Lakers offseason: What you need to know about roster changes

When LeBron James needs to be rested like a 37-year-old superstar who has the most minutes in NBA history, Anthony Davis needs another person he can count on. Now everybody was hoping that was Dennis Schroeder, but it's obviously not. So they need to find a third player that can pair with those guys when the other one is out because that is what the future is going to look like. It's FYF Sportsman, it's Lamont. We are back with another podcast episode. And today, we've got to talk about the Los Angeles Lakers and the future of this team. And it's important to talk about this topic because we're talking about a 36-year-old LeBron James who's going to be 37 going on his 18th year in the NBA. There's only so much he has left in the tank. This year showed us that one of the iron men of the NBA can be broken. And LeBron James, Anthony Davis and his Lakers team dealt with not just COVID protocols, but also injuries that derailed their season from start to finish. Anthony Davis was never healthy. When Anthony Davis seemed to be healthy, he went down with another injury. LeBron James goes down with an injury. He's out for a large chunk of time. Caruso was out with an injury. You had a number of other players dealt with COVID protocols. You go into the playoffs, you think you have a good bill of health, and then Anthony Davis goes down with another injury. And to add, you know, to add on top of that, to double down on top of that, Kenneth Caldwell-Polk also deals with the injury himself. So the Lakers have a lot to figure out going into this offseason. And a lot of people, and we saw the rumors, we saw the reports coming out saying that the Lakers are going to be closely monitoring the Damian Lillard situation. But, you know, is that very possible? Is that a realistic outcome? Is that a realistic circumstance? We're going to get to all that more on the Los Angeles Lakers. Before we get to that, make sure you guys like, comment, and subscribe. Hit the notification bell if you haven't done so already. The grind is real. We're getting closer and closer to 25K. So I appreciate everybody for making that happen. If you're watching this on Newsbreak, make sure you subscribe to the podcast on YouTube. We need you guys to subscribe so you can stay up to date with everything that we have going on here at FYF Sports. You still follow us on Newsbreak, but make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel so you don't miss a beat. We drop content on the Patreon and the YouTube page as well outside of Newsbreak. Salute to everybody for watching, but we got to talk about the Los Angeles Lakers. Well, they're already pretty much at the salary cap with the guys they have under contract. So any dreams that any Laker fan might have of going out and signing a big free agent, that's not going to happen. Their moves really probably are to try to bring back the players that they have and sign them to contracts that could potentially be movable later. And I know that to Laker fans, the idea of bringing back Dennis Schroeder right now may not sound all that exciting. I think they're probably seriously going to have to look at it. Richard just referenced this in a very strange set of maneuvers. It appears that Schroeder took off of his IG bio that he was a Lakers point guard, then put it back on when somebody might have mentioned it to him, and then in the locker room after the game, took it off again. I have no idea what to make of all of that. You know what to make of it, Brian. You know what to make of it. It was childish. He turned down a $20 million a year extension at midseason. The Lakers are going to have to make another offer, and that offer cannot be $20 million. It's going to have to be an offer that they could someday at some point trade him. But then he's also unrestricted. If he doesn't like what the Lakers have to offer, he can walk to Chicago or even to Toronto or somewhere else. Let him go. But Richard, they can't replace him. I understand that they can't replace him, but in this series, he looked very replaceable. Okay, so the Los Angeles Lakers have a number of issues to address headed into this offseason. And the number one line of business that Rob Pelinka needs to address is going to be the free agents on this team. Dennis Schroeder, Wes Matthews, Alex Caruso, Andre Drummond, Ben McLemore, and Montrezl Harrell with the player option are all going to potentially be free agents. And with the Los Angeles Lakers, even with those players' salaries off the books, they're still over the salary cap. And with that in mind, I think the first order of business for Rob Pelinka and the Los Angeles Lakers is making sure you keep all of your free agents out of free agency. How many of these guys can we re-sign and keep on this roster? Whether they're part of the long-term or short-term future of this team, I think the first order of business is going to be about re-signing key guys and keeping this core group together. I mean, even Rob Pelinka stated himself, Rob Pelinka stated himself, he said, in terms of free agency, we feel we have a core group of players that can do something special. And the goal is to try to keep that core group together. Now, in a sense, that message was kind of cryptic because when he says core group of players, many can surmise that he's only talking about Anthony Davis and LeBron James. Is Kuzma part of that core group? Is KCP part of that core group? Is Dennis Schroeder part of that core group? So, in a sense, that statement is a bit cryptic because we ultimately don't know what the core of this team is. But when Rob Pelinka did his exit