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Can yall at least wait for the season before you throw in the towel?
**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by licensed to ball,
- Start date
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Funny thing is they have a cupcake schedule to start the season. Should be okay through December at least.
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Might have something.
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And he looks like a solid defender. He'll get some burn with THT out
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HBK time
MVP
Supporter
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You been sleep the last decade? This ALWAYS happens, which is why honestly trying to trade for Buddy Hield was a terrible idea.
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I hope Jeanie doesn’t cheap out and just goes out and signs a 15th man to this team. Ennius makes more and more sense
if only she wasn’t on welfare and struggling
if only she wasn’t on welfare and struggling
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Lebron hurt his groin-> title
monk hurt his groin—> same result?
stay tuned
monk hurt his groin—> same result?
stay tuned
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Fyi, NUNN out for rest of preseason with a bum ankle
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So 1 game lol
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Out for preseason minimum
which means no practice. Basically half a training camp for him with the big boys.
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Forgot to post this yesterday:
Hollinger’s 2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers preview: Lineup, roster, prediction, does the Russell Westbrook fit work?
Los Angeles Lakers
2020-21 season: 42-30 (seventh in West), 24th in offense, first in defense
Where we left off
I’m sorry … did … did you say 24th? A team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis finished 24th in offense? I thought it was bad that Golden State finished 20th with Steph Curry. What the hell happened here?
The Lakers actually began their title defense looking like a strong possibility to repeat. The offense was a little wonky from the word go, but the D was as locked in as ever, and the additions of Dennis Schröder and Montrezl Harrell were supposed to add some vitality to the Lakers’ regular-season offense.
Narrator voice: They did not. Schröder predictably regressed from his career year in Oklahoma City, while Harrell actually scored at his usual rates and shot 62.2 percent but fell out of the rotation. With James and Davis both missing extended time due to injury (they missed 63 games between them), it exposed just how deficient the rest of the roster was in shot creation and, especially, shooting.
L.A. landed in the bottom 10 in both frequency and accuracy of 3-pointers, an amazing feat when its two stars draw so much attention and when James, in particular, flings inch-accurate lasers to open corner shooters.
There just wasn’t a punisher at the other end of those deliveries. The Lakers’ leader in 3-point attempts last season was … Kyle Kuzma. They only had three players make at least 100 triples but managed to have five attempt at least 100 3s and make 33.5 percent or fewer. Even the higher percentage shooters like Alex Caruso (41 percent) and Marc Gasol (40.1 percent) shot so infrequently that it didn’t amount to much of a threat. The only player to make 3s at an above-average rate and attempt enough of them to matter was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The playoffs underscored this problem. Davis’ Game 4 injury was obviously a major hindrance, but the Suns had an injury to Chris Paul that lasted all series. The overwhelming takeaway from the series was how overmatched the Lakers were at any position not manned by James or Davis. Wes Matthews and Markieff Morris started playoff games, for crying out loud. The supporting cast just wasn’t good enough.
Offseason moves
The Lakers took one big swing and several bunts:
On balance, however, I think the Lakers did well this offseason. The Westbrook trade is probably the most controversial and interesting move, with the Lakers basically deciding to go after the most prominent talent available and worry about fit later. We’ll do the same and talk about Westbrook’s fit below, but first, let’s talk about options. It warrants mentioning that the Lakers were working from a depleted asset base, so their possibilities were hardly infinite here. Lakers exceptionalism only gets you so far when you can’t trade a first until 2027.
An equally interesting choice was that the Lakers opted not to pay Caruso and, instead, pay Horton-Tucker. The Lakers, of course, could have just opted to pay both, and this was an indication that their pockets are not limitless; L.A.’s payroll will be about $20 million less than that of Golden State or Brooklyn.
A market-rate deal for Caruso would have added roughly $30 million to L.A.’s luxury-tax penalty this season. With L.A. in win-now mode, choosing the 20-year-old Horton-Tucker was a departure, but by 2022-23, he might be the better player. However, his having an out after just two seasons removes much of the potential surplus value from this contract.
The sneaky value here is Nunn, who may not start games but has a good chance of finishing them. He can shoot (38.1 percent from 3 last year) and has enough shot-creation chops to supplement second units. He’ll only be here a year, most likely, but this was good value from the taxpayer exception.
