2020 NBA Offseason Thread

[NYRaider]

7 minutes ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

Only other logical choice for Executive of the Year besides Pelinka should be James Jones.

Can't see an argument for another GM.

Rob P has to be GM of the year. Justin Zanik in Utah did a nice job as well locking up Rudy/Mitchell long term, bringing back Clarkson/Favors, and acquiring Bogdanovic/Conley last offseason. 

[NYRaider]

36 minutes ago, indifference said:

is it???

Cole Anthony might be a better player right now

Lets see Cole play an actual NBA game. Fultz has had a shaky start to his career but there's a reason he went #1 and was compared to Harden coming out of college. 

[NYRaider]

32 minutes ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

Yeah, this is a really underrated deal for the Lakers and one I was hoping we would make before the deadline, but wasn't too confident was going to happen.

1.) Non-Rookie max extensions don't usually happen.

2.) After Kuzma's commercial about proving the haters wrong came out.... I thought he would for sure be betting on himself this year.

Honestly 13 million is very fair for Kuzma, especially if the growth he showed as a defender in the playoff continues and he can raise his 3PT% a bit.

Honestly if he would've hit RFA I think he could've gotten quite a bit more from another team, especially a bad one. 

If he did what I mentioned above, then he would've solidly been in that 15 to 19 million range.

He's said all the right things so far and besides the first half in that last preseason game. He played very well in the preseason and his shot mechanics looked better at least when he held his follow through. Looked more like his form from his rookie year. He also made some shots on the move running around screens which supposedly is something they want him to get good at. Not sure we have many guys that can do that right now.

Honestly I kinda feel bad for Kuzma. He has caught a ton of flack from Lakers fans cause of his up and down play. I know I've been guilty of it for sure. It's just frustrating for fans cause he's the last of the young guys left and we haven't seen him build on that potential he showed in Summer League and his rookie year.

I will have to say he went from having a big role as a rookie to an everchanging one since LeBron got here and especially once we added AD, because they took up a lot of the minutes and scoring responsibility as the 3 and 4. 

Hopefully now with a more clear role from Vogel and not having to worry about his next pay day he can settle in this year. It is a big year for him, cause he's not a young guy anymore. He's entering whatever his prime will be. 

The preseason was a nice sign with him hitting 10 of 24 threes for a 41.2%. Not expecting him to be anywhere near that, but if he can be like 35 to 37% I'd be pretty happy.

Kuz - Dennis - Harrell are going to run other teams second units off the floor. 

[NYRaider]

31 minutes ago, KhanYouDigIt said:

Dont know why we have JI 80M tho. Made of glass.

Yeah, that was a questionable move. Even pre-injury I don't think he was worth $20M/yr but as a small market team you have to keep young talent around. 

[KhanYouDigIt]

1 minute ago, NYRaider said:

Yeah, that was a questionable move. Even pre-injury I don't think he was worth $20M/yr but as a small market team you have to keep young talent around. 

Yep. Not like any FA worth a damn will sign with us anyway.

[TheRealMcCoy]

1 hour ago, NYRaider said:

Rob P has to be GM of the year. Justin Zanik in Utah did a nice job as well locking up Rudy/Mitchell long term, bringing back Clarkson/Favors, and acquiring Bogdanovic/Conley last offseason. 

Favors is kinda washed now. He's okay and maybe he'll do better with you guys than he did the Pelicans, because he'll mainly be at PF.

But, yeah I like what the Jazz have done for the most part recently. Glad to see Clarkson perform well for you guys who needed bench help and end up getting a good pay day.

Edited December 22, 2020 by TheRealMcCoy

[TheRealMcCoy]

1 hour ago, NYRaider said:

Kuz - Dennis - Harrell are going to run other teams second units off the floor. 

I think good chance Schroder is in the starting line-up to take some of the play making burden off LeBron.

If that ends up being the case, then I hope THT would get a chance to be the main ball handler with the back-ups most of the time.

Lakers fans really don't know what the line-ups will look like at this point and there will probably be a lot of experimentation early.

[Spartica4Real]

2 hours ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

AD vs. Jrue in the Finals?

That's what I'm thinking. Gonna be bittersweet as hell if it happens.

[TheRealMcCoy]

4 minutes ago, Spartica4Real said:

That's what I'm thinking. Gonna be bittersweet as hell if it happens.

You guys got pretty good return for both players all things considered. Probably better than whatever the Rockets will get for Harden.

But, yeah it sucks not seeing them hold up the trophy for the Pelicans.

I'm sure Pelicans fans are gonna be rooting for Jrue over AD since he didn't force the organizations hand, plus for the ones that still have love for AD they already got to see him win.

[MookieMonstah]

4 minutes ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

You guys got pretty good return for both players all things considered. Probably better than whatever the Rockets will get for Harden.

But, yeah it sucks not seeing them hold up the trophy for the Pelicans.

I'm sure Pelicans fans are gonna be rooting for Jrue over AD since he didn't force the organizations hand, plus for the ones that still have love for AD they already got to see him win.

I don’t think I’ve met a single Pelicans fan who has love for AD 😂

[MookieMonstah]

Also, Zion doesn’t really need to be a great defender to be great. His passing looks better in the preseason (I know), which is far more important IMO

[TheRealMcCoy]

7 minutes ago, MookieMonstah said:

I don’t think I’ve met a single Pelicans fan who has love for AD 😂

Can't blame them tbh. I was upset with Shaq for a while when he left.

I would've been salty as hell if Kobe followed through and left for the Bulls like he wanted to when we sucked.

Losing an elite player will never be something a fan can just get over.

It would've been fun seeing AD and Zion together for a year, but if AD would've bolted in FA, then he really did the Pels a favor by asking out.

Edited December 22, 2020 by TheRealMcCoy

[champ11]

the lakers are a klutch vessel. i'm good on heaping praise on Rob Pelinka, lol. let's see them on the floor before we crown the offseason moves. 

[Spartica4Real]

1 hour ago, TheRealMcCoy said:

You guys got pretty good return for both players all things considered. Probably better than whatever the Rockets will get for Harden.

But, yeah it sucks not seeing them hold up the trophy for the Pelicans.

I'm sure Pelicans fans are gonna be rooting for Jrue over AD since he didn't force the organizations hand, plus for the ones that still have love for AD they already got to see him win.

I think we're definitely in a better spot now, but to no fault of Jrue and AD. To the fault of Dell Demps/injuries, probably like a 70/30 split. Got good hauls for both, got Zion on our own luck, Griffin/SVG running things, definitely excited about the future. Though it is a taste of what could've been, Boogie stays healthy and we have AD/Jrue/Boogie right as the fall of the Warriors is occurring. We'll never know what could've happened.

And yeah we'd definitely be rooting for Jrue in that scenario lol, even if AD had not won the ring already. 

[TheRealMcCoy]

2 minutes ago, champ11 said:

the lakers are a klutch vessel. i'm good on heaping praise on Rob Pelinka, lol. let's see them on the floor before we crown the offseason moves. 

I'm fine with that last point. That's fair. No GMs moves can be judged on paper. We haven't proven **** with this new look roster. For all we know Gasol and Matthews could be cooked come playhoff time. Harrell won't be able to be on the court for much time again possibly. Etc.

Not all their signings have been Klutch though and not every GM could build trust between Paul and the organization. Not every GM has Pelinka's people skills.

Anyways, our draft track record is on par with just about any franchise in the NBA. I don't know how much credit Pelinka gets for that since its Jim Buss and the scouting department probably more so than him, but he's still the GM and has final say.