Make us a playoff team WITHOUT signing top tier FA

[5ertwenty]

I want to see who can be the most creative and if someone can turn us into a playoff team without signing any top tier free agents.

Guys like Aldridge, Gasol, Butler, Leonard, Love are all off limits. All restricted free agents are out of the question also. Can it be done?

[DadoTheRabbet]

The following is an excerpt from a post I did a few days ago....

...draft Towns or Okafor with the #2. Take Delon Wright with the 27. I'd like Wright as this is a really weak point guard free agent group (don't want to spend for Dragic and DO NOT WANT Rondo). And yeah, I'm all about Clarkson but he's a combo guard who leans toward the 2 position so we need to get him a running mate combo who leans toward the point. Kind of our own, homegrown Splash Bros. or Westbrook/Durant, with their own special qualities. Hold your nose and take Robert Upshaw (I think he might have straightened out his life this time) or Luwawu or Vaughn or Dakari or Christmas - whoever's the BPA with the 34th.

Then full-court press to get Middleton. Then get a warm body to replace Kobe for the rest of the season once he goes down in a month or two after the season starts. Maybe Ellington, maybe Jeff Green. Up for suggestions on that one. Could really use a 3&D guy backing up Kobe but I don't see many. But basically you end up with something resembling:

(Towns or Okafor)/Upshaw/Sacre (or Davis if we can afford)
Randle/Black/Kelly
Middleton/Young
Kobe/Brown/Ellington
Clarkson/Wright/Price

I think this might put the Lakers in contention for about the 8th seed - which, of course, is useful in getting a top free agent or two in 2016 to make a real contender.

You didn't ask for a top playoff team, only a playoff team.

[Frank Dux]

Draft Okafor, sign Koufos, KJ McDaniels and Draymond Green. Drop Hill, Sacre, and Kelly. Trade Nick Young to the Clippers for a future second(frees up cash for us, and gives the Clippers a wing). Use our late first and early second to either package to trade up, or keep them if we like who's left on the board. If we draft Okafor, we could bring in Emeka for a workout to see if he looks ready for a comeback on a min contract, use him as a 3rd string center/mentor role. He could play defense back in the day, and he can teach his cousin Jahlil a thing or two.

Clarkson/???
Kobe/??
KJ Mcdaniels/??
Green/Randle
Okafor/Koufos/Emeka

Fill out the question marks with min level guys and draftees.

[ALL HAIL]

Draft Okafor, sign Koufos, KJ McDaniels and Draymond Green. Drop Hill, Sacre, and Kelly. Trade Nick Young to the Clippers for a future second(frees up cash for us, and gives the Clippers a wing). Use our late first and early second to either package to trade up, or keep them if we like who's left on the board. If we draft Okafor, we could bring in Emeka for a workout to see if he looks ready for a comeback on a min contract, use him as a 3rd string center/mentor role. He could play defense back in the day, and he can teach his cousin Jahlil a thing or two.

Clarkson/???
Kobe/??
KJ Mcdaniels/??
Green/Randle
Okafor/Koufos/Emeka

Fill out the question marks with min level guys and draftees.

You're breaking the rules sir.

PG - Bryant - Clarkson - Vaughn
SG - Mayo - Brown
C - Okafor - Mohammed - Black
PF - Gibson - Randle - Ilyasova
SF - Brewer - Luwawu - Johnson

FA acquisitions of Corey Brewer and Nazr Mohammed.

Trade acquisitions of Mayo, Gibson, and Ilyasova (for Young, Ed Davis, and Kelly).

[dockingsched]

Trade acquisitions of Mayo, Gibson, and Ilyasova (for Young, Ed Davis, and Kelly).

hmmm, looks like this will involve some tough to swallow deals for the other teams.

