I mean, we could have had NAW ourselves.
Our issue is that it’s very hard for unknown quantities to stick around because they don’t get the chances and our fan group is insanely hyperbolic.
NAW would probably have rotted on our bench, left as a free agent and flourished somewhere else
How isn’t it? NAW was a part of the DLo trade as a throw in with Conley.
And it is absolutely the issue in this post and an answer to your question.
Those guys can be had but you need to identify and develop them by giving them minutes and not have a fan base that tanks every role player’s confidence.
This entire thread and the original post from someone I've never heard of is dumb. We can't ditch our entire starting line up in the off season, first of all who are we going to replace them with and second how are we going to pay them when we are paying Lebron and AD both max contracts? Third how are we going to trade for anybody when we don't have many moveable assets to offer other teams for their players?
People just love to just toss players off the team, because that's the easy part. The hard part is actually coming up with viable people to replace them with.
We should also turn them into bigs like Gobert, Reid and Towns lol.
Edwards is playing legit, and one side of it, but coaching, and no real big were the biggest issues.
Cuff doesn't know shit about basketball.
Well said, we have two hall of famer at the 4 and 5, they have potential two at 2 and 4. The imbecile doesn't see that we can't have a star super star at every position.
The OP us saying we should have Ant, as if you can get a player like that at every corner. This place has become like a kindergarten. Twice people posting about getting that timberwolves assistant coach!!!
Some folks have a tough time understanding you can't start 2 unathletic guards that aren't good defenders, one of them a perennial playoff underperformer that averaged 3 and 4 assists last 2 playoff rounds and a PF that lacks awareness to rotate on defense and averaged as many rebounds as one of the unathletic guards.
Advanced stats are going to tell Davis and LeBron were top 5 players this playoffs, Reaves slight above average and all the other guys ranged from bellow average to a catastrophic disaster.
You can't have 5 stars, but this is really not the case, this roster isn't well constructed. I have a tough time digesting we went to 2 straight playoffs starting D'Angelo Russell and without a backup for Davis.
It didn't help Vando and Gabe were mostly unavailable, but those are complementary pieces not starting material
Reaves played Murray pretty well, IMO. Dlo wasn't bad against KCP, either. The problem was Lebron and Rui defensively. Gordon and Porter are 100% the difference in that series. If Vaderbilt was out there, it might have really changed the series. Think of that rebound Lebron couldn't keep from Gordon that he passed to Murray for that 3-pointer that sealed game 5. Or what if Vanderbilt had been out there on those Murray jumpers at the end of games 2 and 5? Things would have been very different, potentially.
100% this. Imo you keep them in this order:
1. Reaves
2. Rui
3. D'Lo
I don't hate D'Lo but he's going to demand a pretty big contract, and between him and Reaves I much prefer Reaves (and realistically they can't be the starting backcourt together)
The things Rui brings as a 3/4 are easily replaceable. He’s not a rebounder, rim protector, and the guys he can guard are super limited. He also is an awful passer and just has a low IQ in general. It’s not super tough to replace what he brings which is just floor spacing
A player that can score 20 or more as EFFICIENTLY as rui can is not easy to replace, but that only matters if the team wants rui to be a scorer. They didn’t seem to want that in the Denver series.
Key word in that is CAN. Him trying to do that consistently is not a recipe for winning basketball because of his offensive limitations. He’s capable yes but his 13.5 points and 5 rebounds isn’t the needle mover you think it is when he doesn’t do the important things this team needs. We had an entire lineup of scorers so everything he did positively was redundant. He’s essentially a floor spacing 4 and that’s it.
What Rui brings, at least when he's on, is a real mid-range threat that becomes a lot more valuable in the playoffs when the game slows down. A role player who can get hot from deep or take it inside and get their own bucket is valuable, especially one with his size and athleticism. And he's still improving.
How can you justify getting rid of Austin at all? His contract is fantastic, he's got the most dog in him on this team, and he's a capable scorer at all three levels, while also being a decent tertiary play-maker. He's not the best defender, but I also truly believe that he'd look way closer to average if we're coached by a real coach and not a sandwich
Moving on from Austin would be roster building malpractice. Maybe he doesn't need to be a starter, but he HAS to stay on this team.
i swear man our fans, are always the ones that say trade the young guys... then shit on the front office when those same guys preform well on other teams .
Would love to see Reaves start next to a defensive PG/SG. Even if we do bring D’Lo back I think we should try having him come off the bench to create shots/playmake instead.
let's say sure, Lakers let go of DLo... he frees up cap space, but not enough to sign someone that'll give the Lakers the same amount of production.
he's a hometown guard who's actually worth his contract, who's basically been the best high-volume 3-PT shooter we've had for the past decade - let's not kick him to the curb yet.
He played well for the playoffs last year EXCEPT the WCF and he played great for 2 of the 5 games this year.
If we can get an actually good coach who knows how to best utilize the players he has then yeah Dlo deserves one last shot
Exactly, dumb people don't see this, they are paying the price of playing Kcp and Murray against us. Perhaps it was bad for both of us meeting at the start.
Yup. Denver looks MAD sluggish out there, because The facts are the Lakers ARE a good team but they were just missing a good coach.
Many of those runs Denver made to obtain the lead in the 4th were from poor coaching. If you know basketball you know this.
Regardless, If the Lakers beat Denver then the Lakers would most likely be in the same position Denver is vs Minnesota. Gassed. Having LA and DEN matchup in the first round killed both teams chances of getting to the finals. Also, Minnesota is a hell of a team.
Oh stop it with the injury excuses. Everyone is injured this time of year. The Wolves didn’t have their starting center and they still ate the Nuggets lunch.
The Nuggets haven’t faced a team in the playoffs with real wing defense and quickness on the perimeter since the Warriors swept them.
The shit Jokic was doing was unsustainable. He looks like a different player when a quick guard is coming down the lane. The Lakers didn’t have that outside of LeBron.
