re: What to do about Lonzo Ball?

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I mean yeah, if someone offers him over $20 mil a year, then you have to let him walk.

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Or...we can trade him to one of those teams that overvalue him.

If they overvalue him, we'd likely get a solid return.

Like the last post on the last page stated, if you concede he can't get to the rim, then he's really just a 3 and D guy, and those guys shouldn't command high salaries.

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I mean yeah, if someone offers him over $20 mil a year

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nobody is offering lonzo ball 20MM

ingram on 25% max for at least four years
zion on rookie scale for three more, then 25% max
so in that fourth year of ingram 50% of the cap for two players

there is no chance that lonzo overlaps that fourth year
sucks for him but he’s not the guy
that third slot is for a whale and they need to stay flexible

I’m struggling to imagine what an RFA offer sheet for him would look like...he’s clearly an NBA player but he just doesn’t warrant a 4 yr guaranteed deal at market rate.

his future is as Austin rivers 2.0

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But yes, we can't surround Zion and BI with role players who make around $15 mil a year. Hopefully we can use some of these draft picks to bring in good players on rookie contracts.

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In theory Kira and Jaxon will be the other medium-high priced core pieces and the rest should be veteran role players and use our wealth of picks to have a revolving door of developing rookie scale role players like the Spurs have always had.

yes the pels have to make some decisions relatively soon (in the next two years). They have some breathing room with all the rookie scale contracts they will have but cannot have a middling guy clogging the gears

like I said it sucks for lonzo but it’s just bad timing for him here

The funny thing is that Lonzo's assist to turnover ratio was 2.8 and 2.5 in his two season with the Lakers. As a Pelican last year, his ratio dropped to only 2.3.

So, I gotta think that Gentryball simply wasn't a good fit for him. I think that with a better, more disciplined approach in the half-court, Lonzo can be much more effective.

To me, the thing that makes Lonzo worth some risk is that he completely reworked his shot last year and improved his 3-pt percentage from 33% to 39%, while also adding volume. It's clear to me that Lonzo is far from a finished product; he certainly will continue to improve -- the question is how much?

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his future is as Austin rivers 2.0

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This is a terrible take

Even if his future isn’t with the Pels, he’s not going to be a minimum level guy in 4 years.

Rivers’ second contract was 2/6.5 with a player option

If the Pels could sign him for 3/45 they would almost assuredly do that

ETA: the Pels didn’t even tender Rivers a QO because he was so bad, I guarantee they put a QO out there for Lonzo.