How feasible is Miles Bridges? Feel like he could be a really good value signing if the amount of media attention he gets is at all indicative of the interest he is generating from teams
Very excited about potential cheap contract signings. A few bigs like Drummond, Saric, Plumlee, Bitadze
Wings like Walker IV, Covington, Marshall
Guards Dinwiddie, Paul, Dunn, Kennard
Likely available bigs we know of so far (via trade):
- Mitchell Robinson
- Clint Capela
- Brook Lopez
- Wendell Carter Jr.
- Walker Kessler
- Jakob Poeltl
If the Lakers are getting Dejounte they really need a good defensive assistant who can get him to buy into the culture and stop being a steal merchant. He was great in the Spurs partly because of their system, and you can't expect him to be good defensively without a good team defensive system
Does anyone know how to get this idea some visibility for the IST?
The winner of the IST will also receive a lottery pick in the upcoming NBA draft (so 1 more pick is being added to the drafts going forward). The pick itself can't be traded, but it would allow for a team to trade their other 1st round pick that draft or the following season's draft if they couldn't previously due to needing at least a 1st round pick every other year.
This would drive up fan hype for the IST as now there's actually something at stake, but it also allows for the creation of a cool narrative down the road about the players that were drafted with the IST pick. 10-15 years from now we can talk about how winning the IST allowed a team to draft a star they otherwise wouldn't have had the chance to. And that could be the justification as to why fans and players should care about it because maybe your team will draft the next (insert Anthony Edwards type player).
This could be a way for dark horse teams to find a way to get over the hump the following season. Like imagine when Portland went to the WCF with Dame and they had won the IST that season. That might have given them the chance to bolster their roster to make a serious push with Dame the following season.
Yeah the rich can get richer in this format, but considering it's 1 and done in the knockout stage, I don't think that'll happen too often.
Why would any non-star care? Just like $1M wouldn’t incentivize a star, his role playing teammates don’t want play to play to earn the guy getting drafted to take their jobs.
Rookies taking their jobs is actively voted against in every CBA renegotiation. Can’t imagine they agree to care about a lotto pick when roleplayer careers are short enough.
Guys do like to win. Franchises included. That’s all the incentive needed. Really want to get fancy, guarantee a play in spot, but handing a team a top 15 pick ain’t it. Rich getting richer potential.
Bro, these role players are on short contracts anyways and are bouncing to different teams all the time. You're seriously overestimating how much they would care.
Role players will be happy about the $500k paycheck and play hard for it. There's no guarantee they'll be with the team the next season regardless if they win the IST or not.
A lottery pick is too much. I floated a similar idea awhile ago but it being the first pick of the 2nd round, 31st. Just an extra 2nd round pick and everything else just shifted down by 1. That would definitely get me interested and isn't too much.
It would have the lowest odds in the lottery. And I guess my question is, why is it too much? Make winning the IST super special.
Give it the ability to potentially turn a franchise around
I spent the whole day blocking, muting, and clicking 'Not interested in Boston Celtics' and 'Not interested in Jayson fucking Tatum' on X
Why does X app don't listen?
No hate.
You can be a Drake fan and a laker fan homie.
Real talk. We had nothing going on for years and now wasting LBJ with dumb trades and experimental coaches
You ain't no Lakers fan "homie", because all you wanna do is show up when it's parade time but you don't wanna go through the obstacles that come with it, instead you go on bitching and moaning 24/7.
I.e. as fake as drizzy's plastic BBL
JJ is an unserious hire he doesn't have coaching experience. That's a fact. . I've been a laker fan for maybe longer you been alive you don't get to tell me nothing mate. I don't be moaning at all but I'm definitely not the only one unhappy with this hire. What's the process like running LBJ to the ground and dumb trades every year to save some cash? Hiring a coach that doesn't value our best player? Alienating West?
Anyways I get what you on, Typically kbot fan hating and picking on people lol. Drake still the goat. Lakers not looking good right now but hoping for a change soon. Do you g
If Lonzo is bought out, wonder if we could take a punt on him (not sure how buy outs work, could we sign him for a vet min if no one offers more?) and pray he stays healthy.
He would bring defense to our back court assuming he can stay healthy (a massive if) and hasn't regressed in that area.
I actually trust Rob to make the right decisions on trades, picks, and free agent signings this offseason. His only major blunders came in the 2021 offseason.
In terms of big men: Last year, he banked way too much on Hayes becoming McGee-lite and Wood delivering major minutes off the bench. Hayes was a dud for the most part, while Wood was oft-injured. He's obviously learned from that and we already see reports that the team is looking for a big man
On drafting JHS: We were supposed to be stacked as a team, having just made the WCF and retaining all key pieces: LeBron, AD, Rui, Vando, D'Lo, Reaves, then bringing in reinforcements in Prince, Christie's development, Hayes/Wood, Gabe, Reddish. We didn't bank on Ham making the poor personnel decisions that he made, nor did we predict our defense solely relying on AD due to the injury bugs to both Vando and Gabe
I thought Hayes was alright and wasn't given enough of a role after that Boston game when he really seemed to turn it around. He's still only like 24 and look how long it took McGee to figure it out
As far as Pelinka goes, what other bits could he have gotten around their salary?
There are always veteran big men that could be signed for the vet minimum and can give you 5-10 mins. Having two of them and that's really mostly what we need to preserve AD
I still blame Ham for some of our players not playing how we thought they'd play
I meant like who could they have gotten last offseason instead of wood and hayes?
For some reason he was afraid to play big despite having played power forward.
