Lakers Free Agency Rollercoaster

The Lakers were on a hot streak. They not only kept their draft pick. But also jumped up 2 spots over New York & Philadelphia to secure the #2 pick in the draft. That landed us the best point guard in the draft. D'Angelo Russell. Who has the potential to become our best point guard since the legendary Earvin "Magic" Johnson. 

Heading into the free agency you could had put some butter on us because we were on a roll. Jimmy, Kupchak, Kobe & us the fans were almost cocky. We all just knew that we were getting Aldridge, Love, DeAndre, Lopez, Monroe or Cousins. Shoot for a minute there we actually thought that we might even get 2 of these great centers. 

Then the news leaked out how The Lakers didn't talk about basketball enough, we're not impressive enough, underwhelming and of course didn't woo anybody. 

All of the sudden within 24 hours our big time dreams turned into a nightmare. The media tore us a new one. They ripped us apart. It was nauseating hearing story after story how The Lakers were living in the dark ages. How they were living in the past because they didn't value analytics. Even us the fans wanted Jim & Kupchak's heads on a platter. I for one literally felt sick to my stomach. I even lost sleep over this. For awhile it looked as if we weren't going to sign anybody. 

Then out of nowhere we hear about Roy Hibbert. This guy could be the rim protector that we've needed since Bynum broke down and eventually traded. 

Then less than 24 hours later we hear that we signed the 6th man of the year Lou Williams!

Then less than an hour after that The Lakers announced that they signed Brandon Bass!

Not too shabby for plan "F" and having to wait for a week for each and everyone of the targeted free agents to shun us. 

Now I was just as disappointed as you over not getting a stud like Aldridge, Jordan or Monroe. And Love really stung because I've always heard how he secretly desired to be a Laker. I know that a lot of fans and especially critics blame The Lakers brass for not being able to land free agents recently. But we should really give them some slack on this. Why? 

#1. They actually got meetings with these guys. They were actually the first meeting at 9:01 with the most prized free agent, LaMarcus Aldridge. This was a feat in itself. 

#2. What analytics? What are they supposed to "analyze" if they suck? They don't have any star players except for Kobe who's 50 years old and injured. And we won 21 games last year. If I were The Lakers brass I would steer the conversation towards the other stuff also. 

#3. And finally of course these guys chose better situations. They want to win. That's why teams flock to play for The Cavs, Spurs etc.. Aldridge is going to be 30 years old. I don't blame him for not wanting to give up his prime years to a rebuild. Even a Laker rebuild. 

I know that we all wanted them to go after the 2nd tier guys like Tobias Harris. But can we really blame them for trying? (The Magic would had matched anyways) Yes it was a long shot. But they owed it to their fan bass to try to land the big name. 

But in all honesty I really don't think that Aldridge is a kind of game changer that can take a 21 win team to the playoffs or a championship anyways. 

In all honesty, we got to give Mitch's "plan F" a nod of approval. He landed us one of the best rim protectors in the business. Then he signed the reigning 6th man of the year. And the solid, efficient Brandon Bass who wears his hard hat everyday. 

This is actually a team that I can get behind and support. 

D'Angelo Russell

Jordan Clarkson 

Julius Randle 

Roy Hibbert

Brandon Bass

Lou Williams 

Larry Nance Jr

Jabari Brown

Anthony Brown

Upshaw (maybe? )

Kobe Bryant 

And there will be more. I'm hearing sign and trades for Lin, Kelly & Swaggy. After being so sick and disappointed at the start of free agency I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about our future. We now have flexibility in trades. Maybe now we got enough assets to get DeMarcus Cousins? At the very least we can enjoy watching out young nucleus of Russell, Clarkson, Randle, Black (& Upshaw) grow right in front of our eyes. Finally homegrown talent. We could be as The Thunder were when Durant, Harden & Westbrook started out 8 years ago. 

I'm excited to see what else Mitch has up his sleeve. I'll actually look forward to watching the games this year. 

P.s. At least now The Clippers feel the pain we felt when a superstar center shuns you in free agency. That's got to count for someting

Very well said!! Rep'd!

Russell, Clarkson,

Kobe, L.Williams, J.Brown

*W.Johnson, Young, *A.Brown

Bass, Randle, Nance, *R.Kelly

Hibbert, T.Black, *Sacre, *Upshaw

*W.Johnson - not signed, and hopefully we can somehow trade for a better option. (but Young at SF, instead of his natural SG spot, or a 2nd round rookie at the moment are not better options than re-signing Wes on the cheap... if he doesn't find better elsewhere)

*A.Brown - he was 2nd round so he isn't guaranteed to be signed, but have high hopes for him.

*R.Kelly - hoping he is traded.

*Sacre - also a trade possibility, especially if Upshaw shows nicely in summer league... if so he will need minutes to keep him focused.

*Upshaw - only signed to the summer league, not the team as of yet, but hoping all things work out for him and we can sign&develop him at an appropriate pace (not too fast or too slow).

the team makeup is not without it's problems that's for sure, but I can see a patter of young guys 22 and under, and a set of older guys 28ish to 30 to balance them out.

