(The original text was published on November 29, and the author is Dave McMenamin of ESPN. The content of the article does not represent the translator’s point of view)

After the Pacers finish the game at the home of the Lakers, they will continue to go to the home of the King to prepare for the next game. Miles Turner, the center who boarded the special plane of the team, may have mixed feelings because he failed to stay at the home of the Lakers. Last month, after the Lakers and Pacers failed in the deal negotiations before the start of training camp, Turner made a rare decision to publicly lobby the team to reconsider the deal. Turner talked about the potential deal when participating in the famous book Woj’s podcasting program: “If I am the Lakers, I will consider the team’s situation very carefully. I know what else I can provide for the team, including leadership, cap, three points and tactical execution on the court.”

Multiple sources informed ESPN that the Lakers sent out the deal of controlling Wei Wei and the draft assets back to Turner and sub-Wei Hilde. The negotiations broke down because the Lakers voluntarily gave up. The first-round picks in 2027and 2029were the only future draft assets of the Lakers. At the same time, the cost of giving up was too high, and it was impossible for the Lakers to get the undisputed title contender status. Before the Lakers have made up their minds, the walkers are willing to keep the negotiation plan. If the negotiation starts again, everything can continue.

Before considering whether the Lakers want to make this deal with Pacers, there are five questions to answer first:

When will this deal happen?

After the Lakers played a 0-5 start at the beginning of the season, the celebrity Woj reported that the Lakers would wait until before Thanksgiving to consider upgrading the team. The team’s internal news source revealed that the time point before and after Thanksgiving would be mainly based on three considerations. First, the president and general manager of Lakers basketball operations, Pelinka, wanted to first see how the team formed during the offseason (including six players last season) worked; Second, Pelinka wanted to give the new coach Hamm a chance, he carried out his plan of regaining his power and showing little power; Third, Pelinka did not want to be too urgent in the trading negotiations at the beginning of the season. He knew very well that this would make potential trading negotiations cheaper.

The latest situation is that the Lakers’ plan has been adjusted. According to sources, the Lakers hope that more teams will be willing to negotiate with them after December 15, because the contracts signed during the offseason can be traded by that time. However, even if the possibility of transactions increases, the transaction process within the alliance will slow down before and after the holiday, so the possibility of transactions before the middle of January is very small.

Of course, with the deepening of the season, if the Pacers play more and more like a playoff team in the east, the idea that the team will give up the existing talents in the team for future flexibility may change. The Walker boss is Herbert Simon, an 88-year-old real estate tycoon. Although most team owners in the league think that chasing the championship is the most important, it is better to push down the reconstruction than doing nothing, however, the Lakers did not believe that the Pacers boss Simon would break up a team that could win the game. Instead, Simon wanted to see the Pacers fighting hard in his later years for the sake of Wen Banya Ma.

What can Turner and Hilde bring?

The Lakers’ current three-point hit rate (31.9%) ranks 28th in the league, with the lowest three-point hit rate in the league, and the 28th hit rate in receive the ball. The gap of the Lakers’ three points (the distance of the nearest defender is 6 feet away) can be recorded in history. If the gap of the Lakers’ three points drops, then it will be the worst of all teams in all seasons since the 2013-14 season was recorded.

Trading with Hilde may be of great help in solving the problem of three points. Hilde can hit 3.8 points in the game, ranking sixth in the league. At the same time, Hilde’s three-point hit rate was the second highest in the league at receive the ball, second only to Clay Thompson, and the three-point hit rate was also the fifth in the league. The arrival of Hilde can help the Lakers enlarge James’s role, and the latter assists teammates ranked first in NBA history in three points. The three-point shooting rate of James’s Lakers teammates this season after receiving his pass was only, which was the worst among all the passes that created at least 40 three-point opportunities.

Turner is currently in the contract year, with an average score (18.2), a hit rate (55.9%), a three-point hit rate (43.1%), a free throw hit rate (82.9%) and an average rebound rate (8.1) this season. They all hit new career highs. Despite the absence of ankle injuries in the first week of the season, Turner played 14 of the 19 Pacers. The Lakers’ defense in November limited the shooting percentage of opponents to 68 percent, ranking seventh in the league. The 26-year-old Turner can send 2.8 records of cap, which is the second time in his eight-year career that he has led the league cap. The arrival of Turner can bring Anthony Davis back to a more comfortable position, causing damage on the outside line.