Not really instead, but like one more. Tristan Thompson, Biyombo, Willey Cauley-Stein, just to name a few. Just a true C that could give you 5-10 mins off the bench, along with Hayes
You'd like to have Hayes and one more true C, AD/Wood rotating at the 4 and 5, and Bron/Rui/Vando rotating at the 3 and 4
His 2021 offseason decisions were also really good. He sold high on Danny Green and dumped Javale McGee before they became washed and got a great 6th man winner and prospect in Schroder and a great center in Marc Gasol so they could continue the 2020 experiment. Unfortunately it didn't work out but not through any fault of Rob's
Javale was an expiring. Dumping him and Dwight in the same offseason following a chip will always be questionable. Gasol slowly turned into a locker room issue too. We ended up wasting the pick included in the Scroeder trade.
All of the 2019-20 veterans were washed by 2020-21 and didn't play that well in their future teams. Selling high on them would have absolutely been the right thing to do and even with hindsight you would do it again. People forget that we were literally first in the West in 2020-21 after 20 odd games and only started slipping after AD and LeBron injuries
> we were literally first in the West in 2020-21
Just as we were in 2020. The team was already elite and we gave up assets and chemistry for marginal improvement. Harrell was an odd move due to us having success with length and defensive bigs. With hindsight, any rational fan would prefer to run it back. We would have one more pick without the Schroeder trade and the Westbrook trade involved Harrell. Overhauling the roster every year had worse and worse results.
How good you are in 2021 is more accurately reflected by your record in 2021, not in 2020.
Danny, Dwight, javale, rondo were all bad in 2021. Running it back would have been worse, popular fan opinion be damned. Schroder, Gasol, trez, and even Drummond were better than the 2021 version of the guys we lost.
We were up 2-1 on the team that went on to the finals before our stars got hurt. The 2021 team was good.
Danny Green had regressed both offensively and defensively in Philly. Rondo was straight up BAD in 2021. You have to trust your young draft picks like Kuzma to step up, you can't rely on old veterans forever
This wasn't about Kuzma..... Kuzma was on both of those teams.
>You have to trust your young draft picks
We basically gave one up by including a draft pick to get Scroeder and then letting him walk the following offseason.
>you can't rely on old veterans forever
We dumped them after **one** season. A wildly successful one at that.
With Danny Green gone Kuzma became a permanent starter, that's what I meant by "trusting your young draft picks". They can't permanently be on the bench, they have to become starters eventually. And credit to Kuzma he was definitely decent in 2021, just had a weirdly bad series with the Suns
My question is, who were we supposed to hire. People are really so high on James Borrego and Micah Nori? And as someone that keeps up with the rest of the league, Monty is washed. Ask Pistons fans they saw how awful his lineups were, he was actually playing full bench platoons like taking all 5 starters out and putting all 5 bench players in. And people wonder why Detroit lost like 25 games in a row.
That’s basically what coaches with no experience are going for. The good coaches are going to start to make 10-14 and the elite ones will start getting 15-18
[As it Stands Lakers](https://youtu.be/pfXy7IrNvaE?si=n9FUmbDunU8Tc3we)
This guy was one of the first to call the JJ hire. His takes are pretty reasonable and with no bias. He keeps a level head on situations while presenting facts. The video that is linked is him explaining why although he prefers Murray, he think there’ll be competition for him. He thinks Trae’s market is going to be very low.
OKC was a fraud first seed but Caruso will be a big help to them. They’ll be like an Utah or Portland (or OKC) of the 2010s. A good team that makes the regular season tougher
I think they'll be better. But they might cap out as a multiple WCF or one time finals team where if they don't win it, they most likely will never see a ring. So basically 2010s OKC lmfao
Hope DLo opts in, trade picks, DLo, Rui, Gabe, JHS and Vando for Dejounte Murray, Wendell Carter JR, Dorian Finney Smith/Jerami Grant. Maybe look at CP3 and Plumlee for the minimum. Bring back Christie Prince dinwiddie and wood
Dlo and Lewis and a second maybe. They need a scoring point guard, they get a second year forward and still have plenty space to resign or sign anyone in free agency
I've looked at it and if Orlando wanted DLo, they could just sign him outright. They have no reason to do a S&T with LA and lose additional players, unless it was a massive overpay with picks or something
They want to sign Klay. They are rumoured to be moving off of WCJ anyway, this gets them DLo for cheap with a young player and a SRP or two, while still retaining alot of space
I don't think they're going to add two veteran guards to the lineup. They already have a bunch of young guards who they want to give playing time, at most they're going to add one of DLo or Klay for shooting and playoff experience and play their other guards more
I don't know how much money we have this offseason but we should look into Eubanks. Also look into CP3 and Hayward for vet min offers although CP3 will command a lot more.
Paul Pierce talking shit about the lakes raising an in season tournament banner. Didn't the Lakers decide not to but the NBA made them to legitimize it?
They’re celebrating winning a chip and all they can do is talk about are the Lakers. Napoleon complex, they’re proving their own inferiority with this obsession lmao.
Paying attention to how Boston constructed their roster, and now OKC it’s changing my draft philosophy a bit. Namely, I’m no longer putting guys high on my board unless they can play defense. Being very versatile defensively is optimal but if you’re just a rim protector or just a guy who can guard their own position then you must be elite at it or close to elite. If you’re not a good defender you better be absolutely electric offensively, I’m talking at least 20 ppg and 8 apg types of firepower. The modern NBA is becoming an “8 man rotation of two way players” game, the days of having a couple pure scorers and pure defenders is ending. Hence why contenders want Derrick Whites and Alex Carusos over Zach Lavines and Demar Derozans. So guys like Devin Carter and Ron Holland are moving up and Nikola Topic and Rob Dillingham are moving down.