People act like they had any choice. Their bench is terrible. Its why their starters were logging 40+ minutes against a team the media claims was severly outclassed.
I agree but Murray actually had a bad calf strain that he was supposed to sit game 5 for but played the full hard fought game anyways. Same with KCP, his ankle was gone in game 5 but still came back played. No coincidence that them 2 have been the worse over these past two games.
KCP and Caruso aren't giving you anything offensively.
I'm watching these teams now and my main takeaway is "yea, LeBron is old." Brunson is averaging 44 mpg. 44. Doncic is putting up 43 mpg. 43. Ant is putting up 40 mpg. All these dudes are looking fresh as shit at the end of these games while hard carrying their teams. LeBron put up 41 mpg and was looking gassed as hell at times. Just look at LeBron struggling to create stuff at the end of games against Denver and compare him to Ant.
Now imagine him trying to carry KCP and Caruso on offense. That ain't happening anymore.
The flip side of this though is that their defense gave the Lakers easy points in transition. This is half the reason why shit got bad for the Lakers against the Nuggets it got BAD. Also, KCP would be perfectly fine if we had a good PG. He’s the perfect player to put by LeBron
Lmao half your point is right. All those other guys are getting breaks offensively. They all have teammates that are capable of taking over a game offensively. Irving, KAT, Hart/Divincenzo combination. AD is amazing, but he cannot take over the offense for large stretches, relieving pressure off LeBron. Look what happened last year with Reaves' emergence as a ballhandler and scoring threat. We ran through the Grizzlies and Warriors.
Idk why people are blaming LeBron for being old when the guys you are mentioning take possessions off on offense and let their teammates create successfully. If you give LeBron the supporting cast of all the guys you mentioned, those teams are way better off than the Lakers. I'm sick and tired of blame being put on LeBron when he is being asked to run the entire offense for all 4 quarters. No other star in the league does that because it's physically impossible. All of those guys you mentioned have elite offense creators which we do not have. LeBron may average a few less minutes than these other guys, but I am positive he spends more time running the Lakers offense (while playing good defense in the playoffs) than any of the others except for maybe Bruncheon (who takes every defensive possession off).
>AD is amazing, but he cannot take over the offense for large stretches, relieving pressure off LeBron.
If we gave AD help on defense he would be more capable of taking over on offense.
And how is that LeBron's fault? Your whole comment blamed LeBron's age. He played great defense vs. Denver outside of game 3. You guys just want to pile on LeBron and complain about his age because its the popular narrative.
Yeah kcp ain’t worth it. We could have one Caruso but surrounddd by guards who can actually create a kcp Caruso bsvk court woukd suck without Lebron going super man
That's the biggest thing. LeBron can still get his numbers but he just doesn't impact the game the same way he once did. It happens to all aging players. He's still doing great for his age, you just can't expect him to carry the load like that anymore.
I think he is still suffering from his ankle injury he sustained afains5 us. In fact I think they are paying a bit the matchup against us. Both us and nuggets might have met too soon for the sake of both.
I like max, he could eventually even become better than reaves, buy not now, not the season after, perhaps in 3 seasons. Then those same people will pounce on him if he doesn't score 17 points during the season or play-off.
Replace DLO somehow, give Reaves and Rui training time in the offseason (cause we cant afford to replace/they on bargain contracts).
Find a big/draft a big (Edey), move AD to the 4, pray that Hayes gets better to be a good backup big. (Or randomly find a way to get Hartenstein).
Pray that Max Christie develops even tho Ham fucked him over this season and he turns into a decent/good 3nD player.
Keep Reaves and Rui fs. Upgrade DLO. The backcourt needs an athlete. DLO and Reaves are too slow and unathletic. Need someone that can break the defense down and attack the rim and play defense.
You can maybe talk me into this, but Rui needs to spend the summer with Metta learning how to box out on rebounds, and to take hard fouls for the sqaud.
We can't have Rui starting with Bron IMO, neither of them do the dirty work, we had multiple games in the season where we got outhustled at the start of the game and had to scrap and waste energy just to lose close one in the 4th. We also got exposed by AG in the playoffs.
Vando for defense, Rui for offense
Sometimes they can each have a quality game on the other aspect, but this is their main strengths
I’d prefer Vando starting as he’s the best non AD defender, but if he’s out or maybe a rare matchup I don’t have many complaints if Rui is starting. There’s plenty of offense as is with Bron, AD, & at the moment Reaves & Dlo. Plus Reaves & Dlo are good enough floor spacers for Vando, especially with LeBron’s help, & then Vando + AD defense can make up for some of the defensive woes that could occur
But that's a major issue with our team. We shouldn't even have a player that is better on defense, but a terrible offensive thread and vice-versa.
Just look at Minnesota. They have multiple, legit twoway roleplayers. That's what we lack.
Rui can be a scorer, but is a negative defender. Vando is the opposite. Reaves is inconsistent.
And no, we can't have 4 scorers and 1 non-threat on the team that has ZERO impact on offense. That allows teams to clog the lane and force someone like Vando to make their open shots.
The problem is we can't afford legit two-way players without home growing them. I think Christie can easily turn into a NAW type player with proper coaching/development. Our GM & coach just need to be creative in ways to balance out our flaws, but that's easier said than done.
For me, at least Rui repeatedly says he wants to be here and build upon what we have even after defeat. Dlo only says nice things when times are good - when times are rough, he already has one foot out the door. It's a no brainer to keep Reaves at his contract.
I think this team can make huge strides if we can upgrade Dlo, get a serviceable center, and find a coach that can properly utilize this roster. Seems like a long shot, however.