Wei Shao is still the problem of the Lakers?

Not necessarily, but weishao’s contract is definitely a problem. The Lakers don’t have enough reliable players to convert the contract of 47.1 million dollars less to two rotating players, which can make the depth of the Lakers rotation team closer to a playoff-level team. After Wei Shao played the substitute, he could contribute 15.7 points and 8.1 assists in the game, which became a rare highlight of the Lakers this season. After a year of struggle last year, Wei Shao led the second team to finally find the rhythm.

Some decisions on weishao court have been questioned, especially the game lost to the King on November 11. After losing this game, the Lakers’ record came to 2 wins and 10 losses. After the game, Anthony Davis said: “At the end of the first half, we made some mistakes, and the King played a wave of 14 to 5. At some moments, we had no room to make mistakes.” The wave Davis was referring to was due to Wei Shao’s decision-making mistakes, which led the Lakers to lose the motivation of the game before the half-time break. Weishao’s field goal percentage this season is the lowest in his career. The error rate is the seventh difference in the league, and weishao has the lowest playing time in the last ten.

After playing five games in the season, Lakers coach Ham adjusted Wei Shao’s position from the starting point to the sixth, and has been praising the veteran of the 15-year career ever since. Earlier this month, coach Ham was asked if Wei Shao would return to the starting line-up after James suffered a groin injury: “I like what Wei Shao brought, he led the replacement team to provide the team with the help they needed. Only when Wei Shao can control the whole audience, he is Wei Shao. Let him control the ball and control the rhythm, and play more freely.”

But if the Lakers plan to upgrade the lineup around James this season, the veteran who has been fighting for 20 years will have another excellent chance to compete for the championship. As Pelinka said, his goal during the off-season was to “protect James’s glory”, so he would definitely not bypass the contract with less power.

What else to worry about?

Let’s start with Turner’s availability. In the past two seasons, Turner has only played 89 of the 154 Pacers due to foot and ankle injuries. According to this, if Davis is injured, Turner’s insurance may not be reliable either.

Some sources said that the Lakers also considered some other issues when evaluating the deal before the training camp, which eventually led the Lakers to be unwilling to put all their eggs in one basket, such:

Will Turner or Hilde be the player who will definitely stay on the court at the critical moment of the Lakers playoffs?

If the opponent plays a small squad, will Turner still stay on the court?

Is Hilde’s defensive ability sufficient? In other words, coach ham is more willing to trust flank players like Reeves or little Troy Brown in this position?

Recall the players of the Lakers’ previous contract year, including Howard in 2012 and Schroeder in 2020. If Turner took the old path of Howard and Schroeder and asked the Lakers to give a big contract a few months later, would such a risk be worth giving up the probably valuable picks for him in the future?

Can this deal save the Lakers season?

Maybe, the source said that the leading players in the Lakers dressing room believed that as long as they joined a few more players, the team would become a real winning team, but getting the right players may require more than one deal. Therefore, it is very risky to send the first round of signing in 2027 and 2029 at the same time in a transaction with walkers. Pelinka admitted this view in the media day interview in September. He said: “There is only one chance to deal with multiple picks. If you do this deal, you must ensure that you are the right player, I don’t mean a specific player in the team.”

In addition, there may be a way to pack Wei Shao and a first-round signing for a player, and then pack the contract between Beverly (13 million) and Nunn (5.3 million), plus another first-round signing in exchange for another key player. The Lakers only have the contract between Beverly and naen, which is enough to match the contract of the last player who has proved himself.

Time is tight. Even if the Lakers have improved in the recent game, the 7-11 record is three wins from the last playoff seat in the West. If there is a chance to trade until the middle of January, it is cruel for the Lakers. From now until January 9 next year, the Lakers will have 15 away games in the next 23 games. By that time, the Lakers had already played 40 games. Considering the current away record of 2 wins and 6 losses, the Lakers are likely to win less than 50%. This is very worrying. Will it be worthwhile to invest more future talent show assets this season at that time?

Maybe the Lakers should keep the current lineup to finish this season. Next summer, they will use the salary space to sign free players. After the draft night, they will explore the voting rights trading plan, at that time, the Lakers can also be traded for the rookie selected in the first round of 2023.

For today’s Lakers, there are far more questions than answers.

Original: Dave McMenamin

Compile: Li Taibai

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