interviews and as the season abruptly ended for the Los Angeles Lakers, a number of players made some statements on their way out. And it just kind of leads you to question, is this Laker team going to look the same next year? When we look at what Montrezl Harrell said, Montrezl Harrell at the end of the season, he said, I came in every day, I did my job, I did what they asked me to do. I played my role. It was as simple as that. As far as my future, I don't know what that holds right now. We just finished playing last night, so I can't give you an answer to that right now. I did my job, and whenever my number was called, I went out there, played to the best of my abilities, and left it all on the floor. That's Montrezl Harrell. That's his take. That was after that Game 6 loss to the Phoenix Suns. He was noncommittal on coming back to the Lakers. I think it was a bad move on Frank Vogel's part by DNPing and not using Montrezl Harrell in games where they were struggling to score the ball. And Montrezl Harrell consistently brought energy and effort on his team, and that's exactly what it looked like they were missing when they played the Phoenix Suns. Energy and effort. The only other player really given that was Alex Caruso, who went out with an ankle injury. When we talk about Andre Drummond's situation, Andre Drummond is another player who the Los Angeles Lakers desperately need to retain. There's not too many players in the league like him. He came to this team late, and he didn't just come to this team late. There was a bit of a hiatus for a few months when the Cleveland Cavaliers were trying to find a trade suitor for him. He kind of set out. By the time he got to the Lakers, he was a bit out of shape, and he never really found his rhythm. We've seen what Drummond can do when he's 100%. He never got back to that. Rob Pelinka stated on Andre Drummond, he said, I think Andre's time here was really good. We had a great exit interview today. I just talked to him about that fact. He had a couple of months where he didn't play until we got here, and there was a process of onboarding and getting into shape and getting acclimated to the guys. But we're proud of him. Some of the big games and big moments he had along the way in both regular season and the playoffs, and really appreciate his choosing the Lakers and the contributions that he made with us. Rob Pelinka is giving indicators that they're going to be making a push to keep Andre Drummond, but I think it's going to be all on Drummond. Does Drummond want to be in LA, and are there better opportunities out there for Andre Drummond? In the wind, I've been hearing that Drummond is really keeping an eye on the Portland Trailblazers, and their potential demand for a center, maybe moving Enos Kanter to power forward, or even moving one of their other young stars to the power forward position, especially if Zach Collins can get healthy. Mark Gasol, this is a center who signed with this team, and everyone, a lot of people, even myself, I believe that Gasol would be extremely vital for the Lakers in the playoffs. Ultimately, Mark Gasol was just one of those players that seemed like he aged 10 years overnight. This is not the same guy that we saw a couple years ago. This is not the same guy that we saw help lead that Toronto team. He looked like a shell of himself. He was able to come in and give spot minutes where he made a few threes, made a few good passes, but there was never a point in time in the season where anybody felt he was going to be an impact player for this team just because he just looked so slowed down by age. But Mark Gasol, in his interview, he stated, I came into this year with the mindset of enjoying every second of it, soaking everything in, and understanding what an honor it is to wear this jersey. That's what Gasol said via CBS Sports. Obviously, you guys know my family history with the team and how much it meant to Paul Gasol. For me to be here and play for this team was an honor, and it is an honor. I don't take it for granted one second, and that's Mark Gasol. But again, he also was not committal on if he would be coming back to the Lakers. Then we move on to Alex Caruso. Alex Caruso, he stated on his way out of LA, he said, I'm a realistic human being. I understand different things happen in LA for certain reasons. I'm forever grateful for that. And we'll see where everything lies. Caruso said at his exit interview on Friday. But like I said, I've got to rank stuff. And that's obviously not something I've thought about in depth 12 hours after the season ended. I'll look more into that in July. But yeah, those are definitely things that LA takes into consideration, and maybe more so than other places. So, I mean, there you have it right there. All of these players essentially noncommittal on coming back to the Lakers. And for Caruso, he's a young player. It should be about getting the biggest payday that he can. If the biggest payday is not in Los Angeles, he's probably going to leave LA. There's going to be a team out there that overpays for his services. And I don't foresee Caruso back with this team. When we look at Mark Gasol, do the Lakers want to bring back an aging veteran like Gasol, who is going to be a year older, and even when he was on the court, he didn't look like he was really adding much to the team with regards to winning and losing. So, again, do the Lakers bring Gasol back? Drummond, what we saw of Drummond, was that just an anomaly? We have to look at it like that. Like Rob Pelinka said, was he just not acclimated to the team? Was he a bit out of shape? Maybe those things need to be taken into consideration, because we know that