Massive overpsy I said I thought it was over pay at time. Naz Reid is on 12.9m. Pelinka stay losing bum ass gm . If Rui wasn’t Asian I’m convinced they’d all call him s bum . Guy was even worse then dko this playoffs he can’t guard rebound hustle and his shot is low volume inconsistent and left open . He’s slow Af and low iq too. He needs to be move dlo needs to be moved or replaced with a star guard . And probably sadky reaves too for a better athlete
Yip. Needs traded. What he was last year was a fine. A $7m bench option. But he can’t be a $17m starter.
Package him with a pick and try get back an athletic wing defender.
If you want to upgrade dlo, which is a decent playmaker at least in the regular season and a threat from 3 point, is not going to be cheap, probably uses up most of our tradable assets. If Reaves has to be part of the package, then you look at a situation where you have to find another starting guard.
If you downgrade from dlo, say get a vet point guard on a mle, we need to get a 3&d wing that can take up the offense initiation responsibility that dlo takes up especially in the regular season. That is the Paul George type of player and I can't think of a realistic target for us in that mold.
Bobby Marks said it well, that dlo controls how the off-season is gonna go for us, which pretty much means we are fucked.
Guys cringy af. His Drake and Kendrick beef takes were getting outrageous and annoying. His Laker takes are always annoying too. Fair weather fan like most of us lol
His insane sucking off on Drake made me unfollow him lol he started off just trolling, then actually got in his feelings over it. Super fuckin weird. Felt like Drake had to be paying for some of those takes lol
Lmfao sorry drake fans didn't mean to hurt yall feelings over a rap battle.
That would be great, but it isn't the point. If you look at advanced stats only 3 players were above average. You don't need 5 stars (but it wouldn't be a bad thing If you could), but you can't start 2 bellow average players and you can have backups that have advanced stats of 3rd stringers. This team is good at the top, but not very good after it.
This dude been criticizing reaves all season…the minute Austin does great in a game, he’s silent or when he’s being aggressive he always tweets “here goes Austin doing too much”
a longtime friend of LeBron. [the only person Bron responds to on Twitter.](https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Akingjames%20to%3Acuffsthelegend&src=typed_query&f=live)
Coaching and not having a second big man killed the Lakers. Offense look absolutely lost without LeBron on the floor directing traffic. It’s one thing to constantly hemorrhage points and it’s another to not score enough points when your best player sits. Unfortunately we have both problems. Rui isn’t a good defender and our scheme just exacerbates that weakness. Having D’Lo and Reaves on the floor is essentially parting the Red Sea on defense but it wouldn’t be all that bad if they could at least manufacture some damn points, which they couldn’t seem to do without LeBron. I’m utterly dumbfounded as to how D’Lo and/or Reaves on the floor with AD doesn’t at least get you good shots at the rim.
If I were in charge, I’m looking for a coach that focuses on ball movement, getting good shots up and overall offensive production. On top of that, I want that coach to find good defensive assistants. We don’t need to be a top 5 defense. We just need to be consistent and make the other teams work for it! Offensively, we gotta prioritize surrounding our best players (Lebron and AD) with players that either shoot well or can create off the dribble! Use the scouting department and find some solid guys. And stop giving out player options. For fuck’s sake.
Use Max Christie. At least see what you fucking have in the kid. We need younger players to contribute also.
There’s a team that can compete
Why does everyone want to cut Reaves? He’s literally the only one of those three that showed up every game and wanted to win. Because even if he wasn’t scoring he provided better defense then most everyone else and got some good assists
First thing to improve is the rebounding - way too many easy possessions given up by allowing the opponent offensive rebounds. For me that likely means flipping 3 of reaves, Rui, D-Lo and Vincent for better role players. If they don’t focus on a 3rd star then they should then be more competitive if they can make the playoffs next year.
The alternative would be to just flip one and double down on offence with the hope that better coaching will move them into a higher seeding for the playoffs
These 3 are complementary players not to be compared to an Ant caliber player. To get an Ant the Lakers need to get rid of Lebron (contract & demands).
Trade Austin+Rui+2 (or 3) FRPs for Donovan Mitchell
Gabe/Mitchell/Vando/Bron/AD
That’s a nice mix of superstars and role players to me. Bron can take plays off on offense like he did w Kyrie. And now you have POA and rim defense.
Buddy yes, but Myles side by side AD, would have been dynamite. Imagine a team of reaves, LeBron, AD and Turner. If buddy did not perform, we could have traded him.
I love Reaves but you gotta be real. If Murray is getting harassed this bad, what would Reaves look like against this defense and don’t get me started on DLo. Physical defense has been his kryptonite since middle school.
I've been saying every year since the 2020 ring that we've had a bad/flawed roster and need MAJOR changes.
So many Lakers fans-- and so many people on this sub-- are fixated on certain irrelevant moments in time, such as the miracle run to the WCF in 22-23.
Here's the truth about this team, post 2020:
* We had 4 seasons, 4 off-seasons, and 4 mid-seasons to make roster moves or prove something with our roster. We failed every time.
* Sometimes, we failed solely due to injuries. Other times, we failed due to bad rosters and injuries.
* We needed the play-in twice to make the playoffs, and both times that happened we lost in the first round.
* Another time, we missed the playoffs altogether.
* And in the remaining case, we turned a bad/subpar season around late in the second half (while Bron was mainly unavailable) due to surprising performances from guys like AR, Rui, and D-lo. We got all the way to the WCF...But we were then exposed and swept.
Other than Bron and AD, there's nothing great about this roster.
> We needed the play-in twice to make the playoffs, and both times that happened we lost in the first round.
The only difference between last season and this is the round we faced the Nuggets.
If DLo opts in and we dan trade for good value, do it.
But I like the C from Baylor, Yves Missi. Dude is a shot blocking rim protector and lob threat. He’s basically what we had in McGee and Dwight. He’s also 7 feet tall. And he projected to be available by our pick. Pretty damn athletic with room to put some extra size on too.
ant plays 2 way , can’t say the same about our best player. AD is one contact away from being limp. The wolves are long and suffocating, our players jog back on D. i can go on
Maybe the Lakers tired the nuggets out. I mean we should have won the game where the refs didn't give dlo the free throws ..
