5 THINGS

The idea of trade winds has been around for some time. If you’ve spent time at sea or hang with people with a nautical bent you’ll hear them bring them up on occasion. In case you’re wondering what they are: The trade winds are winds that reliably blow east to west just north and south of the equator. The winds help ships travel west, and they can also steer storms such as hurricanes, too. Stuck at sea? Head towards the equator and build some speed up, find some winds to ride and get back in sight of land. For all intents and purposes, the Lakers are currently stuck at sea and good trade wind may be the only way to regain momentum with the current crew.

1. The Perfect Storm. The big thing online these days is to dissect the myriad of ways the Lakers could acquire Kyrie Irving and some other players at the cost of Russell Westbrook and…and uh, well, that there’s the current conundrum. Hurricanes Lakers, Nets, Russell and Kyrie have not combined to form the perfect storm yet. Sometimes tropical storm Spurs get tossed out there as a potential catalyst but I ain’t buying that one. In fact it’s actually more like All Quiet on the Western Front with nothing but false radar blips and sonar pings in the form of media heads filling the time and space between now and the start of camp with the best TV the NBA has to offer this time of year: Laker drama at 6 followed by our T.G.I.F. line up of “What’s LeBron Doing?” at 7, “Look Where Russell Is Sitting” at 8 and “Look Kyrie Said Something at the Spark Game!!!” at 9 followed by the Late Show with host Anthony Davis. People call the week or so between the end of the playoffs and the draft the Dog Days of summer but, for me at least, this is the Dog Days. No real information, people who are paid to talk doing just that with nary a real fact to report and Lakers fans reeking of almost as much desperation as Rob clinging to every post or report. It’s enough to make a man watch Snowflake Mountain.
2. When the wind dies down. Sending Kyrie to the Lakers is really the only option they have besides keeping him on the roster and forcing his hand. If the Nets can’t find a suitable trade for Durant this option becomes a lot more viable since Durant has indicated that he would love to keep the wacky-ass partnership he has going with Irving alive on some other sucker, er, team. Why? Who knows and, frankly, who cares. The fact that Durant feels that way is enough for the Nets to keep the band together until camp comes around and let those two figure out what they want to do. Without KD and Irving it feels unlikely that the Nets will compete this season. That could change if they can convince Phoenix or Miami to part with an All Star…which also feels unlikely. To date the Nets have indicated that a Kyrie deal will happen after a Durant deal which doesn’t feel imminent. In fact all the noise around that topic has died down to barely a whisper, enough to make the water ripple but not enough to push the boat through the sea. I don’t think a Kyrie trade happens at all if the Nets can’t find a trade they like for Kevin.
3. The doldrums are a real thing. As reliable as a trade wind can be there is, like in all things, a flip side to that phenomena. It’s called The Doldrums. The doldrums is a popular nautical term that refers to the belt around the Earth near the equator where sailing ships sometimes get stuck on windless waters. That’s where all parties involved are right now. Teams like Minnesota have rejected giving up 2 young stars (KAT and AE) and a grip ton of draft picks. There is no movement on the Phoenix or Miami front. The hilarious Golden State connection is DOA. In short, that ship isn’t going anywhere and is looking for a breath of fresh wind to fill the sails. Could that be a Kyrie Irving three team trade that ends up giving Brooklyn and large Traded Player Exception that could be used to offload a bad deal or two to help convince a team like Miami to part with Bam or Phoenix to part with Booker or Minny to part with newly extended Kat? No. I don’t think so. I’ve looked over what that involves and neither the Lakers or Nets have the draft assets, currently, to make that feasibly entice a team like San Antonio to do them a favor. So until the asking price for Durant goes down he is staying a Net.
