Guess Our Starting 5 For 2019

I don't dislike him as much as others. He's still a top 10 point guard and would address our biggest weakness. I'm definitely on board if he can get him for the vet min.

Some random thoughts...
1. Signing CP0 would mean we'd have to waive Rondo unless we want a nuclear situation in our locker room. No Rondo is a definite plus.
2. I understand why he'd had an issue with Houston's offense. As Kobe said, you can't win a title Har'en dominating the ball.
3. For me, the bigger (than chemistry) concern is his health. He never seems to be available when the team needs him most.

 

and Pj said you dont win with a ball dominate PG like Cp3 either (same for rondo)

 

Could you explain why they'd be paying him for 7 years? Isn't a buyout the same as waiving a player?

And yeah, he'd be dumb to leave $60M on the table, but what if they agree to a buyout of $84M? He'd lose $40M but he could recoup most of that with a 3 year MLE type of deal.

I think it also makes sense from OKC's standpoint because 1) they save $40M (we all know how cheap they are), 2) CP0 on a lottery team would be a cancer in the locker room, 3) they'd become a worse team with a higher probability to move up in the lottery.

 

They won’t get assets for him. They will have to give up some of those 1sts to dump him.

And wherever he goes, he will be a headache for that team’s young players.


I can see him leaving 40 on the table, using leverage, coming to LA, and making that money up over the next 3 years with a contract next year and endorsements playing with Bron and Ad.

 

I did some researching while you replied and found this.

• If a player is waived between July 1and August 31, his remaining salary is paid over twice the number of years remaining on his contract, plus one.
• If a player is waived between September 1 and June 30, his current-year salary is paid on its normal schedule, with any subsequent years spread over twice the number of remaining years, plus one.

So if they agree to a buyout of $84M, and wait until September 1 to waive him, it would look like this.

Year 1: $38.5M
Year 2: $11.4M
Year 3: $11.4M
Year 4: $11.4M
Year 5: $11.4M

And I also found this:

• While the new payment schedule for a waived player is non-negotiable, teams have the option of whether or not to apply the stretch provision to that player’s cap charges as well. A team can stick to the original schedule for cap-hit purposes, if it so chooses.

So they could choose to have his original salaries of $41.3M and $44.2M count against the cap in Years 2 and 3, while only paying him $11.4M.

For a rebuilding team, and for an owner that is cheap as hell, it makes sense from both a business and basketball standpoint. They would only have to pay the minimum team salary (90% of cap) minus the difference of CP's actual salary and cap-hit ($29.9M and $32.8M). That means could they roll into Years 2 and 3 with a total team salary of $70-75M which would be super easy on their books.

From a basketball standpoint, with the picks they have, they wouldn't want to be competitive for 4+ years anyway. They don't need the cap space during that span.

 

You're right, it's 6 years. I don't think they'd really care who they're paying that $10M to, honestly. In their eyes, they just saved $50M by trading Westbrook for CP. Now, if CP agrees to a $80M buyout, they could save an additional $40M plus the cap relief they'd get in Years 2 and 3, which comes out to an enormous saving ($150M) over a span of 3 years.

Of course, if they can get future picks or shorter contracts for CP, they should go for it, but what if there are no buyers for him? A buyout seems like the logical choice.

From CP’s perspective, if he can fetch a contract worth $13M for 3 years (which is a bargain for a player of his caliber) he can recoup the loss.

 

Lord please NO. And the thought of more gawddamned CP2 commercials in L.A. now repping the P&G ......




.... to all of it. F*** this guy.

 

Well, the Lakers probably doesn't make sense for him because, I agree, it's too risky for him to take a vet min contract. I don't think it's fair to compare him to Melo though. Melo was done and dead weight. CP is still a very productive player.

His agent must be on the phone already looking for teams that want a Top 10 PG on a manageable contract. I mean, consider his value if he were a free agent this year. $15M at least right? $20M or even $22M seems quite fair.

Whatever offer he gets, they substract that from his current $121M contract and negotiate a buyout. He gets to choose his team without losing a penny. OKC moves on with enormous savings. Win - win if you ask me.

