Laker Keepers For Next Season (THREAD UPDATED AFTER GAME 67!!!)

[Megaton]

Weird timing for this thread I know, but I was too tempted not too. And this season just sucks now at this point. So as of right now, here is my current list all relegated through tiers. All players of which that I assume we will go into the off-season with especially.

Keep Most Definitely:
- Austin Reaves (This is BEYOND obvious at this point. He is the definition of a glue guy for this organization. His scoring potential is amazing. It seems like every game, he is truly getting better at creating good looks for both himself, and his teammates. And his defense, is already almost at elite level. An absolute must keep at all costs. No exceptions.)
- D’Angelo Russell (What a difference this young man has made since his last time in a Laker uniform. He’s truly grown up on and off the court. A fun and exciting playmaker who is a huge scoring threat, especially from 3. A guard who can excel as a scorer on or off the ball, and he even looks so hyped being back as a Laker. I almost don’t care at the cost at this point, he’s worth bringing back. Especially over a certain antisemite.)
- Jarred Vanderbilt (One of the best perimeter defenders in the league at 23 years old. And at the wing position at that. Something we have not had since Artest/Ariza. He hustles and cuts into the right spots at the right time on a consistent basis. This is another role player you keep for a LONG time. If this guy develops a consistent 3 point shot? He’s a monster. Keep him AT ALL COSTS.)
- Lebron James (obviously)
- Anthony Davis (obviously)

Keep Unless Contract Offer From Another Team Is Insane
- Rui Hatchimara (dude can find a good role and succeed here with work in the off-season especially. He’s shown flashes of brilliance in his offense, and how much more of a threat he could be if he realizes his true potential. He’s still young and has more growth. And he’s a big wing player at that. Unless he gets an absurd offer in free agency, he should be kept.)

Keep Unless He Can be Used As a Piece in a Big Trade
- Max Christie (Pretty easy keep considering his progress, and another year on his rookie contract. Unless there is an obvious, no brainer trade to upgrade the depth at positions of need, I see no reason to let him go right now. I even see him as a replacement for Beasley next season.)

Try To Use As Trade Bait:
- Malik Beasley (At the moment, Ham is completely setting him up to fail. He is NOT a starter by any imagination. Despite him still being a threat from deep, he shoots awful looking shots which almost translates all to bricks, and when that happens, he’s a liability. Doesn’t play defense, he’s out of the control with the ball in his hands, and he doesn’t move around without the ball on offense either. He should be a Jordan Clarkson type of guy which is just come off the bench as a microwave scorer. It’s simple logic. As it stands however, he’s now at pure trade bait level for me. With other guys stepping up in roles next season, Beasley would be the odd man out, so I would currently, look for ways to move him as an asset, and see what we can get next off-season.)
- Mo Bamba (I still like him and think it’s a little too early to judge long term still, but I moved him down to here because what he has shown so far has been…hit or miss. He has many strengths that I love…on paper. But his motor really is a big issue holding him back. He’s slower than I anticipated on either side of the court despite his good shot blocking. He can shoot well though, so thats a big plus. And he’s playing a position we really need, but if there is a significant upgrade AT THIS POSITION we can get in a trade? Yeah do it. Otherwise, hopefully he can come back and prove us later possibly in the post season why he’s valuable.)

Very Unlikely To Keep, But…Try?:
- Dennis Schroder (he’s surprised me. He’s definitely a much different player and person than he was back in 2021 thus far. I love his effort on defense, and he seems more in control on offense. He’s much more efficient, and he has stepped up BIG TIME, especially on a vet min contract…which is why we probably won’t be able to bring him back. He’s clearly played above it, and we don’t have his bird rights. Nor will we even have the money after prioritizing resigning the other players we need to bring back. So unless he really loves being here, and can handle playing on ANOTHER vet min contract for one more year, he’s gone. But obviously…try anyway to see if his attitude about wanting the bag has changed.)

