1. Hire the right coach. This is easier said than done.
2. Gotta find a guard that can shoot and defend so you aren't stuck with the DLo/Reaves pairing. You should want to close with whichever of those guys is playing better, not both.
3. Need a real center to protect AD's body.

As someone who had one of those Darvin pre-writes done (though obviously with far less extensive reporting than Dave and The Athletic crew)... I'm just gonna say... we've known we were pubbing early on this stuff for a long, long time. I'll leave it at that.

RFA's have limited means of forcing movement. The only real play is to take the qualifying offer and say 'I'm leaving in a year.' Guys like Max, who haven't made any money yet, basically never do that when there's a real contract available. I also expect him to play next year.

Max Christie is a restricted free agent this offseason.

He has the same Gilbert Arenas provision restrictions that Austin Reaves did a year ago, though obviously he isn't getting as much.

I'd estimate something between the minimum and the MLE. Maybe in the $6-7ish million range

We're probably going to hear Mike Budenholzer's name a lot if the Lakers are starting a coaching search in the next few weeks.

He's not off the table or anything... I think his relationship with Darvin makes him a less than likely choice.

No we're not doing the Mark Jackson thing. I've written about it extensively. Others have done incredible reporting on him. No. He should never be a head coach again. No.

Ty Lue would be awesome if available. Big if.

I think as a good rule of thumb, you should usually prefer hiring a coach that has recently won a championship for your team than a coach that has not. I also thought the Bucks should bring back Budenholzer after they fired Griffin. But teams never actually do that.

I think there is a good chance that David Adelman is a good NBA head coach one day. You never quite know with assistants, but obviously all of the background on him has been very, very positive.

I don't think this, specific team can hire another first-time coach.

If I were running the Los Angeles Lakers, my first choice for next year's coach would be Frank Vogel.

I, of course, do not run the Lakers. You never know whether the actual humans involved are capable of swallowing their pride on something like that.

But he would be MY choice.

A lot of people on this app agreed with Max.

People are emphasizing the wrong words in Shams' reporting on LeBron.

'James is expected to play UP TO two more NBA seasons.'

I'm sorry... up to? Is there really a defined finish line in sight here? And is he setting a symbolic target of exactly 23 seasons?

Oh this has Daryl Morey written all over it.

'Well-round depth depth.'

'WELL-ROUNDED DEPTH.'

'LeBron places importance on having well-rounded depth.'

Please, please remember these words when the 'Lakers should trade everything for INSERT HIGH-USAGE BALL-HANDLER THAT DOESN'T DEFEND HERE.'

This is pretty damning for Darvin Ham.

Shams, Jovan and Amick bring the heat as always.

Ok so the Nuggets run an empty-side pick-and-roll...

As the clock is expiring...

And the Lakers have three defenders in the weakside corner...

And nobody (we're looking at you, Rui), thinks to offer nail help?

EDIT: missed on first viewing, but Taurean tried to fix this.

How the Lakers should react to that series: 'Man, we couldn't win when we led the entire time and they shot badly from 3. We need serious changes.'

How we're afraid the Lakers will react to that series: 'Man, we led almost the entire series! We're so close as it is!'

I wrote about the missed opportunities of Darvin Ham's second season and the dangers of bringing him back for a third.

cbssports.com/nba/news/darvi…

I think you could argue in the regular season that there are times where you don't want to call that timeout. It's the Phil Jackson 'you guys figure it out' thing. It's what we all criticized Joe Mazzulla for last year.

But in the playoffs? Unbelievable.

Not calling a timeout after Denver took the lead is maybe the most ridiculous refusal to take a timeout I have ever seen in 31 years of watching basketball.

The Nuggets have gone on this exact run so. many. times against the Lakers, but Darvin just watched it.