Taken from yesterday’s ESPN’s NBA roundtable, Windhorst continued below.
>They sure don’t want to trade Reaves and his good contract or trade three players for one like they did with Westbrook. They believe in the formula they have, which is a cadre of long defenders supporting future Hall of Famers. Yes, they can’t shoot and it’s a problem. Yes, their defense has fallen off and it’s a problem. But if they end up doing something significant, it will probably be kicking and screaming. Keep that in mind when evaluating your visits to the trade machine.
I think there might be too many holes to fix with perimeter athleticism sim/defense, improving the shooting, a backup center that’s reliable, another scorer next to AD/LeBron, etc.
[Paywall removed link](https://archive.is/20240108133441/https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/39259276/biggest-questions-moves-insights-surrounding-2024-trade-deadline)
by KingNephew
25 Comments
Kicking & screaming?
Don’t get that part..what does he mean?
We need a reliable back up big and at least league average shooting. This has been the lakers problems since the bubble to be honest and still has yet to be resolved. Sure some shooting nights we do well but consistency is not there
If they’re unwilling to make any significant moves and the trend downward continues then they must look at the alternative to improve which is a coaching change.
Makes sense… Zach Lavine looks terrible after coming back. The Bulls completely phased him out of their gameplan. + look at his season averages this season. His trade value is the lowest ever and you could definetly make a trade if his contract wasn’t at 40 millon. thats way too much for a guy dropping 9 points in games.
I think for however LeBron is here and he’s playing this high level, we’re gonna be in win now mode. And I’d have to lean towards winning now vs hoping for a title team after 5+ years of rebuilding.
That sounds good in theory but the issue is we have depth that Darvin doesn’t know how to use. Balance out the roster and pecking order because right now it’s Bron AD Reaves and a bunch of question marks every night
Zach Lavine isn’t the move for this front office when you look at their trends.
Long term money
Significant money
Not a superstar
It checks all of those boxes.
They won’t include reaves so Murray is off the table.
We are then left with marginal moves.
We absolutely should try to improve this team wtf is this line of messaging every ducking damn year.
Can’t trade only tradeable picks ffs we would have 2 next offseason along with 4 pick swaps.
Move that 29 pick get some assets back & look to improve continuously.
Also we need to add players which are expiring so that we have their bird rights & can extend them next offseason..need to have salaries to trade next season.
Imagine if we had Beasley & Bamba at their respective numbers..we could’ve easily matched Lavine without gutting our depth.
Could just be posturing before we get to the deadline
Not sure I buy this. Never forget this time last yr the national media was insisting that Russ could not be moved and the lakers would refuse to trade a FRP
so they wont fire Ham and they wont do anything to fill holes in the roster?
OK 39 year old lebron, play-in here we come yet again. put the team on your back
How a team called have depth and still have to many holes? Lol
Of course, our FO doesn’t want to look desperate heading into the trade deadline for negotiation purposes.
Translation: Jeanie doesn’t want to spend anymore money and is happy never seriously contending for a title as long as ticket sales and ratings remain acceptable.
“depth” lmao
Gotta get Bronny lmao
That better not be true, they are running out of time to maximize on having both LeBron and AD playing at a superstar level.
We don’t have any fucking depth. We’ve got a bunch of 1 way players who either suck on offense or suck on defense
If anything taught me as a long time laker fan, is that if a trade being rumored associated with the lakers. It probably won’t happen
You better make a move or this team isn’t going anywhere. Hopefully this is just conjecture but the idea this team and this “depth” is enough is hilarious. You best get some offensive reinforcement or this shit is cooked.
If no Lavine or Dejounte then most likely we keep DLo. It wouldn’t make sense to trade him for a non playmaker. Would seriously hurt this team. And I don’t see us getting Brogdon or Rozier for DLo and seconds
Most likely they try and use either Rui or Gabe with seconds to get a two way player
I would agree we have depth if we had a coach that knew how to utilize it. Cam would be a great depth piece as an energetic defender 15 mins a night. Wood would be a great piece when paired correctly and not asked to play center. Rui would also be great with consistent mins or starting and also not playing the 5 which has happened. Dlo would be great depth if not sharing a ton of mins with reeves and prince. Gave if not injured would be great depth as well but I saw a line up with him, reeves and dlo and that should never happen
I wish there was someone genuinely great to trade for. Murray or Lavine minus what we trade away plus Ham doth not a championship make.
That just tells me no team want to throw us anyone good without reaves. Hope rob do his magic coz fuck that pick
I don’t have the same faith in this roster that Jeanie, Pelinka and Ham seem to have, IG.