Adrian Wojnarowski
@wojespn
The Cleveland Cavaliers are nearing a trade to acquire Los Angeles Lakers guard Rajon Rondo — and an agreement is expected to be

The Cav’s are over the cap. They have to send salary back. I wonder who that will be. Or will there be a 3rd team involved?

Aloha,

One tool no one is talking about is the 2.7 mil trade exception that the Lakers have after the Gasol trade. Might be able to find a piece like Damien Jones of the Kings. We could send them a 2nd rounder for him. Would have to cut DJ but half the Kings roster are centers.

Aloha,

There is an abundance of Laker centric trade speculation involving all over the web. I have seen too many weird trades so I will never say never but I think the chances of the Lakers landing a star in a trade are slim to none with our limited trade assets. I never turn to the trade machine first. The first things I do in looking into a trade is try and put myself in the shoes of the other teams GM.

First there are the rebuilding teams with a star. The Pistons have Grant for instance. A favorite target for Laker scribes. If I were the GM I would want drafts picks and young players. The Lakers are short on both. 2027 is the next time we can trade a 1st rounder. I’m asking myself, is my job secure enough to wait 5 years for a draft pick pay off? As for young players we only have two under contract beyond this year. THT is inconsistent and Austin’s sample size is small. Monk has shown promise but he’s a free agent. He spent 4 years in a rebuild and took less money to sign with a contender. If I’m the GM, I’m asking myself, what are the odds that he resigns for another 3 years of rebuild. Slim to none. And Nunn is 26, young by Lakers standards but old for a rebuild. Plus there is the whole resigning issue. I read that Grants injury might lower the asking price. But GM Michael knows that he is under contract and can be traded later if I don’t receive an offer I like.

Now there is also chatter about Turner and the Pacers. I have read that the Pacer are floating names out there to rebuild but I’ve also heard they may just want to upgrade to try to compete for a playoff spot. If they are looking to rebuild, then everything I wrote about the Pistons applies to Indy. If they are looking to upgrade, is THT a win now player? They already have Brogdon and Holiday at PG, would they even be interested in Nunn? As a matter of fact they have a lot of guards. How would more help?

Then there is trading Russ. There are not many situations where he helps a team, that can send back enough salary with players we would want. The only team that really fits the bill is the 76ers. The bad thing is, they have a list of 30 players and Russ isn’t on it. And I doubt they would want any of our other players we could throw in because of salary matching. The only way I see we could trade Westbrook to them is in a 3 way trade with another team. The kings for instance has shown interest in Simmons. We trade Russ to the 76ers, the Kings send the 76ers 1st rounders and the Kings send us say, Fox and Barnes. That would work with the Pistons as well. They get Simmons, we get Grant. There are more possibilities in a 3 way then there is a straight swap. As far as the Rich Paul factor getting him to the Lakers, you can forget that. Ben is under contract for 4 years. Rich as zero leverage. The 76ers will trade him whoever they want.

There may be a few small trades available. A Reddish for Nunn trade with the Hawks would benefit both teams but I’m afraid the chances of a blockbuster trade are slim to Nunn. 🙂

Aloha,

Basketball is a team game, and I generally don’t like to lay the blame for a loss on one guy, but tonight I will make an exception. We lost this game because of Russ. If he makes half the layups he missed we win. The missed dunk at the end was the killer. Down 3, he missed the jam, they score, ball game. And it wasn’t just his 4 for 20 night on offense, his defense was equally bad. He constantly lost track of Mills. Why he left Paddy on that dagger 3 to double for no reason. And it wasn’t just Mills, Harden stole his lunch money as well.

We had two bad quarters and and two good ones. Russ was generally off the court when we made our runs. And the stats show it. LeBron played 40 minutes and was a plus 9. Russ played 37 minutes and was a minus 23.

I thought we had enough from other guys to win. Malik was very impassive on both sides of the ball. After not picking up a basketball for over 10 days, he scored 20 with 42% from 3 and hustled on D. THT had a decent game but man I was impressed with Stanley Johnson. Harden played Ellington off the court. But whenever Stanley drew Harden he really made him work. You can’t shut Harden down but I thought Stanley slowed him down. Forced him into several turnovers and missed shots. If he keeps this up I hope we keep him. He has a little more size and at 25 has young legs, which we desperately need. They can sign him for a 2nd 10 day after this one. If this continues, I think we will need to cut someone because we need a guy the can guard both wings and small forwards.

I thought Melo played pretty well. He wasn’t hitting his 3’s but he found other ways to score. Plus he quietly has been playing some decent defense. He has quick hands and is looking like a pretty good team defender.

I do understand the modern game and the importance of 3 point shooting but our offense doesn’t prioritize 3 point shooting. I think we should play our best defenders. I would much rather having a guy like Stanley playing tough defense then a shooter like Ellington who only got off three 3’s and was ripped apart on defense.

Aloha

My biggest takeaway from this game, was the energy we played with. If we had played this hard all year we would have a much better record. I also thought the ball moved better then it has for awhile.

Still the same problems that we have had all year continued.

20 turnovers led to 29 points. And the frustrating part was many of the turnovers we unforced. Plus there were too many thread the needle fails. They look great when they work but they seldom do.

16 offensive rebounds again killed us. Just way too many 2nd chance points.

Why did we sign Wayne if he is going to get 5 shots in 36 minutes. They didn’t make much of an effort to find him. Shooters need to shoot. This short handed he should have gotten twice as many. LeBron and Russ went 1 for 9 from 3, while the rest of the team shot 44%. This has to change.

8 missed free throws. Again.

