He's good but fantastic is taking it too far. He's an above average role player, nothing more. Put him on a crappy team and no one is talking about this guy.

I hate that they had to trade one of their highest ceiling players just to get rid of a contract that everyone in basketball knew was asinine from the moment it was signed. That deal alone should've gotten Kupcheck and Little Jimmy fired. The Deng deal (that they'll also struggle to unload; probably cost them 27 and 28) is just icing on top of that particular shit sunday.

And cap space means dick in this league anymore. There are maybe 10 guys worth the max deal and everyone else is just a contract you'll regret in 3 seasons. Worse still, max deals go up with revenue so even if the guy sucks, he'll get annual raises.

And in the end, virtually every team that's tried this 'dump and chase' method of burning it down to buy 2 FA stars has failed miserably. Miami didn't do it that way, they already had a superstar. GS obviously didn't, nor did the Mavs or Spurs when they won their title.

This approach DOESN'T WORK. Guys don't want to go to teams that have been stripped bare.

Tough deal to swallow. Hopefully they'll be able to flip Brooke Lopez for another asset but the big problem now is that nobody is looking to 'win now'. They know the entire league is playing for second place and even if the Cavs were interested in Lopez, they have nothing to offer for him (he might make sense if they traded Love+ for Butler and they still wanted a stretch 5).

It's impatient and shortsighted, IMO.

Won't have room for two max deals if they give one to George. Not if they can't get rid of Luol Deng.

HOW IS HE OWED $18 ****ING MILLION IN 2018!?!?!?

Christ alive, how stupid was the previous regime?

I honestly don't know how they can get rid of him. I guess if they packaged him with Randal they might find takers. Trade Deng and Randal for...nothing and then see if Clarkson, 27 and 28 is enough for George. The problem is that at that point you've just taken the last 5 years of 'patience' and set it on fire. The roster becomes Ball, George, Ingram, Nance, Lopez, Zubac and...what? They wouldn't have a shooting guard anymore. Losing Randal's strength underneath would be brutal.

Why the hell would LeBron want to come to that team? The Lakers pretty much haven't made a smart decision in a half a decade.

They can use a provision called the stretch on Deng's deal to allow them the cap room to sign two max free agents.

For ****'s sake, use the goddamn offseason thread.

He's such a good defensive player Lamarcus Aldridge averages more 1-on-1 against Green than his regular season average

Say what you want, he struggles against good, post up players.

Even the stretch provision would be pretty brutal given the number of years/dollars left on his contract. It would reduce his cap hit from 18 million to about 13.5 million.

Which brings me back around to 'why would LeBron sign up for that?". Because if they're still lugging Deng's $13.5 million cap figure around now through 2021, that's going to make it awfully difficult to surround him with the pieces he's presently lacking.

Dumb trade I liked D Lo although he didn't seem like a championship quality player. I'm also not a fan of Ball and could see Josh Jackson being the best player in the draft.

Ball is not a superstar caliber player but he hs Jason Kidd in him.

Dlo is trash but he play after all star break was a sign up. This was a rushed decision. And stupid. There's good odds George doesn't even come this year. Should ****ing waited

Yeah and a 34 year old LeBron James doesn't excite me either.

George will be traded before the end of next season, more than likely before the end of tomorrow. Now that the Pacers KNOW he's not resigning, there's no way in hell they're not trading him.

The Lakers could wait but then they run the risk of PG13 going somewhere like Cleveland or Houston, winning, and deciding he'd rather not go to LA at all.

Now it's just a matter of who blinks first.

You don't pull the trigger on the Russell trade if it isn't part of a 3-team deal where the pick and add'l prospects go to Indy.

The Lakers let go of one branch before grabbing another and now they hope they can snag one before they hit the ground. Not a smart move.

I lol'd at your first sentence.

yea but DLO has about 5 more years of cheap control

Brook Lopez is in the final year of his deal, in which you're going to have to give him the max again. So the Lakers will be will into the luxury tax before this "super team" of theirs is even assembled.

Max George, Max Lopez (If you don't the trade is a waste), Max ?? and that's about it.

That won't get you anything.

So you've read zero scouting reports or done any analyzing k