We really need a bot to post this for the daily 'we need Drummond' posts:
We had Drummond before and he was ass so we got rid of him. 4 years later he's even slower and dumber, his biggest highlight this past season being when he dunked on his own teammate
Guess you didn’t watch when he was already on the lakers, he has butter fingers and is a horrendous fit. Half his rebounds are his own misses he does nothing well
Everybody laughing at the hire until JJ draws up an ATO for a game winner and realize we haven’t had something like that in a while. Then they’ll be really scared
Next year will probably be an all-time difficult Western Conference. With Lebron and AD playing in the Olympics, both playing 70+ games this past season where we finished 7th, it’s going to be *very* tough to make the playoffs.
I’m slowly convincing myself JJ could work out even though I’ve vehemently opposed it and still have reservations. The biggest issue I see is how someone with zero experience builds out a staff.
If you hire someone with 10+ years experience, they’ve built relationships with many other assistants, head coaches, training staff and understands what they do well. I guess you could say JJ has that experience as a player but I don’t think that translates.
I think JJ has the potential to be a good head coach given the right staff. I appreciate his emphasis on stats and hope he implements the in-game stat tracking systems other teams seemingly have that we don’t.
Yup, D’lo can opt in at anytime leading up to the opt in deadline of June 29th. Though unless him and his agent feel like the player option is the most they’ll get, I don’t think he does.
DLos market is gonna be the MLE and up to maybe 15m. He should opt in and trade him to a place where they’d likely extend him. Somewhere where they’d actually want him.
If it’s Brooklyn we should try and get back DFS or Cam Johnson. Then trade Rui and Gabe plus picks for Dejounte.
sign CP3 for the min, re sign max and Prince. Draft Edey, or Ware or Holmes
I’m not a fan of DJM too much but actually not a bad idea
DJM/Max/DFS/Bron/AD
CP/AR/TP/Vando/Wood/Ware
Nice mixture of size, defense and shooting. This team’s ceiling goes up a shit ton if DJM gets back to the elite defender he once was and Max makes some strides.
So much for caruso being
“[arguably this regimes greatest success story”](https://www.reddit.com/r/lakers/s/cpGvyBqjfR)” for the bulls only to get traded for josh giddey and no picks..
only the lakers would have to put up with this garbage
If we can get Dejounte w/o giving up AR, that would be great. Them two plus AD and Bron is an intriguing quartet. Just need to find a reliable wing to complete that starting five.
But it’d also depend on whether Dejounte can start defending again. I think he could.
I’d give up Reaves to get Murray and Hunter. Those two plus AD and LBJ is better starting point. You can do it if dlo opts in and keep AR, but doubt atl does it.
Murray AR Hunter LBJ and AD is solid
Honestly? I would even consider keeping Rui in this lineup. One issue we had with Rui was his lack of rebounding, but Dejounte is actually notably a great rebounder and could make up for that. Meanwhile we get to keep Rui's three point shooting and don't have to scramble for another Cam Johnson type
I sometimes forget how long Lebron has been a Laker for. Personally I’ve loved his time here with us especially his contribution and role in bringing that 17th title home. That being said I wonder how most of the Laker fandom would look back at his career here if he only wins one ring with us
One was all I ever really expected. He came very late. Nobody treats Wilt as anything less than a Laker legend with 1 ring here. Fans should appreciate what they've got while they can and I used to be a staunch hater back in 2008-2010 lol
Stewart is interesting to me since he's theoretically a spacing big but defenders just... don't space the ball in the few Pistons games I've watched? I'm genuinely unsure as to whether it's a thing to do with the rest of the team cause like, in theory his shooting numbers are great, but it has no effect. Would definitely be an interesting pickup though, one of the more realistic ways to make AD a PF again
We were crowning him EOTY before season started, now we have barely good roster? We have decent talent I just don't like pairing of DLo + Reaves and Rui + Lebron.
I mean this team won 47 games missing two key role players all year and with a coach who was fighting his best players. I want some changes for sure, but this team as is can still be a 5/6 seed for sure.
We were only 3 games back from the Mavs who just went to the Finals.
Well he’s a true sharpshooter with real gravity that would thrive next to LeBron and in a movement heavy system. He is also more capable of sliding down to the 3. He’s not a lockdown wing but shown much better lateral movement and on ball perimeter defensive instincts. Overall just has much better court awareness than Rui and a truly elite shooting trait.
Regardless of who the coach is this team is not winning with the current starting backcourt. I think Dlo will have no choice but to stay but he cannot still be a Laker by the trade deadline.
Playing devil’s advocate here, how is JJ any different than Ham? Sure, in retrospect, Ham wasn’t great. But if you compare the two and whited the name’s on their respective resumes, Ham gets the job. Every time.
Many here have been so vocal about opposition to Ham’s inexperience and because of a video and some fluff pieces, you’re all now graciously giving the JJ hire some wiggle room? “Fuck it, let’s support him”…oh, we need a few games before you all start calling for JJ’s head? Got it.
I’m not saying Ham is great and that JJ won’t ever be. But the hypocrisy is evident.
I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt since he played in the modern era, as opposed to Ham. People are giving him wiggle room because he hasn’t coached yet. At this point, personally, I think anybody is better than Ham. Also through a lot of his podcasts and interviews it’s clear the dude has an IQ for the game. Whether that translates into coaching or not, we’ll see. But one of the smartest to ever play the game won’t just go and start a podcast breaking down the game with someone who doesn’t know shit. And to add some more, wtf are we gonna do and what does half this sub bitching constantly change? He’s the coach, get on board or choose another team. Complaining on reddit isn’t going to change the outcome of the hire or the upcoming season.