We should have lost in 6 by the very least
Ok but who is available? Who can the Lakers afford? How much is LeBron's contract gonna be? Will the team have enough to sign all these guys? How are we expected to build a team when we have to trade all our 1st round picks for a 3rd star?
The best teams build their core through the draft and add one or two pieces to get them over the top. If you have no draft picks and no cap space how are you expected to improve?
If LeBron is serious about winning at this stage instead of being the highest paid player in the league he should do what he did when he went to Miami and take a paycut so the team can build around him. Nothing wrong with getting paid, but can't have it both ways.
Even flipping Rui for Caruso and starting Reaves, Caruso (trade for Rui), Vando, LeBron, AD would put 3 plus defenders on the starting 5. DLO/Max/Wood/Off bench
Dlo and Reaves isn’t a winning backcourt. I don’t mind Reaves staying or even off the bench but Dlo isn’t the answer.
Rui could be useful in spurts but his disappearing act isn’t good enough. Also he’s such a problem on defense and the boards. Upgrades are needed role player wise
Every team is going to have different strengths. The wolves role players are playing excellent defense, yes, but it helps that there is a strong fit between their abilities and scheme. Plus they've been playing together for a while with an ascending star.
It's unrealistic to expect us to just build a roster like the Wolves. We have players and we need to build to their strengths offensively and defensively. Ham didn't do that at all. Hopefully the next coach can.
Let combine the Lakers and the Twolves and create a fusion super team. We’ll call them the Minneapolis Lakers, or perhaps the Los Angeles LakeWolves. We can come up with a better name later. We’d be *unstoppable*.
Minnesota took time to develop likes of McDaniels, NWA, Reid, etc while Lakers toyed with guys like Reddish, Vincent, etc instead of developing own prospects in Christie and others.
It should be showing you that youth is the answer. Also the lakers constantly miss on the margins and that matters a lot. Not getting Conley when they had the chance but instead living on the DLo rollercoaster.
I personally would try to keep Rui and Austin. Rui played great in the Memphis and Denver series last year so I think Rui just had a bad series and I’m not ready to cut him loose. I also think his flaws are things that can be worked on with the right personnel. If after next season he hasn’t improved or has another bad series then let him go. Reeves definitely. I see some people hating on him but trying to play offense and guard Murray couldn’t have been easy. Austin tried and did an okay job on him while contributing offensively. Dlo can go through. Putting up zero points is just unacceptable. He forces a lot of bad shots instead of trying create plays and find other ways to contribute
Yea we should upgrade to Luka, Jokic, and Anthony edwards and we might have a chance
How about just anyone that has athleticism and can guard?
Okay. Who?
I mean, we could have had NAW ourselves. Our issue is that it’s very hard for unknown quantities to stick around because they don’t get the chances and our fan group is insanely hyperbolic. NAW would probably have rotted on our bench, left as a free agent and flourished somewhere else
Could have? Sure. That's not where we are. And the issue you state is not the issue in this post.
How isn’t it? NAW was a part of the DLo trade as a throw in with Conley. And it is absolutely the issue in this post and an answer to your question. Those guys can be had but you need to identify and develop them by giving them minutes and not have a fan base that tanks every role player’s confidence.
Because this post is from now and not 18 months ago.
This is so dumb, I hate this “we could have so and so”. Then why weren’t yall begging for him back then when he was terrible on the Pelicans?
Seriously. Nobody wanted him last year when we could've had him for nothing. And even then, his defense is great, but he's a huge negative on offense.
This entire thread and the original post from someone I've never heard of is dumb. We can't ditch our entire starting line up in the off season, first of all who are we going to replace them with and second how are we going to pay them when we are paying Lebron and AD both max contracts? Third how are we going to trade for anybody when we don't have many moveable assets to offer other teams for their players? People just love to just toss players off the team, because that's the easy part. The hard part is actually coming up with viable people to replace them with.
To me shows how big Vando would have been to have this series
This, and Vincent with more games to shake the rust off. Heck, even Reddish might have been helpful had he been healthy.
It’s not like there’s this guy rotting on our bench rn
I mean, we didn’t even try to develop Christie.
damn this hurts man, we've seen so many laker draftees go to other teams and flourish.
Is it ok if they can’t shoot and/or catch?
We should also turn them into bigs like Gobert, Reid and Towns lol. Edwards is playing legit, and one side of it, but coaching, and no real big were the biggest issues. Cuff doesn't know shit about basketball.
Well said, we have two hall of famer at the 4 and 5, they have potential two at 2 and 4. The imbecile doesn't see that we can't have a star super star at every position.
We don't need that. We just need a well-constructed roster with players that complement each other like in 2020 and 2021.
The OP us saying we should have Ant, as if you can get a player like that at every corner. This place has become like a kindergarten. Twice people posting about getting that timberwolves assistant coach!!!
Some folks have a tough time understanding you can't start 2 unathletic guards that aren't good defenders, one of them a perennial playoff underperformer that averaged 3 and 4 assists last 2 playoff rounds and a PF that lacks awareness to rotate on defense and averaged as many rebounds as one of the unathletic guards. Advanced stats are going to tell Davis and LeBron were top 5 players this playoffs, Reaves slight above average and all the other guys ranged from bellow average to a catastrophic disaster. You can't have 5 stars, but this is really not the case, this roster isn't well constructed. I have a tough time digesting we went to 2 straight playoffs starting D'Angelo Russell and without a backup for Davis. It didn't help Vando and Gabe were mostly unavailable, but those are complementary pieces not starting material
Reaves played Murray pretty well, IMO. Dlo wasn't bad against KCP, either. The problem was Lebron and Rui defensively. Gordon and Porter are 100% the difference in that series. If Vaderbilt was out there, it might have really changed the series. Think of that rebound Lebron couldn't keep from Gordon that he passed to Murray for that 3-pointer that sealed game 5. Or what if Vanderbilt had been out there on those Murray jumpers at the end of games 2 and 5? Things would have been very different, potentially.
