While we nine of us know what inner machinations teams are engaged in on the surface this would seem to all but take the Sun out of the mix for Durant. Unless they’re planning on making an offer of Bridges/Crawford and whatever else they can wrangle, maybe from a multi-team angle but they just had the biggest chunk of change in one guy they could ina Durant deal taken off the board until 1/15, at the earliest. As noted below Ayton now cannot be traded to Indy and Ayton has veto rights for a year. With more movement on the Ayton front than Durant we are entering the phase in free agency where age is a big factor. Who is emptying the cupboard for KD? Teams can start to tighten the offer up now, no need to throw the kitchen sink into the deal if there are fewer bidders. Makes the Nets holding the line a little more likely now.

Sounds like Phoenix will match but nothing’s certain yet. Indy walking the line between tank and compete, really this was the only move they had left to improve the team while still building up a youth movement. So, while this may signal an ever-shrinking window for Durant and Kyrie finding new homes I think it would re-open the door to an Indy trade. Only question being do the Pacers want to see what Ayton and Myles and Buddy can do or just hit reset now.

That’s the thing with this whole Russ situation, it’s not the biggest loss if you don’t make the deal for everyone but LA. Indy watches Russ get traded to another team? No big deal, we were just gonna buy him out anyway and we still got lots of tradeable players from now until the deadline should things break poorly (or well).

San Antonio sees Russ traded to Charlotte or some such local? Cool, we knew that deal was either going to find another sucker, er, home. There is not one team that is doing the Russ deal because they want him to play. That is the biggest hurdle, you’re trading at a loss off the bat.

Also everyone knows that deal for Russ will be on the table all year long right up until the deadline passes. Other teams not named the Los Angeles Lakers have both the luxury of time and the knowledge that if the deal isn’t made by anyone else this summer it’ll be there. Waiting.

Just another reason I can see the Nets holding the line and not moving Durant for chopped liver and spare parts. A sign and trade for both Phoenix and Indy makes sense. Indy could care less about hard-capping themselves and Phoenix can bring in Turner who is arguably as good, if not a better fit, for what they want to do. Ayton is going to be a great center in this league, tons of upside, but he’s not what Phoenix needs in this exact moment. Frankly, neither is Durant at the current asking price. He isn’t an elite defender and they have scorers at all positions. Elite scorers? No, but ones who know the role they need to play.

If I’m Indy I make a courtesy call to the Suns and say that they are going to give DA an offer sheet and would you like to do a S&T instead, otherwise drop the offer and let the Suns scramble. Phoenix will probably choose the S&T route since it could then feasibly come back to a Durant deal on down the line just without a S&T for Ayton as the centerpiece.

We’re entering a phase in the NBA where teams are bumping up against taxes and the cap when trying to assemble a winner. Having three dudes on max deals isn’t an intelligent way to win. Honestly, it’s rare that it works at all. It’s why I never feared the Nets one iota, all flash and no substance doesn’t get you far in the playoffs. Fun for the regular season, admittedly, but that’s just the appetizer.

There’s so much controversy surrounding Russ at this point that it’s hard to imagine him playing anywhere next season, which is a shame because the guy is such an amazing athlete and if he could learn to dial it down and under control could still be a valuable part of a team. Unfortunately, he probably cannot do that for a championship caliber team. For a team looking to tank and wanting to have some reason to attract fans, Russ could work.

I put the blame on Jeanie rather than LeBron. Both know LeBron is going to sign the extension if they trade for Kyrie and won’t if they don’t. That makes Jeanie’s decision simple. Trade for Kyrie or get stuck with Russ. There is no parallel universe where you don’t take the risk. You’ve already cost us the MLE. Stop the baby crying. Do what is needed for Lakers to win. Don’t Ef up the Kyrie trade.

First, you know very well the Lakers can’t make wild or emotional decisions regarding superstars. This is just another rumor that probably matches what most pundits think is going on. There’s a battle between the Lakers and Klutch over the team direction.

Everybody knows LeBron wants the Kyrie trade. They also know Jeanie doesn’t want to commit to multiple years or increases in salary cap. In a way, In fact, if we’re going to start conspiracy theories, The Lakers have done such a great job convincing everybody that they’re difficult rather than desperate. It’s the best job I’ve seen them done this decade.

