The draft picks in this scenario would be late 1sts, same as in a hypothetical Ryan Anderson trade from Houston. Ball is a young guard with a helicopter dad who shot 36% from the field and 30% from 3. Kuzma and Hart are solid pieces, but nothing magical. My issue with it is this: If two or three late 1sts and a couple young pieces is enough to offset the Deng factor and land the Lakers a star in the trade, then two or three late 1sts and an Eric Gordon-plus package should be enough to offset the Ryan Anderson factor for the Rockets. What I don't get is people who **** all over the prospect of the Rockets making any deal work because of Ryan Anderson, who then turn around and immediately give the benefit of the doubt to the Lakers striking that type of deal with Luol Deng. (And the Rockets would have much more depth after acquiring their "third star" than the Lakers would in these scenarios, if you frame it in terms of appealing to LeBron.) There might be a path where the Lakers could get a third star using Deng and picks/prospects. But two things: A) LeBron isn't likely to sign on blind faith, he'll want to see it beforehand B) If you're willing to give that benefit of the doubt to Magic, you should give the same to Morey I get why the national media isn't doing that, because most of them want the LA scenario to happen. It makes the league more compelling. I don't know why so many of us on here need to do that.
Totally agree. The rockets can move Anderson if they need to. For me it’s not about Anderson or Deng it’s about lebron. If lebron wants the lakers they will have no problem surrounding him with talent. If he wants the rockets we’ll have no problem moving Anderson to get him. I only reject the notion that lebron can’t win if he goes to la or they can’t build a contender.
Right. And from what I can tell, the media types that are driving this "narrative" have dismissed Houston exclusively because of "cap" concerns rather than anything they've actually been told regarding LeBron's desires. On your latter point, they can definitely build a contender, but it would probably take until 2019-20 to get to GSW level. Even if they could get the third star this summer, they'll need the exceptions to build any sort of depth, IMO.
I don’t know... You don’t think they can get lebron and George to give up like 5 million combined so they can add one free agent for basically mle money? Would Charlotte discuss a deal built around Kemba and salary for Lonzo and salary? I think the lakers could get really good really fast. Can they beat the warriors? Probably not, agreed.
I think they'll have a lot more trouble trading Ball for legitimate value than most think. Between the lack of shooting at a position dependent on it and the helicopter dad fiasco, I'd be surprised. As far as LeBron and PG each taking a slight discount, not impossible, but A) we're talking about one Taxpayer MLE type player, at most, and B) I'd say the first domino that has to fall in that scenario is LeBron and George being in lockstep. Going by the Stein report and some of the indications we've seen out of OKC, that's far from a foregone conclusion.
Oh absolutely, I don’t think it’s a lock at all. Piecing together the information that’s out there i think everything is still in play. I just think they’d have no issue adding players if lebron and George decide to team up. I also don’t know what to think of Lonzo.
I was referring to whether or not anybody on this board thought the Lakers chances of contending were legitimate or not. Ultimately only one opinion matters for LeBron this offseason...his. Of course LeBron doesn’t strike me as the type to take anything on blind faith. As a matter of fact who does? Honestly I thought it was obvious or I would have clarified.
This will come down to chemistry. In what situation will LeBron feel most comfortable winning championships?
I have been trying to say this same thing. Lonzo Ball will not net the Lakers an all star caliber player like some seem to think (cyberx included who floated him for Damian freaking Lillard in another thread). How did this guy get so overrated again? The draft/summer league hype died down when he just wasn't very good at all when the regular season started. He disappeared for long stretches of games. Wasn't even in the lineup for the last 5 mins of games. Now we are suddenly back to summer league hype. Even his modest assist average of 7 a game is inflated as he was definitely the beneficiary of some home cooking from the lakers home score keeper.
He’d be a great fit. Don’t know how available he is. Seems like Toronto wants to reload instead of rebuild from the outside looking in. But I could be wrong.
To be fair, Cyberex didn’t float Ball for Lillard. He suggested Ball, Ingram, multiple picks for Lillard. Not a bad package honestly.
