The Official Los Angeles Lakers Thread

[HaloMilliVanilli]

Can you imagine a lineup of Hart/Leonard/LBJ/Kuzma/AD on the floor?

[Angel Oracle]

The more I read about Issac Bonga, the more SCHWING.    6-8 perimeter guy with 7-0 wingspan, who played PG in Germany and has developed a 3 point shot in the G-League.    Is there a decent enough chance that he is the one to eventually replace Rondo, assuming Ball being traded?

[HaloMilliVanilli]

Bonga is young, too young to be primarily running the Lakers next year.  Could he serve as backup?  Maybe.  Spot minutes with Hart as the primary backup?  Likely.  He is growing at light speed though, and like you said has really started to build a nice shot from distance.  But he needs minutes, so I could see another season in the G-league and being brought up for big league games often.

[beatlesrule]

Lakers shoot too many 3's. It's so frustrating!

Once again people, you need to trade all 4 young guys for AD. No way Lakers get to keep Kuzma. Ingram, Ball, Zubac, Kuzma, probably 2 first round picks and another player if salaries don't match would be gone. 

It's been reported that Lakers won't have the same offer in the summer if the Pelicans don't trade with them now. They would be prepared to just wait for 2020 at that point and sign AD in free agency.

[HaloMilliVanilli]

I'm fine taking the slow approach.  Let Boston trade for him in the summer.  See if they want to deal at the 2020 trade deadline to get some of their assets back.  Otherwise, keep on keeping on.  I suppose if the immediate deal were Lonzo/Kuzma/KCP with minimal filler, I'd be fine with that.

[beatlesrule]

From today's hoopsrumors chat:

Jc

1:45

You're the Pelicans.....you take what the Lakers are offering or do you wait?

Luke Adams

1:48

Hard to say, since we don't know what 15-20 teams in the league might be offering. The Lakers' reported offer (Ball, Kuzma, Ingram, Zubac, first-rounder) is definitely intriguing, but I'm not sure there's a player in that group with MVP upside -- it's not even a lock that any will ever make an All-Star team. The Pelicans might do what the Pacers (Oladipo/Sabonis) and Spurs (DeRozan) did and try to lock up one or two really strong assets, rather than a collection of 4-5 solid ones.

He also stated that the Pelicans are angry at LeBron and AD for starting all of this and might not trade with LA because they don't want to reward bad behavior. 

I do not agree with his assessment that there are no all-stars in the Lakers trade offer but that's why he hasn't been traded to LA yet and why he might not.

[m0nkey]

Who of the lakers four do you think has a realistic chance of being an all star?

[HaloMilliVanilli]

D-Lo just made the all-star team.  Good for him.

[HaloMilliVanilli]

I could envision Lonzo, Kuzma and/or Ingram making all-star games.  Whatever, don't make a deal with NO and just keep slowly building.  Let these guys keep maturing and jelling together, see what we have.  Take action during the summer.

[Angel Oracle]

This is starting to remind me of 43+ years back, when the Lakers traded three good young players (Brian Winters, Junior Bridgeman, and Dave Meyers) along with starting center Elmore Smith to the Bucks for a 28 year-old Kareem and back-up center Walt Wesley.  

None of those players going to the Bucks became a many times All-Star, although Winters had four straight seasons averaging close to 20 pts/game for the Bucks and averaged nearly 17 pts/game for them over 8 seasons, Bridgeman averaged close to 14 pts/game for the Bucks over 10 seasons, and Meyers was a glue type player who also averaged some 12 pts/game for the Bucks in a curtailed 4-5 seasons career. 

[Angel Oracle]

5 minutes ago, HaloJustinBieber said:

D-Lo just made the all-star team.  Good for him.

Where was that in his LA days?   Finally matured?

[beatlesrule]

Lakers are 28th in three point percentage and 29th in free throw percentage. Absolutely pathetic.

[HaloMilliVanilli]

Pathetic, agree.  Warmed my heart to see Ingram go 5-5 from the line yesterday.  He's averaging 17.1 ppg.  Would we think differently of him if he made one more bucket per game + one free throw (or 3 more made free throws)?

[Lou]

2 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

Where was that in his LA days?   Finally matured?

was he a bust after 1.5 years, too?

[Lou]

so, when does Melo become a Laker? 

[Angel Oracle]

11 minutes ago, Lou said:

was he a bust after 1.5 years, too?

The Lakers seemingly didn't think highly of him, to essentially trade Russell plus Mozgov for one year of Brook Lopez.   

Granted getting rid of Mozgov's contract was a very good thing.

I'll give Russell solid props, because judging by the Nets solid record so far after a bad 2017-18, he must have grown up in more ways than just stats.

[beatlesrule]

Russell was just a casualty. Mozgov had to go and Russell was the odd man out to be able to make that happen.

[HaloMilliVanilli]

Well, I'm not too worried about D-Lo.  Ultimately, if we still had him we likely don't have Kyle Kuzma whom we selected with the pick we acquired for D-Lo.  Would he be the same player here that he has blossomed into in Brooklyn?  Maybe, maybe not.  Might have changed who we drafted last year.  So I guess the debate could be Lonzo + Kuzma (+ cap space) or D-Lo + Taytum (and still having Mozgov).  Slam dunk for me.

[beatlesrule]

So the Pelicans just might be keeping him after all. This is the latest ridiculous rumor

 

Pelicans want: - Lonzo - Ingram - Kuzma - Rondo - Lance - Beasley - FOUR first round picks - TWO second round picks

 

[m0nkey]

 

[Lou]

13 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

 

Pelicans want: - Lonzo - Ingram - Kuzma - Rondo - Lance - Beasley - FOUR first round

evidently the Pelican's front office personnel had their brains flooded during Katrina 

[Blarg]

Making a demand like that is telling the Lakers to buy him in free agency. Which they will, keeping Ball, Ingram, Kuzma, Rondo and their draft picks. 

[m0nkey]

If they wait until free agency, Davis will come over during Lebron's age 36 season.  

 

He's Lebron James, but you have to figure he's going to slow down at some point.  

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

It sounds like the deal was pretty much anyone of value on the Lakers roster besides James, the Lakers taking on a contract that would give NO salary relief and anywhere from 2 to 4 future first round picks.  I'm not sure if NO really thought the Lakers would go for it or if it's their "attempt" at trading a player they don't want to trade but that makes it real easy to walk away.  

[HaloMilliVanilli]

Good.  I'd love to have AD now, but not with a gun held to our head.  Not making a hasty deal now leaves us flush with cash this summer.  We can add a max free agent, keep all the young guns, and potentially retain Rondo and McGee.  Then, we have assets to make a deal either after the FA signing during the summer or in-season 2019/2020.