And otherwise, the Lakers went with old guys on minimums. In some cases, this was clearly the best player available, and the Lakers were fortunate to get the guy at that price. Bazemore, in particular, can still help a team. Others seemed more like knee-jerk reflexes for guys who used to be good. I have a hard time seeing any of Rondo, Howard, Jordan or Anthony helping in a playoff series. One bit of bargain shopping (that I wish they’d done more of) was targeting Monk, an undersized shooter who could thrive in an off-ball role.
The Lakers paid Memphis to take Gasol off their hands after last season’s Drummond experiment poisoned the well with him, which is unfortunate; he likely would have helped more than Howard or Jordan.
Finally, the Lakers have quietly done a tremendous job in recent years scouting and developing late picks and undrafted players, so keep an eye on two-way Ayayi and 14th man Reaves. Note that Reaves’ small guarantee would allow the Lakers to waive him and sign him to a two-way if somebody else comes available.
Cap situation
Salary-wise, this is the most top-heavy roster I’ve seen since the first year of the Miami Heat trio, when they only had minimum contracts left to build a team. The Lakers have nine players on minimum deals. James, Westbrook and Davis will make $120 million this year, nearly putting L.A. into the tax by themselves. The other 13 players combined will have a cap hit of $28 million. Luol Deng’s dead stretch money is the Lakers’ fifth-highest paid “player” right now.
With the Lakers $19 million into the tax, and historically more conservative in this realm than you might think (see Caruso note above), they’re likely limited to working around the margins. Surely they’ll be a prominent landing spot for bought-out veterans, so their trade deadline work may consist of dumping minimum deals to lighten the tax burden and create roster spots. Reaves’ deal seems like an admission of that fact in advance; the Lakers only guaranteed $100,000 for their 14th roster spot so they can flip it at any time. The Lakers also have a small trade exception from the Gasol deal ($2.7 million).
Next year, the Lakers are likely to end up in a similar scenario. Only four players are under contract — assuming James stays put and Westbrook opts into his $47 million salary — but they make enough money to guarantee L.A. will be in the tax. The Lakers will again be limited to their taxpayer MLE and unable to bring in players via sign-and-trade. The Lakers also traded both their 2022 draft picks already and can’t move a first until 2027 due to the Stepien Rule and the picks they owe New Orleans from the Davis trade.
The players (… in 12 words or less)
Carmelo Anthony, PF – Will Lakers indulge his desire for left-block isos like Portland did?
Trevor Ariza, SF – Likely starter when healthy, but 36-year-old struggled with Miami last year.
Kent Bazemore, SF – Erratic offensive player but a good, handsy defender whose motor never stops.
Anthony Davis, C – Injury history getting worrisome. Has played 70 games twice in nine seasons.
Wayne Ellington, SG – Mini-renaissance in Detroit last year included career-high 62.5 true shooting.
Talen Horton-Tucker, SG – Needs steadier shot (28.2 percent from 3) but has handle, 7-foot wingspan.
Dwight Howard, C – Still a beast on glass (26.7 rebound rate!) but fouls on every play.
LeBron James, PF – More than a third of his shots were 3s for first time ever.
DeAndre Jordan, C – Rebound rate fell off last season but still useful in right spots.
Malik Monk, SG – Bad defender, but shot 40.1 percent on 3s on high volume.
Kendrick Nunn, PG – Surprised Heat didn’t try harder to keep him. Shot 75.5 percent at rim!
Austin Reaves, SG – Shot 50.9 percent from 3 as a freshman, 25.9 percent as a junior. Huh?
Rajon Rondo, PG – Playoff Rondo was a no-show with Clippers. Will he ever return?
Russell Westbrook, PG – Why can’t he shoot free throws anymore? Slumped to 65.6 percent last season.
Joel Ayayi, SG (2w) – Energetic board-crasher and cutter, but limited handle and defensively suspect.
Burning question: Does the Westbrook fit work?
The biggest decision the Lakers made, by far, was to bring in Westbrook on a team that already had James and Davis. On the one hand, it seems like a no-brainer to upgrade the Schröder role to a player who has proven more adept in high-usage roles. Westbrook provides a badly needed jolt of perimeter shot creation to an offense that had become far too LeBron dependent, and after a slow start in Washington last season, he was very effective late in the year.
