re: 2022-23 Lakers Thread

No depth at PG? Well yeah, but that's because they're going to get Kyrie.

They're getting younger but bringing in worse shooters.

LAL roster:
Troy Brown Jr.
Anthony Davis
Wenyen Gabriel
Talen Horton-Tucker
LeBron James
Stanley Johnson
Damian Jones
Kendrick Nunn
Austin Reaves
Lonnie Walker IV
Russell Westbrook
Juan Toscano Anderson

They still have Max Christie, their 2nd-round pick, unsigned. Maybe they are waiting to watch summer league to see how he does there before deciding on whether to give him a regular or two-way contract.

The Lakers signed Cole Swider, from Syracuse, to their other two-way spot. Interestingly, they signed him to a two-year contract, which is unusual for two-way deals.

They still have two spots to fill (or three if they put Max Christie on the other two-way deal).

This is where the delay in a possible Kyrie trade hurts the Lakers. A Westbrook for Kyrie deal would likely be unbalanced, because of the contracts, with the Lakers getting more players back in the deal.

The Lakers were likely leaving a spot or two open for those extra Nets players, who would almost certainly be better than the free-agent scraps that they could find still available right now.

Filling these roster spots now means that the Lakers would likely have to waive one if and when the big trade happens.

That doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you're paying the repeater tax, even one extra minimum deal adds a lot more than that to the tax bill.

There aren't many big names left. I wonder if Schroder would go back there on a minimum deal. That dude made one of the biggest financial mistakes in NBA history by turning down the Lakers offer a couple of years ago. He had 4/84 on the table and turned it down, and now he's a minimum guy (or close to it).