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Incoming contract extensions for DeRozan and Mills. Checkmate.
Kuzma shot 30% from 3 last year... I think he's fool's gold....100% agree on the rest..
Incoming contract extensions for DeRozan and Mills. Checkmate.
That’s cold...
They will be fun team to watch and possibly west Champs as showers are now ed
NOLA now has some nice chips to flip now. I’d love Ball ASAP if them.
Curious to see the direction they take, so they suck one more year? Do they try to get an established player like Beal now with their capspace?
Nah, we’ll give Rudy a 3 or 4 year deal. He was totally washed up by the end of the season. Not his fault with the Achilles situation but still he has no more explosiveness at the tail end of a season.
RC and Pop will think it was just the alcohol in their system making it look that way. Not reality. 2 years should be tops, but since they’ve been Dumb & Dumber the last 3 years in front office decisions they’ll extend him 3 or 4.
Nice article by Ramona Shelburne about how the Spurs tried to get from the Lakers what NO ended up getting:
The Massive Risks and Rewards Behind this Anthony Davis Trade Play
Last summer, the San Antonio Spurs thought they had the Los Angeles Lakers right where they wanted them. L.A. had the inside track to sign LeBron James as a free agent on July 1. But the belief around the league was that James wouldn't come to the Lakers by himself and spend the last years of his prime babysitting their young roster.
The Spurs thought it was a moment of maximum leverage from which to trade Kawhi Leonard, and they wanted everything the Lakers could offer. Not a couple of the Lakers' young players and draft picks. All of them.
The Lakers had spent five years building their team through the lottery and felt good about how they had reshaped their roster. They had held on to their young players when Paul George was traded. When Jimmy Butler was traded. When DeMarcus Cousins was traded. Were they really going to part with all of them now? Could they sign James without that second star in place?
The Lakers held firm. James came anyway, banking on the Lakers getting him a co-star in a trade or via free agency in the summer of 2019. Leonard was traded to the Toronto Raptors and won an NBA le.
The Pelicans' trade demands in exchange for Anthony Davis were nearly identical to the Spurs' requests for Leonard. Their pressure points, leverage and even the young players involved were virtually the same.
The Pelicans have agreed to send six-time All-Star Anthony Davis to Los Angeles, where he'll team up with LeBron James, sources tell ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Full story
But the Lakers were in a very different place this time around. The NBA is in a very different place this time around. Because two of the top free agents about to hit the market -- Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant -- just suffered catastrophic injuries that will keep them out all or most of next season. A third, Leonard, just won his second Finals MVP, and the Lakers' chances for even getting a meeting with him on July 1 seemed to be dimming. And a fourth, Kyrie Irving, just fired his agent and has been increasingly linked to the Brooklyn Nets.
That's virtually the entire top tier of this summer's vaunted free-agent class essentially coming off the Lakers' board. All of which made Davis the top player that the Lakers had the chance to acquire this summer.
The Lakers couldn't leave things to the whims of free agency anymore. Not with James hitting his mid-30s and the pressure on controlling owner Jeanie Buss and general manager Rob Pelinka reaching a fevered pitch following the embarrassing resignation and media tour from former team president Magic Johnson.
Sure, Pelinka could've cut some of the tension at his news conference on draft night by making fun of himself for the fake Heath Ledger story that ESPN's Baxter Holmes revealed last month.
But the only way for Pelinka to truly relieve some of the pressure on himself and the franchise was to acquire a superstar at any cost. The Lakers simply could not afford to miss on this trade and free agency again.
Which is exactly what the Pelicans were banking on. And exactly why this trade couldn't happen until everyone set egos, and hurt feelings from February, aside.
Now, calling those discussions in February "negotiations" is a bit of a stretch. The Pelicans were never serious about dealing with the Lakers then. They didn't like being forced into this position by Davis and his representative, Rich Paul. And they probably weren't going to let former general manager Dell Demps make this big of a decision anyway.
So the Lakers -- really just Johnson, because Demps wouldn't talk to Pelinka -- would call and Demps would write names on the board without giving them any feedback. Those names would leak publicly and do damage to the Lakers' team chemistry. But eventually, Johnson and the Lakers got the hint and stopped banging up against what had become an incredibly self-destructive wall.
Everyone involved in those failed trade discussions got hurt.
The Pelicans' season tanked. The Lakers imploded. Demps was fired. Johnson quit, then threw everyone under the bus. Lakers coach Luke Walton left. James, Paul, Pelinka and Buss endured months of withering criticism. Davis was booed by the home fans, taken off promotional materials and criticized for some suspect fashion choices.
Anthony Davis arrived at the Pelicans' season finale wearing a T-shirt with "That's All Folks" printed on it. AP Photo/Scott Threlkeld
It was bad business for both sides. And when everyone came up for air and surveyed the damage, both sides realized there was still a of a deal to make if they could get over themselves.
Said one source close to the negotiations, "The biggest difference this time was David Griffin [the new Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations]. He wasn't involved before. He could negotiate frankly and fairly."
