Aloha,

I have read that the Pistons are looking for ways to get into the mid first round. It got me thinking about how deep this draft is and how little difference there is between the 17 th pick and early 2nd round. I would consider trading the 17th and Mo for Alec Burks and the 31st pick that the Pistons have. Alec is a 6’ 6” combo guard who is very capable of running the point. He is a career 38% from 3 but has shot over 40% the last 2 years. And we could still find a good player at 31. While we could target Bogdanovic I don’t think we would get their 31 first back.

Aloha,

The off season has arrived and of course the rumors and trade scenarios are buzzing around like an annoying swarm of flys. I tune it out except for the occasional realistic Lakers scenarios.

While the Lakers mantra is always championship or bust, I thought we had a very successful season. We had the best record after the trades and made it all the way to the WCF, I consider that a win. I do believe it took a toll on the team playing playoff intensity basketball for 2 months. Still while the Nuggets swept us, every game was a battle and we lost 3 games by 6 points or less.

This is why I do not believe we need a major overhaul. If you look at other playoff contenders around the league, the Lakers have more flexibility than most to make upgrades. This is the under appreciated part of the trades Rob made.

Unless something big materializes I do believe that Austin, Rui and Vando will be back for sure. It gets interesting after that. Our first order of business will be at PG, considering we don’t have one under contract.

This is not a good year for free agent PG’s. DLO is ranked 3rd and Dennis 5th. I will trust the insiders reporting that Kyrie is off the table. That leaves FVV. Of all the big name’s floating around out there, he maybe the only one Rob considers trading for. There are rumblings that a couple of rebuilding teams are looking to make the jump into playoff contenders, the Rockets being the most likely. FVV is a Klutch client and could say he wants to go to the Lakers or he will walk to one of these other teams. We could then arrange a sign and trade with the Raptors for DLO if, big if, Dlo agrees. My only problem with FVV is he worth the money he will be looking for. He is solid and an upgrade over Dlo but I’m not sure he is worth 30+ mil that he is looking for. I would rather keep Dlo and I believe they will. We don’t make the playoffs without DLO. He had a terrible Nugget series but then Jaylen Brown shot 16% fro 3 and had 25 turnovers to 24 assists against the Heat and he was all NBA. Shit happens.

There is a lot of noise around CP3 but it’s looking like it may not be as simple as the Suns cutting him so we will see. I did hear on a pod cast that If they do waive him any contract he signs reduces the amount the Suns have to pay him. That doesn’t sound right to me but if true there isn’t a real advantage to signing say a MLE, at least in the first year. The Lakers will have to make a decision quickly because DLO has a 38mil cap hold that makes it hard for the Lakers to do anything until that’s resolved.

After the PG issue I see depth as the primary goal. After Rui’s playoff run I think Vando comes off the bench. So we him and Max for sure off the bench. After Austin went to the starting unit our 2nd unit offense fell off. We will need a scorer, along with a PG. I would love to keep Lonnie. We won’t find a better scorer in his price range in free agency. We also need to find a back up center that can go 15 minutes to help AD and another combo forward for LeBron.

It will be interesting to see what they do with Beasley. I was a fan but he fell apart with the Lakers. But he has had a solid career and maybe a valuable trade chip for a team looking for shooting. Mo could be also used and could be waived in after a draft day trade. If they can’t find a trade I’m not sure what the Lakers will do. Do you let them walk? I don’t think so unless something unexpected comes up. As we saw last year, trade chips are nice to have.

As for the draft. This will be the first one for a while that will be interesting for me. Just looking at who they are working out and what is being reported, it seems like the Lakers are either looking at moving back in the draft or may have a trade on the table involving the 17 th pick. This is a very deep draft and if you look at the scouting reports, there isn’t much difference between 17 and the Pacers picks at 26 and 29. The Lakers have been working out, primarily older players that could be plugged into a rotation. There are quite a few of those guys in this years draft. I think that may be due to losing playing time to the pandemic. Probably won’t see this many quality upper class men again. With 3 two way contracts available and our great scouting department, it could be a big year for undrafted players.

