career and it would surprise pretty much anyone if he risks a max deal right now to follow any of the above scenarios.

there's zero chance the lakers do not max his ass to high heaven given all the draft picks in play 2021 and onwards.

that 50 mil difference from the 5th season and bigger raises don't mean as much as you think to max level guys

It's not about the max right now. It's about the timing of Kawhi's last deal. I think that his health status makes it a real risk that his 30 year max deal is it. He needs to get to that age healthy. So I think he'd rather have a deal that gets him there at max $$. Not saying the ~$2 million in play is all that much - but I am saying it's a real amount.

[CIN-C-STAR]

Not even sure this works for LA in terms of fit. AD becomes Kevin love. Great

If AD becomes K. Love with more rim protection and switchability on defense, he might be the best sidekick Lebron has had yet.
Love wasn't as terrible as people seem to think. He was good on offense, bad on defense, but a net plus in all but the toughest matchups.

[phraoh]

I also remember Kevin Love shutting down the golden boy one on one in the last minute of game 7 of the 2016 finals, and he did it more than one time.