Recent content by Handlogten's Heros

You are making assumptions that just aren't true. They have wanted Walker for a while. FA is not full of stars. They had a deal close to done in the offseason.

Like if you are Walker and the Wiz offer 35M a year and you get a 30M offer from the Lakers... which one would you prefer? That's part of the value from the Lakers perspective. If they make a reasonable offer it gets matched. If they had him in house they have the cap space to do other things...

Anyone following the situation would kinda see that Lebron is almost surely out at year end unless he just take a monster paycut. They won't make decisions around what Lebron wants. Lakers interest in Walker has been consistent and real... no reason to think they wouldn't be interested under...

LA also might be loading up with some other guys that have contracts beyond this year... so won't have the space for Walker... so they acquire him now and then give Lebron some help before they send him into the sunset.

I think you can get more now for moving him and it would allow you to focus your FA and trade efforts towards a replacement that you prefer. Its partly the FO wishy washy attitude towards him that gives me pause I guess. LA might offer more now than in a sign and trade because it allows them...

Yeah I need to do some digging to see how strained the relationship really is. If you moved him now and signed Ihart in the summer... it would be kinda like trading Walker for Ihart and whatever you got in the trade. If he was in LA I think he works on a more reasonable deal than he might...

Stepien doesn't look back... only forward. They can't move 26/28/30 because of the 27/29 picks they owe.

2026 draft is better than 2027... likely by a wide margin.

That doesn't help them free up picks... which is their goal with something like that.

Every team that gives up unprotected picks thinks the picks will likely be late firsts... it works out that way sometimes. Sometimes you have what the Bucks, Nets, Suns, etc end up with. Its not about them... its about what it gets us.

Maybe another iteration is we get the 26/28/30/32 picks for Walker/2027 pick conversation/2029 swapped pick and we take JV's deal. Would even out the pick portfolio... allows them a lot of cap space and they can keep AR/Walker.

If we did just the converting 27 into a swap and providing the 2029 pick that is the 2nd most favorable of Utah/Minnesota/Cleveland is that enough to get the 2026 pick and 2032 pick? I would hate to take Vanderbilt's deal as it sucks but I wonder if that would tip the scales. I guess it would...

I think they want to free up picks... no matter how they do it. I think they may have a few trades they want to do that aren't quite worth that big of a pick. IDK.

I like the 26 draft a lot better than I will like the 27 draft and the other pick is the middle part of a swap... so its better quality. I think if the writing is on the wall you would be hard pressed to do better. Not sure Wiz come hard or if the Lakers make an offer so big we wouldn't match...

In the Walker version of my deal above... LA could still have about 30M in space. They could waive and stretch Vando to get another 5M. Maybe move Laravia's 6M or Ayton's 8M. They could essentially talk themselves into Doncic, AR, Kessler, FA additions core.