SF is gunna be a biggest problem, as we have a lot of overlap at the guard spots... lots of diff combos there. And now we have several options at the PF and C... soo unless Randle is going to do some time at SF we still have a bit more work to do this off season.

My problem with this off season is that the Lakers front office should have known after the last two off season attempts to get all star talent that they aren't going to come to a rebuilding team. It's short sighted. It's like someone depending on lotto tickets to pay their bills. There was no way Aldridge was going to come so the time that they spent on him was a waste. Being ambitious is good but being over ambitious comes off looking desperate. You've got to know your people and the Lakers don't seem to be even hitting the mark on....

Saveferris42: well put. The FO lacks a clear vision imo. Luring long shot big names with branding opportunities isn't the way to go but my min problem is watching them let the little talent we do have slip to other teams. It takes more than a few role player signings for me to be fooled. The guys they signed aren't bad players and surprisingly they cut ally signed somebody over two years so maybe they learned a little something. REPPED!

For the record my username is gemfow. It's saying I'm magicmamba again for some weird reason.

While I applaud our FO for finally making some sensible signings and moves, I really hope they have learned from this Aldridge debacle. Sign complementary role players and develop our young core before chasing after the big names!

They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Such is the life of our front office. Do you see how mad everyone is that we didn't get a big free agent? Now imagine if we had not even tried to make an....

I think the FO really wants to sign big names, this is also business, they want to fill staples center every game but when things get bad like what happened to LMA & DJ they can still use their plan C D E F G, by signing quality players that didn't get interest from other teams in which they can offer less money like Lou and B.bass.

lol its not the move that they tried to make or made, its our basketball system sucks... That Is why its a total turn off from high caliber players like Aldridge... Kudos to Lamarcus, he actually gave the FO a big eye opener...

I can't speak for everyone else but to me it was obvious that Aldridge wasn't going to be a Laker. That "damned if you do" comment is such a cop out. You either make the right decision or you don't. The Lakers have made the same poor decision three years in a row. I'm not going to give them a cookie for trying to to get star talent when this team isn't in a position to attract star talent.

They are misguided. I would have preferred that they spent their time going after Tyson Chandler, Greg Monroe, DeMarre Carroll, Robin Lopez, Wesley Matthews, Amir Johnson, Monta Ellis, Arron Afflalo, Al-Farouq Aminu to name a few attainable free agents. These are all players that could have possibly been persuaded to join the team while Aldridge sat around thinking about who he was going with when you know darn well he probably had a pretty good idea before he started the process. It's a bit of a no brainer when your main objective is to join a championship contending team.

If you think we weren't going to get a big name, then why get mad at them for trying anyways? Worst case scenario, we didn't get a big name, which you said wouldn't happen anyways.

I'm with you...I never thought LA was going to be a Laker. But did you see how much hope everyone had when there was a rumor that he was "leaning" our way? IMO it was all a marketing ploy to give us hope. The "damned if you do" is unfortunately a reality of the real world...especially in the working world. Think about your job and how many times this situation pertained to you. I'm not saying I fully support this FO in every decision they have made, but I am certainly not going to fault them for trying. I mean it's not like these teams don't multi task. I am sure they were contacting agents for dozens of players every day.

And I hate to tell everyone this now, but even though we aren't going to get him...the Lakers are going to make a run at Durant next year...and then the year after that they next big FA...and then the year after that the next one. I am not going to hold that against them now and I certainly won't in the future.

We need to sign Javale McGee and Gerald Green. Our athleticism and depth would possibly skyrocket.

Down with Gerald Green.

I don't necessarily give our front office a pass for focusing on superstars and not going after the 2nd tier guys like DeMarre Carrol, Wes Mathews, Tobias Harris, Tyson Chandler etc.. (but what do we know? Maybe they did).

But our plan B, C or was it D or more is a lot better than most are aware of.

Roy Hibbert is a great acquisition who fills our number one need the past few years....rim protection

And wth the skyrocketing cap next summer and lots of P&G cap space, why wouldn't Hibbert be motivated to have his best season? He has proven to be durable and he is only 28, very young for a lumbering big man whose primary responsibilities are protecting the rim, setting screens and rebounding (whether it is grabbing them himself or clearing out space for a teammate like Julius Randle). 

I see Kobe and D'Angelo Russell helping Hibbert's offense as well. No, he's not the athletic high fly act that is DeAndre Jordan, but he played in a selfless system, was an integral part of teams that went to consecutive ECFs. He also, unlike DeAndre Jordan hits his free throws. And, most important, does NOT have DeAndre's misguided and delusional desire to be "The Man." That is a chemistry killing egocentric horrible trait when your talents are obviously limited.

Also he's the potential piece to trade for DeMarcus Cousins should things blow up in that cow town. With that huge expiring contract, the Lakers might revisit that option. Who knows.

If you don't want to give Mitch & company credit fine, but this was an excellent acquisition. And it only costs us a 2nd rounder!!

P.s. don't sleep on our other acquisitions. The reigning 6th man of the year was a great pick-up.

I agree... Now if we can figure out a way to sign a few good wings we could really turn into a legit/competitive team.

