**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins

[MVP]

Gonna be a LONG season of us talking rotations....

I think the younger guys + Russ/AD are going to be used more so in the regular season and then the vets in the playoffs and it's kinda going to be who has the hot hand as far as shooting goes. It's going to be a lot of tinkering every game to see who meshes with who.

 

[pmatic]

Don't envy Vogel at all trying to divy minutes up between him/Monk/THT/Wayne

Think Baze is the best two way SG they have until I see THT become a 35 3PT% shooter and competent defender.

I wish this team had young Ariza to compliment AD and Bron when going small. I fear Ariza may be too washed, and eventually expendable.

 

[MajinZuub]

Honestly have higher hopes for Monk than what's expected. Young JR basically.

 

[DLF]

I really wonder what will happen with Dennis.

At first it was fun and games...but man this really gotta be wearing on his mental state.

I am at a point where I feel for the guy.

 

[DLF]

Spoiler

Frank Vogel’s expiring contract is the last question hanging over Lakers

This is quite the situation for Frank Vogel.

The third-year Lakers coach has just been gifted a roster with historic levels of talent. L.A.’s whirlwind roster makeover boasted the arrival of three more Hall of Famers to complement the two already in place in LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The 3-point shooting woes that gave Vogel headaches over the last two years were seemingly addressed with the arrival of five players who shot better than 38 percent from the perimeter last year.

Then again, Vogel still doesn’t have a contract beyond the upcoming season.

Coaching LeBron was already the most pressure-packed job in the NBA. Let alone having to do it as a lame duck. And his job just got a whole lot more challenging.

The Lakers are driven to maximize James’ remaining time with the franchise, and Vogel is suddenly steering a roster that resembles a classic heist flick. James is Danny Ocean, reuniting his old gang — in this case, fellow elder statesmen like Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, Trevor Ariza, Dwight Howard, Wayne Ellington and Kent Bazemore — for one last job before they sail into the sunset and the credits roll.

Like with a heist, when you build a roster from the ground up with veterans on one-year contracts, you really only get one shot at it. And the fact that Vogel’s contract currently lines up with the mercenaries who joined LeBron for this title run rather than James (signed through 2023) or Davis (through 2025) leads to some obvious uncertainties.

Obviously, the Lakers can put those to rest either by negotiating an extension with Vogel before the season or by putting the question off and winning a second championship in three seasons. But now that the Lakers have moved swiftly to fill out their roster, Vogel’s long-term status is the biggest question left for the franchise.

While Vogel no longer has the specter of Jason Kidd as a potential successor hanging over him, Kidd’s replacement on the bench, David Fizdale, has a deep relationship with James and will quickly be linked to the job should the Lakers struggle.

That’s a degree of speculation that Vogel absolutely does not deserve but is what the Lakers are signing up for in the absence of any clarity on Vogel’s future.
“Frank’s a guy that Kurt (Rambis) and I and the front office really enjoy working with,” Rob Pelinka said during his season-ending exit interview. “(Someone) that really does a great job with all our players, and we see him as a strong part of our future, for sure.”

But in the NBA, extensions speak louder than words.

The third year of Vogel’s contract may require the most nimble coaching performance since he arrived in L.A. With a historic collection of talent comes a historic collection of egos. And while Anthony and Howard have adjusted gracefully to second lives as role players over the last two years, there are still very real questions about how Vogel will make all of these new pieces fit around Westbrook, James and Davis.

Vogel has the credibility, having won a championship just 10 months ago in Orlando, but the trade for Westbrook on draft night signaled a full reset from that magical squad that breezed through the bubble playoffs with the efficiency of a FastPass holder at Disney World.

Only four players remain from the championship team, including Howard — by way of Philadelphia — and 20-year-old Talen Horton-Tucker, who only became a rotation player after the title run and is likely in line for a more prominent role after agreeing to a three-year, $32 million contract on Tuesday.

By any reasonable standard, Vogel earned more job security when he led the Lakers to a title in his first season at the helm, even after he had agreed in 2019 to join the franchise on a three-year contract that was below the industry standard and had been seen as insulting by other candidates for the position. However, Pelinka is known for wanting to maintain maximum flexibility and leverage, and from that vantage point, there may be little obvious incentive to give Vogel guaranteed money into an uncertain future where everything seems to change dramatically from year to year.

And though it has not yet been a year since Vogel hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy alongside Pelinka and James, the job now is virtually unrecognizable from the one he so deftly navigated to earn his first ring.

