- 92,107
- 127,447
Prefers a veteran head coach with experience.
Immediately named McDermott, Smart in addition to Randle in regards to the draft.
Yeah, they aren't being patient it seems...
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Yeah, they aren't being patient it seems...
Prefers a veteran head coach with experience.
Immediately named McDermott, Smart in addition to Randle in regards to the draft.
Yeah, they aren't being patient it seems...
Tell me Randle doesn't sound like LeBron.
2. The Lakers should forget about the LeBron-Carmelo combo and go after Carmelo ... and Chandler Parsons
With the SuperFriends all opting out of their contracts, the idea that there isn't some sort of agreed-upon machination for restoring the Heat's roster is naïve in the extreme. The Lakers surely know this. So it would be a waste of precious time to entertain James on a visit and/or make him an offer he's surely to turn down to return to Miami.
The better use of the first week of free agency is to make an all-out push for Anthony, while dropping a massive offer sheet on Parsons, the Rockets' small forward who is a restricted free agent.
Los Angeles can offer Anthony a max deal, but it would then be unable to add just about anyone else who could make a difference -- especially after not moving the seventh pick in last week's Draft, which became Kentucky's Julius Randle. The rookie scale for the seventh pick for next season is around $2.497 million. If L.A. also keeps second-round pick Jordan Clarkson, acquired from the Wizards, it would pay him $507,000 next season, for a total rookie outlay of about $3 million.
After that, the Lakers would have a little bit more than $37 million committed for just five players: Kobe Bryant, Robert Sacre, Steve Nash, Randle and Clarkson. Over the weekend, the Lakers opted to give forward Ryan Kelly a qualifying offer. The Los Angeles Times reports it is for a little more than $1 million for next season. The Lakers also gave a $915,000 qualifying offer to guard Kendall Marshall. But those are just offers.
The league requires minimum cap holds for teams that have fewer than 12 players. With five players under contract, the Lakers could have up to seven minimum holds on their books until players are signed. (They also still have cap holds on any number of former players that will all be renounced to maximize their cap room.)
For the sake of argument, let's say L.A. uses just five minimum holds, with the intent of filling the remaining two roster spots with new free agents. The five holds would run about $2.5 million total, bringing the team's salary near $40 million -- enough for one max deal, but not more. The Lakers would almost certainly have to convince 'Melo to take less than the max in order to make a realistic offer to Parsons.
Parsons has been incredible in Houston since being taken 38th overall in the 2011 Draft. Last season, he was 13th in PER among small forwards and his True Shooting Percentage was better than that of All-Stars like Anthony and Paul George. Playing off of Randle (or Pau Gasol, if the Lakers can re-sign him), or Anthony and Kobe Bryant, Parsons would be equally lethal.
The Rockets opted not to pick up Parsons' option for 2014-15, not because they don't want him back, but because they can now sign him to a long-term contract. If they had picked up his option for next season, he would have become an unrestricted free agent next summer, and almost certain to leave. But since he'll be restricted now, the Rockets can match any offers he gets. The Lakers should make it very, very hard for Houston to do so.
Houston plans to clear one big contract off its books by sending center Omer Asik to New Orleans for a 2015 first-round pick, a deal that can't be finalized until after the July moratorium. For our purposes, we'll include the deal on Houston's tab. That would leave the Rockets with approximately $55.7 million in guaranteed money due seven players next season, with team options on Patrick Beverley and Troy Austin for approximately $1.7 million more. Assuming the Rockets want both back, that puts the Rockets' team salary for next season at $57.4 million. With the cap currently projected at $63.2 million for next season, that wouldn't give Houston enough cap room to sign a superstar.
But Houston reportedly has another deal in its back pocket to move guard Jeremy Lin to create enough cap room to sign either James or Anthony if either agrees to come to Houston. Let's say they do. That would reduce the Rockets' cap enough to add a third superstar to play with Dwight Howard and James Harden -- though it still wouldn't be enough to offer Anthony the full max based on his 2013-14 salary of $21.4 million.
Whether the Rockets would then be willing to go over the cap -- or into the luxury tax -- to make sure they kept Parsons is a gamble L.A. should be willing to take.
The Lakers, of course, have enough cap space to go after two superstars. They should still court Anthony and offer the max they can: 25 percent of the team's cap. Obviously, Los Angeles has some edges off the court that might to appeal to Anthony's family -- his actress wife, LaLa, would certainly be amenable to a move West if Anthony doesn't re-sign in New York. (And, the Lakers also can offer something on the court Houston can't: head coach approval.)
Then, they could offer Parsons a near-max sheet in whatever manner -- frontloaded, backloaded -- that will be hardest on the Rockets. With Bryant's two-year deal coming off the books in 2016, L.A. could still, conceivably, have room to offer another max deal to, say, Oklahoma City superstar Kevin Durant.
If Houston matches the sheet for Parsons, the Lakers always could bring back Gasol for more than he could get anywhere else on a short-term deal.
Currently trying to figure out if a Randle/Love frontcourt would work... I don't think so