 

I'm no cap expert but I'm sure there are creative ways to get $10+M under the cap. And as far as I'm aware, over half of the teams haven't used the MLE yet, and there are quite a few that are non-taxpayers. Those teams with the full MLE could get a 34-year old Chris Paul for around $10M.

2019 $9,246,000
2020 $9,708,300
2021 $10,170,600
2022 $10,632,900
Total $39,757,800

CP0 under that contract is an incredible bargain. Teams that don't even want him could view him as an attractive trade chip at the deadline.

Your second scenario would be too risky for him and I don't see that happening either.

 

he's gifable, but that's as far as I go

having the big L on the team has already stretched my fandom to unseen levels before

PLEASE don't ask me to deal with this too. It's too much. And for the money? No, nobody will find him worth it. Houston is laughing at having got rid of him for RW.

If they can unload him to another team like Miami, you'll watch them slowly implode the next couple of years, and CP2 will be nothing more than a massive contract nearing it's end getting shuffled around among teams angling for cap space the year it ends.

Cliff is a total a**

 

Would rather take Iggy over CP3, as for the starting 5 and the rotation, I think it d be best to put shooters like D.Green and Cook around LeBron and AD, then adding McGee as the C. I think Cook is a decent on ball defender and having AD and McGee protecting his backside will be more then enough for him to be efficient defensively. Whether it s PnR or iso s, or w/e they want to run, this rotation should create enough spacing, and no redundancies and have just about enough ball handling and speed to handle all situations. I also think Caruso will be a good choice here too instead of Cook

Would like to see Boogie and Rondo in PnR situation s also, Boogie is one of the best bigs to run PnR with, dribble penetration, and he can also help handle the ball and help initiate the offense with Rondo. Boogie after the ASB showed alot of flash of his oldself, and his performance or the lack of during the finals after he came back from the quad injury should be taken with a grain of salt. Add Avery for his ball hounding defense, KCP, and Kuz on the 2nd string. I can see Boogie, KCP, and Kuz feasting off of the opposing bench players, and feed the ball to whoever gets hot. Think this rotation will be fun and interesting and can see them work well off of each other. Dudley can also be used for spacing on offense and defense especially if the opposing big gets hot.

End games with Avery, Green, Lebron, AD, and X, X depends on the matchup or whoever gets hot. Would love to see the X be Iggy lol.
80 points from the starting 5, 40 points from the bench while giving up 99 points per game

I feel it s beneficial to not have both AD and Boogie on the court together till towards end of the game depending on the matchup, too much redundancy and not enough touches for them and possible spacing issues, they basically have a similar offensive game, and would like to have mcgee guard the opposing team's best big and rim run, while AD freelances. Example against teams with a good big like embiid, Gobert, etc, don't think it s beneficial to have both AD and Boogie facing them together at the sametime. Instead one of them will go off verses the 2nd stringer giving the Lakers matchup advantages.. Would like for the Lakers to give more minutes to the younger players like Kuz, Cook, Caruso, Cook, so they can develop while saving the legs of the vets to be fresh for the playoffs.

 

I don't want Caruso sniffing the starting line up. He's a high energy guy that's good to come off the bench IMO.

Also don't want Cook starting because of his lack of size. If Kuz doesn't start&not sure he does now, I'd like to see Bradley starting.
If Bradley doesn't do well as a starter then KCP IF Lakers are firm on Kuz as the 6th man.

 

Bradley/Rondo/Caruso
Green/Cook/Daniels
Lebron/Kcp/Tht
AD/kuz/Dudley
McGee/Cousins

I’d like to demoralize the opponent with stingy defense to start the game. And it’s not like those guys are offensive retards. Bradley and green can’t be left alone and Lebron pnr with McGee and AD will be unstoppable.

I’m not a huge rondo fan but having a true floor general pg out there with that offensive firepower second unit is needed. Kuz and boogie are gonna feast with cook and kcp spreading the floor. We may have a really high scoring bench. Kuz really should win 6th MOY, no joke.