That will definitely help the Lakers in one respect: raising the floor. Adding a player who can create a near-infinite number of shots at middling efficiency is exactly what this team needs to avoid finishing seventh again. Not only should the Lakers be much more able to weather any absence from James, but also within games they have the ability to have Westbrook command otherwise-anemic bench units and keep them offensively viable.
In terms of winning the ultimate prize, however, the pairing of Westbrook with James and Davis is more questionable. In a postseason environment, the three of them would be sharing the floor more often, and Westbrook doesn’t add much to that particular equation. He’s a subpar shooter off whom opponents will cheat and dare to fire away; in fact, all three Laker stars are players to whom opponents will happily concede 3-pointers. That makes it harder for each of them. Late in games, when James wants to handle the ball up top and slowly orchestrate, Westbrook’s defender will be chilling in the paint to gum things up.
All that might be OK if the Lakers follow their 2020 model of playing awesome defense and passable offense, but Westbrook will hurt them on that end too. Despite his athleticism and competitiveness, he’s a wandering, ball-watching defender who frequently runs himself out of position.
Ultimately, optimizing the Westbrook-James-Davis triumvirate for the regular season should be relatively painless. But the Lakers are built for the playoffs, and that’s where this gets more questionable.
Projection
Between the addition of Westbrook and the fact that James and Davis are likely to miss fewer games this season, the Lakers should be able to load-manage their stars through the season and still avoid the indignity of a seventh-place finish and a Play-In game.
The Lakers also addressed some depth and shooting issues, however imperfectly. Yes, they signed too many old guys, but the likes of Nunn, Monk and Bazemore can really help if they aren’t pushed out by the veteran riffraff. (One of Frank Vogel’s biggest tests, especially in the playoffs, will be his willingness to sit players like Rondo, Anthony and Howard to put his best quintets on the floor.)
That said, I don’t think we can elevate them to the status of favorites in the conference just yet. The fit issues with the three best players put a lot of pressure on tertiary performers to give them some semblance of playoff-caliber spacing, and I’m not sure the talent is overwhelming enough to offset the wonky fit.
If there’s one thing LeBron James’ career has told us, it’s that doubting him is an effective way to look like an idiot. He turns 37 in December and has played more than 60,000 NBA minutes, yet he has lost precious little from his peak. His presence alone almost assures the Lakers of being a legit contender, but as Phoenix showed a year ago, the Lakers don’t operate with much of a margin. We can call them “co-favorites” in this conference along with a few other teams, all of whom would be underdogs against Milwaukee or Brooklyn. Whether they actually crash the NBA Finals depends heavily on the quality of Westbrook’s fit.
Prediction: 52-30, third in Western Conference
Los Angeles Lakers
2020-21 season: 42-30 (seventh in West), 24th in offense, first in defense
Where we left off
I’m sorry … did … did you say 24th? A team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis finished 24th in offense? I thought it was bad that Golden State finished 20th with Steph Curry. What the hell happened here?
The Lakers actually began their title defense looking like a strong possibility to repeat. The offense was a little wonky from the word go, but the D was as locked in as ever, and the additions of Dennis Schröder and Montrezl Harrell were supposed to add some vitality to the Lakers’ regular-season offense.
Narrator voice: They did not. Schröder predictably regressed from his career year in Oklahoma City, while Harrell actually scored at his usual rates and shot 62.2 percent but fell out of the rotation. With James and Davis both missing extended time due to injury (they missed 63 games between them), it exposed just how deficient the rest of the roster was in shot creation and, especially, shooting.
L.A. landed in the bottom 10 in both frequency and accuracy of 3-pointers, an amazing feat when its two stars draw so much attention and when James, in particular, flings inch-accurate lasers to open corner shooters.
There just wasn’t a punisher at the other end of those deliveries. The Lakers’ leader in 3-point attempts last season was … Kyle Kuzma. They only had three players make at least 100 triples but managed to have five attempt at least 100 3s and make 33.5 percent or fewer. Even the higher percentage shooters like Alex Caruso (41 percent) and Marc Gasol (40.1 percent) shot so infrequently that it didn’t amount to much of a threat. The only player to make 3s at an above-average rate and attempt enough of them to matter was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The playoffs underscored this problem. Davis’ Game 4 injury was obviously a major hindrance, but the Suns had an injury to Chris Paul that lasted all series. The overwhelming takeaway from the series was how overmatched the Lakers were at any position not manned by James or Davis. Wes Matthews and Markieff Morris started playoff games, for crying out loud. The supporting cast just wasn’t good enough.