4. Would the Nets just trade Kyrie and change for Russell? Personally I don’t see that happening for the following reasons: I think the Nets believe that they can bring Kevin back into the fold by not trading Kyrie and that they can get both guys on something akin to the same page with the organization. The Nets have bent over backwards to accommodate both men and they have continued to fill out the roster with useful role-players. Moves that remind me how the Lakers responded when Kobe demanded to be traded. They never once publicly said they wouldn’t do it but nor did they panic and take the first bad deal that came down the pike. The fact that both Durant and Bryant seemed to think they could be traded for players that weren’t All Stars and just bit guys and draft picks speaks to how out of touch with reality Durant is in this moment. The Nets might not get Booker but they won’t settle for an extended Ayton. The Nets might not get Jimmy but they won’t settle for an extended/hard-capping Herro. So on and so forth. The sticking point on the Lakers end seems to be utterly bailing on the rest of the decade and why that could, maybe just possibly, be a bad thing to do. Especially with the following facts in hand: COVID will get worse in winter which may very well lead states like California to require proof of vaccination in order to attend, engage in or be a part of indoor events. At that point Kyrie is about as valuable as The Maltese Falcon. Everyone assumes LeBron can reign in Kyrie, including LeBron. No offense but we saw how well that worked last season dude. James doesn’t have the pull or voice he once did, he couldn’t communicate with Russ in any meaningful way and still doesn’t seem to have. Does anyone really believe that Russ is more stubborn than Kyrie is? I don’t, at best they are the same level of self before others, at worse Kyrie is more stubborn as we have seen him willing to miss playoff games in the name of standing up for the little guy. Which he’s doing great at, by the way.
5. Any way the wind blows, doesn’t really matter to me…to me. If this is mostly about keeping LeBron James happy than the calculus is jacked. LeBron is as fickle as they in regards to whom is on the team. The one thing that has been proven to me is that LeBron is good at a whole heckuva lot of things. Team building isn’t one of them. It’s why Cleveland lost it’s luster to him early on, they cowed to his every whim. It’s why he chose Miami because, somewhere inside of him, he realized he functions best in an organized and structured environment with a clear line of command. He went back to Cleveland to finish a job and he came here because it’s a matter of both convenience and mutual goals. He came because of the legacy and the history, not because the Laker front office are masters of, well, anything at all but leaking bad information for no advantageous reason whatsoever. He will move on, like all mercs do, when the goals diverge or the convenience becomes something else. He is not, and has never been, a Laker Lifer. I’m sure he’ll do the little Spectrum shows, do a top ten LeBron Laker moments, so on so forth. He’ll pass Laker Legends in a Laker uniform and that’s kind of cool but it also feels kind of calculated and, honestly, a little pre-meditated which pisses me off a little. Kobe played himself into the ground wearing that jersey, Magic had to be stricken by a deadly illness and still came back for more. LeBron? Well, if one is honest, he’s doing exactly what he can do right now which is wait until 8/4/2022 to say or do anything regarding his extension. So final judgement can wait a couple weeks. Still, I can’t let myself put LeBron in anywhere near the same category as the other all time Laker greats I just mentioned, I don’t even put him at Pau Gasol level, yet. Pau got traded, for wee and fragile Chris Paul who is unlikely to ever win a ring at this point, because some brainiac in the front office thought the ball dominant superstar who never gave the ball up to anybody would totally give the ball up to CP3 thus breaking up potentially the last, great Laker dynasty. How did Pau respond? He was, as he has always been, a pro about it. Called it unfortunate, said he wanted to stay a Laker, and played the season out Can’t say I believe that team had another ring in them but you never know and now we never will. Anyhow, point of all that here on #5 is we need to prepare for a post-LeBron world and nobody should really want Kyrie here unless he takes a pay cut and has a contract with games played performance clauses. If someone doesn’t show up to work (and let’s remember Kyrie averages 55 games/season and a lot of those aren’t due to any injuries at all nor exclusively COVID related) they’re about as useful as the office chair their ass should be sitting in.