Being the right man for this moment, like he was for that one, will mean finding a way to build a proficient defense despite some uninspiring defensive personnel. The development of Horton-Tucker will be key to the Lakers progression on that side of the ball, but it was clear the Lakers were comfortable shifting their focus from a defensive identity when they were unwilling to outbid Chicago to keep Alex Caruso, sent Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to Washington and essentially swapped out Dennis Schröder for the defensively limited Westbrook.

To date, Vogel’s greatest imprint on the Lakers had been defensively, including coaxing out of his superstar some of the most committed defense James had played in years.

But if the Lakers are to win at a high level this year, it will likely be a byproduct of their offensive efficiency and their ability to outscore high-powered opponents even when they can’t stop them.

With all of that in mind and James just months away from his 37th birthday, the Lakers will enter the season with the same urgent expectations that were present for the storied franchise’s most bold and, ultimately ill-fated, super teams.

It has shades of the 2003-04 season, when an aging and beleaguered Lakers team lost in the Finals to Detroit despite having persuaded Gary Payton and Karl Malone to take steep pay cuts the previous summer. And the last time the Lakers assembled such an ambitious roster, in 2012-13, when the Lakers acquired Steve Nash and Dwight Howard in an effort to squeeze one more title run out of Kobe Bryant, head coach Mike Brown was fired five games into the season.

The fact that those two all-in seasons precipitated significant change, including on the sideline, does not mean the same thing will happen here. But they are good reminders of the stakes when this organization loads up so aggressively and so singularly in pursuit of a title.

If you’re the coach in that situation, you’d like to know you’ll have some security when the dust settles.

As it is, if Vogel’s contract isn’t extended before the start of the season in October, his future could hinge on the health and durability of more than half a dozen players who, despite prodigious God-given talent, are on the back ends of their careers.

For Vogel’s part, he has been unequivocal about his career goals in Los Angeles.

Asked in June about his contract status following the season-ending Game 6 loss to Phoenix, Vogel replied, “I hope to be a Laker for life.”

Pelinka needs to take care of Vogel.

Might be a let’s see how he handles these offensive players type of deal with him his first month. They won’t extend him (foolishly) bc they wanna see if he can make ty lue level adjustments. I hope I’m wrong (good thing I usually am)

 

[thasoleful1]

Honestly have higher hopes for Monk than what's expected. Young JR basically.

hopefully better locker room with vets will bring the best out of him.

 

[MajinZuub]

hopefully better locker room with vets will bring the best out of him.

Brons been through that rodeo at least

 

[had pants]

 

[tonelow]

Not sure when he actually said this, but they could use a pg especially if they don't want Marcus anymore

 

[noblekane]

old vs young in scrimmage would be dope

 

[had pants]

 

[DLF]

Not sure when he actually said this, but they could use a pg especially if they don't want Marcus anymore

Shroeder for Marcus smart.

smart an expiring. Can start at the 2.

pipe dream for us though. I’d wet my pants again if this happens. At the very least we add an expiring asset.

ok time to wake up from the dream scenario

 

[DLF]

Your weekly reminder that greatest laker of all time per 36 mins Damian Jones has a team option. Kings have Len, Tristan and resigned Holmes. Also they play Barnes at the 4 and still have Bagley.
so Jones likely gets cut

lakers need to be on look out. Young lob catcher

 

[D_eezus]

Gonna be a LONG season of us talking rotations....

At least we ain’t got Luke

 

[had pants]

 

[SORIANOTRON]

So we gonna have to deal with these old jokes all season huh

[Maserati guy] LETS GO THENNNNNN [/Maserati guy]

Spoiler

 

[g-time]

 

[pmatic]

at including Monk, DJ and Howard into the equations.

 

[MVP]

So we gonna have to deal with these old jokes all season huh

[Maserati guy] LETS GO THENNNNNN [/Maserati guy]

Spoiler

 

[DLF]

Lakers avg age overall now is 31.5

nets including like 3 rookies is about 27.5; their actual rotation players is closer to 29-30.

 

[sohi 23]

I too think Bazemore starts initially unless THT has made “the leap”.

 

[g-time]

Lakers avg age overall now is 31.5

nets including like 3 rookies is about 27.5; their actual rotation players is closer to 29-30.

just thought the post was funny

 

[DLF]

Doubt we hear any more rumors today. I think more this weekend after the deals and trades become official. Maybe they still trying to work on a Caruso sign and trade?

 

[pmatic]

Tomorrow is the first day that players can officially sign contracts so I wouldn't be surprised if they finalize the roster by the end of the weekend.

 

[moonman818]

I think Monk is the guy who eventually takes the starting role.