Kevin Love - Every team's best offer

[wildvikeswolves]

Yeah, we'll see. I am officially off the bandwagon though.

And the Celtics best player available is a PF. The best players available at #6 will also be PFs. So what's the point of redundancy? We'll see - but I think the Celtics at #6 are now out of the Love sweepstakes.

I can see that stance, but things change quick. Is there really that much separation between Jordan/CP3/Blake and Love/Rondo/Green? I'm not so sure there is. Plus things are getting loose in the NBA - Duncan/Kobe/Pierce/KG are all on the way out. Durant hasn't figured it out with OKC yet. Dwight and CP3 aren't making much traction. It's not unreasonable to picture the Celtics among the elites with a K Love trade, Rondo returning to form, and a couple sly moves for veterans. Maybe not this year, but in a 3 year window.

I mean - what's the point in the Wolves trading for #6 (likely a PF) and Sullinger? They get two PFs who are mediocre NBA prospects. I don't see the value in that for them, when PF is the highest glut position in the NBA. I think PF is even easier to fill than PG right now. Who cares about adding a PF when most teams in the NBA have so many they just start two of them?

The thinking is that we dont have a PF if we trade Love, so Olynyk or Sullinger could make a good backup PF, with one of Gordon, Randle, or Vonleh starting. We would have good big man depth with one of those 3 and Sullinger or Olynyk at 4 and Pek and Dieng at the 5.

[Baller2014]

lakers will have over 30 million in capspace in 2015. assuming the cap will be ~64 million. would be enough for two max contracts roughly. i imagine the target currently is love/gasol.

then the next season kobe will come off the books, which means an additonal 25 million to play with.

so yeah i would call that near infinite cap space for the lakers. its rare for us to even have enough room for 1 max, hasnt happened in a long time.

So hang on. The Lakers are going to add zero contracts that go past 2015? Ok, in which case they are going to suck again this year, and likely give a lotto pick to the Suns/Magic (I forget which one is next year). Now, let's assume they manage to keep 30 mill in cap space in 2015, what is their pitch?
"hey, we sucked the last 2 years, and we weren't relevant the 2 years before that either, but come join our team because, like, we're the Lakers.. and the Lakers are always good... except, you know, when we're not... but if you come here, it'll all turn around"
I mean, all the Lakers will have in 2015 to pitch with is old man Kobe and a #7 draft pick (in his 2nd year in the NBA in 2016). How is that an enticing situation to Love and Marc Gasol? Why wouldn't they go to teams with existing infrastructure and, I don't know, not lose large amounts of money? It seems a weird choice. There's no indication Marc Gasol secretly yearns for LA, certainly he won't be coming to play with his (oft maligned) brother, since you've cut costs to get space. He'd be giving up money too. There will likely be other teams with big free agent space that year, teams with existing players and a proven record of winning with those teams, like the Spurs, Mavs and Rockets (potentially).

Chances are Love is traded to one of the teams he likes before then, and has undertaken to stay. It's likely he does just that, rather than give up his money.

Cap space also doesn't work the way you think. Kobe's contract coming off the books doesn't mean you will have $25 mill in cap space the next season. Far from it, because all those additional costs come into play. Your existing contracts go up for example, your new picks/cap holds kick in, etc. I just don't see it. You're placing way too much emphasis on this supposed magical ability of LA to get free agents to come to them, when in the past we've seen money is the main factor. Plenty of players have turned LA down over the years, despite the pitch of "LA is a magical place", from PJ Brown to their own Derek Fisher (remember when he left to Utah). I remember the Lakers coming up short many times in the offseason on their player recruitment attempts, mainly due to money. Yet to come to LA any max free agents stand to lose a considerable chunk of money. It makes little to no sense.

[microfib4thewin]

lakers will have over 30 million in capspace in 2015. assuming the cap will be ~64 million. would be enough for two max contracts roughly. i imagine the target currently is love/gasol.

then the next season kobe will come off the books, which means an additonal 25 million to play with.

so yeah i would call that near infinite cap space for the lakers. its rare for us to even have enough room for 1 max, hasnt happened in a long time.

1. Love and Marc's max will be over 15 mil. It's not possible for both of them to come here without taking a paycut.

2. The Lakers would have to suck next year if they are not taking on salary past next offseason. No FA is going to come to the Lakers if they flunked two seasons in a row, let alone for a discount.