With so may options available this could be a fun off season. Rob pulled off a great deadline but he hasn’t won me over yet. He has made too many bonehead moves in the past. Let’s see if he can follow up the trade deadline with a great summer.

Aloha,

There are only a couple of guys this year considered potential franchise players. But this draft considered extremely deep with good players. And the mock drafts reflect this. I can not recall a year where there was so little consensus beyond the first 7 or 8 guys.

I have seen Colby Buftkin coming to us. I have also seen him in the low teens and 20’s. A new mock is out today that had him at 8. I’ve seen Jett Howard coming to us and also a late lottery pick. And I’ve seen him at 30. A new mock has Lively coming to us. I have also seen him at 10, 12, 19 and 22.

If there was ever a year to trade back in the draft, this might be the year. There doesn’t seem to be much difference between drafting at 17 or 26. There are many players in the 2nd round that also show up in the first round.
We can now offer 2nd round players and undrafted player a 3rd year even if we are over the cap. Too bad that wasn’t in place for Austin.

This could also be a year where some hidden gems go undrafted. The CBA gives teams 3 two way players now which is great for the Lakers because of our excellent scouting department.

Aloha

OKC and the Nuggets made a very interesting trade. The Nuggets sent their protected 2029 1st round pick to OKC for the 37th pick this year plus the least favorable of OKC’s 4 first round picks and another 2nd next year. It makes sense for both teams. OKC has more draft picks than they can possibly use, s they are looking down the road. While the Nuggets are looking to add some cost controlled depth to their roster. I wonder if the Lakers would consider a move like that.

Aloha,

And the 47 the pick in the draft to the Lakers is:

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
Sources: Kentucky’s Chris Livingston has cancelled all seven of his remaining workouts for the 2023 NBA Draft, fueling belief that he’s received a draft promise from a team.

He has worked out for the Laker and is a Klutch client. Hmmm

Aloha,

It is being reported that the Suns are waving CP3. I would not be surprised if he lands on the Lakers. Honestly I would not pay more than the minimum.

Aloha

Rob has indicated that he would like to bring back as many guys as possible and that makes sense. He understands that we can not create reasonable cap space without gutting the team. Internal improvements is the biggest path to winning.

I think all of our young guys need to continue to grow. There are 4 I believe will be back for sure. Austin and Rui both had growth spurts last year. They both will need to continue that growth. Vando at 4.8 is a no brazier but he will need to get more consistent on offense. And lastly can Max break into the rotation? The team and the league are high on him and so am I. I have seen two different redrafts where he broke into the 1st round. I like his defense. Yes he made 19 year old rookie mistakes that hopefully he is correcting but he was generally locked in and he shot 41% from 3 which is a bonus. As important as those two areas are, is that he showed no fear. I saw him plays some g league games and he was always the best player in the game.

Another means of improvement will be trades. I suspect DLO will either be traded or will be back. I don’t see a better player that we could sign in free agency with our cap situation. He much to good of a trade asset to let walk for nothing.

Malik, Bamba and Harrison have a combined 30 mil in tradable contracts. Plus we have two tradable firsts. I believe that will be where we can find help. I’m sure trade talks are going on now. This years draft could tell us what we are going to do with the others. Malik could have real value. He didn’t play well for us but he has had a solid career and he could be of interest to a team like the Hornets who are desperate for shooting.

By the way, this will be a good draft for us. If you look at the mock drafts after the first 8 players, it seems there are wild swings. For instance I saw Jet Howard coming to us at 17 and I saw him going at 30. I’ve seen Lively go at 12, also to us at 17 and at 23. So there will be good players available.

One other interesting note, there will now be 3 two way contracts available. Maybe we can find another Alex or Austin with one of those.

