After a quiet trade deadline, the Lakers will shift their focus to the buyout market, according to Mark Medina of USA Today, who takes a closer look at the team’s pursuit of big men such as Andre Drummond and LaMarcus Aldridge.
While a Thursday night report from Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports confirmed that the Lakers will get an opportunity to talk to both players, Aldridge is believed to be leaning toward the Heat, according to multiple reports. If so, the Lakers figure to zero in on Drummond, and executives around the league believe L.A. is the frontrunner to land the big man after he finalizes a buyout with Cleveland.
Appearing on ESPN’s Keyshawn, JWill & Zubin Show on Friday morning (video link), ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that a number of Lakers players have already been making an effort to recruit Drummond, who could potentially slide right into a starting role in Los Angeles.
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Lakers guard Dennis Schröder strongly hinted that he plans to reach free agency rather than signing an in-season extension, telling reporters on Thursday that while he wants to stick with the Lakers, he also wants to “see my options” (Twitter link via Bill Oram of The Athletic). A Thursday report stated that the Lakers and Schröder remain far apart in extension negotiations.
- While he didn’t specifically confirm Shams Charania’s Thursday report that said Anthony Davis (calf) will miss at least two more weeks, head coach Frank Vogel said last night that Davis is “still a ways away,” tweets Medina.
- Upon returning to the Lakers this week, Marc Gasol detailed his recent bout with COVID-19, admitting that the virus seriously affected him, as Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register writes. “I had a little bit of headaches, but I’m like, ‘Well, hopefully I’m going to be pretty much asymptomatic,'” Gasol said. “And then when it hits you, it hits you really hard, at least for me.”
- The Lakers allowed fans into Staples Center for the first time on Thursday night, albeit on a small scale. The team received permission from local health officials to have 50 fans in the arena, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Drummond would be a huge upgrade over Gasol, who has been ineffective for the Lakers, to say the least. They really need to make it happen, and move Gasol into a filler role off the bench, behind both Drummond and Harrell. It’s been disappointing that Vogel has insisted on starting Gasol when he has been available so far this season. The guy is little more than a statue on the court. Harrell lacks size for a center, but at least he contributes, which can’t really be said of Gasol.
Only 50 fans in attendance? I hope they all had court side seats.
They were all Jack Nicholson impersonators. So when you think of it that way, 50 is quite a few.
in actuality, it was just family and friends of the players. not real fans.
What happens when you have draconian leadership. California and DC are the only US cities that have no plan to let a reasonable amount of fans back indoors. Big brother doesn’t want to give us leisure back.
Or maybe they are taking sensible precautions to prevent harm to both fans and players.
Yeh draconian science, unfortunate how much of a dictator it is.
Lakers biggest obstacle is getting 100% healthy not trying to pick up players. the buy out market doesn’t have much to offer any playoff team.
As much as schroder spins it, I truly believe he doesn’t want to be a laker.. every players always says hey I want to be here blah blah blah.. he wants max which he’s not worth.. he doesn’t shoot the 3 at high level 31% and he’s averaging 15 pts with 5 assist and 3 turnovers.. 43% fg pct with majority of his attempts within 10 feet.. but some team will pay him.. just don’t think lakers will
He probably could get the same contract he has rn tho.
I think he does want to stay with the Lakers. He just wants too much money, so I agree he won’t re-sign with them. I don’t think it’s that he doesn’t want to remain, though.
I hope he signs elsewhere, he hasn’t played very good since week 1 of the season. Lots of turnovers, not many assists, just poor drives to the lane. Rather have Caruso do that and pay someone else the money saved to hit 3’s.
Caruso is limited offensively.. He can catch lightning in a bottle in wide open 3’s.. he’s not a pg.. he’s good in short spurts but playing him 20+ minutes has shown how limited he is.. he’s a spark.. not a big minutes guy..
Schroder has proved that he’s not a big contributor either, so instead of keeping him I’d just as much play Caruso those minutes (that gets the same results) and pay a big contract to someone that can contribute offensively.
Caruso’s splits disagee, look it up.
Twice 30-39 minutes= +10 net rating (ORtg-DRtg)
12 times at 20-29 minutes= even net
19 times at 10-19 minutes= minus 14 net
Conclusion, the more minutes the better efficiency. His good energy may go down is what one might notice.
IDK where you get your stats but Bas.Ref. says he shoots 39% from 3, not 31%. Thanks for giving him 15 ppg but he has over twice the assists to turnovers. The numbers are about average but defensive numbers are outstanding… and he has moves. He could work on drawing fouls from them.
The Lakers will not be able to bid for a $20mil Schroder replacement. Or anything up to $9.5mil.
If the Lakers don’t re sign Schröder they can’t just go out and spend $20 million on a different player to replace him. They’ll be over the cap and can only re sign Schröder at that amount because they have his Bird rights. He and his agent know this and they have the Lakers over a barrel. The only options I see are to re sign Schröder or sign and trade him somewhere else.
If they spend $10m on a replacement, that player would be at the very least as good as Schroder. He sucks.
They just tried to trade Schroeder for Lowry. Why should he resign. He’s going to play it out and get as much as he can. Nobody wants to sign him anyway. Lakers are probably his only bidder. Lakers should of went after Whiteside. Aldridge is not a fit in LA why is he even brought up. Drummond can help but only way he comes. Is if he really believes they can win and if he really wants a ring. Cause Knicks can offer most money. Celtics, Heat, Hornets, Mavs, Lakers, Nets, Raptors, Knicks should all be after Drummond.