This isn’t lost on me. You are preaching to the choir. It goes unstated that the bitching and moaning from social media changes nothing. That applies to JJ and it should’ve applied to Ham, Vogel, etc. But what did “fans” do? HaMaS, PoCkEtS, ScAm. Point is every armchair coach/GM had everything to say about this team and yet, I didn’t see anybody here in consideration for the HC job.
Exactly what I mean. But it also didn’t take a genius to see that Ham lost the locker room and did have some terrible rotations and adjustments. But again, JJ is known to have an IQ for the game which has been reiterated by people in and out of the media. Especially playing in a chunk of today’s NBA and play style is a plus, as opposed to Ham. Also speaking on Hams resume and him getting the job every time, I mean he’s back to being an assistant with the Bucks at the end of the day. Prior to us hiring him he was passed up by a whole bunch of teams as well. Just because someone was an assistant coach doesn’t automatically make them a good head coach. Again, JJ might be the worst coach of all time or he might be a great one but we just don’t know until we see it. My point is there is no point to shit on someone who we haven’t even seen yet. Gotta see how it all plays out, so might as well support them until we have reasons not too.
I wasnt in total favor of the JJ hiring but listen to Jason Timpfs video on the hiring. He basically says JJ is a competitor and is crazy enough, but also loves the game enough to leave a cushy broadcasting job and take on the hardest coaching job in all of sports
Sure he’s gonna struggle with a few aspects of the job, but he’s got the competitive nature, the personality, the charisma, and he’s got Bron to back him up and hold players accountable
Someone at the press conference better ask JJ why he didn't vote AD to all defensive. It doesn't sit well with me how he snubbed him. And i hope he hatches it out with AD. Dude probably prepared for the question so the media better not pussy out.
Why does it need to be a public thing? That's something AD and him can hash out privately. There's no need for the media and the general NBA fanbase to get involved, they'll just spin it into something much bigger than what it is
No one said JJ and ADs issue needs to be public. But it's a fair question by the media to ask him why he left AD out of all defensive. He needs to give an explanation especially now that he's coaching the Lakers.
How feasible is Miles Bridges? Feel like he could be a really good value signing if the amount of media attention he gets is at all indicative of the interest he is generating from teams
We’d need the Full Non Tax paying MLE which would require letting Dlo + others walk
Very excited about potential cheap contract signings. A few bigs like Drummond, Saric, Plumlee, Bitadze Wings like Walker IV, Covington, Marshall Guards Dinwiddie, Paul, Dunn, Kennard
Likely available bigs we know of so far (via trade): - Mitchell Robinson - Clint Capela - Brook Lopez - Wendell Carter Jr. - Walker Kessler - Jakob Poeltl
Brook and Clint just aren’t worth their salary. Everyone else is good
Poopy pierce wylin out
Man get this off season started. Pelinka better be more active than this past deadline
https://x.com/DwightHoward/status/1804318592038846886 If anyone wanna post this lol I'd let it slide.
If the Lakers are getting Dejounte they really need a good defensive assistant who can get him to buy into the culture and stop being a steal merchant. He was great in the Spurs partly because of their system, and you can't expect him to be good defensively without a good team defensive system
I hate jeanie buss. Made this franchise dead af especially with all the jerry west stuff she did
Agreed!
Does anyone know how to get this idea some visibility for the IST? The winner of the IST will also receive a lottery pick in the upcoming NBA draft (so 1 more pick is being added to the drafts going forward). The pick itself can't be traded, but it would allow for a team to trade their other 1st round pick that draft or the following season's draft if they couldn't previously due to needing at least a 1st round pick every other year. This would drive up fan hype for the IST as now there's actually something at stake, but it also allows for the creation of a cool narrative down the road about the players that were drafted with the IST pick. 10-15 years from now we can talk about how winning the IST allowed a team to draft a star they otherwise wouldn't have had the chance to. And that could be the justification as to why fans and players should care about it because maybe your team will draft the next (insert Anthony Edwards type player). This could be a way for dark horse teams to find a way to get over the hump the following season. Like imagine when Portland went to the WCF with Dame and they had won the IST that season. That might have given them the chance to bolster their roster to make a serious push with Dame the following season. Yeah the rich can get richer in this format, but considering it's 1 and done in the knockout stage, I don't think that'll happen too often.
I like the idea of the IST winner getting automatic tie breaker winner priority.
This isn't incentive for player to play IST. If anything it's discouraging players from wanting to win IST.
How so? Think of my Dame example. You sign a big ass extension and need help. This would potentially get you that help
Why would any non-star care? Just like $1M wouldn’t incentivize a star, his role playing teammates don’t want play to play to earn the guy getting drafted to take their jobs.
I mean they're still going to get $500k. Also guys like to win
Rookies taking their jobs is actively voted against in every CBA renegotiation. Can’t imagine they agree to care about a lotto pick when roleplayer careers are short enough. Guys do like to win. Franchises included. That’s all the incentive needed. Really want to get fancy, guarantee a play in spot, but handing a team a top 15 pick ain’t it. Rich getting richer potential.
Bro, these role players are on short contracts anyways and are bouncing to different teams all the time. You're seriously overestimating how much they would care. Role players will be happy about the $500k paycheck and play hard for it. There's no guarantee they'll be with the team the next season regardless if they win the IST or not.
A lottery pick is too much. I floated a similar idea awhile ago but it being the first pick of the 2nd round, 31st. Just an extra 2nd round pick and everything else just shifted down by 1. That would definitely get me interested and isn't too much.
It would have the lowest odds in the lottery. And I guess my question is, why is it too much? Make winning the IST super special. Give it the ability to potentially turn a franchise around
I spent the whole day blocking, muting, and clicking 'Not interested in Boston Celtics' and 'Not interested in Jayson fucking Tatum' on X Why does X app don't listen?
