After trimming the roster by 3 last week, the Lakers’ roster currently stands at 17 players. That means they need to make 2 additional cuts before the start of the season — which is rapidly approaching. Who will those final cuts be? If you were hoping Luke Walton would know, well, you would be disappointed:
Luke Walton on 2 upcoming LAL cuts: “Honestly, no idea right now who those two will be”
Said everyone has worked hard & been great teammates— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) October 17, 2016
This could be Luke just not wanting to tip his hand while also handing out some praise to the guys competing for the final spot. If there is one thing I have noticed with all the guys in the mix for the final spot, it is that they seem to be genuinely good guys who all, in their own way, have something to add to the final roster.
Of course, none of that gets us any closer to who will actually make the team. And, to be honest, I don’t have a great feel for that anyway. As I wrote in the aforementioned post discussing the 3 cuts, I think the final spot will come down to one of three players — Yi Jian Lian, Metta World Peace, or Thomas Robinson. Below was my quick argument for each guy:
- Robinson has shown the most on the court. He has rebounded well, has done enough defensively, and has shown he can score inside.
- Metta is a good locker room presence, is another veteran to for the youngsters to learn from, and can play some SF/PF in an emergency if needed.
- Yi is the only true “floor spacing” big man on the roster and has shown some skill on offense. His contract has unique escalating guarantees which could make him an interesting trade chip.
My thoughts on this are practically unchanged. If only going on who has done best in their limited minutes, Robinson should have a leg up. Ultimately, though, these decisions aren’t just about what happens on the court. Yi’s contract and Metta’s mentoring can (and should) factor into the final decision. General roster construction, asset accumulation, and team building demand this be the case.
The only other even slightly viable scenarios worth discussing is whether the Lakers decide to enter the season with only 14 players on their roster or if they decide to cut a guaranteed contract.
Starting with the latter first, I just don’t see this happening. I suppose the Lakers could explore waiving Marcelo Huertas or Anthony Brown, but there’s little to support either decision. Huertas may end up being a 3rd string PG and Brown may now be behind Nick Young on the depth chart on the wing, but if you’re going to pay both guys, you might as well do it to continue to compete in practice and serve as bench players who can soak up some minutes if needed.
As for going into the season with 14 players instead of 15, this would certainly give the Lakers more roster flexibility on the surface. But is that flexibility more important than Yi’s potential salary ballast in a trade, Metta’s presence in the locker room, or how Robinson can serve as a viable approximation for Tarik Black should injury or trade move him out of the lineup? If I’m in the Lakers’ front office, I’d say now on all counts.
Ultimately, then, my (tepid) bet would still be that Yi makes the team. That said, if Walton is really still unsure, I reserve the right to change my mind on that.
Clay Bertrand says
I agree
with a lot of what Darius has posted here.
However,
I am personally not sold on Yi as a contributor at the NBA level though I feel
that somehow he will make the team anyway. He is billed as a Stretch
5. Now he may have decent range (albeit
with a very slow, deliberate release), but beyond being 7 feet tall, the guy
does NOTHING that a 5 is supposed to be able to do. His rebounding stinks, his shot blocking is
worse and his overall defense is half-hearted and 5 steps slow. In other words, to be a STRETCH 5, you GOTTA FIRST
BE A 5!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you are NOT a 5,
then being a Stretch does no good. The
novelty is that this is a Center who can draw other big men out to the
perimeter on offense, but hold his own as a rebounder and rim
protector/defender. Jian plays like a
soft, slow, perimeter oriented 3. I have
always thought they’d try to keep him largely for marketing reasons and I think
they still may which I don’t think is the wisest move.
I know that technically, his
contract could make for a potentially significant chunk of trade ballast should
JUST THE RIGHT DEAL arise at the right time of the year. However, IMO,
guys who are signed to free agent deals when anyone could have signed them on
the open market are not easily tradeable.
You just don’t see it happen very often.
If a guy like that IS moved, it’s usually part of a fire sale or desperation
type of move than an actual calculated trade meaning its opportunistic–which
is fine, but you can’t really plan on it happening. I just don’t think that logical GMs see the
value proposition here. Look at guys
like Greg Monroe or Lou Williams or Tyson Chandler (granted these guys may have
some other reasons playing into their not being moved) for recent
examples.
It just
seems like fool’s gold IMO to expect to sign a free agent off the open market
and then months later, flip that guy into an asset that is an upgrade. Signing one who has never even proven able to
play at this level and is coming here from China with an eye toward trading him
at some point seems pointless beyond the marketing angle. Why not just sign a regular NBA body to the
same kind of deal?? Especially if on
court production is not truly expected from the guy either with us, or the team
who is potentially acquiring his contract. We did similar deals with Jordan Hill. You could sign Baron Davis. Shoot, just sign Metta to that same deal if contractual dollar amount and sizable
trade ballast is the desired end game.