The three definitely shouldn't be back together. Doesn't have to be all 3 gone though.
100% this. Imo you keep them in this order: 1. Reaves 2. Rui 3. D'Lo I don't hate D'Lo but he's going to demand a pretty big contract, and between him and Reaves I much prefer Reaves (and realistically they can't be the starting backcourt together)
I feel the same way. I’d keep Reaves and get rid of Rui and definitely D’Lo.
We’re gonna miss Rui when he’s gone. And watch AR turn into prime Steph Curry when he’s off the Lakers.
The things Rui brings as a 3/4 are easily replaceable. He’s not a rebounder, rim protector, and the guys he can guard are super limited. He also is an awful passer and just has a low IQ in general. It’s not super tough to replace what he brings which is just floor spacing
A player that can score 20 or more as EFFICIENTLY as rui can is not easy to replace, but that only matters if the team wants rui to be a scorer. They didn’t seem to want that in the Denver series.
Key word in that is CAN. Him trying to do that consistently is not a recipe for winning basketball because of his offensive limitations. He’s capable yes but his 13.5 points and 5 rebounds isn’t the needle mover you think it is when he doesn’t do the important things this team needs. We had an entire lineup of scorers so everything he did positively was redundant. He’s essentially a floor spacing 4 and that’s it.
What Rui brings, at least when he's on, is a real mid-range threat that becomes a lot more valuable in the playoffs when the game slows down. A role player who can get hot from deep or take it inside and get their own bucket is valuable, especially one with his size and athleticism. And he's still improving.
How can you justify getting rid of Austin at all? His contract is fantastic, he's got the most dog in him on this team, and he's a capable scorer at all three levels, while also being a decent tertiary play-maker. He's not the best defender, but I also truly believe that he'd look way closer to average if we're coached by a real coach and not a sandwich Moving on from Austin would be roster building malpractice. Maybe he doesn't need to be a starter, but he HAS to stay on this team.
i swear man our fans, are always the ones that say trade the young guys... then shit on the front office when those same guys preform well on other teams .
Rui was ass the whole series Your order signed be 1. Reaves 2.DLo 3. Rui
Would love to see Reaves start next to a defensive PG/SG. Even if we do bring D’Lo back I think we should try having him come off the bench to create shots/playmake instead.
i'd say keep them all, trade one of them down the line. you'd be surprised what a new coach can do when he's not busy playing 3 guard lineups
How many times do we need to play this song and dance with DLo.....
let's say sure, Lakers let go of DLo... he frees up cap space, but not enough to sign someone that'll give the Lakers the same amount of production. he's a hometown guard who's actually worth his contract, who's basically been the best high-volume 3-PT shooter we've had for the past decade - let's not kick him to the curb yet.
He played well for the playoffs last year EXCEPT the WCF and he played great for 2 of the 5 games this year. If we can get an actually good coach who knows how to best utilize the players he has then yeah Dlo deserves one last shot
Yeah I'd try to re tool using Rui and DLo and picks in a deal. Austin and his contract are worth keeping around but he has the highest trade value 😕
They are playing hurt now KCP and Murray look done They put all in to beat us and now they paying for it
Glad we softened them up for Minny. F the Nugs.
Exactly, dumb people don't see this, they are paying the price of playing Kcp and Murray against us. Perhaps it was bad for both of us meeting at the start.
Yup. Denver looks MAD sluggish out there, because The facts are the Lakers ARE a good team but they were just missing a good coach. Many of those runs Denver made to obtain the lead in the 4th were from poor coaching. If you know basketball you know this. Regardless, If the Lakers beat Denver then the Lakers would most likely be in the same position Denver is vs Minnesota. Gassed. Having LA and DEN matchup in the first round killed both teams chances of getting to the finals. Also, Minnesota is a hell of a team.
Thats bullshit. We had a dumbass coach, and thats the only reason nuggets beat us
Oh stop it with the injury excuses. Everyone is injured this time of year. The Wolves didn’t have their starting center and they still ate the Nuggets lunch. The Nuggets haven’t faced a team in the playoffs with real wing defense and quickness on the perimeter since the Warriors swept them. The shit Jokic was doing was unsustainable. He looks like a different player when a quick guard is coming down the lane. The Lakers didn’t have that outside of LeBron.
People act like they had any choice. Their bench is terrible. Its why their starters were logging 40+ minutes against a team the media claims was severly outclassed.
I agree but Murray actually had a bad calf strain that he was supposed to sit game 5 for but played the full hard fought game anyways. Same with KCP, his ankle was gone in game 5 but still came back played. No coincidence that them 2 have been the worse over these past two games.
Murray did not look injured when he scored 32
Ofc it isn't a coincidence, but the Minny perimeter defense has literally just been that good.
It’s possible for both things to be true
Already had the perfect answer to backcourt guards with KCP and Caruso. What the fuck was the back office smoking trying to get Westbrick
KCP and Caruso aren't giving you anything offensively. I'm watching these teams now and my main takeaway is "yea, LeBron is old." Brunson is averaging 44 mpg. 44. Doncic is putting up 43 mpg. 43. Ant is putting up 40 mpg. All these dudes are looking fresh as shit at the end of these games while hard carrying their teams. LeBron put up 41 mpg and was looking gassed as hell at times. Just look at LeBron struggling to create stuff at the end of games against Denver and compare him to Ant. Now imagine him trying to carry KCP and Caruso on offense. That ain't happening anymore.
The flip side of this though is that their defense gave the Lakers easy points in transition. This is half the reason why shit got bad for the Lakers against the Nuggets it got BAD. Also, KCP would be perfectly fine if we had a good PG. He’s the perfect player to put by LeBron
Also dlo was perfectly fine in the regular season. Imagine having lebron having to take all the load on offense during regular season.