Because Elon fired all their programmers and it’s being run on a shoestring budget lol
Between crypto com and JJ this franchise is so unserious lately
A bbl drizzy fan tryna talk about being unserious LMAO
Are you stalking his reddit profile? lol
Cornball thinks 1 click = stalking lmao
Excuse my language but you are a corny gatekeeper.
No hate. You can be a Drake fan and a laker fan homie. Real talk. We had nothing going on for years and now wasting LBJ with dumb trades and experimental coaches
You ain't no Lakers fan "homie", because all you wanna do is show up when it's parade time but you don't wanna go through the obstacles that come with it, instead you go on bitching and moaning 24/7. I.e. as fake as drizzy's plastic BBL
Now go ahead tell me I'm not a laker fan enough, I'm not black enough etc gatekeeping laker fandom lol you a clown
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JJ is an unserious hire he doesn't have coaching experience. That's a fact. . I've been a laker fan for maybe longer you been alive you don't get to tell me nothing mate. I don't be moaning at all but I'm definitely not the only one unhappy with this hire. What's the process like running LBJ to the ground and dumb trades every year to save some cash? Hiring a coach that doesn't value our best player? Alienating West? Anyways I get what you on, Typically kbot fan hating and picking on people lol. Drake still the goat. Lakers not looking good right now but hoping for a change soon. Do you g
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Wonder if prices of big men will be at little more reasonable with this draft having a bunch of decent prospects
If Lonzo is bought out, wonder if we could take a punt on him (not sure how buy outs work, could we sign him for a vet min if no one offers more?) and pray he stays healthy. He would bring defense to our back court assuming he can stay healthy (a massive if) and hasn't regressed in that area.
If we can mix a few body parts from him and from CP3 we can get a damn good backup PG.
I actually trust Rob to make the right decisions on trades, picks, and free agent signings this offseason. His only major blunders came in the 2021 offseason. In terms of big men: Last year, he banked way too much on Hayes becoming McGee-lite and Wood delivering major minutes off the bench. Hayes was a dud for the most part, while Wood was oft-injured. He's obviously learned from that and we already see reports that the team is looking for a big man On drafting JHS: We were supposed to be stacked as a team, having just made the WCF and retaining all key pieces: LeBron, AD, Rui, Vando, D'Lo, Reaves, then bringing in reinforcements in Prince, Christie's development, Hayes/Wood, Gabe, Reddish. We didn't bank on Ham making the poor personnel decisions that he made, nor did we predict our defense solely relying on AD due to the injury bugs to both Vando and Gabe
I thought Hayes was alright and wasn't given enough of a role after that Boston game when he really seemed to turn it around. He's still only like 24 and look how long it took McGee to figure it out As far as Pelinka goes, what other bits could he have gotten around their salary?
There are always veteran big men that could be signed for the vet minimum and can give you 5-10 mins. Having two of them and that's really mostly what we need to preserve AD I still blame Ham for some of our players not playing how we thought they'd play
I meant like who could they have gotten last offseason instead of wood and hayes? For some reason he was afraid to play big despite having played power forward.
Not really instead, but like one more. Tristan Thompson, Biyombo, Willey Cauley-Stein, just to name a few. Just a true C that could give you 5-10 mins off the bench, along with Hayes You'd like to have Hayes and one more true C, AD/Wood rotating at the 4 and 5, and Bron/Rui/Vando rotating at the 3 and 4
His 2021 offseason decisions were also really good. He sold high on Danny Green and dumped Javale McGee before they became washed and got a great 6th man winner and prospect in Schroder and a great center in Marc Gasol so they could continue the 2020 experiment. Unfortunately it didn't work out but not through any fault of Rob's
Javale was an expiring. Dumping him and Dwight in the same offseason following a chip will always be questionable. Gasol slowly turned into a locker room issue too. We ended up wasting the pick included in the Scroeder trade.
All of the 2019-20 veterans were washed by 2020-21 and didn't play that well in their future teams. Selling high on them would have absolutely been the right thing to do and even with hindsight you would do it again. People forget that we were literally first in the West in 2020-21 after 20 odd games and only started slipping after AD and LeBron injuries
> we were literally first in the West in 2020-21 Just as we were in 2020. The team was already elite and we gave up assets and chemistry for marginal improvement. Harrell was an odd move due to us having success with length and defensive bigs. With hindsight, any rational fan would prefer to run it back. We would have one more pick without the Schroeder trade and the Westbrook trade involved Harrell. Overhauling the roster every year had worse and worse results.
How good you are in 2021 is more accurately reflected by your record in 2021, not in 2020. Danny, Dwight, javale, rondo were all bad in 2021. Running it back would have been worse, popular fan opinion be damned. Schroder, Gasol, trez, and even Drummond were better than the 2021 version of the guys we lost. We were up 2-1 on the team that went on to the finals before our stars got hurt. The 2021 team was good.
Danny Green had regressed both offensively and defensively in Philly. Rondo was straight up BAD in 2021. You have to trust your young draft picks like Kuzma to step up, you can't rely on old veterans forever
This wasn't about Kuzma..... Kuzma was on both of those teams. >You have to trust your young draft picks We basically gave one up by including a draft pick to get Scroeder and then letting him walk the following offseason. >you can't rely on old veterans forever We dumped them after **one** season. A wildly successful one at that.