Saturday has come and gone, summer league ends tomorrow, so when Mr. Sun comes up on Monday morning and there is no Kyrie trade it’ll just set off a different wave of absurdity and nonsense. “We saw them at the place, they talked and smiled, WOJ WAS THERE!!!” and other forms of boring malarkey. You can bet I’ll be tuning it out because it’s empty-headed nonsense brought to life for the sole purpose of occupying space and time. Rob should continue to try and leverage the Brooklyn situation to pressure a team like Indy to make a deal for THT and Nunn, sans draft picks if he can, and then batten down the hatches and prepare for a squall. The truth is even that kind of deal feels pretty farfetched at this point. Starting to feel like this is the team rolling into next season to me.

OK, here it is. Funny in that I had started this prior to the podcast where Marc Stein floated the same theory. Scary because that means there is more than a kernel of truth. Sad because this is the current state of Laker Nation. We have reached the Waiting on Kyrie Zone.

1. Don’t get it wrong, this ain’t no miracle for the Lakers or their fans. This is, in my opinion, bringing a player less reliable than Russell is. Oh, it’s Thursday before a lobster boil in Kansas? Sorry guys, can’t make the game. Random social justice cause that I can Tweet about but actually do very little? Gonna need a week of personal time with full pay to get through it. The Earth is flat, nah just kidding I know it’s round I just use my platform for bullshyte. That is the maturity and character of the person the Lakers now seem to be focusing far too much attention on. Give me Russ over Kyrie all day, every day from now until the end of time. Kyrie is a joke, not a serious basketball player.
2. Ok, ok, got that outta my system…kinda. On the court Irving is a far superior fit alongside AD and LeBron than Russ is. Kyrie can shoot, is as able a distributor and has maybe the best handle in the game today. It’s the baggage…so very much baggage. It threatens to suck anything that comes into it’s orbit into an absurdist pit of wackiness without end. You want to challenge your new coach? Throw that mess on his plate and walk away.
3. Ok, ok…ok. Now I really have gotten that out of my system. There aren’t many paths for Irving to become a Laker. The first is the least likely which is straight trade with the Nets. Russ at $47,063,478 and Kyrie at $36,503,300 means there is too large a gap and the Nets have to send another player or few. Seth Curry at $8,496,653 just about does it and certainly does if you throw in Kessler (who?) Edwards at $1,563,518. There are other permutations that can be juggled but the real issue is the Nets have signaled they do not want anything to do with Westbrook. This route feels DOA.
4. Multi team trade. What this really should read is three team trade with OKC, Brooklyn and LA. No other team has the cap space or the inclination to hoard draft picks like the Thunder do. Are there other teams with the requisite cap space, or clearable cap space? Sure, but those aren’t realistic options, IMO. Real hard for me seeing OKC doing the Lakers a favor, of course the cost would be the last two tradeable draft picks in our stockpile, maybe Reaves to boot. The one thing this path would do is open up the door to adding THT and Nunn into the deal and getting below the tax apron thus opening up better spending tools. Still, hard for me to see this one happening in so short of time.
5. Everyone’s dream team. Irving opts out and signs with LA for the MLE. Big 4 of Russ, Kyrie, LeBron and AD. The stuff nightmares are made of. For Laker fans. Who would get the ball? Who would be the worst defender? How often would Kyrie play when paid so little? Still, in all reality, this path seems the most likely to me for Irving to wind up in the purple and gold. The fit would be…interesting. Certainly would give the Lakers another ball handler and some shooting to maybe open up the floor a little but it really just looks and feels like too many cooks in the kitchen. Unless it’s a race to see who plays in fewer games: Davis or Irving (Irving would get my bet).

All in all, it’s a small chance but a real one. No GM is likely to want to do either Kyrie or the Lakers any favors. The Lakers would be insane if they gave Kyrie a multi-year extension since it’s all but guaranteed he’ll miss large portions of every season (currently averaging 55 games/season and at 30 years old he won’t be getting any healthier), at least without a trial season on the MLE…where he will likely miss a boatload of games to pout about how little he is being paid. The talent is undeniable, and so is the petulant attitude and lack of seriousness when it comes to being a pro athlete. He should come with a warning: buyer beware, player likely to throw a pique and be out of contact for stretches of the season. But it is the Lakers so anything is possible.