For me the great thing about this year is the amount of options that we have. That hasn’t happened in a long time.

Aloha,

DLO has had a terrible series. If he had even so so games we might be still in this thing. I don’t know what has happened to his confidence but it isn’t there.

But the flip side is, we would not have made it this far without him. He averaged 17 and 6 assists in 30 minutes and shot 41% from 3 after the trade. We would not have even made the play in without him.

While he was somewhat inconsistent in the two previous series, he was instrumental in 7 of the 8 wins. We only won one without a good game from him. So yes, he has been terrible in this series but without his contributions we wouldn’t even be here.

Aloha,

If one were to believe everything being written about this series, you would believe that the Lakers have been terrible and they have no chance. While there are plenty of reasons to be concerned, the Nuggets should be a little concerned as well.

Game one the Joker had a game for the ages. One of the best playoff performances I have ever seen. And Murray chipped in with 31 points himself. Yet they barely hung on to win at home.

The next game it took Murray going crazy in the 4th in a game they were out played for 3 quarters to pull out. Again at home. Considering that both AD and LeBron played poorly, this should be of concern for the Nuggets as well.

The Nuggets are by far better than our previous opponents but we were only 2 and 4 on the road coming into this series. While I don’t know if we can get by the Nuggets I’m not ready to say it’s over either. While the Nuggets pose challenges that our first two series didn’t we pose challenges for the Nuggets as well.

First the Nuggets have no rim protection. They have been vulnerable defensively all year to teams that attack the rim. This is what the Lakers do. We are one of the best teams at attacking the rim.

Our defense showed up in the 2nd half of game one and has been there ever since. They have not faced a team with a rim protector like AD. With his mobility he is much more of a challenge than Gorbet was.

I think a problem for the Lakers have been fatigue. Focus is a casualty of fatigue and we have lost 2 games do to losing focus. One can say both teams played the same amount of games but there are big differences. The Lakers have been in the playoffs since the trade deadline. While the Nuggets wrapped things up early and started resting guys in March. They lost 7 of their last 9 and one of the wins came when their bench beat the Kings bench. We had to fight like hell to get into the play in.

I think we need to play LeBron and AD less than the 40 minutes they have been playing, especially LeBron. Rui has been sensational. He played 28 and 30 minutes so far. To me it doesn’t matter if he starts or comes off the bench but give him 5 of lebron’s minutes. He’s young, play him 35 minutes at least.

Giving AD more rest is trickier but I think it can be done. Even if it means bringing in Thompson for a few minutes here and there. I’m not sure if Bamba is ready yet. If he is he could help here. I am not a big Bamba supporter and he would get slaughtered by the Joker. But if you put him in a deep drop while Rui or LeBron bang on the Joker he could roam like we have had AD doing at times. Again we are talking only a few minutes here.

In the end we need to just do a little better. LeBron doesn’t need to be great, just good. DLO doesn’t need to explode, just put up 17 or so like he’s done multiple times in the playoffs. Dennis needs to be a little more aggressive attacking the rim. AD doesn’t need 40. 28 to 30 is enough if a few guys are adding a few more points.

I will not be surprised if the Nuggets win it all. But I’m not counting the Lakers out yet. We have taken both games down to the wire and we haven’t even played that well yet. The Nuggets are not a good defensive team. If we play smarter on offense and our defense holds up, we can get back into this series.

Aloha,

This was a game we should have won. Yes LeBron played great defense but my goodness. 3 missed layups and a fumbled ball on a dunk. And he started the 4th taking three 3 pointers in 4 possessions. Missed them all. And to top it off, one last turnover.

It does say a lot about Rui and Austin on a night where LeBron and Davis couldn’t hit a shot that those 2 guys kept us in the game.

I thought we should have put Vando back in the 4th. He did a great job when he was on Murray.

Well we have 2 at home. We need to be better for 48 minutes.