They can go, but only because others will have bigger roles next season:
- Troy Brown Jr (I’m also proud of him. He’s stepped up big time with Lebron’s injury. He’s actually a decent threat from the 3, and he tries hard on defense. I currently have a lot of respect for his effort and play in the 2nd half of the season. However, he’s unfortunately now in a tough spot position wise. Others like Reaves, DLO, and soon Christie will take his spot. Not to mention he has no bird rights either like Schroder. And dude is still quite young. So it’s hard to believe he will come back here again on another vet min contract. And unlike Schroder, I would say Brown being gone after this, isn’t really a loss because of the others that will take over. But respect for this young man.)

They can go:
- Lonnie Walker (I love his character, but with Reaves, Christie, and even Beasley, he’s just too redundant for this team now. I don’t see a future with him here as he is the odd man out now.)
- Wenyen Gabriel (I love his effort. His hustle, and he’s a great character. But I don’t see much of a future for him here. He’s too undersized to play center, and with Rui, Vando, and Davis here now, Gabriel is just clearly the odd man out too. I wouldn’t mind having him back as roster filler, especially in case of injuries, but he’s clearly not a normal rotation player for this team long term.)

The “I don’t care what his contract says, he’s gotta go”:
- Darvin Ham (Fire him and bring an actual coach this time.)

List will be updated should anything drastic change.

EDIT: List Updated.
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Darvin Scam: https://media.tenor.com/images/3c15249955860a4b16b59e8ae035fb75/tenor.gif

[epic_]

Stay:

AD
Lebron
AR
Max
Rui
Troy
Gabriel

But what does it matter if coach can't use proper lineups.
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💜💛 🏆 👀 🍖 #18!!!

[Megaton]

[2019]

[venturalakersfan]

Keep Rui if he’s cheap, keep Reaves and Christie. Lebron and AD will be back no matter what, use the future FRPs to bring in other guys 24 and younger.
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RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023.

[Barry Seal]

If rebuilding nobody on this team is a keeper

[Megaton]

[Hanging from Rafters]

It depends how much it cost to keep the ones they have and who the Lakers bring in. It would be hard to find a better back up C than Bryant so depending on who is brought in and how much it would cost to keep him to decide whether Bryant should be brought back or not…same for Gabriel, TBjr, Walker, Bev, Schroeder, and Russ.

JTA is the only player I would definitely say don’t bring back.

Those that I hope aren’t back because of a trade tomorrow that replaces them with better players are:
Russ traded for Turner/Heild
Bev/Walker traded for Rozier/MCDaniels

But to at least answer the question:
Bryant for vet min
Jones
AD
Hachi
Gabriel for vet min
LBJ
TBjr for vet min
Reaves
Christie
Schroeder for tpMLE
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“When it looks as if it is a realistic possibility, I want to focus on winning a ship like it’s a goal that can’t be denied. I didn’t see that this off season.”

[wolfpaclaker]

Depends who they can get in FA.

But say they can settle on to get some pieces with 25M.

AD
Bron
Rui
Reaves
Christie

Should be 5 players brought back. Then spend 25M in space on some quality.

Option at 25M cap, potentially?

4 years 100M maybe could get you:
Porzingis: stretch big who can rim protect, allows AD to go to work at the 4, and should enable you to have better defense and a 3rd shot creator.
Green: Point forward on offense, versatile defender on defense and championship playoff experience
VanVleet: strong scoring guard, leadership, 3 point shooting, 3rd shot creator
Jerami Grant: big wing, 3 point range (can play small ball big man role), defensively versatile would give team length/size/athleticism (especially combined with Rui coming back)

Likely we may opt to use 15M on one player, and 10M on the other. To get 2 starting level players. All depends on price tag, obviously.

I'm not advocating Porzingis, Green, FVV, at those numbers btw. Just throwing names out there. I think there's a few classes of FA here that will set the table for what we will do with who we bring back.