Offseason moves
The Lakers took one big swing and several bunts:
- Traded PF Kyle Kuzma, SG Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, C Montrezl Harrell and 22nd pick to Washington for PG Russell Westbrook and three future seconds
- Traded C Marc Gasol and a future second to Memphis for rights to C Wang Zhelin
- Signed SG Talen Horton-Tucker (three years, $31 million, third-year player option)
- Signed PG Kendrick Nunn (two years, $10 million, second-year player option)
- Signed SG Malik Monk (one year, minimum)
- Signed SG Wayne Ellington (one year, minimum)
- Signed SF Trevor Ariza (one year, minimum)
- Signed SG Kent Bazemore (one year, minimum)
- Signed PG Rajon Rondo (one year, minimum)
- Signed C Dwight Howard (one year, minimum)
- Signed C DeAndre Jordan (one year, minimum)
- Signed PF Carmelo Anthony (one year, minimum)
- Signed SG Austin Reaves (two years, minimum, only $100,000 guaranteed)
- Signed SG Joel Ayayi to a two-way
- Waived SF Alonzo McKinnie
- Did not re-sign PG Alex Caruso, SF Wes Matthews, SG Ben McLemore or C Andre Drummond
On balance, however, I think the Lakers did well this offseason. The Westbrook trade is probably the most controversial and interesting move, with the Lakers basically deciding to go after the most prominent talent available and worry about fit later. We’ll do the same and talk about Westbrook’s fit below, but first, let’s talk about options. It warrants mentioning that the Lakers were working from a depleted asset base, so their possibilities were hardly infinite here. Lakers exceptionalism only gets you so far when you can’t trade a first until 2027.
An equally interesting choice was that the Lakers opted not to pay Caruso and, instead, pay Horton-Tucker. The Lakers, of course, could have just opted to pay both, and this was an indication that their pockets are not limitless; L.A.’s payroll will be about $20 million less than that of Golden State or Brooklyn.
A market-rate deal for Caruso would have added roughly $30 million to L.A.’s luxury-tax penalty this season. With L.A. in win-now mode, choosing the 20-year-old Horton-Tucker was a departure, but by 2022-23, he might be the better player. However, his having an out after just two seasons removes much of the potential surplus value from this contract.
The sneaky value here is Nunn, who may not start games but has a good chance of finishing them. He can shoot (38.1 percent from 3 last year) and has enough shot-creation chops to supplement second units. He’ll only be here a year, most likely, but this was good value from the taxpayer exception.
And otherwise, the Lakers went with old guys on minimums. In some cases, this was clearly the best player available, and the Lakers were fortunate to get the guy at that price. Bazemore, in particular, can still help a team. Others seemed more like knee-jerk reflexes for guys who used to be good. I have a hard time seeing any of Rondo, Howard, Jordan or Anthony helping in a playoff series. One bit of bargain shopping (that I wish they’d done more of) was targeting Monk, an undersized shooter who could thrive in an off-ball role.
The Lakers paid Memphis to take Gasol off their hands after last season’s Drummond experiment poisoned the well with him, which is unfortunate; he likely would have helped more than Howard or Jordan.
Finally, the Lakers have quietly done a tremendous job in recent years scouting and developing late picks and undrafted players, so keep an eye on two-way Ayayi and 14th man Reaves. Note that Reaves’ small guarantee would allow the Lakers to waive him and sign him to a two-way if somebody else comes available.
Cap situation
Salary-wise, this is the most top-heavy roster I’ve seen since the first year of the Miami Heat trio, when they only had minimum contracts left to build a team. The Lakers have nine players on minimum deals. James, Westbrook and Davis will make $120 million this year, nearly putting L.A. into the tax by themselves. The other 13 players combined will have a cap hit of $28 million. Luol Deng’s dead stretch money is the Lakers’ fifth-highest paid “player” right now.
With the Lakers $19 million into the tax, and historically more conservative in this realm than you might think (see Caruso note above), they’re likely limited to working around the margins. Surely they’ll be a prominent landing spot for bought-out veterans, so their trade deadline work may consist of dumping minimum deals to lighten the tax burden and create roster spots. Reaves’ deal seems like an admission of that fact in advance; the Lakers only guaranteed $100,000 for their 14th roster spot so they can flip it at any time. The Lakers also have a small trade exception from the Gasol deal ($2.7 million).