The NBA is entering the home stretch of the 2021-22 season and Laker fans have all but tuned out the games as they had been riveted first by a coaching search (now complete and welcome to the dumpster fire Coach Ham!) and now by the ponderous and burdensome search for a palatable trade for one Russell Westbrook. What tastes good to fans seemingly isn’t acceptable to Rob Pelinka and the Laker ownership cabal. With the news coming from the internet that the Lakers are unwilling to attach future draft considerations to a Westbrook trade, Russ signaling his enthusiasm for Ham’s hiring, and the tepid market for Westbrook in general it would seem the Lakers are headed towards a second season of our version of a Big Three. So, while this writer has long been of the opinion there was a decent to good chance that Russ would continue his career in the purple and gold, I wanted to look at some things that just might change the equation for trading Russ.

1. The Lakers move off their current and alleged stance of no future draft considerations attached in a deal for Westbrook. While this may seem the obvious choice to some it’s not a reach to understand where Rob is coming from in publicly declaring such a stance. First off, the term “news flash” does not apply to anything related to the Lakers wanting to move off the Westbrook contract and improve the roster or at least make a decent lateral move. File that one under “No Doy, Man”. So Rob could be deploying an absurd stratagem of “Nuh-Uh, Dude, we WANT to keep Russ, like, fer sure, man!!!!” because like any desperate gambler you have to at least try a bluff when you’re down in chips, short on assets and daylight is creeping into the room signaling that tomorrow has arrived. I actually think Rob is serious when he says he’d rather ride it out. There are quite a few benefits the most obvious being that if the three core players can play more the team will perform better. Russell will be an unrestricted free agent next season and could either be retained on a team-friendly extension or seek employment elsewhere thus freeing up a plethora of cap space to rebuild the roster. Again. For the third time since winning a title.
2. Damien Lillard demands a trade. This is one of the things that I could see severely altering the NBA landscape. If Dame Time decides he wants no part of a Portland rebuild it’s easy to see a plethora of teams looking to get in on that action. While I don’t think the Lakers have an attractive trade package to offer Portland they could potentially get in on a multiteam deal that facilitates Russ being moved elsewhere. Trading for Dame would probably take better draft assets than we currently have. Could the Lakers up the ante and look to include THT, Nunn, Reaves, Johnson, Gabriel both draft picks and bring back Lillard and Bledsoe? Honestly…I’m not sure I would make that deal…but that is the kind of thing that could potentially alter the equation for a Westbrook trade.
3. Donovan Mitchell demands a trade. With the news that Quinn Snyder has walked away from his coaching gig in Utah came the not really surprising news that Donovan Mitchell is uneasy with the direction of the franchise and is seeking some form of re-assurement. If he doesn’t get that it’s possible he could demand a trade. Like Damien this has the potential to shift the NBA landscape. While it would make a lot more sense for the Jazz to try and move Gobert let’s assume for the sake of this article that Spida is adamant about changing teams. If so the Lakers could be in the position of trading Russ, the draft picks and Nunn (should he opt in) for Spida, Clarkson and Gay which would be the kind of cap space that would allow Utah to revamp the roster. Again, the issue with that kind of trade is that Utah isn’t really a destination franchise, especially with a star player asking out, a coach walking away, and, well, Utah. So it’s hard for one to imagine a bevy of free agents going there but you never know. Ainge could be in a place where he’s excited about a total rebuild and while this trade is short on draft assets it does get three large money players off the book and give Utah a ton of flexibility to either tear it down more by trading Rudy.
4. Utah looks to appease Spida by trading Rudy Gobert and Rudy Gay. Had Coach Snyder stayed in Utah I really wouldn’t see this happening. Donovan and Rudy have had their differences, ironed them out, and more differences came up. While adding Russell to Utah’s roster without moving Mike Conley doesn’t make a ton of sense they could pursue a separate Conley trade elsewhere. Russ for Rudy squared works in the trade machine and, in theory, Utah might not ask for a pick to get it done in order to keep Mitchell happy. There are few centers with the defensive acumen that Gobert has. While assuredly not a stretch five does it really matter? You allow AD to play the 4 for the next 4 years left on Gobert’s deal, you have the lob threat LeBron loves to work with and as elite a defender as you can find in the NBA. You can bench him in the playoffs and go small without worry because you have Davis on the roster. While not the NBA altering deal the above are this one is a little easier to imagine going through given the news out of Utah.
5. Zach LaVine pulls an AD. This one, in my opinion, is dream fodder. LaVine isn’t the talent AD was, Chicago ain’t the Pelicans in terms of calling a bluff, and LaVine will find a dry market when it comes to major franchises. Cap space is low across the league and the pool of talent is small. So, unless Zach has an itch for max money in OKC his best shot is to stay right where he is. But, again, for the sake of the article if Zach and Klutch did try and maneuver him to LA in a S&T that’s really the last option I see the Lakers having in terms of a realistic Russ trade that also opens the door back to contention.

