2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers Thread

Originally posted by AmpLee:
If the Lakers are smart, they won't offer Anthony s**t. I imagine he'll be looking for a max, and some other sucker ought to be the one to give it to him.

I just think the max gets handed out too willy nilly these days.

Ya, the only way I'd be okay with the Lakers offering Melo the max is if they get Kobe at a MASSIVE discount. Melo (and LeBron) are what I call "mega-max" players, because they'll actually be signing their 2nd max deal next year if they opt out. In Melo's case, that means his salary would start at $23.5M with 5% raises. LeBron (since he took the smaller deal to join Miami) would be around $21M or so. By contrast, guys like Rajon Rondo or Marc Gasol's max deals next summer would be $16.8M with 5% raises.

Someone like LeBron is obviously worth it, but you don't pay Carmelo Anthony $23.5M when you only have about $62M pie to split between 13 guys. I'd rather have a guy like Rondo or M. Gasol + another $7M to spend.

I'm gonna miss Metta. His physical ability has declined considerably, but he was one guy that always played his hardest on a team where you couldn't say that about a lot of the guys over his 4 year tenure. He'll always be a Laker to me, in the Horry/Fox kind of mold. Hope he does well with the Knicks.

Originally posted by LA9erFan:

I'm gonna miss Metta. His physical ability has declined considerably, but he was one guy that always played his hardest on a team where you couldn't say that about a lot of the guys over his 4 year tenure. He'll always be a Laker to me, in the Horry/Fox kind of mold. Hope he does well with the Knicks.

Ron Ron is awesome. I loved when he played for the Kings and he loved Sacramento too.

Originally posted by marshniners24:
Ron Ron is awesome. I loved when he played for the Kings and he loved Sacramento too.

He is one of the dudes everyone hates when they play against him but love him when he plays for them. I loved him in Sac. I bet Houston has fond memories of him too. Now the Lakers.

If my calculations are correct and league revenue grows at a reasonable rate, we might actually be able to nab 3 legit stars through free agency over the next couple of years, provided that two of them are coming off of their rookie extension. For example...

2016-17 Lakers

PG: Rajon Rondo $17.65M
SG:
SF: Kevin Durant 22.3M
PF: James McAdoo $2.2M (12th pick in the '14 Draft)
C: Marc Gasol $17.65M

That's $57.6M in projected salary, and our '16 pick (likely late teens, early 20's w/Rondo & Gasol) would make about 1.4M, taking us to $59M in committed salary. The projected salary cap for 2014-15 is $62.1M, so what might it be in '16-17? Is it reasonable to say $66M or so? If so, we could sign a couple of $2.5-3M level players, then a third with the room exception, and then fill out the roster with vet minimum players. Ultimately, that would be a roster with 1 superstar (Durant), 2 solid all-stars (Rondo, Gasol), 1 talented young player going into his 3rd year (McAdoo), 3 role players in the $2.5M - $3M range, 1 rookie in the late teens/early 20's, and a couple of decent vet min guys. That's a title contender that's top heavy but also has a rotation that's 8-9 deep.

I really, really hope that if we miss out on LeBron, we're patient and try to land cheaper max-level guys the next year. Please, no Melo.

I dont know why everyone thinks all these franchise superstars will come to the Lakers. I think they want to create their own legacy

Originally posted by phatbutskinny:
I dont know why everyone thinks all these franchise superstars will come to the Lakers. I think they want to create their own legacy

Because franchise level superstars have always wanted to come to the Lakers? It's the gold standard for NBA franchises in one of the most desirable places to live in the world. Why can't they create their own legacy with the Lakers?

I'm not saying specifically that Durant, Rondo, or Gasol would want to come here...I have no idea...but the appeal of LA is very real.

Originally posted by LA9erFan:

Originally posted by phatbutskinny:
I dont know why everyone thinks all these franchise superstars will come to the Lakers. I think they want to create their own legacy

Because franchise level superstars have always wanted to come to the Lakers? It's the gold standard for NBA franchises in one of the most desirable places to live in the world. Why can't they create their own legacy with the Lakers?

I'm not saying specifically that Durant, Rondo, or Gasol would want to come here...I have no idea...but the appeal of LA is very real.

If you were Marc Gasol wouldnt you rather go to the Warriors in 14 and play with Lee, Iggy, Klay, and Curry? Much better chance to win a ring.

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:

Originally posted by LA9erFan:

Originally posted by phatbutskinny:

I dont know why everyone thinks all these franchise superstars will come to the Lakers. I think they want to create their own legacy

Because franchise level superstars have always wanted to come to the Lakers? It's the gold standard for NBA franchises in one of the most desirable places to live in the world. Why can't they create their own legacy with the Lakers?

I'm not saying specifically that Durant, Rondo, or Gasol would want to come here...I have no idea...but the appeal of LA is very real.

If you were Marc Gasol wouldnt you rather go to the Warriors in 14 and play with Lee, Iggy, Klay, and Curry? Much better chance to win a ring.

Are they gonna have the cap space to sign a max contract?

Originally posted by StOnEy333:

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:

Originally posted by LA9erFan:

Originally posted by phatbutskinny:
I dont know why everyone thinks all these franchise superstars will come to the Lakers. I think they want to create their own legacy

Because franchise level superstars have always wanted to come to the Lakers? It's the gold standard for NBA franchises in one of the most desirable places to live in the world. Why can't they create their own legacy with the Lakers?