Next year, the Lakers are likely to end up in a similar scenario. Only four players are under contract — assuming James stays put and Westbrook opts into his $47 million salary — but they make enough money to guarantee L.A. will be in the tax. The Lakers will again be limited to their taxpayer MLE and unable to bring in players via sign-and-trade. The Lakers also traded both their 2022 draft picks already and can’t move a first until 2027 due to the Stepien Rule and the picks they owe New Orleans from the Davis trade.
The players (… in 12 words or less)
Carmelo Anthony, PF – Will Lakers indulge his desire for left-block isos like Portland did?
Trevor Ariza, SF – Likely starter when healthy, but 36-year-old struggled with Miami last year.
Kent Bazemore, SF – Erratic offensive player but a good, handsy defender whose motor never stops.
Anthony Davis, C – Injury history getting worrisome. Has played 70 games twice in nine seasons.
Wayne Ellington, SG – Mini-renaissance in Detroit last year included career-high 62.5 true shooting.
Talen Horton-Tucker, SG – Needs steadier shot (28.2 percent from 3) but has handle, 7-foot wingspan.
Dwight Howard, C – Still a beast on glass (26.7 rebound rate!) but fouls on every play.
LeBron James, PF – More than a third of his shots were 3s for first time ever.
DeAndre Jordan, C – Rebound rate fell off last season but still useful in right spots.
Malik Monk, SG – Bad defender, but shot 40.1 percent on 3s on high volume.
Kendrick Nunn, PG – Surprised Heat didn’t try harder to keep him. Shot 75.5 percent at rim!
Austin Reaves, SG – Shot 50.9 percent from 3 as a freshman, 25.9 percent as a junior. Huh?
Rajon Rondo, PG – Playoff Rondo was a no-show with Clippers. Will he ever return?
Russell Westbrook, PG – Why can’t he shoot free throws anymore? Slumped to 65.6 percent last season.
Joel Ayayi, SG (2w) – Energetic board-crasher and cutter, but limited handle and defensively suspect.
Burning question: Does the Westbrook fit work?
The biggest decision the Lakers made, by far, was to bring in Westbrook on a team that already had James and Davis. On the one hand, it seems like a no-brainer to upgrade the Schröder role to a player who has proven more adept in high-usage roles. Westbrook provides a badly needed jolt of perimeter shot creation to an offense that had become far too LeBron dependent, and after a slow start in Washington last season, he was very effective late in the year.
That will definitely help the Lakers in one respect: raising the floor. Adding a player who can create a near-infinite number of shots at middling efficiency is exactly what this team needs to avoid finishing seventh again. Not only should the Lakers be much more able to weather any absence from James, but also within games they have the ability to have Westbrook command otherwise-anemic bench units and keep them offensively viable.
In terms of winning the ultimate prize, however, the pairing of Westbrook with James and Davis is more questionable. In a postseason environment, the three of them would be sharing the floor more often, and Westbrook doesn’t add much to that particular equation. He’s a subpar shooter off whom opponents will cheat and dare to fire away; in fact, all three Laker stars are players to whom opponents will happily concede 3-pointers. That makes it harder for each of them. Late in games, when James wants to handle the ball up top and slowly orchestrate, Westbrook’s defender will be chilling in the paint to gum things up.
All that might be OK if the Lakers follow their 2020 model of playing awesome defense and passable offense, but Westbrook will hurt them on that end too. Despite his athleticism and competitiveness, he’s a wandering, ball-watching defender who frequently runs himself out of position.
Ultimately, optimizing the Westbrook-James-Davis triumvirate for the regular season should be relatively painless. But the Lakers are built for the playoffs, and that’s where this gets more questionable.
Projection
Between the addition of Westbrook and the fact that James and Davis are likely to miss fewer games this season, the Lakers should be able to load-manage their stars through the season and still avoid the indignity of a seventh-place finish and a Play-In game.
The Lakers also addressed some depth and shooting issues, however imperfectly. Yes, they signed too many old guys, but the likes of Nunn, Monk and Bazemore can really help if they aren’t pushed out by the veteran riffraff. (One of Frank Vogel’s biggest tests, especially in the playoffs, will be his willingness to sit players like Rondo, Anthony and Howard to put his best quintets on the floor.)
