Could happen as soon as tomorrow, if the Lakers fall in Phoenix while the Spurs knock off the Nuggets.
Only got that due to the four month layoff where Davis somehow didn't trip over the furniture in his house.
Lakers always pull stars out of their asses so, yeah, they’ll be back but hard to see another title coming in the near-term. The Jay’s need to bring one home in that time before LA reloads.
It's definitely going to be harder with no Ingram or Ball to offer. They've got nothing in terms of any kind of decent young players (THT is meh at best).
Yup. Forgot the Pelicans own the unprotected pick this year. I’ll be rooting for them to win the lotto if Lakers miss playoffs. Spurs need to finish this off.
If the pick falls into the top-10, New Orleans keeps it. Anything higher than 10, it goes to Memphis. If it is top-ten, Memphis gets New Orleans 2nd rounder this year. ( I believe this is how it would shake out).
The Westbrook contract will indeed hamper the Lakers next season. Of course, LeBron may force a trade, but otherwise they will be cap hell next year as well.
Seems pretty likely that if Lakers miss playoffs, that it’ll be a top 10 pick. They currently have the 8th worst record so would take a lot of unlikely scenarios for Memphis to get that pick, right? In any event, as long as it goes to someone other than LA, I’m good. Don’t want them having any young talent.
The "It's probably nothing, but the Lakers are 0-6 this preseason" headline was really funny to me for some reason.
The Pelicans pick next year might just be in the 16-18 range. If there’s one thing they’ve learned this year, they can assemble a decent team without Zion, so they may just be open to moving him for a king’s ransom and adding to the team they have. And there’s a lot of value in having Williamson on his rookie deal, so they probably get it from someone.
Yes, but thank buddha that there's no obvious franchise guy in this draft.
I love Jaylen but he is not the franchise player that is going to lead the next Laker dynasty.
Beyond that the difference between what LA can pay him and what Boston can is pretty enormous thanks to the rookie extension he signed.
Yup. But that’s the Lakers. When things look to be most dire, some BS always happens, like Shaq signing because Orlando couldn’t close the deal, Kobe not wanting Charlotte, Chris Wallace sending Pau there, LeBron deciding to try acting, Klutch handing them the AD piece they desperately needed, etc.
The mickey mouse summer league title actually makes this better. Let me tell you why...
I'm not sure how swapping Westbrook for Wall does anything, as both contracts expire 2023. And what assets would the Lakers be able to provide the Wizards for taking on Westbrook?
I am going to assume this is really dry humor.
Yes I agree. But even if they make the playoffs, which they don't deserve(I'm very against the 10 team qualifying rule) we can celebrate that first round knock out against the Suns.
Given that Houston doesn't want either Westbrook or Wall, I'm not sure why they'd take a future second for the privilege of buying out one rather than the other. Now far future firsts they'd consider. But it will take more than one.
I’m not sure why, it’s completely reinvigorated the late season games as teams that previously tanked for all they were worth now play to win down to the wire in hopes of getting a playoff game.
Not to mention lowering the value of 7/8 seeds, forcing teams to play hard to stay out of those.
I mean, if you are buying someone out, why wouldn't you take whatever you could get? I could see maybe just shrugging off a future second, maybe...but I think there is zero chance they would balk at a first. And I can't see any scenario where they hold out for more than one
The problem is that the Lakers don't have a first rounder in 2022, are subject to a swap w/ NO in 2023, and the Pels have rights to one of the 2024/25 first rounders. So there is no clean pick to trade until 2026. It may be that the Rockets end up not caring that much about how much the swaps cap the value of the pick, but it could be a complicating factor.
