Едно интересно размислување, втората половина е конкретно за Лејкерс ама првиот дел е општ:
Dennis Schroder didn’t want to go to the Lakers at the trade deadline. Will that change now that the Thunder are rebuilding?
www.silverscreenandroll.com
Free Agency:
This is a very odd year. Only 6 teams have cap space. Maybe, 14 can make cap space, but no one wants to. So for free agents they are being told, "Only 6 bad teams can pay more than the MLE."
An additional wrinkle is that nearly 25 teams are expected to have massive cap space in 1 season, and that over 1/2 of the league’s players are set to be free agents. So at this point, the league, the agents, and players are in "Just hunker down and get through this season" mode.
Another odd wrinkle is that the draft is uncharacteristically weak. Equal or worse than the DLo year. This isn’t to say that it’s 60 bad players, it’s more to stay that 55 of the 60 will be nothing more than NBA non-all stars. And beyond the top 3, the rest are much closer in skill and talent than normal, and it’s a crap shoot. This means, the draft could have a lot of trades as there isn’t any immediate upgrade potential, and what is found, might be 2-3 years away…. A lot of Josh Harts, but 1-2 DLo level guys, and no Zions.
What this means:
First, it means that the trade market should (could?) be very active. Think, 19 teams only have trades and MLE to improve or retool. And only 6 have the cap space above the MLE ($9m) to pay anyone, all of which are bad. Teams are going to try to use their MLE and Bi-Annual to lure the best talent available. And most of the top guys, who are talking paycuts for 1 year with the MLE will ring chase.
Literally, agents are telling their players, "Take the first offer on the table. If we counter offer, the entire free agency pool of money could be gone. So accept whatever the best offer is, and let me negotiate on number of years. We need to kick the can down the road until next year."
Translated: Free Agency will be over in 4-6 hours. By the time we wake up at 8am, the only think left for talent will be veteran minimums. Any player that wants to "negotiate" and chew up time is going to get passed up and the 30 mid levels and 30 bi-annuals will be gone. Unless of course they want to take a mega deal to play for Cleveland or Charlotte or some other bad team.
How this impacts Rob.
He has to have all his cards (and deals) on the table ready to play in a very fast market and in a period of 2 days between the draft and free agency. He won’t know what cards to play until the last minute when his phone rings. The entire market and trade pool is so fluid that it will change in a matter of 30 minutes, AND, oddly enough, to some extent the Lakers are in the drivers seat as Kuzma is in the center of a lot of possible deals, and may be one of the first dominos to fall. Once Kuzma moves, a lot of backup deals may be executed within minutes. And ironically, given all the past nonsense about "Tampering", this is one year that it is ABSOLUTELY happening, and it would be child like foolishness to think that agents aren’t already lining up deals for their players in this 4 hour market.
In this year, DeRozan might be the best option. Or D.Rose. But the team is in NO position to wait, haggle, or fuss. And things will move so fast that this might be the best option going-in.
I hope / expect:
Bradley – Opt In.
KCP – $15M /3 years (Traded to team of choice next season).
Either:
- Derozan – Rumors make a lot of sense.
- D.Rose – This seems to be the backup plan.
Cousins (Most of MLE $4M?)
T.Thompson (1/2 of MLE)
Howard – Vet Minimum ($3M!)
McGee – Opt Out or Traded.
The best 2 or 3 sharpshooter 3pt guys available in the draft. Watch for a low 2nd round trade. (Philly? Charlotte?) <- This solves the 3pt issue the team can’t fix in free agency.
Posted by
LakerDieHard on
Nov 12, 2020 | 3:00 PM