That said, I don’t think we can elevate them to the status of favorites in the conference just yet. The fit issues with the three best players put a lot of pressure on tertiary performers to give them some semblance of playoff-caliber spacing, and I’m not sure the talent is overwhelming enough to offset the wonky fit.
If there’s one thing LeBron James’ career has told us, it’s that doubting him is an effective way to look like an idiot. He turns 37 in December and has played more than 60,000 NBA minutes, yet he has lost precious little from his peak. His presence alone almost assures the Lakers of being a legit contender, but as Phoenix showed a year ago, the Lakers don’t operate with much of a margin. We can call them “co-favorites” in this conference along with a few other teams, all of whom would be underdogs against Milwaukee or Brooklyn. Whether they actually crash the NBA Finals depends heavily on the quality of Westbrook’s fit.
Prediction: 52-30, third in Western Conference
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Forgot to post this yesterday:
Hollinger’s 2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers preview: Lineup, roster, prediction, does the Russell Westbrook fit work?
Los Angeles Lakers
2020-21 season: 42-30 (seventh in West), 24th in offense, first in defense
Where we left off
I’m sorry … did … did you say 24th? A team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis finished 24th in offense? I thought it was bad that Golden State finished 20th with Steph Curry. What the hell happened here?
The Lakers actually began their title defense looking like a strong possibility to repeat. The offense was a little wonky from the word go, but the D was as locked in as ever, and the additions of Dennis Schröder and Montrezl Harrell were supposed to add some vitality to the Lakers’ regular-season offense.
Narrator voice: They did not. Schröder predictably regressed from his career year in Oklahoma City, while Harrell actually scored at his usual rates and shot 62.2 percent but fell out of the rotation. With James and Davis both missing extended time due to injury (they missed 63 games between them), it exposed just how deficient the rest of the roster was in shot creation and, especially, shooting.
L.A. landed in the bottom 10 in both frequency and accuracy of 3-pointers, an amazing feat when its two stars draw so much attention and when James, in particular, flings inch-accurate lasers to open corner shooters.
There just wasn’t a punisher at the other end of those deliveries. The Lakers’ leader in 3-point attempts last season was … Kyle Kuzma. They only had three players make at least 100 triples but managed to have five attempt at least 100 3s and make 33.5 percent or fewer. Even the higher percentage shooters like Alex Caruso (41 percent) and Marc Gasol (40.1 percent) shot so infrequently that it didn’t amount to much of a threat. The only player to make 3s at an above-average rate and attempt enough of them to matter was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The playoffs underscored this problem. Davis’ Game 4 injury was obviously a major hindrance, but the Suns had an injury to Chris Paul that lasted all series. The overwhelming takeaway from the series was how overmatched the Lakers were at any position not manned by James or Davis. Wes Matthews and Markieff Morris started playoff games, for crying out loud. The supporting cast just wasn’t good enough.
Offseason moves
The Lakers took one big swing and several bunts:
I know what you’re thinking: Can they get some more old guys in here? Were Norm Nixon and Jamaal Wilkes not available?
- Traded PF Kyle Kuzma, SG Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, C Montrezl Harrell and 22nd pick to Washington for PG Russell Westbrook and three future seconds
- Traded C Marc Gasol and a future second to Memphis for rights to C Wang Zhelin
- Signed SG Talen Horton-Tucker (three years, $31 million, third-year player option)
- Signed PG Kendrick Nunn (two years, $10 million, second-year player option)
- Signed SG Malik Monk (one year, minimum)
- Signed SG Wayne Ellington (one year, minimum)
- Signed SF Trevor Ariza (one year, minimum)
- Signed SG Kent Bazemore (one year, minimum)
- Signed PG Rajon Rondo (one year, minimum)
- Signed C Dwight Howard (one year, minimum)
- Signed C DeAndre Jordan (one year, minimum)
- Signed PF Carmelo Anthony (one year, minimum)
- Signed SG Austin Reaves (two years, minimum, only $100,000 guaranteed)
- Signed SG Joel Ayayi to a two-way
- Waived SF Alonzo McKinnie
- Did not re-sign PG Alex Caruso, SF Wes Matthews, SG Ben McLemore or C Andre Drummond
On balance, however, I think the Lakers did well this offseason. The Westbrook trade is probably the most controversial and interesting move, with the Lakers basically deciding to go after the most prominent talent available and worry about fit later. We’ll do the same and talk about Westbrook’s fit below, but first, let’s talk about options. It warrants mentioning that the Lakers were working from a depleted asset base, so their possibilities were hardly infinite here. Lakers exceptionalism only gets you so far when you can’t trade a first until 2027.