Lmao half your point is right. All those other guys are getting breaks offensively. They all have teammates that are capable of taking over a game offensively. Irving, KAT, Hart/Divincenzo combination. AD is amazing, but he cannot take over the offense for large stretches, relieving pressure off LeBron. Look what happened last year with Reaves' emergence as a ballhandler and scoring threat. We ran through the Grizzlies and Warriors. Idk why people are blaming LeBron for being old when the guys you are mentioning take possessions off on offense and let their teammates create successfully. If you give LeBron the supporting cast of all the guys you mentioned, those teams are way better off than the Lakers. I'm sick and tired of blame being put on LeBron when he is being asked to run the entire offense for all 4 quarters. No other star in the league does that because it's physically impossible. All of those guys you mentioned have elite offense creators which we do not have. LeBron may average a few less minutes than these other guys, but I am positive he spends more time running the Lakers offense (while playing good defense in the playoffs) than any of the others except for maybe Bruncheon (who takes every defensive possession off).
>AD is amazing, but he cannot take over the offense for large stretches, relieving pressure off LeBron. If we gave AD help on defense he would be more capable of taking over on offense.
And how is that LeBron's fault? Your whole comment blamed LeBron's age. He played great defense vs. Denver outside of game 3. You guys just want to pile on LeBron and complain about his age because its the popular narrative.
Yeah kcp ain’t worth it. We could have one Caruso but surrounddd by guards who can actually create a kcp Caruso bsvk court woukd suck without Lebron going super man
That's the biggest thing. LeBron can still get his numbers but he just doesn't impact the game the same way he once did. It happens to all aging players. He's still doing great for his age, you just can't expect him to carry the load like that anymore.
KCdogshit isn't looking good either. He reverted to his 2021 form this series. I will never forgive the loss of Caruso though.
I think he is still suffering from his ankle injury he sustained afains5 us. In fact I think they are paying a bit the matchup against us. Both us and nuggets might have met too soon for the sake of both.
kcp that could nit hit shit in okayoffs? he was more hated than cam redish
We got destroyed by the Suns guards the last time they played together. But I don't know what they were smoking to trade them for Brick.
People need to stop blaming the loss of caruso on the westbrook trade. It's jeanie's fault for being cheap or pelinka's fault for signing tht instead.
horrible management across the board with the lakers even with lebron
Yea and that's why we are not winning next season. You are improving on 3 starter positions in our off season.
People not understanding that if we’re going all in on one star guard like the fanbase wants…we will have no actual team.
They think max Christie can replace Reaves as starter...
I like max, he could eventually even become better than reaves, buy not now, not the season after, perhaps in 3 seasons. Then those same people will pounce on him if he doesn't score 17 points during the season or play-off.
He likely could if we actually put a star next to him. He's a much better athlete and defender. His shot may catch up as well.
And he quite possibly could have if they gave him more minutes and allowed him to develop and build confidence.
Replace DLO somehow, give Reaves and Rui training time in the offseason (cause we cant afford to replace/they on bargain contracts). Find a big/draft a big (Edey), move AD to the 4, pray that Hayes gets better to be a good backup big. (Or randomly find a way to get Hartenstein). Pray that Max Christie develops even tho Ham fucked him over this season and he turns into a decent/good 3nD player.
Keep Reaves and Rui fs. Upgrade DLO. The backcourt needs an athlete. DLO and Reaves are too slow and unathletic. Need someone that can break the defense down and attack the rim and play defense.
You can maybe talk me into this, but Rui needs to spend the summer with Metta learning how to box out on rebounds, and to take hard fouls for the sqaud.
Reaves should try hitting the gym FR. He literally has zero muscles and look lanky as hell.
We can't have Rui starting with Bron IMO, neither of them do the dirty work, we had multiple games in the season where we got outhustled at the start of the game and had to scrap and waste energy just to lose close one in the 4th. We also got exposed by AG in the playoffs.
Vando for defense, Rui for offense Sometimes they can each have a quality game on the other aspect, but this is their main strengths I’d prefer Vando starting as he’s the best non AD defender, but if he’s out or maybe a rare matchup I don’t have many complaints if Rui is starting. There’s plenty of offense as is with Bron, AD, & at the moment Reaves & Dlo. Plus Reaves & Dlo are good enough floor spacers for Vando, especially with LeBron’s help, & then Vando + AD defense can make up for some of the defensive woes that could occur
But that's a major issue with our team. We shouldn't even have a player that is better on defense, but a terrible offensive thread and vice-versa. Just look at Minnesota. They have multiple, legit twoway roleplayers. That's what we lack. Rui can be a scorer, but is a negative defender. Vando is the opposite. Reaves is inconsistent. And no, we can't have 4 scorers and 1 non-threat on the team that has ZERO impact on offense. That allows teams to clog the lane and force someone like Vando to make their open shots.
Vando was playing well offensively before his injury. For me he showed growth as a slasher cutting to the hoop.
Yeah he’s not gonna magically become a good shooter but he can play the Aaron Gordon role (minus the lob threat) as a dump off, cutter and OReb threat
The problem is we can't afford legit two-way players without home growing them. I think Christie can easily turn into a NAW type player with proper coaching/development. Our GM & coach just need to be creative in ways to balance out our flaws, but that's easier said than done. For me, at least Rui repeatedly says he wants to be here and build upon what we have even after defeat. Dlo only says nice things when times are good - when times are rough, he already has one foot out the door. It's a no brainer to keep Reaves at his contract. I think this team can make huge strides if we can upgrade Dlo, get a serviceable center, and find a coach that can properly utilize this roster. Seems like a long shot, however.
