33 and could run laps around most of our guys. His athletic ability is diminishing from a very high level.
His knee has been a ticking time bomb since Beverly injured it. Tim went to a brace 9 years after his meniscus surgery, and he played much more below the rim than Russ. He’s 6 years past 27, peak athleticism, and while he can still show some athleticism,it ain’t Westbrook level.
33 and could run laps around most of our guys. His athletic ability is diminishing from a very high level.
What an idiot
Edit: that was in reference to Schroeder passing up 87M comment
If the Lakers keep Westbrook, it will be interesting to watch.
IF he can come off the bench and play like the vengeful assassin of his early days, might work.
An angry, motivated Westbrook is pretty amazing. Having his nemesis on the team should only add to his fire. Interesting scenario.
Pat Bev is already going to bat for Russ.
I was counting the Lakers off, but they're doing ok from where where they started. Trading for Pat Bev and signing Schroder for the min are moves in the right direction, if they add a couple of veteran shooters, say a 3 way trade with Indy & Utah that gets them Turner + Hield + Bodganovic + something else in exchange for Westbrook + pick/s and/or swaps, they're definitely a playoff team that should get past the 1st round. Not a contender, though, unless all planets align (can't see them getting past Golden State, Boston, Milwaukee, etc.).
Honestly, they can just ride out this year and make the absolute best of it, be damned Russ's trade value.
Then they lose no picks, he's gone and they move forward.
They can try to be ultra aggressive to appease Lebron and his last years, but what do they truly gain?
What do they get?
He's gone either way after this year along with his contract.
The reason to trade Russ now and pay an unprotected FRP is to stay well over the salary cap in-terms of returning assets. Break his 47mm into 2-3 guys who are useful and movable or make sense to re-sign plus having exception money makes sense. Clearing cap space isn’t a winning game to make the best of LBJs last 2-3 years unless they are confident they have a game changer like Kyrie ready to sign for 30mm in 2023.
Yup. The opportunity cost of sitting on Westbrook's contract and letting it expire is HUGE, since one season is about 50% to 33% of LeBron's window at best, and Westbrook's salary is the ONLY way they have to add enough players to strengthen their chances. Otherwise they should just blow it up and rebuild, which is hard to do when you don't control your picks for as many years.
For the Spurs, or another team yes.
For the Lakers...
They aren't getting a Kyrie.
They aren't getting anything.
I think they ride it out, unless someone does something stupid.
If he rolls off next summer, LA is screwed. They don’t get any cap room from him rolling off, because they will still be over. The can’t go further over the cap for FAs or trades. At a MINIMUM, they need to pull a one year trade exception out of this. They can use that all the way up almost to training camp next year to fill their roster with some talent, using the TE to go further over the cap.
This is originally thought as well but for the 2022-2023 season they only have 89 mil for 3 players. I think they would have cap holds if the renounced everyone for about a mil per for the remaining 9 roster slots. that would put them up to 98 mil. this years cap looks to be about 123 mil. 123-98 would give them about 25 mil for a FA correct?
23-24 cap is estimated to be around 130mm so with ~90mm spoken for in LBJ/AD they could have a near max slot if they renounce everyone. Doesn’t sound like a very smart plan unless that third player is an absolute game changer and they are confident they can fill the rest of the roster out with min contracts and exceptions.
I think they are finally realizing they need some continuity in roster construction.
Will be interesting to see. I think if they look decent out the gate they let this squad ride and take their chances. If they flounder first 10-15 games Russ gets moved for multiple role
players.
You also have to add $1.8M, the 2nd year NBA minimum salary, for each of the 12 empty slots.
Yeah I wasn’t even considering that.
Lakers are going to have a uva time being true playoff contenders to close out LBJs career and it’s largely his fault.
Is it the 2nd year NBA min or the rookie min? I thought it was the rookie min for cap holds and 2nd year is what the NBA pays the contract of a player on. (nba team is only responsible for paying the salary of a 2nd year player and NBA picks up the rest).
This is why I added in the 9 mil for unused cap holds as a rookie min is about a mil.
Second year.
Heard a while ago that the Lakers projected cap space for '23-'24 is $30Mish, which is significantly less than what Irving's max will be.
Throw in his volatility and injury prone history as well as James' age/mileage and they shouldn't hesitate if something emerges (the current options don't cut it) to get them back to at least pseudo contention.
where do you get 2nd year from. everything I see is saying rookie min.
"(1) If at any time from July 1 through the day prior to the first day of the Regular Season a Team has fewer than twelve (12) players, determined in accordance with Section 4(f)(2) below, included in 188 Article VII its Team Salary, then the Team’s Team Salary shall be increased by an amount calculated as follows: STEP 1: Subtract from twelve (12) the number of players included in Team Salary. STEP 2: If the result in Step 1 is a positive number, multiply the result in Step 1 by the Minimum Annual Salary applicable to players with zero (0) Years of Service under the Minimum Annual Salary Scale for that Salary Cap Year"
https://nbpa.com/cba the 2017 CBA page 187 188
^ regardless at most they will have 25-30mm to sign a high caliber free agent and since they are tax payers will have limited exception money to play with in 2023.
McD might actually be more appealing to them than I originally thought but a deal with Utah looks inevitable.
Saw the timvp article: makes me sick that they signed Doug. I called it out immediately that it was a terrible and non sensical deal and now we are seeing the issues that type of deal brings. Gross.
all the re s who said he'd be a valuable commodity
McDermott was such a useless signing, just a waste of roster and money. Why? For what? So he can play 24 minutes and get 11 points on a developmental team as an over 30 player?
What a waste of time and money. Bottom 5 teams shouldn't be sending players to the gleague unless they're malnourished YMCA players like Poku. But with McDermott and Richardson combining for 48 minutes a game that doesn't leave much room for all of Vassell, Primo, Tre, Branham, Wesley and Keldon at the SF if Sochan is at the 4.
McDermott can still space the floor. He isn’t worthless, he still shot the 3 pretty well last year. He’s actually good for a tank. He can help your young guys develop their offense while giving up points on defense to lose games.
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