Russ had 20 8 and 8. Normally that looks okay but 6 turnovers and as usual a few misses at the rim. The killer was that last miss at the rim with only 56 seconds left.

I think Alex would have looked very good in our starting line up.

Trevor only got 15 minutes but he looked like he was moving pretty well. His timing was understandably off but it’s really good to have him back.

IT did a pretty good job. He is earning a contract somewhere.

It was the energy that was encouraging for me. We really need to play this hard all the time.

MIKE BREEN: “hello and welcome to The Crypto Center, where Kent Bazemore’s Lakers play host to Kessler Edwards and the Brooklyn Nets!”

MARK JACKSON: “with all due respect, this is an absolute travesty.”

JEFF VAN GUNDY: “do i put the bits of coins together? how does this work?”

Looks like Malik will be available. He tested out of protocols.

Aloha,

Russ and Bradley are not out due to Covid. Brown our 2 way will probably see some run and IT if the league approves the emergency 10 contract in time. Just when we were beginning to show improvement. Not sure if Trevor can play. They were aiming for next week but they sure can use him now. This has truly been a snake bit year.

Aloha,

There are 3 things you can count on, death, taxes and the Lakers being mentioned as a trade destination for players on the trade block. It happens every year and doesn’t happen, AD being the exception.

Now I have learned to never say never because I have seen some craziness. Pau coming to the Lakers comes to mind. The Rockets rejecting an offer that included Simmons because they didn’t want to deal with Morey is another example. Still it rarely happens.

The 76ers say they are not interested in Russ. And I believe them. Could the 76ers get desperate.? I suppose but I’m not counting on it. He wouldn’t be the best fit. They might have to take a little less, but would still be better.

Now I view the trade machine as a false prophet that leads fans on and makes any trade work. But no one bothers to investigate why the other team would do the trade. Of the big names available the trading team can do better then what the Lakers have to offer.

Personally I am looking for small trades that could help us and the other team as well. For instance, Cam Reddish appears to be on the market. He is a young forward with size and upside that would help our small front line. The Hawks need a quality back up for Tre. Nunn for Reddish would be a win for both teams. Those are the kind deals that could happen. The big names? Not so much. We don’t have the assets.

Well add Dwight and Malik to the health and safety Covid protocols. That’s 3 total now.

Aloha

Well at least I didn’t have to say loss. This years version of the Lakers are by far the most frustrating group that I can recall. It’s not that they lack the talent to be a top team, it’s just that they seem to only muster the energy to be great in spurts.

Last night the first half was disappointing. But it’s not unusual in the NBA for a bad team to hang around in the first half. It’s the 2nd half we’re separation usually occurs. And last night was no exception. We blew the doors off Staples in the 3rd quarter, with our best quarter of the season. We did exactly what we should have to a bad team. Then came the 4th. To say we took our foot off the gas would be an understatement. We shut the freaking car off. From LeBron down we decided we no longer had to put up any defensive resistance nor have to look for quality shots. We did finally crank the engine over but not until a 25 point lead had shrank to 10. This has become a pattern that will have to be abolished if we truly want another championship. Still there were some positives.

LeBron continues to prove that his problems were due to injuries, not age. He dominated the game until he shut down in the 4th.

For the most part Russ had another strong game. He maybe the most frustrating player on this frustrating team as he had several turnovers where he would attack into triple teams and turn the ball over. Still that was balanced by solid play.

THT has been climbing again on that young guy rollercoaster. He had a great offensive game with 19 points and 3 for 6 from 3. But it was defense that he shined with 6 steals. While his offense is inconsistent, defensively is where he seems to be improving every game. If he continues to be a plus on offense combined with the growth on defense, it will make for an interesting decision for Frank once Trevor is ready to go.

Aloha

Forgive me if I’m not excited by a blow out win over a team we should have blown out two other times. Nor do I look at this win as some kind of turning point. We have been down that road before. Still there were a few things to be encouraged by.

First, move the ball and the shots will fall. We had a season high 19 3’s and a lot of those were due to moving the ball. I fear that a lot of that had to due with AD not playing. It doesn’t matter if you have 3 superstars if we don’t get into the habit of moving the ball. All of this iso ball business will get us bounced in the 1st or 2nd round of the playoffs.

Avery Bradley had a fantastic game on both sides of the ball. Avery always has been a competent 3 point shooter. Last night raised he his percentage to 41%, but on just 3 triples a game. If we are going to start him then we need to find him for 3’s. I would much rather have him taking those shots than Russ or AD, actually LeBron as well.

A little bit at a time LeBron is beginning to look like LeBron again. He was very aggressive attacking the paint. That’s a very good sign. 4 for 6 from 3 was great, but LeBron is a lot like Kobe, a mediocre 3 point shooter that can occasionally get hot from distance. I just don’t want him falling in love with the 3.

Slowly but surely our defensive rating continues to trend upwards. Ironically it’s more our offense than our defense that is doing us in. SGA only had 11 points which is terrific D on a quality player like him. It seemed like the entire squad was locked in.

Austin Reeves had a very nice game. After coming back from injury he looked a little off his game and a bit hesitant. Understandable after missing a few weeks due to injury. Last night he looked like was fully back from that injury.

I’m not going to go into the negatives except for one. After stringing together a run of good games culminating in a great game against the Celtics he has seemed to regress again over the last 2. I mean he 2 of the ugliest turnovers I’ve seen this year. When you are missing a star you expect your other stars to step up. The only upside was he did defer more to a LeBron then normal and in turn LeBron was moving the ball and attacking.

In the end is a win but I’m not going to get too excited until we can string a few wins against good teams together.