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

[mvossman]

Obviously Lively will come along slowly just like they brought Hardy along slowly. What if they are forced into getting him going faster?

That could be a priority especially if Holmes sucks early on and then they try to play Powell and Kleber and they both fail against bigger guys and thus the defense suffers greatly and now they are forced to give Lively a try with more minutes and he starts to slowly show he is the one they wanted all along and so he learns the game on the run and out of necessity he invents his game to produce the results he has to produce just so we can struggle to find a way to win games and not let other teams enjoy easy access to the rim anytime they want it.

I Just hope he does no foul out to fast every game and as for a draft pick next season we will probably notice that there is nobody behind Lively at the 5 who is worth a flying flip and so they will see the need to add another center who is at least good for being the back up who can take minutes in starts and be someone that would not be total garbage if he should be forced to start when DL has an injury or 2 to nurse.

Who else is insurance behind Lively? Holmes? Kleber? Powell? They are jokes at center and never ever need to be used at the 5 they are PF's not 5's they suck when used as a 5 plain and simple they are out of position and leave the rim unprotected from the top 5's we will have to face in the league if we wish to progress in the play offs.

The league is about to get  into a cycle where the center position is way more important. Jokic Embiid and soon  a guy will gt to see a lot of down in SANTONIO young Wemby is going to  need to be taken on with something better than a 6'8" Holmes. Rings have lately gone to teams with top centers they are going to be the pathway to winning more and unless we find a good center the odds are against us winning any rings with what we have.

The 5 is the 2nd most important position to have talent at behind PG and that has always been the case. You get as much talent there as you can carry. When it is available you move to take advantage in the draft and we have assets to move to get at least a 2nd round pick. They got Hardy when we had no pick so I am sure another deal can be made easily enough.

Some of those jokes you referred to were our center rotation for the WCF run.

Have rings lately gone to teams with top centers?  Of the last 9 champs, only Denver and LA have top centers.

What we are seeing is that traditional centers get played off the floor in the playoffs unless they are elite.  There are only a couple of guys like that.  If you don't have one of those guys, then the next best thing is a guy that can play traditional center defensively yet mobile enough to not get run off the court.  There are only a couple of those guys (Bam, Allen, Claxton, maybe a few others).  There is hope that Lively becomes one of those guys.  After that, I think the NBA has learned to not spend a ton of assets on guys that can too easily get played off the court.  In the playoffs, you are probably better off running Maxi out there than a guy that can't guard the P&R or the perimeter.

In any case, this team is not going to be a contender this season.  There will be no need to "force" Lively out there.  We have way more frontcourt depth than we did during the WCF run.  If Holmes has nothing, Lively is progressing slowly and we look really good otherwise, we can always make a move at the deadline.