The
Lakers were/are really hoping Yi would/will pan out talent wise. Maybe he’s just off the charts in practices. It’s just that I am not impressed by his game
speed and effort on Defense at all. I
don’t think he is enough of a threat on either end to overcome being a
liability. One thing I don’t like is that he pulls the
Kobe after missing shots and claps his hands in feigned disgust for 2-3 seconds
while the other team is going the other way and his man is finishing a dunk on
the break. He doesn’t mover with any
kind of urgency either.
Clearly,
I could be wrong here—but expiring deals aren’t what they were before the cap
spike (which will continue into next off season) and the likelihood that Yi is
the icing on the cake of a Boogie Cousins type of deal is extremely low.
I think
that Robinson should make the team on pure IN GAME Merit if it’s between he,
Metta, and Yi.
Another
scenario though that wasn’t discussed by Darius (probably because it’s a long
shot) would be cutting back to 14 players and then immediately picking up a
player let go by another team. Honestly,
MOST other teams have better talent than the Lakers do so their cuts may hold
some options that are more appealing to the Lakers than the presumed, final 3
we have.
The
Celtics of Foston for example, have 16 guaranteed contracts plus a $250,000
camp guarantee (for 2nd rounder Ben Bentil) meaning they will have
to cut at least one guy. They have some
interesting players among the potential cuts:
RJ Hunter, James Young, Bentil (a second round tweener forward) and
rookie guard #45 pick Demetrius Jackson (who was an underrated PG out of Notre
Dame—Not that we need another PG).
Bentil, Hunter and Young could all be guys who could interest the Lakers
if the Celtics have to cut one of them. Yes
they are additional YOUNG guys. But the
Celtics have had a wealth of draft picks and because they haven’t been able to
make deals to trade them, their Cup runneth over with young, still developing
potential talent. These are not retreads
who were brought in as undrafted camp bodies.
It could be worth adding another young perimeter player at this point if
the quality and upside is there. I know
teams like the HEAT will be scrounging everywhere they can for talent AS SHOULD
WE.
I
realize it’s the end of the bench we are talking about here on a team picked to
finish in the bottom 3-4 of the league. Older
mentors certainly have value. But they should be
COACHING as special assistants not taking a roster spot masquerading as NBA
players even though NO OTHER TEAM would employ them as such. We have Deng, Calderon, Huertas, Mozgov and
the youngest Head Coach in the league who is a former player. We don’t HAVE TO HAVE another Mentor!!!! Where was all the mentoring when D’Angelo was
outing Swaggy last year anyway for that matter!?!?!!?!? We need to be panning for gold and foraging wherever
we can to improve our overall player asset pool.
Ultimately,
I hope this decision on what to do with the final roster spot(s) is based more
on who the best player for us is and not how many jerseys he can sell in
foreign lands or how good of an example he sets.
Busboys4me says
This goes down as one of my favorite comments ever. Thanks Clay Bertrand!!!
Renato Afonso says
Clay Bertrand “We have Deng, Calderon, Huertas, Mozgov and the youngest Head Coach in the league who is a former player. We don’t HAVE TO HAVE another Mentor!!!! ”
True.
J C hoops says
Great post Clay.
As you’re aware, Yi’s contract may allow us to trade him for a decent player whom another team can’t retain due to salary cap restraints or if a team has to ballast salary to make room for a new addition. (Or to include him in a multi-player deal to match salaries to capture a disgruntled Northern Ca Center, for example.)
I think Yi’s unique contract is his biggest value and if he’s retained that’s the real reason.
KevTheBold says
Though I know none of what I believe will matter to most, including the front office, I will state my opinions.
Being in firmly and undeniably in development mode, I would cut those who conflict with the importance of our youth core personally learning all the essential stages of winning ball games.
In that light, Lou, who is basically a point thief, {who also like Harden will damage the legitimacy of our wins} and Nick, who is someone we cannot depend on, especially so after the threat of cuts have passed his sweaty brow; and despite the latest rhetoric, is too old to change his spots.
Alexander_ says
Clay Bertrand One of your best posts, and that says a lot…
ED 10 says
I`ve been disappointed in AB,and wouldn`t be surprised if he was cut,guarantee or not.
matt24 says
With the emerging nick young, a.brown would get no playing time at all. Even as a reserve he’s not necessary.
Think about the sg and sf positions, in terms of minutes
clarkson about 25 minutes, williams about 20 minutes, at sg
Young about 15 minutes at sg or sf
Deng about 25 minutes, ingram about 20 minutes
Nick young is your reserve, just increase his minutes
Only reason to keep a. Brown is because your thinking about trading either young or williams, then he becomes the reserve
matt24 says
Celtics gonna keep d.jackson, and young and rj hunter are both at positions we are already jammed at
Busboys4me says
Ben Bentil was actually waived by the Celts and Ryan Kelly was signed (go figure). I would either Sign him to Defenders or invite him into camp for the last week. He was slated as our second round pick by a couple draft boards.
Busboys4me says
Given that we don’t truly have a 3 on the team (Deng is a 4 at this stage of his career), why not try Bentil at the 3? If Ben Bentil is willing to sign with the Defenders I’m sure Deng can mentor him effectively. A 6’8″ SF who can shoot is always welcome.