That would be interesting. Ujiri is certainly someone willing to take risks to make his team better. It would probably take an aggressive FO as the third team to talk the Spurs out of their fox hole and do a deal.
Whites good enough. For players with 300 possessions in the 2019-2020 season, he was the #1 pick and roll ball handler in the NBA for points per possession, count both scoring and dishing for scores. He’s brutally efficient.
I’m not advocating for a DJ trade, but it wouldn’t break my heart either. They’re running the offense backwards, with DJ at the point, and White at the off guard.
That would be interesting. Ujiri is certainly someone willing to take risks to make his team better. It would probably take an aggressive FO as the third team to talk the Spurs out of their fox hole and do a deal.
With Ujiri's contract in Toronto having just expired, maybe the Spurs can sign him!
What potential does Kuzma have? He's 26, he's as good as he'll ever be.
The thing is, whether it’s a direct trade, or a 3 team, or a 5 team, the Lakers just don’t have good trade assets. Ujiri is too smart to be the patsy at the poker table. You’d need a colossally stupid team like the Knicks to be involved to have a hope of pulling it off.
Kuzma is trash.
Inefficent chucker, awful on defense and a complete moron.
Lakers can't offer more than MLE to Demar if it's not a S&T.
Spurs should demand THT and one of KCP/Kuzma with a pick. It's finally time to rip someone off.
Then get a third team involved.
I agree - DDR, Rudy and Patty might not be great but the team isn't going to be better without vets like them. It'd be more exciting to see the younger guys get minutes and touches but the chance they discover some hidden chemistry that'd make them better than the sum of all parts is slim. Still, if they're ready to hit the reset button, which is a big if, the 2022 and 2023 drafts are perfect for a 2-year tank. The problem is that a planned 2-year tank easily turns into a 10+ years one.
At thinking that shady, shameless, self promotor (how's that for alliteration?) took a risk in that heist disguised as a trade.
A "risk" would have been the Celtics parting with Brown, for example, because that would have stung long term.
I keep thinking back to that Phoenix game, before White sprained his ankle. Pop rested DJ and DeRozan. We blew their out by 20+, and their announcers were lamenting DeRozan not playing “because then we’d know how to defend them”.
Loved that game but let's face it - it was a one off, similarly to what many teams experience facing a severely shorthanded team. It was a bright flash but not what we could realistically expect from them over a whole season.
I disagree somewhat. Is he going to be a lot better than what he showed the last two seasons? Probably not, but since LeBron arrives Kuzma’s production dipped. To me that’s not a coincidence. I think LeBron messed with Kuzma’s production a bit. I am not saying he is or will be a superstar. Not even an all-star, but I can seeing being a very solid player on the right squad. Better than what he showed the last two seasons. He was improving until LeBron showed up.
Glad the FO decided to get absolutely nothing in return for all the vets they're going to lose this offseason and have already lost
At least Ujiri is out there making deals, which was my point. He may have fleeced the Spurs, but Kawhi successfully tanked his value, so there wasn't much else to do except let him sit out his last year and then walk for nothing. Which in retrospect would have been kind of cool I suppose. The Spurs just suffered a slower death by trading for DDR.
If not for Ujiri's skills, however you want to categorize them, I'm not sure Toronto wins a championship.
Which I find is very odd. LeBron has seemingly lifted his teams and made players around him better. I dont remember any player who performed worse than his potential while playing with LeBron. If Kuzma couldnt' gel with LeBron, I doubt if its the latter's fault and more to do with Kuzma's lack of improvement.
Do we want any of the Lakers' trash? Kuzma? Dennis?
Bosh. Wade. Wade’s scoring dropped each year the Heatles were together.
This team has to rebuild. These vets that they are going to lose like Mills,Demar,Gay can't really get them anything. The failure of the front office is really their unwillingness to start the rebuild a few years ago instead of trying to be meddling thread mill team that is a 9-10th seed.
I'll take nothing over Kuzma and his $13 million a year honestly.
In retrospect, obviously should have pushed for those two Clippers picks and drafted Gilgous-Alexander and then taken a flyer on Porter. Still ridiculous to think that was the best offer on the table for mute cancer, ing piece of uncle killing his trade value.
Disagree - they could have gotten at least SOMETHING for any one of those guys tbh.
I would too but doesn't excuse PATFO sitting on their asses for the last year when literally anybody with half a brain knew a) the roster was a low playoff seed at best b) all of the vets would just end up walking away this offseason anyways
Spurs should've traded his ass 2 years ago and at the least at the deadline, now they'll walk away with Pelinca's foot shoved up RC's ass LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Truly a poverty and inept front office. LMA and DeRozan walking for NOTHING
I agree. If the Clippers scenario was on the table, as I thought it was at the time, then yeah, that was obviously the move then and in retrospect. But the Nephew Apocalypse was so weird for the franchise I don’t think the FO could see where we were headed. They should have, though.
Who says the Lakers would even want him? MAYBE for scrap change but thats about it. Resigning him in San Antonio would be a huge mistake.
As I've said all along, I suspect DeRozan is a last resort for the Lakers (Lowry, Westbrook, Dinwiddie, Ball, ?), but he's also likely their best bet of the bunch, probably the most motivated to get to them and there's clearly a deal to be made between the teams.
The Raptors were given a tainted championship and subsequent unearned reputation because, as you said, S bag tanked his value (immediately destroying credibility) and in addition, the Spurs lost their minds and the Warriors were decimated by injuries.
Spurs fo achilles heal has always been only making deals when they absolutely have to.Rodman,elliott,kawhi and now lma/ddr. The fo is adverse to change and would rather be precieved as good guys who do right by their players unless they have no choice. Keldon johnson literally saved the spurs on that tor deal and every team passed on him. Lakers will part with kuzma/kcp and thats about it,assuming they want to give derozan more then the mle. If spurs could get an extra first outta la might as well pull the trigger,i guess
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