Andre Drummond can be an elite defender. We saw that in Detroit. We saw that in Cleveland. But when he took that hiatus, he took that time off, a lot of people said he looked a bit out of shape when he came back. And we never saw 100% of what Drummond could bring to this team. Are the Lakers going to be able to convince Andre Drummond to stay with this roster? So, they have a number of decisions to make, but ultimately, that's going to fall on Rob Pelinka and what he can do to manipulate the salary cap. The last thing I wanted to discuss was this potential trade. I know a report came out on Clutch Sports saying that the Lakers are eyeing the Portland Trail Blazers' situation, but just kind of looking at their roster and looking at everything that they have available, it just doesn't look like the Los Angeles Lakers have the trade pieces to make a trade work. I mean, for a trade, for Damien Lillard, you would essentially have to convince the Portland Trail Blazers that these two players can be the future of the franchise. This is what the Lakers would have to convince the Portland Trail Blazers of. And I want you guys to tell me. Just looking at this image right here. Just take a look. Soak it in. Think about how these two guys played in the playoffs. I want you to think about how Damien Lillard played in the playoffs. And I want you guys to, realistically, I want you guys to give me 10 reasons why the Portland Trail Blazers should think that these two players can be the future of that franchise, even if Damien Lillard requests a trade. How? How does that work? I mean, when you look at what the Lakers have available for a trade, it's essentially impossible to make the trade for him. You know, while we saw what it took to acquire James Harden, we saw what it took to acquire Drew Holiday, we saw what it took to acquire Paul George in recent years, it's arguable that the Blazers star would be worth even more than those packages. And on top of that, Damien Lillard's contract is locked into 2024-25. And that's without a player option in sight. And by that time, LeBron James will be 41. So, I know they're not waiting around for Damien Lillard to become a free agent. So, we gotta stay a bit realistic in this. And, you know, I would love to see the combination of Anthony Davis, Damien Lillard, and LeBron James on the court. But it's not very realistic. It's probably not gonna happen. Most definitely isn't gonna happen. Again, it's a video game look. It's a great story. We know Clutch Poise is really good at putting out stories over the summer just to keep our basketball minds engaged, us talking about these players in the sports. But right now, Raul Palenka has more realistic worries to address with his Laker team. And I think the first order of business he needs to address is Dennis Schroeder, re-signing him, figuring out what we're gonna do with Alice Caruso drumming, what players can we lock in, and then what can we do with our salary cap to gain some additional flexibility if we're gonna potentially make some moves in free agency, which they'll have very little flexibility to do so unless they move some contracts and finesse some numbers, hopefully get some exceptions from the NBA. But I want you guys, let me know what your thoughts on the Lakers. What does the future of the Lakers hold? What have you heard? What are your thoughts on this team? This year was really a failure, but you can't really hold it against any individual player. Injuries are a part of the game. Sometimes injuries can derail your season. And injuries just, the injury bug caught the Lakers. It caught LeBron, it caught AD. And when your two best players, two top 10 players in the NBA go down, I mean, you really don't have much of a chance to win an NBA championship. But again, I want your thoughts on this right here. Let me know what you think. Should Montrezl come back? What should these free agents do? Should they seek better situations? Or is the Lakers situation the best for all of these players? What are your thoughts on Kyle Kuzma? You guys know how we feel about Kyle Kuzma. What are your thoughts on Kyle Kuzma? Let us know in the comments of this video. Hey, this is FYF Sports Management. Another great episode. Make sure you guys subscribe. Hit the notification bell. Check out the description of the video. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Also join our Discord so you don't miss any notifications when we go live. Drop podcast videos or put out any news FYF Sports related. Hey, but it's FYF Sports again. Great podcast episode. Love talking about these things. Cannot wait till the offseason hits so we can see what mixes and matches up. Until then and before we even dive deeper into that, we're going to be dealing with the NBA playoffs. We got some big time matchups coming up. Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers. That series looks like it's going to turn out to be a good one. We got the Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns. We got all these teams in the West. So we still got a lot of superstars left out here. A lot of playoff basketball to go. So we're going to be touching on those games a lot more. So make sure you stay tuned. But it's FYF Sports, man. Been a great podcast episode. We'll be back with more sports and news later. But until then, it's FYF Sports and we are out. Five years in. All your subs is your friends. Take your TV. Watch your cars again. Just a little FYI. FYF. 20K subs. Six months. What's next? They been hating at first. Now they calling us the best. Hit up YouTube. Tell them cut the check. It's a FYI. FYF. 20K subs. 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