I thought he was just an acquisition of necessity, been blown away by how much he's helped the team. Another huge win for LeGM, likely one that no one could have pulled off....and also a WAY better candidate for tampering charges than anything he's done before. Knuckleheads who didn't understand what tampering meant and get complaining about The Decision should actually be complaining now.
Can't imagine that McGee/Chandler is the 5 of the future for the Lakers though...what do they do going forward? Do they try to make at least one year's championship run next year with McGee/Chandler? Unless AD is the big offseason acquisition, I don't see how they add a max free agent AND get a big man.
Hasn't been low-key at all, he's really been trying on that end. With his physical attributes you would think that the effect should turn him into a problem on that end soon enough.
His shyt ain't good at the basket either, and after a reasonable start his three has fallen way the hell off too. His skill set doesn't fit in particularly well with everyone else. He's the biggest 2019-20 salary the Lakers have to get rid of if they want to make a trade. And you know that Lavar won't stay distracted by LaMelo's struggles forever and is gonna start interfering again. I don't see how you ain't shopping his ass all over the league.
Of course Laker fans will scream and cry, but a crazy option that could improve their championship chances? Ball for Beverly and a 1st-round pick.
Beverly is still coming off injury, but he's young enough that he should get his game back, and when he does he's one of the best three-and-D point guards in the league. He is experienced in the playoffs and showed he can thrive in that atmosphere, while you expect that Ball has a steep learning curve there when he still looks shook in regular season games. And he's the kind of guy you love to have to aggravate the other team and throw them off their game. I fully believe he could be a 30+ minute-a-game starter for a championship team so long as he's only the 4th or 5th scoring option.
And on top of all that is the salary issue. Beverly makes a couple million less than Lonzo, which means that his cap hold is less for next year. That gives you move flexibility to take some salary back if you're making a trade (and you'll have more assets to do that with if you can get a pick off the Clippers too), or more room to sign guys in next year's offseason. And on top of that Beverly's contract is expiring, so if he doesn't work out this year, you can just drop him at the end of the year and have that much more cap space to sign someone that WILL contribute to a champion. You don't have that option with Lonzo.
Better three, better defense, better experience, fits in better with this particular team, for less money, could get you a pick too, and the flexibility not to resign if you want even more cap space.
Beverly
Kawhi
Ingram
LeBron
JaVale
Hart/Lance/Kuzma/Moe/Chandler
I don't see how that's not a contender. If you can't get Kawhi or AD (and assuming KD/Klay aren't real options), then you overpay Khris Middleton, or go with Eric Bledsoe or Tyreke Evans or Kemba AND a big as your backup option.
What would be much better was if they actual guys out there could just hit their shots.
If I were LeBron, I'm scanning the entire nation for the best shooting coach in the business, then paying him whatever he wants to join the Lakers coaching staff and giving him half of every practice.
There's no good reason that Ingram and Kuzma shouldn't be able to hit threes at a 38-40% clip. LeBron is rounding back into form, if you could just get Kuz/Ingram/Hart/Lance to hit close to a 40% clip, you don't need no three-point specialist. Especially if the one more star you pick up has a three as part of his arsenal.
All this assumes, of course, that Magic gets his act together and hires Messina to coach this team.
He's been incredibly successful as a head coach AND as an NBA assistant coach
He's been disciplining under Pop, the GOAT of them all
He's had years to learn how to coach NBA stars and has practice head-coaching several Spurs games the last couple years
He has a pre-existing relationship with the Lakers
The Raptors nearly gave him their head coaching job this year
No one believes he would ever be as stupid about rosters as Luke has been
Get that man Magic.