[Mirjalovic]

Rondo (cheap one year deal)/Clarkson
Kobe/Jabari
Middleton/Pierce
Boozer/Randle
2nd pick/vet big

[LApwnd]

pg- make offer to corey joseph 3 yrs 15 mill
sf- offer carrol 3yrs 33mill
Noah/22nd for 27th, use 22nd on j. Anderson

Clarkson/joseph
kobe/young
carrol/Anderson
randle/boozer
ok4/noah

Have to let ed go...no more money

[ALL HAIL]

Trade acquisitions of Mayo, Gibson, and Ilyasova (for Young, Ed Davis, and Kelly).

hmmm, looks like this will involve some tough to swallow deals for the other teams.

Gibson for Davis and a couple of mill in savings is, admittedly, a reach. Bulls could, maybe, fetch better offers.

The Mayo/Bucks trade at first glance looks uneven, but it's a quick cap space move for them -- they save 10 million dollars, and really don't lose a whole lot on the court in the process.

I want Mayo. He looks, to me, as (A) the perfect backcourt mate with Kobe (B) the perfect multi-positional guard to fit well with future FAs and (C) the ideal age to both learn from Kobe and assist him in an auxiliary leadership role.

[ArC_man]

Assuming Dallas lets Chandler go to pursue Gasol/Aldridge and we have 22m in free cap space. In this example Chandler can be replaced with Asik, Koufos, or Robin Lopez who are probably better long term pickups and potentially cheaper but I think Chandler is the best player out of the 4 right now.

Clarkson/Russell
Kobe/Ellington (room)
Carroll (10m)/Young
Randle/Kelly
Chandler (12m)/Black/Sacre


If we pick Okafor I think Beverly can be an option at PG, Beverly can be replaced with Lin as well (then we'd probably start Clarkson). We can potentially dump Nick Young with our 34th pick (or 27th if necessary) and then have a little over 5m more in cap space to go after a good wing. I would max out Middleton to try to steal him but Harris is another potential option.

Beverly (7m)/Clarkson
Kobe/Ellington (3m)
Middleton (17m)/Johnson (room)
Randle/Kelly
Okafor/Black/Sacre

Personally I think it's easier to construct a fringe playoff team with Russell than with Okafor simply because there are a couple of relatively cheap and serviceable options at center.

[Penberthy]

Minutes

Rondo(30)/Clarkson (12)/Blake (6)
Kobe(30)/Clarkson(18)/Jabari/HollisJefferson
Matthews(30)/Young(18)/HollisJefferson
Randle(30)/Black(18)/Kelly/Christmas
Okafor(30)/McGee(18)/Sacre/Christmas

[Slava]

This is really hard to do without signing someone to a max contract and not compromising cap space on immovable players.

[TylersLakers]

PG: Patrick Beverley/ Jordan Clarkson/ Ronnie Price
SG: Kobe Bryant/ Wayne Ellington/ Michael Frazier/
SF: Danny Green/ Rondae Hollis-Jefferson/
PF: Julius Randle/ Thomas Robinson/ Ryan Kelly
C: Jahlil Okafor/ Tyson Chandler/ Tarik Black

- Beverley 3 year deal beginning at 7M
- Green 4 year deal beginning at 10M
- Chandler 2 year deal, beginning at 5M
- Trade Nick Young for future 2nd round pick
- Wayne Ellington 3 year deal beginning at 4M
- Thomas Robinson room exception, 1 year + team option
- Approx 45M in guaranteed salary for next season, still 40M in cap space for next season

[loveshaq786]

Trade swaggy p, ryan kellyand 34th pick for James Johnson from tor

Trade hill for kj McDaniels. Houston can use a good back up center.

Those 2 moves can solidify our sf spot.

[aaron_gray]

To Lakers: Terrence Jones, Kosta Big Papa, Clint Capela, #18

To Houston: Julius Randle, Ryan Kelly, #27, #34

To Lakers: Doug McDermott

To Chicago: Nick Young

To Lakers: Joe Harris

To Cleveland: Tarik Black


Starters: Jordan Clarkson, Justin Anderson (drafted with #18), Thug McBullets, Jones, Jahlil Okafor (drafted with #2)
Bench: Jabari Brown, Joe Harris, Big Papa, Jordan Hill, Capela
Coaching Staff: Byron Scott (head coach), Brian Shaw, Mike Malone, Mad Dog
General Manager: Mitch Kuptchak

Outside of the coaching staff, all these acquisitions are doable, as most of the trades are selling Laker players for seventy cents on the dollar. This will be a playoff team in 2-3 years assuming Mike Malone can construct a top 10 defense around Jones and Capela's shotblocking ability as well as the length and athleticism of the perimeter players.

