Lakers free agency so far...

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Clayton -

If you have been reading our blog so far, you may have noticed that it has been heavily basketball orientated so far. This may be mainly my fault. For a few years I lost the love for it, but ever since last June, I found my love for it again.

Don’t get me wrong, as the resident Lakers fan, I loved the championships (the last one only happened 6 years ago...), but after the league killed the Chris Paul to Lakers trade, I soured for sometime. I watched games, kept up with things, but I did not have the connection to it that I used to.

Then comes 2014 NBA Draft time. I all of a sudden am renewed with excitement for basketball, once we get the 7th pick. I was hoping that Marcus Smart would fall or Joel Embiid’s injury would make him slide, but thankfully that did not happen (as Embiid may be out another year).

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Obviously the Lakers took Julius Randle at 7, who had been projected at times to go as high as 2nd overall, but I still was not happy with the pick. He had his own foot injury, showed up to camp overweight and had a ton of flaws. The pick of the draft (well at least for LA) was the Lakers actually buying off the 46th pick from the Washington Wizards to pick eventual All-Rookie team point guard Jordan Clarkson.

Free agency was terrible. The Lakers focused on a terrible idea of signing Carmelo Anthony, to take over for the aging and injury prone Kobe. Thankfully, Melo re-signed with New York, but the process was so drawn out, and the team was afraid of restricted free agents (RFA), that all the good talent was either gone, or in a holding pattern due to RFA.

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So they re-signed Nick Young (4 years and $21.5 million) to a terrible contract that should have been noticeably awful from the beginning. Unfortunately due to a good season, everyone overlooked his career as a streaky shooter who played matador defense.

Then the Lakers re-signed Jordan Hill to a 2 year, $18 million deal with a team option after one year, thinking that a team would trade for him, but he disappointed all year.

The nail in the coffin was claiming the amnestied Carlos Boozer. Oi...

Not only did they strike out on a terrible free agency plan to begin with, but they signed two guys to dreadful deals and claimed another terrible one.

One solid was the Lakers absorbing Jeremy Lin’s contract to acquire the Houston Rockets draft pick. We knew it was not going to be high, but it was a good asset. He is not the best guard in the world, but he is definitely not the worst either. He filled a hole for a season and brought us an asset as well.

Then, Randle broke his leg in the season opener. The team around the rookie was awful, though some stupidly thought it was decent, so I knew immediately what the Lakers should start doing (and after some of the pick ups, this could actually been the plan all along).

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Tank.

Tank the hell out of the season.

Send it all up in flames.

Lose every game for all I care, and actually, I want you to lose every game.

Now this sounds terrible and the stigma of tanking is a dark cloud for most, but many did not realize this, the Lakers would have lost their pick if they picked lower than 5th.

We need that pick desperately.

So all season, injuries mounted, rookies for the D-League played, and I prayed for the Lakers to keep their pick.

NBA Lottery night came and pick seven rolled around (the lowest the Lakers could have gone, but still would have given up the pick), and I was about to pass out from nervousness. The Denver Nuggets were called. Then at six, the Sacramento Kings were called.

B-I-N-G-O!!! Lakers keep their pick!!! By the end of it, the Lakers ended up jumping the 76ers (who had made a trade at the deadline to acquire the rights to our pick if it fell out of the Top 5. and has to be Top 3 in order for the Lakers to keep the pick), and essentially just flipped spots with the New York Knicks.

THE LAKERS HAVE THE SECOND OVERALL PICK!!!

Then suddenly, it hit me… We would probably be taking Jahlil Okafor. The presumed top pick since his senior year of high school. The 6’11” big man with the 7’5” wingspan and the wonderful post moves.

Yay!..... wait… Okafor? The big man with probably below average athleticism? The big man who has range to maybe 8 feet? The guy with huge hands, but can’t make a free throw? The believed superstar with bad conditioning issues and bad defense?

Post men are valuable, but it has been years since a team had a dominant low post guy as the focal point of the team. If you want to argue a few guys, that is a story for another time or the comments.

So…….. What are the Lakers other options? Well Karl-Anthony Towns is going No.1 overall so don't even waste your time. To me, that left point guards D’Angelo Russell or Emmanuel Mudiay. In the modern NBA, the league is driven by dynamic guards.

D’Angelo, the sweet shooting combo guard with good handles and range for days, but not the greatest athleticism and poor defense as well. Maybe compared to James Harden? That sounds good.

Mudiay, a personal favorite, the crazy athletic point guard who may be best comparable to a pass first Tyreke Evans (think his insane rookie year, not his terrible sophomore year or first year in New Orleans). He lacks a proven jump shot, but despite what the casual fan says, the shot is not broken and just needs coaching. Plus, he is a possible elite defender at the position with insanely functional athleticism. Sign me up.