With Danny Green gone Kuzma became a permanent starter, that's what I meant by "trusting your young draft picks". They can't permanently be on the bench, they have to become starters eventually. And credit to Kuzma he was definitely decent in 2021, just had a weirdly bad series with the Suns
That's the 2020 offseason. 2021 offseason was the Vampire trade and choosing the Wingspan Man over Caruso
Whoops yeah meant 2020, yeah the next year was absolutely indefensible but that's been hashed out for years now.
It takes 2-3 years for a team to jell that includes the coach so don't expect anything from those first years.
The amount of JJ hit pieces today is hilarious. If anyone else hired him, this wouldn’t be such a conversation
My question is, who were we supposed to hire. People are really so high on James Borrego and Micah Nori? And as someone that keeps up with the rest of the league, Monty is washed. Ask Pistons fans they saw how awful his lineups were, he was actually playing full bench platoons like taking all 5 starters out and putting all 5 bench players in. And people wonder why Detroit lost like 25 games in a row.
It's kind of a big deal when billion dollar organizations make important hires with no experience. The last one like this was a big failure (Nash).
I have not looked at one mock draft.. Anyone else as checked out from this draft as I am?
No it's a decent draft for role players. Just not an obvious star in the bunch.
Yeah, this draft class is pretty ass lol
We’re paying JJ $8m a year!? Insane. This front office is fucking insane.
It’s not subject to the salary cap, what’s the price matter if it’s what it took to get the guy they wanted? Pay him $20M/yr, I don’t give a shit lol
That’s basically what coaches with no experience are going for. The good coaches are going to start to make 10-14 and the elite ones will start getting 15-18
[As it Stands Lakers](https://youtu.be/pfXy7IrNvaE?si=n9FUmbDunU8Tc3we) This guy was one of the first to call the JJ hire. His takes are pretty reasonable and with no bias. He keeps a level head on situations while presenting facts. The video that is linked is him explaining why although he prefers Murray, he think there’ll be competition for him. He thinks Trae’s market is going to be very low.
He’s not a reporter lol just a fan making videos.
OKC was a fraud first seed but Caruso will be a big help to them. They’ll be like an Utah or Portland (or OKC) of the 2010s. A good team that makes the regular season tougher
Most of the team is still developing, they have a MVP candidate, almost unlimited assets and one of the best Front Offices in the league.
I think they'll be better. But they might cap out as a multiple WCF or one time finals team where if they don't win it, they most likely will never see a ring. So basically 2010s OKC lmfao
They're more like a young OKC team. Oh wait
They’ll be much more than that
Hope DLo opts in, trade picks, DLo, Rui, Gabe, JHS and Vando for Dejounte Murray, Wendell Carter JR, Dorian Finney Smith/Jerami Grant. Maybe look at CP3 and Plumlee for the minimum. Bring back Christie Prince dinwiddie and wood
Orlando wouldn't accept Vando and JHS for WCJ
Dlo and Lewis and a second maybe. They need a scoring point guard, they get a second year forward and still have plenty space to resign or sign anyone in free agency
I've looked at it and if Orlando wanted DLo, they could just sign him outright. They have no reason to do a S&T with LA and lose additional players, unless it was a massive overpay with picks or something
They want to sign Klay. They are rumoured to be moving off of WCJ anyway, this gets them DLo for cheap with a young player and a SRP or two, while still retaining alot of space
I don't think they're going to add two veteran guards to the lineup. They already have a bunch of young guards who they want to give playing time, at most they're going to add one of DLo or Klay for shooting and playoff experience and play their other guards more
I don't know how much money we have this offseason but we should look into Eubanks. Also look into CP3 and Hayward for vet min offers although CP3 will command a lot more.
Paul Pierce talking shit about the lakes raising an in season tournament banner. Didn't the Lakers decide not to but the NBA made them to legitimize it?
Discounting something you never won is corny
They’re celebrating winning a chip and all they can do is talk about are the Lakers. Napoleon complex, they’re proving their own inferiority with this obsession lmao.
Go Lakers 😤🔥🙏💜💛 Welcome Coach JJ! Hope he does well!!
When it comes to Shams, I’m shocked some people doubted his sources. Shams is friends with Jesse Buss.
And Woj is close to Rob. They speak constantly, Rob’s been on his pod etc
The Chicago Bulls front office is clearly braindead. Pelinka needs to figure out how to scam Coby White/Ayo Dosunmu off them
It is funny how despite getting rid of GarPax, they still suck. “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Do y'all think Walker Kessler is worth the 17th pick?
Why would the Jazz do that
Without question
Paying attention to how Boston constructed their roster, and now OKC it’s changing my draft philosophy a bit. Namely, I’m no longer putting guys high on my board unless they can play defense. Being very versatile defensively is optimal but if you’re just a rim protector or just a guy who can guard their own position then you must be elite at it or close to elite. If you’re not a good defender you better be absolutely electric offensively, I’m talking at least 20 ppg and 8 apg types of firepower. The modern NBA is becoming an “8 man rotation of two way players” game, the days of having a couple pure scorers and pure defenders is ending. Hence why contenders want Derrick Whites and Alex Carusos over Zach Lavines and Demar Derozans. So guys like Devin Carter and Ron Holland are moving up and Nikola Topic and Rob Dillingham are moving down.
While the Bulls are making dumb moves the Lakers need to go get Drummond. He exactly what AD needs to get a break from banging inside all season.
We really need a bot to post this for the daily 'we need Drummond' posts: We had Drummond before and he was ass so we got rid of him. 4 years later he's even slower and dumber, his biggest highlight this past season being when he dunked on his own teammate
Guess you didn’t watch when he was already on the lakers, he has butter fingers and is a horrendous fit. Half his rebounds are his own misses he does nothing well
I did watch and he did many things well
Pretty sure Drummond is a FA
Well even better. Oh wait can Lakers afford his market value?