Of course, there’s a point where talking tough won’t work and the Lakers do desperately need the Russ/Kyrie trade and the last thing they need to do is make a mistake like declining to make the trade due to giving up a draft pick 5 or 7 years away. You have a chance to dump Russ for Kyrie and resurrect the Lakers chances for #18 this season.

Jeanie should sell the Lakers if they somehow screw up the gift from the basketball gods that this trade is. This is not a competition between your will and LeBron’s. It’s a chance to take advantage of a miraculous break that fell into your hands despite your gross mismangement of the team. It’s a slam dunk. Don’t blow it, Jeanie.

It’s almost as if these things weren’t collectively bargained and voted in by both sides. Maybe Lebron rigged the election….Stop The Steal!!!!!

I think that there are enough mechanisms in place that allow all teams to compete. We’re seeing the largest market team choosing not to spend, we just saw Memphis blast past the cap to keep most of that core together. The Warriors function as if money didn’t matter and to the owner it probably doesn’t. The real issue I have is players not coming close to honoring contracts. Dame Time asks out next summer and the Blazers will be forced to move him for a lesser return, exactly what we’re seeing Brooklyn deal with for the last year. Stars almready are choosing to leave any market they’re in, the contract isn’t much better than the single ply apocalypse TP folks stockpiled.

Whie we probably only signed Walker because of Klutch telling him to take the one year offer to showcase him, I do think he has potential. I’m very interested to see how all of the new players look like in Ham’s offense and defense.

Looking forward to the changes and seeing the Bucks more modern offense with better spacing for LeBron, AD, and young studs like Lonnie who have the atheticism to take advantage of wide open lanes to the rim.

Still need the elite shooting from Kyrie and Joe or Seth to put it all together but it’s a game plan that I think has a good chance to succeed and elevate the Lakers back into legitimate contention.

I can’t wait for camp. Be interesting to see who is still here and who isn’t. Once that’s settled we’ll be a few weeks away from camp and preseason. Then comes the part of the season where I ignore all the “preseason is meaningless” clickbait and try to discern the patterns and trends that’ll indicate how we’ll do, given good health.

The issue with Harris is partly luxury taxes. The Lakers paid $45M, 5th most, and Nets $98M, 2nd most. Neither team wants to increase payroll as a result of the trade. In fact, both would like to reduce salary. Harris makes $18.6 per year while Curry only makes $8.4M. That’s a $10M difference. Eventual trade will likely be a close match with neither team adding salary.

The other issue with Harris is the second year. Unless LeBron verbally agrees to sign extension, the Lakers will not take back contracts that go beyond how far LeBron has committed, which right now is just next season. That’s why we got stuck with Lonnie Walker IV. He’s all we could get offering just 1 year. Now we’re saying we won’t take Harris because of the second year.

Then there’s the draft picks. We’ll give up one I think but need the second one to move THT and Nunn. Solution then is to expand trade to include THT and Nunn but in the end, the Nets don’t have enough 1-year deals other than Curry to make this trade work. So Lakers will have to take back multi-year contracts.

At some point, LeBron has to realize that he needs to commit so that Rob can close the deal. Or demand a trade. Can’t sit on the effing fence like he is doing right now without risking wasting this valuable one of the few remaining years in his championship window.

Great points, Michael. The league need to evolve by increasing the number of two-way players on route to allowing the team to control all the players on their G-League team.

I think a couple of things affect the G-League to NBA pathway. #1 it’s still a relatively new development kn terms of the CBA, it’ll take time for there to be an easier and quicker pipeline between the two. #2 not every team has a G league team, its not mandatory and thats why the league created the non affiliated G-league team (The Ignite, I believe…).I think they will soon, potentially in the next CBA. #3 Coaches may not be all that excited throwing a guy out there who hasnt practiced with the team, been a part of film sessions or knows the habits and tendencies of the other players on the team. Lastly, and this is a pessimistic way of looking atvghjngs,nobody wants to see some two-way guy take out a well paid superstar and make them miss time. It gets bad enough when a vet minimum or some such player does. Having said that I think they will look to add more mechanisms for more two way guys to get PT.

If we do agree to trade future picks they should go out with protection, in case we are really bad by then.