02-05-2026, 11:14 AM
(02-05-2026, 11:03 AM)Chicagojk Wrote: Kennard has always been better in theory, then on the court. Don't have any issue with this though. Vincent has been pretty disappointing and is small. Kennard is bigger and a better shooter. He will get good looks and probably be an 18-22 minute player.
No second round picks is a little worrisome...not huge. You have to figure teams will think the Lakers will be good moving forward and will probably discount picks. They do have a lot of cap room to improve this summer. My question is while the Lebron fit is no longer great, you may be able to find better fits, but will you ever find the level of talent that Lebron brings? Even at his advanced age.
Exactly the role Kennard will have. He will replace Vincent in the rotation and will imho provide more than he did. But obviously this is not a move that makes Lakers much more serious contender than they were before.
Lakers problem is not LeBron per se, it is the Luka-LeBron-Reaves trio. You can't have good defense with all three of them. Neither is a great catch and shoot player. Combined they will take roughly 60 shots per game, leaving only 20 or so for everyone else combined. Due to LeBron's age, he is the obvious odd man out and I will be really dissapointed if they resign him in the summer, even if it is for vet min. Pipedream would be a SnT to a team like Cleveland, hopefully for Allen. If he walks for nothing, I will not be dissapointed at all.
Even if they would want to, Lakers don't have the package to go after Giannis, as all they can offer is 3 FRPs and cap space. Even if that would be a good enough package, they would have extremely limited ability to put a team around the stars, so I hope they rather focus on players that fit Luka and Reaves. Lakers need a C, big wing and point of attack defender in the summer and they will have roughly 50 mil of cap space, 3 FRPs and Vando and Knecht salary to do it. My pipedream would be to pry away RFAs Eason and Watson from Houston and Denver, as they will both have problems paying them (or giving them a big enough role to justify their expected salary). If that doesn't work, they can resign Hachimura at PF and trade with remaining cap space (and 3 FRPs) for defensive wing. The problem will be, they also need to solve the center position.