An equally interesting choice was that the Lakers opted not to pay Caruso and, instead, pay Horton-Tucker. The Lakers, of course, could have just opted to pay both, and this was an indication that their pockets are not limitless; L.A.’s payroll will be about $20 million less than that of Golden State or Brooklyn.
A market-rate deal for Caruso would have added roughly $30 million to L.A.’s luxury-tax penalty this season. With L.A. in win-now mode, choosing the 20-year-old Horton-Tucker was a departure, but by 2022-23, he might be the better player. However, his having an out after just two seasons removes much of the potential surplus value from this contract.
The sneaky value here is Nunn, who may not start games but has a good chance of finishing them. He can shoot (38.1 percent from 3 last year) and has enough shot-creation chops to supplement second units. He’ll only be here a year, most likely, but this was good value from the taxpayer exception.
And otherwise, the Lakers went with old guys on minimums. In some cases, this was clearly the best player available, and the Lakers were fortunate to get the guy at that price. Bazemore, in particular, can still help a team. Others seemed more like knee-jerk reflexes for guys who used to be good. I have a hard time seeing any of Rondo, Howard, Jordan or Anthony helping in a playoff series. One bit of bargain shopping (that I wish they’d done more of) was targeting Monk, an undersized shooter who could thrive in an off-ball role.
The Lakers paid Memphis to take Gasol off their hands after last season’s Drummond experiment poisoned the well with him, which is unfortunate; he likely would have helped more than Howard or Jordan.
Finally, the Lakers have quietly done a tremendous job in recent years scouting and developing late picks and undrafted players, so keep an eye on two-way Ayayi and 14th man Reaves. Note that Reaves’ small guarantee would allow the Lakers to waive him and sign him to a two-way if somebody else comes available.
Cap situation
Salary-wise, this is the most top-heavy roster I’ve seen since the first year of the Miami Heat trio, when they only had minimum contracts left to build a team. The Lakers have nine players on minimum deals. James, Westbrook and Davis will make $120 million this year, nearly putting L.A. into the tax by themselves. The other 13 players combined will have a cap hit of $28 million. Luol Deng’s dead stretch money is the Lakers’ fifth-highest paid “player” right now.
With the Lakers $19 million into the tax, and historically more conservative in this realm than you might think (see Caruso note above), they’re likely limited to working around the margins. Surely they’ll be a prominent landing spot for bought-out veterans, so their trade deadline work may consist of dumping minimum deals to lighten the tax burden and create roster spots. Reaves’ deal seems like an admission of that fact in advance; the Lakers only guaranteed $100,000 for their 14th roster spot so they can flip it at any time. The Lakers also have a small trade exception from the Gasol deal ($2.7 million).
Next year, the Lakers are likely to end up in a similar scenario. Only four players are under contract — assuming James stays put and Westbrook opts into his $47 million salary — but they make enough money to guarantee L.A. will be in the tax. The Lakers will again be limited to their taxpayer MLE and unable to bring in players via sign-and-trade. The Lakers also traded both their 2022 draft picks already and can’t move a first until 2027 due to the Stepien Rule and the picks they owe New Orleans from the Davis trade.
The players (… in 12 words or less)
Carmelo Anthony, PF – Will Lakers indulge his desire for left-block isos like Portland did?
Trevor Ariza, SF – Likely starter when healthy, but 36-year-old struggled with Miami last year.
Kent Bazemore, SF – Erratic offensive player but a good, handsy defender whose motor never stops.
Anthony Davis, C – Injury history getting worrisome. Has played 70 games twice in nine seasons.
Wayne Ellington, SG – Mini-renaissance in Detroit last year included career-high 62.5 true shooting.
Talen Horton-Tucker, SG – Needs steadier shot (28.2 percent from 3) but has handle, 7-foot wingspan.
Dwight Howard, C – Still a beast on glass (26.7 rebound rate!) but fouls on every play.
LeBron James, PF – More than a third of his shots were 3s for first time ever.
