Tag: lakers

Why Bronny James getting a 4-year, $7.9M contract from the Lakers is no big deal why,bronny,james,getting,a,year,m,contract,from,the,lakers,is,no,big,deal,sbnation,com,front-page,nba

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The Lakers wasted no time in doing exactly what we knew they were doing: Signing Bronny James to a contract. It just so happened that he became the first second round pick to sign, a four-year deal, and with the new CBA people saw the announcement and began to lose it.

On the surface this seems beyond ludicrous. To be fair, it is the largest contract of all time given to a second round rookie pick — but it has nothing to do with LeBron or nepotism; it’s just the new normal of the 2023 CBA. The minimum annual salary for a 4-year deal is exactly what Bronny received, which means the total money side of this had nothing to do with who his dad is. The truth is that revenues are rising, the salary cap is expanding — and that’s why we keep seeing new records for contracts, with the trickle down effect being that rookies are getting more money as a result.

Pelle Larsson, the first second-rounder to sign this year got a three-year, $5.4 million deal from the Miami Heat — and had they added a fourth year he would have been on the exact same contract as Bronny James.

Now, we can certainly argue about the nature of this deal. A second round pick with as many questions as Bronny getting a contract before Summer League is definitely a perk of being LeBron’s son — but in the grand scheme of things it’s really a minor issue. He’s the No. 55 pick, who probably won’t contribute much, and earning just under $2M a year is relative chump change, commensurate with what the majority of deep rotation guys will make this season.

In the end this is all no harm, no foul. LeBron is going to ride out his career in Los Angeles, play with his son, continue with business ventures in the city — and sail off into the sunset.

DeMar DeRozan is getting squeezed on NBA free agent market, but Lakers still make sense demar,derozan,is,getting,squeezed,on,nba,free,agent,market,but,lakers,still,make,sense,sbnation,com,front-page,nba,nba-free-agency,draftkings

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DeMar DeRozan is still performing at a near NBA All-Star level even after 15 seasons in the league. The veteran wing is coming off three fantastic seasons with the Chicago Bulls where he scored tons of points, produced so many brilliant moments in crunch-time, and rarely turned the ball over. DeRozan is now an unrestricted free agent on the brink of his 35th birthday, and with the Bulls seemingly pivoting to a long overdue rebuild, he’s in search of a new team. There’s only one problem: as almost all of the talent in free agency has already come off the board, there doesn’t seem to be an available fit for DeRozan at a salary slot commensurate with his talent.

There just doesn’t seem to be a market for DeRozan despite being the best unsigned player in the NBA right now. It’s looking like DeRozan may to accept a one-year deal and try to get more money in the summer of 2025, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

“The kind of contract that (DeRozan) might want just is not going to be available,” Woj reported on SportsCenter. “It’s not left out there in the market place. It may not be as appealing to him, but it may look like a one-year deal for him somewhere. Let the market reset next year.”

Woj mentioned the Los Angeles Lakers as a team that could be interested in DeRozan, but only at the right cost. The most the Lakers could offer is the $12.8 million Mid-Level Exception … and even that might require LeBron James to take a discount. That would be a big paycut for a player who clearly outperformed his $27 million average annual salary the last three seasons, but it might be the best offer out there.

For all of his talent, DeRozan remains a difficult player to fit into existing team structures because he needs the ball to be at his best. With the ball in his hands, DeRozan is a master at getting to his spots, knocking down mid-range shots, and drawing a high-volume of free throws. At the same time, a player has be an absolute superstar to demand a very on-ball role and still power team success. DeRozan is very good, but he’s no Luka Doncic or prime James Harden at this point.

In a starring role, DeRozan is good but not quite good enough. In a supporting role, he lacks two essential things that every great role player needs: spot-up shooting and defense.

DeRozan entered the league in 2009 just before the NBA’s three-point boom. It’s remarkable that he’s remained so good in this era despite never really developing a three-point shot. For his career, DeRozan has made 29.6 percent of his threes on only 1.6 attempts per game. He was a little better behind the arc in Chicago, hitting 33.8 percent of his threes on 1.9 attempts per game across his three seasons. At the end of the day, he’s still not a willing enough or good enough shooter to make defenses pay for cheating off him in the halfcourt.

DeRozan just also isn’t very good defensively. He often needs to be hidden on the opposing team’s weakest offensive player. He struggles to get around screens, he’s late on rotations, and he just doesn’t provide much resistance.