Heard of a rumor going on Twitter that would send Swaggy and J.Hill to Chicago for Taj Gibson. Don't know if we really need him though. I would say it would be tough to play him alongside Randle or Bass. But he's definitely a great ball player. Wish he had range to start at the 3 if that was the case.

Honeslty , it might be a blessing in disguise that we did not land any of those " Top Free Agents and Overrated guys that got paid "

Agreed. I always have said that Lamarcus Aldridge was a "nice to have" not a "need to have." Deandre is wayyyy overrated. I actually don't think the Mavericks will make the playoffs this year. Who on the that team will be able to set up Deandre for those pretty Sports Center Lobs? J.J. Brea? Raymond Felton? Those cats ain't no Chris Paul. I like the look of our roster. Even if we don't make the playoffs this year, we will have taken a huge, huge step in the right direction.

Yup D Andre made a big mistake signing with Dallas...I am actually intrigue on our match up against the Clippers this year... Hopefully we can keep our young core Randle, Russell and Clarkson and lets start build around those 3 but somehow i can sense that our FO really wants to revisit the trade for Cousins for some reason..... They can have Hibbert and will get Cousins lol...

Yeah I think we match up with The Clippers pretty well now. Hopefully Randle, getting lighter, will be able to keep pace with Blake Griffin. If not maybe Lance is athletic enough to run with him. D'Angelo vs Chris Paul will be a tremendous match up. If they don't get a Center they won't be able to match up against Hibbert that well. Big Baby Davis? Kobe, Lou Williams, Jordan Clarkson... I actually like our chances vs. the JV squad.

I think that Big Baby is floating around as a free agent right now.

The problem is some of you guys group all the fans together in regards to the Lakers not obtaining certain people. I've held firm that I thought going after Aldridge and Jordan were bad moves, very much so with Lebron and Melo last season. The Lakers are asking their own players to just wait until they're done trying to acquire big names. This isn't the Spurs organization or better yet some star who isn't leaving their team but just signing late to allow their team to make moves. You can't ask 25 and 26 year old free agents to wait around and watch their options dry up while their team concentrates on big names. This is how it went down last season too. This isn't damned if they do or don't for me, this is damn, they lost some more talent they could have used. I have no problem with Bass but essentially it feels like an Ariza vs. Artest situation again. We lose the younger more athletic kid with promise for the ten year vet who's game is a little more developed. We lost shot blocking too with Davis at the four position. This team looks to be faster and yet we let an athletic Ed Davis bolt. I do agree with what you said about this FO making moves to try and appease fans, specifically impatient fans. I like Lou Williams but I also feel he is another combo guard added to the roster. I'd rather see him on the court as opposed to Nick Young. I think I'd rather see the minutes go to Clarkson as opposed to seeing guys trying to get minutes between so many players. This is a good move if they plan on playing Kobe at the 3 but if they're not then they are just log jamming the position.

The problem is some of you guys group all the fans together in regards to the Lakers not obtaining certain people. I've held form that o thought going after Aldridge and Jordan were bad moves, very much so with Lebron and Melo last season. The Lakers are asking their own players to just wait until they're done trying to acquire big names. This isn't the Spurs organization or better yet some star who isn't leaving their team but just signing late to allow their team to make moves. You can't ask 25 and 26 year old free agents to wait around and watch their options dry up while their team concentrates on big names. This is how it went down last season too. This isn't damned if they do or don't for me, this is damn, they lost some more talent they could have used. I have no problem with Bass but essentially it feels like an Ariza vs. Artest situation again. We lose the younger more athletic kid with promise for the ten year vet who's game is a little more developed. We lost shot blocking too with Davis at the four position. This team looks to be faster and yet we let an athletic Ed Davis bolt. I do agree with what you said about this FO making moves to try and appease fans, specifically impatient fans. I like Lou Williams but I also feel he is another combo guard added to the roster. I'd rather see him on the court as opposed to Nick Young. I think I'd rather see the minutes go to Clarkson as opposed to seeing guys trying to get minutes between so many players. This is a good move if they plan on playing Kobe at the 3 but if they're not then they are just log jamming the position.

Right now the Lakers are looking pretty good with their lineup. I really like the moves they have made and they did not have to go for the super star and waste all of our cap in one player.

But we got to be patient and let these young and new players gel together. It will take at least twenty games for the players to start learning how to work in sync.

We might not make the playoffs this year, but the Lakers are headed in the right direction with youth mixed with some older players to give confidence to the younger athletes.

Hibbert will be a monster as center with Kobe feeding him the ball and defenders collapsing on him will open shooters like Kobe, Russell and Williams up for wide open shots. And if they decide to play tight coverage on each player, THEN the seven foot two inch Hibbert will kill all these power forwards which average 6'10".

I can hardly wait for the regular season now. I am starting to get excited with the new additions and am glad they did not sign Love, DeAndre or even Wade when the rumors were going around that Wade and Rondo might sign with the Lakers. I would have been devastated if the Lakers had signed those two old players. One is enough with Kobe and I agree that it was a dumb move by the Lakers to pay so much, but that is water under the bridge and we got to move forward.