Well whether it was 4 weeks off or 5, LeBron is used to getting mini-vacations mid season. In the East, it meant the Cavs dropped from 1st seed to 3rd, and then he came back and they climbed back up. In the West, breaks like that mean his team drops from 4th to 10th. Unless you think AD can regularly carry a stripped down team in the West to the playoffs (oh wait, we know he can't). So either he plays more of the games and accelerates his decline or he logs 40 mpg in March and April trying to drag his team to an 8 seed.
I'm not saying he did. I'm saying look at what happened to CP3 in the span of one year. When you hit your mid-late 30's it can go quick. Lebron takes unbelievable care of his body and has unbelievable genes, so he can likely age better. But he showed he's still human last year and the combination of his injury plus his awful defense by the end of the year (though he's gone through stretches playing D like that in Cleveland) when they were fighting for a playoff berth could be a warning sign that an even bigger dropoff in overall productiveness (including availability) could be just around the corner. I believe Lebron has more career minutes played than Duncan. Magic/Pelinka executed a very ill-conceived roster construction job last year and the AD stuff hurt, but 30 year old Bron would have easily still carried that Lakers team into the playoffs like Harden did with the Rockets this year.
Well tbh i think his defense has been sup par for years now, but regardless, i think it's way too early to tell if/how he's going to get worse, he had one single injury which isn't even related to knees or similar stuff, i mean, a little regression is can see it happening considering his age, but i still expect him to be a top 5 player next season. I do hope to be wrong though
Lakers will be very good. They will just not repeat the mistake of not having shooters. If your top 8 is good and you're willing to pay LT, you can fill out the roster easy. Here's an achievable top 8: Davis Lebron Kuzma Bullock @8m Wes Matthews @8m Reddick @8m Elfrid Payton or Ricky Rubio or Rondo @ Room Exception Alex Caruso @ Minimum Fill our the roster with minimum: Trey Burke, Mccaw, Chandler Done. They will drop some regular season games to rest their 2 stars, but strong come playoff time.
Fwd: Based on everything I've read/heard from Dave McMenamin: Finalized Date: Lakers were "quite aware" that timing of the trade date is important. Trade has only been reported, not made official. An agreement can be made but not legally documented. Lakers and Pelicans likely have some sort of agreement about the finalized date depending on circumstances of whether the Pelians keep the pick or whether the Lakers can land a top star. Teams can always re-negotiate and amend the date by including extra sweeteners to the Pelicans or 3rd team that comes into the picture. Griffin has worked with amended agreement dates before when trading Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love. Trade Kicker: Rich Paul is representing the best interest of his client so he will put out that his client will not waive his trade kicker. If Lakers can land a top star, they can go to Rich Paul and Anthony Davis and ask them if they are amicable to waiving the trade kicker. Cases in the past like Kyrie Irving waived his trade kicker to help the trade to get him to Boston. Cap Space: The Lakers have 2 ways of thinking: - First one is to clear as much cap space as possible and get the full max. - Second one is they do not need to get the full, full max since all the players they are targeting (Kawhi, Kyre, Kemba, Butler) do not have 10 years experience and they may be open to looking for a 2+1 deal and sacrificing about $4 million per year for the first 2 years then re-negotiating after they hit their 10 year tenure where they can make more.
Anthony Davis has had solid Teams in the last couple of seasons. He couldn't make the playoffs for years. Last year i heard Jrue Holiday is one of the best Guards in the league. I also see how good Mirotic shoots. I also see that his team was never as bad as they made them out to be. So with Lebron finally breaking down and getting old, I'd bet all my money that the Lakers won't even reach the conference finals. I think people are severely overrating that team.
Now it comes out about the trade kicker AD has. https://nba.nbcsports.com/2019/06/18/report-anthony-davis-intends-to-receive-full-trade-bonus/ Now I see, Kemosabi.
Agreed his D has been slipping, but I think other than maybe that stretch he had in his last year with the Cavs right before the trade deadline, his D after his injury last year is the worst it's been. The Ringer actually had a good piece today that kind of echoed what I've been thinking. It just seems like the explosiveness, athleticism, etc. started to slip last year. I think he'll be a top 15-20ish player and miss 15-20 games next year. But I could totally see him coming back rejuvenated playing with AD and being one of the top 5 players again. We'll see. I also hope I'm right on this!
2nd round picks? (But Woj said they're looking for 2nd round picks so do they even have 2nd round picks to send out?) They're nobodies TBH.
Yeah, ain't no teams is gonna reject getting young players for FREE. Lakers are gonna easily have that max cap.
