Jabari > Middleton

I think Clarkson is pretty decent.

Did you know that if you look at the Bulls logo upside down it looks like a robot reading the bible?

He is

If a guy with the likely ceiling of a 6th man on a contender is your building block tho ...

Lakers were the last team to have a player (Clarkson) picked in our 5 year draft and I think it wasn't even close

That may end up being true but you're not going to get many (any?) non-Bucks fans in TZ who agree with you currently

Also, the Lakers would love to have Monroe ldo

True. We're alone in our bucks bias.

Lakers still suck (it's ok, most of my life my hometown team has sucked). I don't like a single player outside of swaggy p. I can only appreciate Kobe being Kobe because the end is near, otherwise I've never liked him.

Lol, yes, it does look like a robot. Let's look at every logo upside down. Analysis commence...

Basically like Jabari needs to adjust. But he will become a #1 or 2 option. Middleton is going to be a 3rd or 4th option kind of guy on a good team. Middleton is certainly a positive player and a huge glue guy but Giannis/Monroe/Parker will outshine him.

Middleton is like a poor man's mix of Korver and Demarre or something

I should have typed "contract data". In past expansion drafts, salary didn't actually matter. What you really need is to figure out who is a restricted free agent, because those players are eligible to be drafted. (They become unrestricted, but can't sign with their old team.) You also have to have at least one player eligible to be drafted, so teams that ended the season with an empty roster spot may have tried to sign some D-League guy to an unguaranteed deal so that they could offer up a sacrificial lamb.

The best way to do a mock draft is probably to come up with the list of eligibles, then to have everyone PM their selections to one person who agrees to come up with SHEEP-style reveals by team of who was selected. I would consider volunteering for that if people didn't have an expectation of a GIF-heavy reveal.

I'd suggest picking one team with a deep roster (let's say Golden State or Boston) and seeing how long it takes you to figure out who is eligible to be drafted.

some of the cyborgs in battlestar were monotheists. they procreated with humans on other worlds after killing most of us and they all eventually came to earth where they were our distant ancestors. the bulls logo is a sign imo.

if you turn over every logo you get the full story Egyptian hieroglyph style

do the lakers make the playoffs in the east

No

Can you find people willing to make an even-money bet on both sides of who will win more games, Lakers or Sixers?

i dont see how they throw together a team with guys who have never played with each other, 3 of the five have never played their position in the nba. ask a rookie to be the floor general... kobe bryant is 37 years old. how many games and minutes is he even good for? its just nuts. there really is no way they do anything.

Clarkson doesn't play like Austin Rivers, lol. He is way more consistent and productive and athletic and can defend. He's a lot better than Rivers.

DAR looked better last night than in Summer League where he was injured and didn't tell anyone. Even if he did lack the athleticism he could still be better than Andre Miller who was pretty awesome for someone w/o NBA athleticism. Ever hear of John Stockton, not very athletic. Did you see the DAR sport science, pretty cool. He's not a super athlete, but his vision is exceptional. Why would the Lakes need another athletic guard anyway, they have Clarkson; good balance imo.

Agree that Randle is an unknown, but to say he's a dud after 14 minutes of NBA is a level of arrogance that I cannot quantify. Perhaps you can back that up, since I'm delusional. No reason to be high on the #7 pick?! Likely a dud, nothing to see here, no reason to be high on him, right? He wasn't a lottery projected pick for 2 years before the draft, right? But you have reasons to be low on him? I'm sure they are rational.

They have 2 of the top 4 guards of the last 2 drafts. They have inexpensive pieces at every position except Kobe and Hibbert. They've got a lot of unproven young pieces with upside(Randle, Nance , Upshaw) and tons of flexibility. Hibbert is still a top defender, Williams 6 man of the year. They aren't as far along as the Bucks but they have pieces in place to build upon and decent depth as well.

Yes, I think they are in that group of teams with young cores going forward. Don't know why you mention Dallas, they had a terrible offseason while the Lakers had a very good one. It doesn't matter if Dallas has slightly more talent right now, they are overpaying for it and have no future. Kill for Parsons? WTF? Small market teams kill for players like Parsons, not the Lakers. Show me some proof of that one, K?

The Lakers have exactly what they should have going forward to land a big time free agent(not Parsons, hehehe) in a year or two. Not sure where I'm being delusional but feel free to enlighten me. I'm still waiting for one person to call me delusional that is actually less delusional than me.

I like there chances better there than in the West

but probably not... might be different outlook in 3 months though.

No one really knows until they have a chance to develop. But I'm way higher on them this year than the injured scrap heap they trotted out last year. This team is at least constructed in a sensible manner, last year was all leftovers from the NAsh/Dwight debacle.

Your describing many NBA teams at some point in their development. Harden, Westbrook, Durant did okay, especially in year 2.

Afaik the reasons to be low on Randle are that he's a 4 that neither shoots nor protects the rim. Not to say he can't be a useful player--he has decent handling and face-up skills for his size, and he's likely to become a good rebounder--but it's going to be an uphill battle. His most likely outcome is a "productive" player in a box score sense who doesn't make his team particularly better.

The things you say are not that bad but your LakerFan tone...

How did the Lakers have a very good offseason? By striking out on every target?

HAWKS protect:
Teague
Schroeder
Korver
Millsap
Horford
Tavares
Splitter
Muscala

Lou Williams for 3/21M remains underappreciated

but still the GMing over the past 2 years has been really bad; for example, Swaggy P is making 5M+ a year and has a player option for the 2017-2018 season, absolutely not the kind of contract that makes sense for a rebuilding team lacking superstars

i'm counting the days til jim buss is forced to leave, its not soon enough

Reading comprehension bro
He does play like him, and it's almost like I said he's a better version
No, clearly I lack in basketball knowledge. I like the patronization when I was the only guy to speak up for your previous takes before you went full ******. I can tell recognition isn't your strong suit though.
Welp, we've got one athlete - we're good on any more, thanks tho
So your argument is he was the 7th pick. Great.
You have no idea if that's true
Man you're dumb, for real. I said the Mavs were in a worse spot long term. I also said your reasons for optimism is that you're LA and you have flexibility. You don't read too good.

What an awesome development for TZ

Damn how did the Lakers miss out on the chance to get the #1 overall pick from 2 years ago for free?

You know he'd be pimping him if they did and talking down to us about it

An emoticon or two may be prominently involved in the post methinks

Lol lakers

Ballstreams seems to not be allowing anyone to sign up at the moment. And League Pass wants to blackout Cavs games for me, so I ain't paying for that ****.

I'm a cord-cutter. Is there really no way for me to watch the NBA (including the LeBrons) this season, other than the horrible quality streams from r/nbastreams? I am willing to pay good money for this service.

I love how he thinks the Lakers should be poised to land a top free agent in 2 years (which is when Kobe's limbs will finally start to fall off). Granted, he might not be the best guy to deal with top free agents in the first place, but free agents are not going to get convinced because Hibbert, Lou Williams and Randle are there.
People choose the Bucks over the Knicks these days. Times are a-changin'.

I think you're doing it wrong. You have to roll back to the day before the regular draft and protect up to eight players either under contract or restricted free agents while ignoring unrestricted free agents, but you have leave at least one player eligible for the expansion draft if you want to simulate how expansion drafts are done.