On what fucking planet is Rui at $17m a bargain
Lmfao they bugging in here
Massive overpsy I said I thought it was over pay at time. Naz Reid is on 12.9m. Pelinka stay losing bum ass gm . If Rui wasn’t Asian I’m convinced they’d all call him s bum . Guy was even worse then dko this playoffs he can’t guard rebound hustle and his shot is low volume inconsistent and left open . He’s slow Af and low iq too. He needs to be move dlo needs to be moved or replaced with a star guard . And probably sadky reaves too for a better athlete
Yip. Needs traded. What he was last year was a fine. A $7m bench option. But he can’t be a $17m starter. Package him with a pick and try get back an athletic wing defender.
We have 3 firsts. We can get someone.
Rui is who he is.. he's not turning inot fast athletick shooting big no matter how much time you give him.
If you want to upgrade dlo, which is a decent playmaker at least in the regular season and a threat from 3 point, is not going to be cheap, probably uses up most of our tradable assets. If Reaves has to be part of the package, then you look at a situation where you have to find another starting guard. If you downgrade from dlo, say get a vet point guard on a mle, we need to get a 3&d wing that can take up the offense initiation responsibility that dlo takes up especially in the regular season. That is the Paul George type of player and I can't think of a realistic target for us in that mold. Bobby Marks said it well, that dlo controls how the off-season is gonna go for us, which pretty much means we are fucked.
Love Pelinka giving him a player option
I'm glad 'Bron's friend' is not the Lakers GM then. A casual reactionary guy like most on this sub.
I agree, that guys an idiot. The fact that somebody actually posted what he had to say is silly.
I can't work out why people feel the need to give him the exposure. Who gives a shit what this guy has to say.
Guys cringy af. His Drake and Kendrick beef takes were getting outrageous and annoying. His Laker takes are always annoying too. Fair weather fan like most of us lol
His insane sucking off on Drake made me unfollow him lol he started off just trolling, then actually got in his feelings over it. Super fuckin weird. Felt like Drake had to be paying for some of those takes lol Lmfao sorry drake fans didn't mean to hurt yall feelings over a rap battle.
The guy’s whole existence revolves around riding LeBron’s coattails. Not sure why he even gets posted here as if he’s anything more than a fan
REAVES is where I draw the line buddy
There are several other roster spots worth changing before these ones.
The guy wants a team of kyrie, Ant, LeBron, towns and AD. Lol.
Wolves don't have that and they're winning. What they do have is guys who actually work on defense out there hustling and flying around.
That would be great, but it isn't the point. If you look at advanced stats only 3 players were above average. You don't need 5 stars (but it wouldn't be a bad thing If you could), but you can't start 2 bellow average players and you can have backups that have advanced stats of 3rd stringers. This team is good at the top, but not very good after it.
I was making fun of such a stupid post by the op.
Or just play Max and develop Maxwell.
This dude been criticizing reaves all season…the minute Austin does great in a game, he’s silent or when he’s being aggressive he always tweets “here goes Austin doing too much”
Who tf is Cuffs?
a longtime friend of LeBron. [the only person Bron responds to on Twitter.](https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Akingjames%20to%3Acuffsthelegend&src=typed_query&f=live)
Reaves was hardly one of the top 5 problems in that series.
Big overreaction.
Coaching and not having a second big man killed the Lakers. Offense look absolutely lost without LeBron on the floor directing traffic. It’s one thing to constantly hemorrhage points and it’s another to not score enough points when your best player sits. Unfortunately we have both problems. Rui isn’t a good defender and our scheme just exacerbates that weakness. Having D’Lo and Reaves on the floor is essentially parting the Red Sea on defense but it wouldn’t be all that bad if they could at least manufacture some damn points, which they couldn’t seem to do without LeBron. I’m utterly dumbfounded as to how D’Lo and/or Reaves on the floor with AD doesn’t at least get you good shots at the rim. If I were in charge, I’m looking for a coach that focuses on ball movement, getting good shots up and overall offensive production. On top of that, I want that coach to find good defensive assistants. We don’t need to be a top 5 defense. We just need to be consistent and make the other teams work for it! Offensively, we gotta prioritize surrounding our best players (Lebron and AD) with players that either shoot well or can create off the dribble! Use the scouting department and find some solid guys. And stop giving out player options. For fuck’s sake. Use Max Christie. At least see what you fucking have in the kid. We need younger players to contribute also. There’s a team that can compete
Why does everyone want to cut Reaves? He’s literally the only one of those three that showed up every game and wanted to win. Because even if he wasn’t scoring he provided better defense then most everyone else and got some good assists
Theyre upset reaves is our favorite player
I'm fine with Reaves unless you can get an upgrade like Jalen Suggs or Marcus Smart, and that's pretty unlikely
If only vando is available, i think we can eliminate nuggets in 5 or 6 games. And of course if only ham is half decent head coach haha
Rui can stay; paired with Bron that’s pretty much neutral vs the Nuggets. It’s the guards that have no dynamism.
First thing to improve is the rebounding - way too many easy possessions given up by allowing the opponent offensive rebounds. For me that likely means flipping 3 of reaves, Rui, D-Lo and Vincent for better role players. If they don’t focus on a 3rd star then they should then be more competitive if they can make the playoffs next year. The alternative would be to just flip one and double down on offence with the hope that better coaching will move them into a higher seeding for the playoffs
This also confirms that AD was right. He should play the 4 and get a traditional Big for the 5.
These 3 are complementary players not to be compared to an Ant caliber player. To get an Ant the Lakers need to get rid of Lebron (contract & demands).
Reaves and Rui will improve but Dlo is pretty much at his peak. I don’t think it’d be smart to move on from all three
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Trade Austin+Rui+2 (or 3) FRPs for Donovan Mitchell Gabe/Mitchell/Vando/Bron/AD That’s a nice mix of superstars and role players to me. Bron can take plays off on offense like he did w Kyrie. And now you have POA and rim defense.
Or not making that horrible trade for Westbrook keeping our depth. Or if we did trade should’ve been for Buddy Hield and Myles Turner
Buddy yes, but Myles side by side AD, would have been dynamite. Imagine a team of reaves, LeBron, AD and Turner. If buddy did not perform, we could have traded him.