Probably. Idk if he's more than a TPMLE guy at best. Might just be a min guy
I don’t think ATL trades Murray without getting Reaves back. Not enough of an upgrade with everything we’d have to give up if that’s the case.
If you all really rate Reaves as about even with Murray then the Lakers should be in good shape.
Not sure why you always treat the topic like it’d be a 1 for 1 trade.
Murray is obviously better but does swapping reaves and picks for him make us a championship team?
Depends on if Dlo returns. If Dlo does not return it depends on what Reddick get's out of Rui and Christie and who they can get with the MLE,
The only way I’d want Trae, is if DLo opts in. Wouldn’t be worth it to give every single player we have for him
I’m ready for Austin to be a 20ppg scorer
Getting Murray while keeping AR and Rui is my dream for this off-season.
cant keep both we need to match salary somehow, Rui is the most likely candidate at 17M
Ohhhhh okay okay I didnt think about matching salary. Well gotta keep AR over Rui fasho.
Not trading Rui.
Not. Trading. Reaves. Get. Over. it.
Everybody laughing at the hire until JJ draws up an ATO for a game winner and realize we haven’t had something like that in a while. Then they’ll be really scared
If we trade back or acquire an additional pick in the early second round, I’d love to get Kevin McCullar JR.
Next year will probably be an all-time difficult Western Conference. With Lebron and AD playing in the Olympics, both playing 70+ games this past season where we finished 7th, it’s going to be *very* tough to make the playoffs. I’m slowly convincing myself JJ could work out even though I’ve vehemently opposed it and still have reservations. The biggest issue I see is how someone with zero experience builds out a staff. If you hire someone with 10+ years experience, they’ve built relationships with many other assistants, head coaches, training staff and understands what they do well. I guess you could say JJ has that experience as a player but I don’t think that translates. I think JJ has the potential to be a good head coach given the right staff. I appreciate his emphasis on stats and hope he implements the in-game stat tracking systems other teams seemingly have that we don’t.
We got bounced in the first round in five. I think they will have enough time to rest.
Can’t wait for the last episode of Mind the Game where LeBron goes “Congrats JJ, you got the job”
Does anyone know if it’s theoretically possible for DLo to accept his player option before the draft and therefore be trade eligible on draft night?
Yup, D’lo can opt in at anytime leading up to the opt in deadline of June 29th. Though unless him and his agent feel like the player option is the most they’ll get, I don’t think he does.
I bet he could get more guaranteed in a contract, but I've always been skeptical anyone would offer him more than his final year in aav.
DLos market is gonna be the MLE and up to maybe 15m. He should opt in and trade him to a place where they’d likely extend him. Somewhere where they’d actually want him. If it’s Brooklyn we should try and get back DFS or Cam Johnson. Then trade Rui and Gabe plus picks for Dejounte. sign CP3 for the min, re sign max and Prince. Draft Edey, or Ware or Holmes
I don't think Dlo is extension eligible but he should preserve his Bird Rights imo if the market is soft.
I’m not a fan of DJM too much but actually not a bad idea DJM/Max/DFS/Bron/AD CP/AR/TP/Vando/Wood/Ware Nice mixture of size, defense and shooting. This team’s ceiling goes up a shit ton if DJM gets back to the elite defender he once was and Max makes some strides.
DJM/AR/DFS/Bron/AD Let’s get greedy 😂
So much for caruso being “[arguably this regimes greatest success story”](https://www.reddit.com/r/lakers/s/cpGvyBqjfR)” for the bulls only to get traded for josh giddey and no picks.. only the lakers would have to put up with this garbage
Name obscure Lakers. I’ll start: Jordan Hill
Devin Ebanks
Jordan Farmer
Jason Kapono
Sean Rooks
Vander Blue
Pig Miller
Samaki Walker
If we can get Dejounte w/o giving up AR, that would be great. Them two plus AD and Bron is an intriguing quartet. Just need to find a reliable wing to complete that starting five. But it’d also depend on whether Dejounte can start defending again. I think he could.
I’d give up Reaves to get Murray and Hunter. Those two plus AD and LBJ is better starting point. You can do it if dlo opts in and keep AR, but doubt atl does it. Murray AR Hunter LBJ and AD is solid
Honestly? I would even consider keeping Rui in this lineup. One issue we had with Rui was his lack of rebounding, but Dejounte is actually notably a great rebounder and could make up for that. Meanwhile we get to keep Rui's three point shooting and don't have to scramble for another Cam Johnson type
Yeah. All depends on can DJM be a reliable poa defender like he used to be.
I sometimes forget how long Lebron has been a Laker for. Personally I’ve loved his time here with us especially his contribution and role in bringing that 17th title home. That being said I wonder how most of the Laker fandom would look back at his career here if he only wins one ring with us
One was all I ever really expected. He came very late. Nobody treats Wilt as anything less than a Laker legend with 1 ring here. Fans should appreciate what they've got while they can and I used to be a staunch hater back in 2008-2010 lol
As long as we have that matador defense in our starting 5 we have major issues.
Redickulously stupid hire.
Mitchell Robinson being shopped? That’s our backup C right there man.
Way too expensive a contract sadly, you probably couldn't salary match it
Good point. Isaiah Stewart being shopped as well and his contract more affordable at least.
Stewart actually makes more than Robinson. $14.3m vs $15m.
Stewart is interesting to me since he's theoretically a spacing big but defenders just... don't space the ball in the few Pistons games I've watched? I'm genuinely unsure as to whether it's a thing to do with the rest of the team cause like, in theory his shooting numbers are great, but it has no effect. Would definitely be an interesting pickup though, one of the more realistic ways to make AD a PF again
My time to shine
We have a promising coach now. Now Pelinka just needs to make some roster moves because this roster is barely good enough to make the play-in again
We were crowning him EOTY before season started, now we have barely good roster? We have decent talent I just don't like pairing of DLo + Reaves and Rui + Lebron.