DeAndre Jordan, C – Rebound rate fell off last season but still useful in right spots.
Malik Monk, SG – Bad defender, but shot 40.1 percent on 3s on high volume.
Kendrick Nunn, PG – Surprised Heat didn’t try harder to keep him. Shot 75.5 percent at rim!
Austin Reaves, SG – Shot 50.9 percent from 3 as a freshman, 25.9 percent as a junior. Huh?
Rajon Rondo, PG – Playoff Rondo was a no-show with Clippers. Will he ever return?
Russell Westbrook, PG – Why can’t he shoot free throws anymore? Slumped to 65.6 percent last season.
Joel Ayayi, SG (2w) – Energetic board-crasher and cutter, but limited handle and defensively suspect.
Burning question: Does the Westbrook fit work?
The biggest decision the Lakers made, by far, was to bring in Westbrook on a team that already had James and Davis. On the one hand, it seems like a no-brainer to upgrade the Schröder role to a player who has proven more adept in high-usage roles. Westbrook provides a badly needed jolt of perimeter shot creation to an offense that had become far too LeBron dependent, and after a slow start in Washington last season, he was very effective late in the year.
That will definitely help the Lakers in one respect: raising the floor. Adding a player who can create a near-infinite number of shots at middling efficiency is exactly what this team needs to avoid finishing seventh again. Not only should the Lakers be much more able to weather any absence from James, but also within games they have the ability to have Westbrook command otherwise-anemic bench units and keep them offensively viable.
In terms of winning the ultimate prize, however, the pairing of Westbrook with James and Davis is more questionable. In a postseason environment, the three of them would be sharing the floor more often, and Westbrook doesn’t add much to that particular equation. He’s a subpar shooter off whom opponents will cheat and dare to fire away; in fact, all three Laker stars are players to whom opponents will happily concede 3-pointers. That makes it harder for each of them. Late in games, when James wants to handle the ball up top and slowly orchestrate, Westbrook’s defender will be chilling in the paint to gum things up.
All that might be OK if the Lakers follow their 2020 model of playing awesome defense and passable offense, but Westbrook will hurt them on that end too. Despite his athleticism and competitiveness, he’s a wandering, ball-watching defender who frequently runs himself out of position.
Ultimately, optimizing the Westbrook-James-Davis triumvirate for the regular season should be relatively painless. But the Lakers are built for the playoffs, and that’s where this gets more questionable.
Projection
Between the addition of Westbrook and the fact that James and Davis are likely to miss fewer games this season, the Lakers should be able to load-manage their stars through the season and still avoid the indignity of a seventh-place finish and a Play-In game.
The Lakers also addressed some depth and shooting issues, however imperfectly. Yes, they signed too many old guys, but the likes of Nunn, Monk and Bazemore can really help if they aren’t pushed out by the veteran riffraff. (One of Frank Vogel’s biggest tests, especially in the playoffs, will be his willingness to sit players like Rondo, Anthony and Howard to put his best quintets on the floor.)
That said, I don’t think we can elevate them to the status of favorites in the conference just yet. The fit issues with the three best players put a lot of pressure on tertiary performers to give them some semblance of playoff-caliber spacing, and I’m not sure the talent is overwhelming enough to offset the wonky fit.
If there’s one thing LeBron James’ career has told us, it’s that doubting him is an effective way to look like an idiot. He turns 37 in December and has played more than 60,000 NBA minutes, yet he has lost precious little from his peak. His presence alone almost assures the Lakers of being a legit contender, but as Phoenix showed a year ago, the Lakers don’t operate with much of a margin. We can call them “co-favorites” in this conference along with a few other teams, all of whom would be underdogs against Milwaukee or Brooklyn. Whether they actually crash the NBA Finals depends heavily on the quality of Westbrook’s fit.
Prediction: 52-30, third in Western Conference
Stopped reading at John Hollinger
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Looking for a win today lol
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6'9, athletic, total project. Younger than THT.
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For an old team there's a good amount of young guys on the roster
AD
Monk
THT
Nunn
Sekou
Reaves?
Key is to develop them underneath the old heads so they are ready in 2ish years to take over while AD tries to recruit new powers.
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I’m still concerned about shooting….
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First game of the season tonight. We better get this win
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Former Brooklyn Net Sekou Doumbouya 