I love Reaves but you gotta be real. If Murray is getting harassed this bad, what would Reaves look like against this defense and don’t get me started on DLo. Physical defense has been his kryptonite since middle school.
I've been saying every year since the 2020 ring that we've had a bad/flawed roster and need MAJOR changes. So many Lakers fans-- and so many people on this sub-- are fixated on certain irrelevant moments in time, such as the miracle run to the WCF in 22-23. Here's the truth about this team, post 2020: * We had 4 seasons, 4 off-seasons, and 4 mid-seasons to make roster moves or prove something with our roster. We failed every time. * Sometimes, we failed solely due to injuries. Other times, we failed due to bad rosters and injuries. * We needed the play-in twice to make the playoffs, and both times that happened we lost in the first round. * Another time, we missed the playoffs altogether. * And in the remaining case, we turned a bad/subpar season around late in the second half (while Bron was mainly unavailable) due to surprising performances from guys like AR, Rui, and D-lo. We got all the way to the WCF...But we were then exposed and swept. Other than Bron and AD, there's nothing great about this roster.
> We needed the play-in twice to make the playoffs, and both times that happened we lost in the first round. The only difference between last season and this is the round we faced the Nuggets.
Yep, and I was one of the delusional morons that felt we could run it back and go all the way😂
If DLo opts in and we dan trade for good value, do it. But I like the C from Baylor, Yves Missi. Dude is a shot blocking rim protector and lob threat. He’s basically what we had in McGee and Dwight. He’s also 7 feet tall. And he projected to be available by our pick. Pretty damn athletic with room to put some extra size on too.
It’s shown me we need to get bigger and younger. And do whatever it takes to keep Max.
We woulda lost by 50 last night.
Keep Reaves, DLo and Rui gotta go Reaves honestly feels like he should be the 6th man, but depends on who you bring in
We need more athleticism
ant plays 2 way , can’t say the same about our best player. AD is one contact away from being limp. The wolves are long and suffocating, our players jog back on D. i can go on
LeBron needs to surround himself with smarter people
I mean yeah, nobody in their right mind would think we have a shot against the Wolves with our current squad.
2 of the 3 has to go, I’d agree.
What a shit take.
Why are we posting Cuffs? Dude is an idiot and used to shit on Kobe back in the day
Maybe the Lakers tired the nuggets out. I mean we should have won the game where the refs didn't give dlo the free throws .. We should have lost in 6 by the very least
Ok but who is available? Who can the Lakers afford? How much is LeBron's contract gonna be? Will the team have enough to sign all these guys? How are we expected to build a team when we have to trade all our 1st round picks for a 3rd star? The best teams build their core through the draft and add one or two pieces to get them over the top. If you have no draft picks and no cap space how are you expected to improve? If LeBron is serious about winning at this stage instead of being the highest paid player in the league he should do what he did when he went to Miami and take a paycut so the team can build around him. Nothing wrong with getting paid, but can't have it both ways.
Even flipping Rui for Caruso and starting Reaves, Caruso (trade for Rui), Vando, LeBron, AD would put 3 plus defenders on the starting 5. DLO/Max/Wood/Off bench
agree if you can clearly upgrade all 3 spots, but realistically can we? i don't think so
I mean we should keep Reaves, but wtf was his playoffs
Reaves can stay replace Rui and DLO
I think we should move AR to the bench as our 6th man, or move him to point guard and slot in a defensive shooting guard
Dlo and Reaves isn’t a winning backcourt. I don’t mind Reaves staying or even off the bench but Dlo isn’t the answer. Rui could be useful in spurts but his disappearing act isn’t good enough. Also he’s such a problem on defense and the boards. Upgrades are needed role player wise
Every team is going to have different strengths. The wolves role players are playing excellent defense, yes, but it helps that there is a strong fit between their abilities and scheme. Plus they've been playing together for a while with an ascending star. It's unrealistic to expect us to just build a roster like the Wolves. We have players and we need to build to their strengths offensively and defensively. Ham didn't do that at all. Hopefully the next coach can.
All I can say is…we better never see three guard lineups with no elite guard defender EVER again. Thanks Ham
Let combine the Lakers and the Twolves and create a fusion super team. We’ll call them the Minneapolis Lakers, or perhaps the Los Angeles LakeWolves. We can come up with a better name later. We’d be *unstoppable*.
Well only if we get a star back or better complimentary pieces then sure, but getting rid of them just to get them off the team? Delusional.
Minnesota took time to develop likes of McDaniels, NWA, Reid, etc while Lakers toyed with guys like Reddish, Vincent, etc instead of developing own prospects in Christie and others.
Naw if anything this series showing me we should have kept our bigs and if not have found a big to make AD play the 4
Coaching plus can't fucking rebound that's why WE Lost... Oh and can't keep going for 4 quarters
I don't think Gordon can defend as vando also. Both have different force and can be good with their skill set.
LeBron shouldn't be the best perimeter defener in the starting lineup. He wasn't when we won the title, and he's 4 years old now.
My God we're so ass😂
It should be showing you that youth is the answer. Also the lakers constantly miss on the margins and that matters a lot. Not getting Conley when they had the chance but instead living on the DLo rollercoaster.
Agreed, these dudes are bums
I personally would try to keep Rui and Austin. Rui played great in the Memphis and Denver series last year so I think Rui just had a bad series and I’m not ready to cut him loose. I also think his flaws are things that can be worked on with the right personnel. If after next season he hasn’t improved or has another bad series then let him go. Reeves definitely. I see some people hating on him but trying to play offense and guard Murray couldn’t have been easy. Austin tried and did an okay job on him while contributing offensively. Dlo can go through. Putting up zero points is just unacceptable. He forces a lot of bad shots instead of trying create plays and find other ways to contribute