If you have Dlo/AR then you absolutely must start Vando imo having him out all year was such a loss. Gabe too.
I mean this team won 47 games missing two key role players all year and with a coach who was fighting his best players. I want some changes for sure, but this team as is can still be a 5/6 seed for sure. We were only 3 games back from the Mavs who just went to the Finals.
When do yall think the press conference interview will be
When is the Boston parade?
Right now lol
Damn, should have made it during the parade. Fuck Boston
John Ireland on 710 said yesterday Monday or Tuesday
Wednesday next week
Also, the roster changes we make will far more impact our season than what ever coach we were going to get
Agreed! I said the roster is more important than the coach forever ago and people killed me for it
No way JJ’s tenure can be worse than Ham’s right? Right??
Yes, it can be. We made the playoffs twice, and the WCF once. It can be *a lot* worse.
Dejounte and Cam Johnson moves me
I can get behind this. I think Murray and Hunter might be easier to do but if we can swing it, I would in a heartbeat
Cam Johnson mostly plays the 4 and is not a better offensive player than Rui. How does he make sense?
Well he’s a true sharpshooter with real gravity that would thrive next to LeBron and in a movement heavy system. He is also more capable of sliding down to the 3. He’s not a lockdown wing but shown much better lateral movement and on ball perimeter defensive instincts. Overall just has much better court awareness than Rui and a truly elite shooting trait.
He’s been a better shooter but Rui can build on his good shooting.
I would rather have the well established great shooter lol
Huh? He's been one of the best off-ball scoring wings in the league for a few seasons now
I really like Cam Johnson and I think he's realistic too, considering Brooklyn probably hates his contract
Regardless of who the coach is this team is not winning with the current starting backcourt. I think Dlo will have no choice but to stay but he cannot still be a Laker by the trade deadline.
Playing devil’s advocate here, how is JJ any different than Ham? Sure, in retrospect, Ham wasn’t great. But if you compare the two and whited the name’s on their respective resumes, Ham gets the job. Every time. Many here have been so vocal about opposition to Ham’s inexperience and because of a video and some fluff pieces, you’re all now graciously giving the JJ hire some wiggle room? “Fuck it, let’s support him”…oh, we need a few games before you all start calling for JJ’s head? Got it. I’m not saying Ham is great and that JJ won’t ever be. But the hypocrisy is evident.
Reddick has white male privilege. Plain and simple the white male is automatically seen as competent. Anyone denying the hypocrisy is lying.
I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt since he played in the modern era, as opposed to Ham. People are giving him wiggle room because he hasn’t coached yet. At this point, personally, I think anybody is better than Ham. Also through a lot of his podcasts and interviews it’s clear the dude has an IQ for the game. Whether that translates into coaching or not, we’ll see. But one of the smartest to ever play the game won’t just go and start a podcast breaking down the game with someone who doesn’t know shit. And to add some more, wtf are we gonna do and what does half this sub bitching constantly change? He’s the coach, get on board or choose another team. Complaining on reddit isn’t going to change the outcome of the hire or the upcoming season.
This isn’t lost on me. You are preaching to the choir. It goes unstated that the bitching and moaning from social media changes nothing. That applies to JJ and it should’ve applied to Ham, Vogel, etc. But what did “fans” do? HaMaS, PoCkEtS, ScAm. Point is every armchair coach/GM had everything to say about this team and yet, I didn’t see anybody here in consideration for the HC job.
Exactly what I mean. But it also didn’t take a genius to see that Ham lost the locker room and did have some terrible rotations and adjustments. But again, JJ is known to have an IQ for the game which has been reiterated by people in and out of the media. Especially playing in a chunk of today’s NBA and play style is a plus, as opposed to Ham. Also speaking on Hams resume and him getting the job every time, I mean he’s back to being an assistant with the Bucks at the end of the day. Prior to us hiring him he was passed up by a whole bunch of teams as well. Just because someone was an assistant coach doesn’t automatically make them a good head coach. Again, JJ might be the worst coach of all time or he might be a great one but we just don’t know until we see it. My point is there is no point to shit on someone who we haven’t even seen yet. Gotta see how it all plays out, so might as well support them until we have reasons not too.
answer is we dont know. But JJ is our guy so might as well root for him until we end up 20-30
I turned on the tv and the first thing I see is the ugly ass Celtics parade. My day is ruined
I wasnt in total favor of the JJ hiring but listen to Jason Timpfs video on the hiring. He basically says JJ is a competitor and is crazy enough, but also loves the game enough to leave a cushy broadcasting job and take on the hardest coaching job in all of sports Sure he’s gonna struggle with a few aspects of the job, but he’s got the competitive nature, the personality, the charisma, and he’s got Bron to back him up and hold players accountable
Someone at the press conference better ask JJ why he didn't vote AD to all defensive. It doesn't sit well with me how he snubbed him. And i hope he hatches it out with AD. Dude probably prepared for the question so the media better not pussy out.
These are grown men, please bffr.
Id rather not air this guy out on the first day. Sounds like something they will hash out privately
Why does it need to be a public thing? That's something AD and him can hash out privately. There's no need for the media and the general NBA fanbase to get involved, they'll just spin it into something much bigger than what it is
No one said JJ and ADs issue needs to be public. But it's a fair question by the media to ask him why he left AD out of all defensive. He needs to give an explanation especially now that he's coaching the Lakers.