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Well as times goes on and the draft draws near, I am resigned to the Lakers being stuck in the past and taking Okafor, despite what I feel are two superior players. Then, two days before the draft, rumors swirl of the Lakers being highly intrigued by Russell.

It has to be just a smokescreen. Rumors of a DeMarcus Cousins trade seems to mean that Russell may actually be the better fit, but Sacramento owner Vivek Ranadive is holding firm with Vlade Divac against George Karl in trading Cousins.

Well then roles in draft night. No one knows who the Lakers are picking, but everyone is assuming it will be Okafor. No one seems to know, not even the great Adrian Wojnarowski.

Then, the Lakers decide to be forward thinkers and take Russell, to the dismay of so many. The Lakers make two more picks on the night (Larry Nance Jr. at 27 and Anthony Brown at 34) and the future looks a bit brighter.

Not to mention, snagging the insanely talented but deeply troubled Robert Upshaw as an undrafted free agent to a summer league invite. Go check out Draft Express on him. His defensive numbers are insane. If he can lose his demons, he has a very high ceiling.

Now let me get to the whole point of this article, free agency is now in full affect. Over a billion dollars has been spent on players and guys are flying off the board.

But the Lakers are just sitting here after they have apparently struck out on signing LaMarcus Aldridge (pipe dream), maybe Greg Monroe (bad fit and now with the Bucks anyways), and the guy who I think we should have thrown everything at, DeAndre Jordan. I won’t get into too much about these guys, as most should know about them already.

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The thing I will say though is this, even though LaMarcus is the better overall player, DeAndre is the better fit. LaMarcus wants to stay at power forward (4), and we need a rim protecting center (5). Not to mention, Aldridge is about to turn 30, while Jordan is only about to turn 27.The minor age gap helps Jordan out. With how the team is set up, DeAndre catching lobs in transition, grabbing a ton of rebounds and blocking shots is just something that fits best, despite the lack of a real offensive game.

Now what do the Lakers do after they underwhelmed the big men? First they need to not get on any form of social media.

The fans are absolutely butchering them online. Saying the front office is incompetent, out of touch and just boring. Now maybe the Lakers are way behind the times in terms of analytics (something this site firmly believes in), but do not come at me with that garbage of the Lakers are incompetent.

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Yes we are in this mess, but the Lakers have had a bit of bad luck. After pulling off a bit of a coup in trading for Dwight Howard (I hated the trade, ask Jeff, and I always knew he was going to leave, yes I believed 100% that he was bolting), and paying a bit too much for Steve Nash, the Lakers looked like they were about to go off again. A star quartet of Kobe, Dwight, Nash and Pau Gasol looked very good. Not to mention, the previously mentioned CP3 trade, which was vetoed by Dan Gilbert’s crying to David Stern. All great moves, though they did not work out as planned.

Then players got injured (Kobe and Nash) and we all should have known Dwight was leaving, as he never gave any indication he was going to stay. That is not the front office’s fault. The moves were hailed at the time and they were great risks.

But despite 5 titles since the turn of the millennia, the fans were livid.

Then the following year, after Carmelo dragged out the process and chose to stay in New York, fans were livid.

Their reasoning why people should come to LA? Well it’s L.A.! It’s Tinseltown. It’s beaches and sunshine and blah blah blah. This appears to be part of the failed proposal of Jeannie Buss, who won’t get off the airwaves, bashing brother Jim Buss. It is ridiculous. It is now debatable that she is more to blame than Jim.

Most athletes have summer homes in California, and during the season you are traveling, so who cares?

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Well then it is the prestige the Lakers have. This is a good one, but after the Laker killing new collective bargaining agreement, a lot of their advantages went away.

Well if not those two, playing with Kobe is awesome. That is not always the case, but factor in the mileage on his legs, his real age and his continuing physical breakdown, he is not the same player he once was.

Yet all the blame is put onto the front office. Do they have some fault in some guys not coming, especially not bringing in solid young role players to help the rebuild? Sure, but do not act like they have not made great moves in the past. Fans have the shortest memory, it is unbelievable.

Fans are expecting stars or superstars to come, saying that is how the Lakers build. Actually that is in no way the case. The Lakers have never built through free agency. their last big free agent signing? Shaq back in 1996, and he was added to a team that won 53 games the year before! He was the finishing piece, well other than trading for Kobe on draft night.

Before him? Really no one. All the Lakers stars have been acquired through the draft or trades.