For the Lakers, this is a massive gamble, with Davis hitting free agency next summer. He is a better player -- and probably a healthier one -- than Dwight Howard was in 2012, when the Lakers took a similar chance and got massively burned for it. Again, this is what the Lakers do. Chasing superstars is part of their DNA. Add in the pressure of maximizing this three-year window with a still-in-his-prime James and this was an automatic reflex for them. Plus, the Lakers still have up to $32.5 million in cap space this summer. Adding Davis is probably the best pitch they can make to free agents.
For the Pelicans, this could be a Herschel Walker-type haul for a player they were going to lose in a year. They essentially got three top-five lottery picks out of the deal, two of which already have gone through their NBA growing pains. Just the idea of Lonzo Ball throwing lobs to probable No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson is enough to bring fans back to the Smoothie King Center. Ball and Jrue Holiday might already be the best defensive backcourt in the NBA.
The Pelicans might be the rare team to trade a superstar in his prime and not have to rebuild. And this is before we know whether the Pelicans will keep the No. 4 pick or flip it for an established veteran.
Either way, the Lakers gave up a massive load of assets to acquire Davis that they'll either be lamenting for years to come like they did after the Howard and Steve Nash trades or celebrating their iron stomachs if Davis and James team up to restore the franchise to glory.
This is a legacy-defining move for Griffin. He mutually parted ways with the Cleveland Cavaliers after the 2017 season so he could run a franchise the way he wanted, without ownership interference. Griffin was so determined to do things on his terms this time, he passed on an opportunity and massive payday to run the New York Knicks two years ago, because he wasn't guaranteed full control of basketball operations.
Instead, Griffin spent his downtime in Sonoma, California, with his wife. They did a lot of wine tasting and enjoyed the region's world-class culinary scene. He hosted a sports talk show on SiriusXM.
The right opportunity would come. The right terms. And if it didn't, Griffin would just enjoy his life. When Pelicans owner Gayle Benson called this spring, Griffin got everything he wanted.
That's also the approach he took to the negotiations for this trade. The Boston Celtics were serious about trading for Davis, as well. They were willing to discuss young, talented players such as Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, according to sources close to the negotiations. But the Celtics were never going to give up as much as the Lakers. And Boston didn't have a high draft pick this year to offer, because it simply hadn't gotten as lucky in the lottery as both L.A. and New Orleans.
And so, in a back room of the Hilton Chicago in May, Pelinka and Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry were together where the NBA draws the combinations of numbers for the draft lottery.
The winning combination is drawn first. So everyone knew right away that the Pelicans had won the rights to draft Williamson. But a few minutes later, the Lakers' number came up, as well, and they jumped to No. 4.
Both franchises knew their fortunes would be forever changed. On Saturday, those draft picks formed the bedrock upon which this blockbuster trade was built. For the Pelicans and the Lakers, it's a second chance to expose themselves to true risk -- and championship rewards.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...ny-davis-trade
Man, this trade will be completed July 6th. It shows NO was totally in control. Because of this La will no longer have a max contract available for a third star (at least not a max for vets with certain amount of years of experience). LA will have to convince a star to take a lot less.
If AD doesn’t waive his trade kicker La has 23M in space. If he does they have 28M.
Their trash is another man’s gold, D’Angelo, Randle, Lopez all played great after leaving LA. Watch those scrubs ball in NO and get the last laugh unloading cancer.Pelicans ended up taking the Lakers' trash, though the three first round picks is nice.
And LA really shouldn’t blow the rest of that on one player. They will have no bench, no assets to trade in the future. And everything riding on AD’s and LeBron’s health.
Leonard was a lottery pick.
Idk see why the pelicans would wait until July 30th to complete the trade and help the lakers out lol I would demand it be completed on 6th
The Lakers better do something good these next few years cause they're gonna have another 5-year bottom out in 2023-2028.
NO may tell the Lakers, "We'll let the trade go until after July 6 if you give us Kuzma."
So you get the Lakers coming and going. (Don't worry, they're used to it.)
Very real possibility there...
I also think the Spurs will eventually leave SA as Spur fans have gotten spoiled and won't support a losing team or long. There are going to be bad years ahead for the Spurs and most Spur fans don't want to accept that.
Actually not, just outside the lottery.
Lakers will get Kawhi now and win the west.
LeBron, KL and AD will be the top team now that GS is going into next season injured.
Leonard will miss 20 games next season does not play back to back
Ad will miss 20 games injury prone
James could easily
If Leonard goes there
Ball dad says lakers will never win a le again.
Sam Vecenie Sam_Vecenie
·
3h
I mean, if deal goes through on July 6, then Lakers only have (at most, depending on if AD takes his trade bonus), ~27.5M in space — and few avenues to clear more
So Kemba would have to take ~$100 million less guaranteed than his max with the Hornets to sign with LA
The Deportation! led to a le!!
7 Finals appearances > 6, tbh
Clippers are getting Kawhi and a second tier star. lol if they get Harden though too
LOL at you farmers giving credence to a Celtic loving hack named Wojtek
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