In my opinion it will take a superstar demanding to move that represents a clear improvement to the team for Rob to move off his draft pick stance. I can still see them trading for John Wall straight up or even maybe Gordon Hayward and some junk but neither of those gets the team to the NBA Finals again. Who knows what Wall has left and Hayward is the small forward version of Davis: solid when healthy but can’t be counted on to be available when they’re needed most, or at all. For my part I’d rather keep Russ than trade for a broken player or one like Wall who’s skillset largely mirrors Westbrook’s but hasn’t played in what will be just under two years when next season rolls around. You don’t get better that way, you just get older. After that I doubt there’s much interest from team’s that made the playoffs this season or had down years like Atlanta and New York. A Russ trade is one that signals a full rebuild, or as close as you get to one, and neither of those teams are i that position. They’re looking for improvements on the margin, little tweaks to the roster not wholesale tear-downs. That is the issue with the size of Russ’s deal: there just aren’t many teams looking for that level of restructuring this summer. The playin and lottery tweaks have made the league tilt towards wanting to be competitive all season long since your draft odds don’t dramatically shift with losing. We’ve already seen how teams in the playin one season can ascend to really competitive the following one in Memphis, how chemistry builds a winner in Milwaukee, and the fact is Russ isn’t the kind of player that alters your trajectory at this point. So my advice to you is invest in trade hopes and dreams but you should also buckle up and prepare yourself to ride this out with Russ on the roster.

I am remembering the entertaining and informative ESPN docuseries, The Last Dance. A poignant reminder to Laker fans as to how quickly and utterly things can deteriorate internally when the blame game starts, or front office executives think they know what a coach needs or which players are worth more than others. As far as the game today is concerned, for me it’s a non-event as I’ll be going to a friends wedding so enjoy. There wasn’t anything left worth paying attention to in this season a couple games after the All Star Break. This team does not, and never did, have the goods.

