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Been away from Twitter for about a week for boring reasons, but wanted to talk about the Lakers off-season:
I think what has been under discussed about what Rob Pelinka and Co. did this off-season has been the level of risk they are taking: it is an "easy" decision to run back a title team that looked as good as they did all year, and their job could be done — but they didn't
If I had a choice between having a front office that leans towards being conservative or leans towards being aggressive, give me the latter 10 times out of 10. You have to be strategic about it of course, but that aggression carries risk
One of the hallmarks of the 2019-20 Lakers was their chemistry, they were able to not only survive but thrive through the various challenges thrown their way, and part of that chemistry was everybody knowing and being happy with their role. Disease of More + new players = unknown
Going to the moves themselves: Really like Schröder the player, but (and sorry this sounds callous) more importantly they got younger and picked up a more valuable asset than the one they traded away to get him. I expect him to be a major regular season contributor, playoffs TBD
The Harrell addition truly came out of nowhere and while I was looking for more of a Danilo Galinari type player to fit the MLE, he's also another guy that will be a major regular season contributor — the hilarity of him thriving after being a Clippers scapegoat makes it worth it
Wes Matthews credibly guarded Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler this season — you can't expect him to do that for big minutes, but hard to beat his contribution at a veteran's minimum. Markieff Morris was a good playoff contributor and Steve Ballmer is subsidizing his lifestyle, A+
It won't come as a surprise to anybody how over the moon I was when Marc Gasol signed with the Lakers, and it goes beyond bball. I don't care how irrational it is, I want the Lakers to sign Pau Gasol after the buyout season is through and give him that last roster spot.
I'll miss Javale, I'll miss Dwight, I'll miss Rondo (man, 2020 is wild), I'll miss everybody that was a part of the team last year. But the reality of contending in the NBA now is having your pillars and then a lot of moving parts around them. Thank you to all of them