I'm not saying specifically that Durant, Rondo, or Gasol would want to come here...I have no idea...but the appeal of LA is very real.

If you were Marc Gasol wouldnt you rather go to the Warriors in 14 and play with Lee, Iggy, Klay, and Curry? Much better chance to win a ring.

Are they gonna have the cap space to sign a max contract?

Bogut will be off the books but thats a good question. Maybe not. I'm sure Pete can tell us though.

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:
If you were Marc Gasol wouldnt you rather go to the Warriors in 14 and play with Lee, Iggy, Klay, and Curry? Much better chance to win a ring.

It depends on what happens between now and then. Marc's a FA in '15, and GSW's FA prospects in '15 are a little dimmer with the addition of Iguodala than they were before. Klay will be due an extension that year, so assuming he re-signs for about $11M per year, you'd have about $49.5M going to that quartet. Add another $3.9M for Barnes and you're up to $53.4M for those 5 players, and they wouldn't be able to offer Gasol a max contract. They'd have to move one of those 4 guys that you mentioned to be able to sign Gasol.

My answer to your question would be "probably". Depends on what the Laker roster looks like, and who GSW moved. I'd definitely want to play with Curry, Klay, & Barnes.

Originally posted by LA9erFan:
If my calculations are correct and league revenue grows at a reasonable rate, we might actually be able to nab 3 legit stars through free agency over the next couple of years, provided that two of them are coming off of their rookie extension. For example...

2016-17 Lakers

PG: Rajon Rondo $17.65M
SG:
SF: Kevin Durant 22.3M
PF: James McAdoo $2.2M (12th pick in the '14 Draft)
C: Marc Gasol $17.65M

That's $57.6M in projected salary, and our '16 pick (likely late teens, early 20's w/Rondo & Gasol) would make about 1.4M, taking us to $59M in committed salary. The projected salary cap for 2014-15 is $62.1M, so what might it be in '16-17? Is it reasonable to say $66M or so? If so, we could sign a couple of $2.5-3M level players, then a third with the room exception, and then fill out the roster with vet minimum players. Ultimately, that would be a roster with 1 superstar (Durant), 2 solid all-stars (Rondo, Gasol), 1 talented young player going into his 3rd year (McAdoo), 3 role players in the $2.5M - $3M range, 1 rookie in the late teens/early 20's, and a couple of decent vet min guys. That's a title contender that's top heavy but also has a rotation that's 8-9 deep.

I really, really hope that if we miss out on LeBron, we're patient and try to land cheaper max-level guys the next year. Please, no Melo.

I don't hope we miss out on LeBron but I think we aren't getting him regardless. Melo, agreed, would rather he not come here (despite the fact that I'm a fan of his).

But then have you thought about what would happen next summer if we don't land either? We have all that cap space so what do we do with it? And don't think of it from a "what should we do" perspective but more so what have all signs (what has leaked regarding managements mindset as well as past moves can both be used to get a fairly decent forecast) pointed to?

Let's have a couple fixed variables...

1. All RFAs stay with their respective teams.
2. Bron/Melo do not come to LA
3. Pau and Kobe both resign for reasonable contracts, both 2-3 year deals

With that said, we're looking at our own guys (Pau, Kobe, Nash, Sacre) along with the remains of the 2014 FA crop of Luol Deng, Dirk, Danny Granger, maybe Wade/Bosh, Kyle Lowry, and a bunch of other s**t...

If we miss on Melo/Bron, there isn't ANYTHING after that to spend money on but regardless, money will have to be spent (or at least 90% of it). So what's the plan then? You don't want to put it all on Kobe/Pau if you don't have to. You have to remove the mindset that we will just rebuild in a traditional way because all signs point to us NOT doing that (plus, this is a hypothetical situation with fixed variables).

The closest we can get to your situation is if we went after guys like Vince Carter, Dirk, Marion, a few other old guys and offered them all 1-year deals to come to LA and see if they could make it work with Kobe/Pau/Nash. We would basically be merging the Mavericks with us. I don't think it's too far-fetched to say that the chances of that plan coming together are pretty damn low.

P.S. Kurt Rambis was brought onto the coaching staff the other day.

Originally posted by LA9erFan:

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:
If you were Marc Gasol wouldnt you rather go to the Warriors in 14 and play with Lee, Iggy, Klay, and Curry? Much better chance to win a ring.

It depends on what happens between now and then. Marc's a FA in '15, and GSW's FA prospects in '15 are a little dimmer with the addition of Iguodala than they were before. Klay will be due an extension that year, so assuming he re-signs for about $11M per year, you'd have about $49.5M going to that quartet. Add another $3.9M for Barnes and you're up to $53.4M for those 5 players, and they wouldn't be able to offer Gasol a max contract. They'd have to move one of those 4 guys that you mentioned to be able to sign Gasol.

My answer to your question would be "probably". Depends on what the Laker roster looks like, and who GSW moved. I'd definitely want to play with Curry, Klay, & Barnes.

Im sure the Warriors would love to dump Lee if they could get a shot at Gasol.

Laker fans really want lebron?

didnt laker fans hate lebron a few years ago and say his titles are meaningless because its "D-Wades team"

Originally posted by ads_2006:
Laker fans really want lebron?

didnt laker fans hate lebron a few years ago and say his titles are meaningless because its "D-Wades team"

There arent many fans that wouldnt want Lebron to come to their team. That is.. if you want to win titles.