So go ahead and shut up and stop talking that nonsense that the Lakers build in free agency. Is it ok to be disappointed that the Lakers missed on the best big men? Yes it is ok, but it is not the end of the world. It is not like we are making the playoffs anyways next year. We are in the middle of a rebuild, and people need to finally come to grips with this.

So what is there to do now? Nail the rest of free agency. As off this moment (it is around 11 o’clock at night on July 1st) (Editor’s Note: it is now 10 o’clock on June 2nd, so Robin Lopez is gone), the Lakers have not been told they are truly out of the running for Aldridge or Jordan, but now we are steep underdogs to get them.

So again, what should the Lakers do? Go to the back up plans. So many guys have been signed that there are only a few good options left. The Lakers need a 3 or a 5. After the big guys are gone and most of the mid tier centers are gone, the only solid defensive big man left is Kostas Koufos (Robin Lopez just signed with the Knicks...). The best option at the 3 is to try for RFA Tobias Harris.

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To me, the best option is to go after is Harris. The Magic are unlikely to match offers for him, and he is still only 22. He would be a solid fit, despite some of his own playing style issues, but he is likely the best option left.

The dream now would be to sign Harris and Koufos. It seems it should be achievable. I would like to believe that Koufos’ market would be roughly Brandan Wright money, 3 years and $18 million, so pairing the two could be done without dumping salaries.

Though it may be a bit of a disappointment, signing Kostas Koufos at the 5 would not be terrible. He played very well in Memphis, and has low mileage. He is not a great player, but he is a solid defender and should come reasonably cheap, allowing to sign Harris. Maybe one more option in unrestricted free agency could be Bismack Biyombo, but I would try to look into other options before settling on him, maybe even bringing back Jordan Hill after declining his option.

Enes Kanter is sort of out there, but he does not fit the team and is a RFA. You could reach out to Larry Sanders, but he is a complete basket case, and rumored to be taking time off from the game to get his life together.

Are those our only options? I feel that the rumors lead us to believe that the Lakers have a better chance at nabbing Harris right now, so let’s go the next portion of targeting big men. In free agency those seem to be our only choices, so yes, but there could be possible trade targets. With these guys, you have to take into account that the Lakers have limited trade assets, and even those are just salaries (Nick Young, Ryan Kelly, Robert Sacre and unguaranteed contracts of Robert Sacre, Jabari Brown and Tarik Black).

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Maybe you can get the Warriors to throw in Festus Ezeli (or Marreese Speights, but they just picked up his options and they really like him) if you take on David Lee’s deal (and then likely ship him out as well, or just hold his expiring contract). Roy Hibbert does not appear to wanted in Indiana, especially with drafting Myles Turner, but do they want to get rid of him bad enough that they dump him for some of the guys mentioned above? Probably not. Those may be the two best options.

Two unlikely but maybe a bit cheaper, or easier to get, could be Miles Plumlee from Milwaukee, Alex Len from Phoenix (already signed Tyson Chandler and rumored to be a possible spot for Aldridge). Maybe with drafting Karl-Anthony Towns, the Lakers can try to nab, Gorgui Deing, but that iis highly unlikely. You could look into one of the 7 centers the 76ers have, with realistically maybe one as a chance, but they would want draft picks, which the Lakers have few of. Portland has a few young guys, but with LMA likely leaving, they will probably hold onto Mason Plumlee or Meyers Leonard, so you can likely count them out.

The Thunder appear to have a stockpile of young big men in Enes Kanter (he is their RFA, but they appear intent on playing him with Serge Ibaka), Steven Adams, Mitch McGary or veteran Nick Collison, not to mention recent draft pick Dakari Johnson who they intend on signing, and probably playing in the D-League. The Thunder do appear to have too many guys under contract and still intend to sign Kanter after re-signing Kyle Singler yesterday as well. They may need to get rid of some bodies.

Some of those guys aren't very appealing, or some aren't even very good. Then again, some may be just outright impossible to pull away. Now don’t start wit me that we should have drafted Okafor. Russell was a great pick. Don’t over think it.

What is most important is that the Lakers were not thinking playoffs this year. They are thinking towards the future. So stop worrying about next season. We aren't swinging a 30 game improvement and beating out any of the playoff teams. The Lakers need to develop players, get them playing time, and fix what is wrong with their free agent pitch, as we head into the next two years of free agency with superstars possibly changing teams due to the massive cap spike.

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So Lakers, stay the course. Do not worry about the common fan that has no clue. Build for title contention for the next 10-5 years, not the next 1 or 2 of questionable playoff appearances.

You can find Clayton on Twitter at @19Yanks23