[Slava]

PG: Patrick Beverley/ Jordan Clarkson/ Ronnie Price
SG: Kobe Bryant/ Wayne Ellington/ Michael Frazier/
SF: Danny Green/ Rondae Hollis-Jefferson/
PF: Julius Randle/ Thomas Robinson/ Ryan Kelly
C: Jahlil Okafor/ Tyson Chandler/ Tarik Black

- Beverley 3 year deal beginning at 7M
- Green 4 year deal beginning at 10M
- Chandler 2 year deal, beginning at 5M
- Trade Nick Young for future 2nd round pick
- Wayne Ellington 3 year deal beginning at 4M
- Thomas Robinson room exception, 1 year + team option
- Approx 45M in guaranteed salary for next season, still 40M in cap space for next season

I like this a ton and I'm a big fan of tying down role playing starters before approaching the max contract free agents. I don't think however that Houston would back down from Beverley unless we offer around $10 mil per season. $7 mil is mighty cheap for them to give up on their starting PG unless they hit manage to either hit on Dragic or trade for someone like Lowry.

Also $5 mil per year is way too cheap for Tyson even if he gives us a homecoming discount.

[mcscotty]

pg- make offer to corey joseph 3 yrs 15 mill
sf- offer carrol 3yrs 33mill
Noah/22nd for 27th, use 22nd on j. Anderson

Clarkson/joseph
kobe/young
carrol/Anderson
randle/boozer
ok4/noah

Have to let ed go...no more money

Interesting lineup. I could see Noah or D.Jordan ending up here. The Bulls and Clippers need to shake things up. Could see Gasol landing at either destination.

[Mirjalovic]

To Lakers: Terrence Jones, Kosta Big Papa, Clint Capela, #18

To Houston: Julius Randle, Ryan Kelly, #27, #34

To Lakers: Doug McDermott

To Chicago: Nick Young

To Lakers: Joe Harris

To Cleveland: Tarik Black


Starters: Jordan Clarkson, Justin Anderson (drafted with #18), Thug McBullets, Jones, Jahlil Okafor (drafted with #2)
Bench: Jabari Brown, Joe Harris, Big Papa, Jordan Hill, Capela
Coaching Staff: Byron Scott (head coach), Brian Shaw, Mike Malone, Mad Dog
General Manager: Mitch Kuptchak

Outside of the coaching staff, all these acquisitions are doable, as most of the trades are selling Laker players for seventy cents on the dollar. This will be a playoff team in 2-3 years assuming Mike Malone can construct a top 10 defense around Jones and Capela's shotblocking ability as well as the length and athleticism of the perimeter players.

**** no, we will be the stupid one to watch Julius Randle dominate in another team.

[dirtymike]

Is Tristan Thompson considered 'top tier'? I was saying all yr long that this dude is a beast on the boards. I would love to have him in Purple and Gold. But then we would have a log jam at the 4 spot...so never mind.

[cashflo]

Here we go

Okafor 5m Sacre 1m
Randle 3m Black 1m
Green 15m Stephenson 9m
Kobe 25m Ellington 1m Brown 1m
Clarkson 1m Price 1m

We are at about 63m so far and we need to include our draft picks if we keep them.. I have Swaggy and Kelly going to Charlotte for Lance...This is saying Green isn't an Elite FA and that we steel him from golden state.. We would have two really good defensive players in Green and Stephenson.

Some filling still do with role players

[Lakersteve20]

Okafor/Davis/Black
Randle/Kelly
Carroll/RHJ
Kobe/Young/Brown
Clarkson/Lin