Tier 1: If we go and get/land someone in the 150M range (Kyrie/Harden) then no one but AD/Bron comes back. We go all in for Kyrie or James.

Tier 2 FA pursuit: If we go into the 100M range, we'll be bringing Rui/Christie/Reaves back. If the cap raises to 136 we can do this.

Tier 3-4 FA: Most likely what we'll be able to do. Probably will be able to get 2 starting caliber players and bring back AD/Bron/Rui/Reaves/Christie and maybe some others.

[av3773]

At this point I'm ok with just keeping Austin, Rui and Christie...everyone else is pretty expendable in my mind. Bron while great, is at the tail end, so building a team around him doesn't make a ton of sense. AD has shown he can't step into taking over the team on a consistent basis nor can he be available on a consistent basis. The only way for the Lakers to re-load is to get rid of anything not nailed down to the floor imo.

[fansincemagic]

Keepers:
2027 1st
2029 1st
Ham because they don't have the courage to pay him to leave.

[lakers4life78]

AD and LeBald aren’t keepers unless you want another top heavy garbage team.
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17 time World Champions

[LaxT]

The real question is, whether, or how much, Jeanie is willing to pay repeater tax for a mediocre team.

Before the trades, only Jones was signed beyond this season among the traded players. Now Vanderbilt ( $4.7 million team option ), Beasley (16.5 million team option), Russell (unrestricted), and Hachimura (restricted) are all waiting the get paid.

[epic_]

[leking006]

Stay:

AD
Lebron
AR
Max
Rui
Vandy
Beasley
Wenyen

Get Kyrie in FA

[governator]

D'Angelo
Beasley
PatBev
Reaves
Max
Rui
Vanderbilt
Wenyen
AD
Bron

If we can, both TBs

[defense]

I have to see the current group finish out the season to answer this. No way to know without seeing how it all fits. I am leaning 90% on keeping these guys though.

Reaves
Christie
Gabriel

Hopefully all for cheap

[Theseus]

Looks like you got your wishes.

Is Rob active on here?

[Megaton]

[Theseus]

[Megaton]

Thread updated.
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Darvin Scam: https://media.tenor.com/images/3c15249955860a4b16b59e8ae035fb75/tenor.gif

[slavavov]

[Megaton]

[Hanging from Rafters]

This is the kind of stuff I absolutely HATE!!! I remember when Schroeder was first on the team and the Lakers were #1 in the West for awhile…then players were put in trade rumors that eroded morale. Injuries played a part but along with that the team lost winnable games.

Can we hope for team continuity to build chemistry with a stable roster to increase the possibility of getting the most out of the roster? Is it too much to ask for fan support for players we have? Can we at least wait until we see how things shape up before we consider dumping them? Part of the excuse up to now was that the roster was flawed but now that it is balanced can we keep the players out of trade rumors? It doesn’t just affect the unsupported players rumored to not be wanted but infects the morale of the entire team like a cancer.

I got the part that you couldn’t resist, I could have just scrolled by but…even tho I HATE it I couldn’t resist either lol!

So…evaluate Walker and Beasley to see which is most valuable. Beas has a $16mil team option and may not live up to that figure since Walker can be brought back for about $8mil. Keep the one of those that shows the most promise with value and dump the other.

Offer Schroeder the full tpMLE and hope he takes it. The team is much better with him on the roster.

Gabriel may take another vet min…try to keep him for that. I believe TBjr should be in the same boat. Christie and Reed are under contract next season so bring them back. Christie could possibly develop to replace the production lost by TBjr departure if he can’t be had for vet min but I would want TBjr back for vet min.

Keep everyone else not mentioned already no matter what barring an unforeseen development:
Mo/AD/Hachi/Vandi/LBJ/Reaves/Dlo
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“When it looks as if it is a realistic possibility, I want to focus on winning a ship like it’s a goal that can’t be denied. I didn’t see that this off season.”

[RI Laker]

We need to keep DS and do whatever it takes.