1. The Blame Game. This is where all parties involved need to tread more carefully than any of them seem to acknowledge. LeBron James is not a robot and if you actually want him to play here beyond next season then they should start acting like that. Great NBA players are people, too. They have wrinkles, bad days, and personality issues of their own. In LeBron’s case it’s that he demands the front office surround him with star power enough to compete for championships and is willing to say or do just about anything to make sure that happens. The fallout from Scottie Pippin not checking back into a game has lasted decades. The fallout from the front office throwing LeBron under the bus while seemingly taking almost zero onus on themselves for the Westbrook trade can do as much damage over the course of this summer. There is never, ever a winner in the Blame Game. So stop playing it.
2. The Health Issue. It’s no secret our two best players have missed a grip of games over the last two seasons, benefitted from a three month break in the season when they did win a banner, and are, indeed, aging as we speak. Barring an unlikely as hell trade for either AD or LeBron they are who we will be building around this summer and so keeping them on the floor for 3/4’s of the season moves to the second highest priority after fixing the team. We said it last season, this summer, during the season and still today: we are going as far as James and Davis take us. It will be true until they depart. THT is not taking us to the highest level. Matt McClung, Wenyan and Stanley are window dressing at the mall, they will not alter the direction of the franchise in a meaningful way. We NEED James and Davis to play and they need to play at a fairly high level. Putting the injuries aside, LeBron turned in a historic campaign and played his rear end off all season long. Davis…well, he was pretty good on D but otherwise continued his regression from three and his jumper continues to become a secondary weapon. This won’t help our spacing issues. We need Davis to be the perimeter threat he once was.
3. The Westbrook Dilemma. The fit of Russel is poor, that is no longer debatable. The ability to move Westbrook for players of true impact is also poor and, frankly, unlikely. When the best you can do is John Wall, Gordon Hayward or a player exception for your $47 million dollar PG you’re backed into a corner. That’s putting it nicely. Russ’s best ability is his availability, he’s not an elite scorer and his elite passing comes with equally elite turnover capacity. His price tag, while expiring, is enormous and will make smaller market teams who are constantly wary of going into the luxury tax zone more wary to deal for him. Large market franchises have signaled through the same channels the Lakers use to troll their superstars that they aren’t all that interested in bailing us out. That leaves us with some fairly unpalatable choices. At least that’s how it looks now. You never know what can change over the course of a playoff series or what other costly player will demand this summer (I’m looking at you Dame…). But, regardless of what LeBron says in his interviews about Steph Curry or other elite shooters, the return for Russ will likely be, at best, a break even affair. At worst we’ll trade our two draft picks for John Wall or Gordon Hayward who play for less than half of a season and don’t impact our winning chances all that much.
4. The Young Dudes. Look…it’s really great that Stanley has a team option and got back into the NBA, that Wenyan found a team that could use his athletic ability and Matt McClung will get some run today. These are not needle moving players. They are roster spots 12, 13, and 14 on a championship team. They are DNP-CD during the playoffs, maybe Johnson sees some consistent minutes of the three in a specific match up. There’s a reason why these guys were in the G-League, 6th team in 3 seasons and waiver wire fodder. It’s because they’re just not that good but play really hard. Now I will be the first one to embrace a player or two on a roster like that, they are a necessary component to the recipe that constitutes a successful NBA team and we don’t need three of them. But they do not make us contenders in any way. Depending on the coach we bring in they might not even play just because they lack touch from the outside.
5. Farewell Frank…? The funny thing about all the blame game chatter is how it predicts Frank as being the fall guy while being short on reasons why. The scuttlebutt is more focused on the front office, James, Davis and Westbrook. While whomever is leaking this BS (Kurt) out of the Lakers (Rambis) is likely congratulating themselves on shielding themselves (Kurt and Linda) from Jeannie’s wrath it also has the duplicate effect of shielding Frank from some of the blame. For every “Westbrook didn’t respect Frank guys!!!” article someone leaks to Silver Screen and Roll or to the Kamentzky Bros. there is also a ready-made excuse for Jeannie to ultimately retain the coach they are certainly going to be paying for next season. Given the ownership groups issues with spending, Frank’s recent banner he helped hang, and the fact he’s under contract next season it’s not outside the realm of reality that Frank mans the sidelines once again next season. I won’t go so far as to predict that will happen, feels like somebody other than Russ needs to take the fall, but it could happen.

Anyhow, that’s the last Fiver for this season. There’s nothing else to say that I haven’t said since training camp and the horse is well-flogged. If you were to put a gun to my head I would predict Frank gets fired, we trade Russ and our picks for Wall and we have a season a lot like this one next year. I don’t have any faith left in Rob or ownership to make smart decisions and our assets aren’t going to bring back great talent. Wall and Hayward are awful options, our coaching search last time didn’t inspire any confidence, and LeBron can’t keep this up forever. At some point he will begin to age and it could simply take the form of impressive stats in losing efforts and games missed. One way or another Rob has to thread quite the needle this summer and he doesn’t have any more mulligans to spare. The Lakers have their proverbial back against the proverbial wall.

Here’s hoping he can. Go Lakers.