Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[mvossman]

I think Capela would make this team SIGNIFICANTLY better. His presence takes a huge question mark out of the equation. GWill still has a question mark, Green has question marks, Hardy, OMax, Lively, Holmes all have question marks. Even Maxi has a question mark after last season. Some of them are easier to answer than others, but it’s a lot.

With Kyrie on the team and to an extent Luka, we really need to do everything we can to win now. I think, even if he is declining (I don’t really believe that), a well fitting Capela (being the biggest named C that seems to be available right now) brings us barely into the contention conversation. He allows us to develop Lively into a perfect starting replacement while keeping us in that contention window, which gives even more development for all our young guys (as well as Luka even). Part of that is helping the team reach a higher seed for the playoffs, which in turn helps us get in the later rounds.

Allen would be a much better option, but, if Lively is 2 years away, Capela’s contract expiring in 2 years fits pretty perfectly. At that point, we resign Cap to a more suitable contract for a high end bench C to back Lively up.

I don’t think it’s as simple as “get Capela and win championship” like my signature might suggest. I think he is a big piece to the puzzle though. The thought also isn’t necessarily giving a timeframe on said championship either. Cap COULD be that well fitting missing piece, or he COULD be a well fitting stepping stone. I think either way, just get him and go to work!

I feel like your first paragraph is evidence for the opposite conclusion.  For a team with such a large amount of what ifs, its hard to imagine they are going to be legit title contenders, or that adding another what if (is Capela on the decline?) is going to change that significantly.  Even with Kyrie's timeline, you could make a strong argument for seeing how some of these what ifs play out, and then pulling the trigger next offseason when you have 3 picks to potentially trade instead of one.

Another reason to give it a year is that so many of our what ifs are young.  Lively, Omax, Hardy, Green and Williams all have various potential to be better the season after next.  The goal seems to be building a long term contention window, and the earliest reasonable expectation of that window to start is the 24-25 season.