Despite his limitations, there’s a world where DeRozan to the Lakers works well on the court for both sides. LeBron James will still get a heavy on-ball diet as he prepares to turn 40 years old, but James has also become an incredible spot-up shooter late in his career. James hit 47.3 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes last season on 2.6 attempts per game, per NBA tracking data. When James gets tired, DeRozan can cook and LeBron can space the floor.

The Lakers need to add talent however they can in an improving Western Conference. This is a 47-win team that still only won one playoff game last year. He may not be a perfect fit, but DeRozan would still be a wise addition at this point in the offseason, especially at a discount.

JJ Redick denies using racial slur as old and new allegations surface about Lakers coach jj,redick,denies,using,racial,slur,as,old,and,new,allegations,surface,about,lakers,coach,sbnation,com,front-page,nba,dot-com-grid-coverage

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A day after he was introduced as new Lakers head coach, representatives for JJ Redick issued a denial of allegations that he called a fellow Duke alum the N-word while in college.

Reps for Redick were responding to a tweet from author, speaker and self-described social impact pro Halleemah Nash that was sent Tuesday, in which Nash accused Redick of calling her the N-word when she was working with the Duke basketball team Redick played for in college:

Within a few hours, TMZ had gotten a denial of the story from Redick’s team:

We reached out to Redick’s camp for a response to the claim … and they completely shut it down.

“No, it never happened,” a spokesperson tells TMZ Sports.

The Lakers have not commented on the situation publicly as of publishing time.

However, while Redick’s reps denied Nash’s story, other disturbing moments from Redick’s past came to light in the wake of her social media post on Tuesday. They included 2014 allegations that Redick called an ex-girlfriend racial slurs in leaked emails related to an alleged abortion contract with the same woman; Redick denied the woman was ever pregnant in since-deleted tweets from 2013 calling the reports “outrageous, false and malicious.”

Additionally resurfacing on social media was an apology Redick issued in 2018 for appearing to accidentally use a racial slur in a Chinese New Year video from the NBA, as well as a bizarre story in which he claimed on his podcast to have potentially witnessed human trafficking before temporarily deleting his Twitter account.

We will update this story when and if more details/responses come to light.

Lakers’ JJ Redick press conference literally drew groans during LeBron James comment lakers,jj,redick,press,conference,literally,drew,groans,during,lebron,james,comment,sbnation,com,front-page,nba

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J.J. Redick had no previous head coaching experience outside of leading his 9-year-old son’s team, but that didn’t stop the Los Angeles Lakers from giving them their head coaching job. The Lakers formally introduced Redick during a press conference on Monday afternoon after a drawn out coaching search that included a brief infatuation with UConn’s Danny Hurley.

In the end, Redick seemed like he was always the man for the job, mostly because of his existing relationship with LeBron James. Redick and James started the podcast “Mind the Game” earlier this year when they would break down X’s and O’s for fans. The podcast earned widespread acclaim for providing an inside look at the brain of one of the best players of all-time. It did not, according to Redick, give him a leg up for the Lakers job.

Redick was asked what advice James gave him during the Lakers coaching search. His answer? “He didn’t provide any advice,” Redick said. “LeBron and I did not talk about the Lakers job until Thursday afternoon, about 30 minutes after I was offered the job.”

That seems incredibly difficult to believe. One person even the room even loudly groaned as Redick said it.

It’s surprising that someone as media savvy as Redick would make that comment. It’s the type of statement Redick would make fun of if he was still in media, and another former player closer to James had said it. In fairness, Redick did get other coaching interviews during this cycle, but it sure feels like his existing relationship with James gave him the edge in the Lakers’ search.

That wasn’t the only cringeworthy moment from Redick’s press conference. At one point, top Lakers executive Rob Pelinka mentioned talking to Redick about “gameifying” player development. “We’ve talked about how we translate Redick’s offensive system to an app-based or phone-based deliverable,” Pelinka said. Someone really should have groaned during that part, too.

Some fans have been wondering if Redick and James would continue their podcast while leading the Lakers. Obviously, that was never going to happen.

“I am excommunicated from the content space,” Redick said. Somehow this was the most normal thing said during this press conference.

The Lakers job is enormously difficult. The Western Conference is loaded, James turns 40 years old this season, and the fanbase demands excellence every year. Making a shocking run to the Western Conference Finals as a No. 7 seed didn’t save Darvin Ham, and Redick has his work cut out for him just to get that far.

Good luck to Redick. If James didn’t help him land this summer, he sure needs to help him keep it by continuing to stay healthy and play like one of the best in the world.