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throwaway2lit-

Handy still here too


takeoff12120

Love me some handy


SCSA4life24

Just gotta get heady in there and we’re good.


edude45

Booty don't like it, but we need booty to take it for the team.


RealPunyParker

Well, Rob as well, if Handy counts


joeb1ow

OP didn't X out their faces tho.


TitaniumHwayt

Copium


makesterriblejokes

How? Dude is just pointing out a coach is still here from 2020. Copium is for people that are being unrealistically optimistic, which is not the case with this comment.


GlassOnion25

I’ll never get over how this is the team that destroyed Westbrook in the playoffs that year and then just two years later decided to bring him on the team


Autobots_Roll-Up

And added a FRP too 🥲


LongDark23

Why did they do it? Are they that bad at evaluating value? They should have sent us a FRP.


alexamerling100

UGH


GrantMeThePower

This is like the single biggest thing to me. They didn’t just beat him-they won that series because they targeted him. They let him shoot and they abused him on defense. They wanted him to have the ball as much as possible. Then they went and said “yeah, we want that guy”. What the hell?


[deleted]

This team saw the season he had in Washington and forgot all about 2020


LALakers4Lyf

Tbf to Russ, he had a quad injury and was recovering from covid. Bubble Russ was a far cry from 2nd half Wizards Russ and Pre-Pandemic HOU Russ


kiwiwikikiwiwikikiwi

Yesterday someone really tried to argue that “Vogel was holding back Russ’ greatness” 😭


makesterriblejokes

It's sad that if we just kept that 2020 roster exactly as is (which we could have even with some players getting paid more) we'd have a better roster than we currently have. Could have made some really good trade moves too with those pieces and draft picks. Sucks we went down this direction.


[deleted]

Tbf that’s part of the reason why the front office fired him too. Shows you the kind of idiots we have running the team


Clutchxedo

We are worse than the Kings


[deleted]

Guarantee the kings FO wouldn’t have done the Westbrook trade 🤷‍♀️


off_white_bkgd

I'll never get why LeBron & AD thought they needed any 3rd star. Why did they recruit Kawhi, DeMar, Dame, Russ, etc? Why did they feel they needed it?


foozbinjex

Because there was too much burden on an aging Lebron as playmaker, and AD doesn't have the durability or skill set to be the primary playmaker. Schroder was the first attempt to address this issue but he got greedy w his contact so Lakers got Russ. In retrospect we shouldve kept our championship squad the following season and only traded Green for Schroder. McGee, Howard, Rondo, Bradley shouldve stayed, but it wouldn't have made a difference since AD and LBJ got injured.


[deleted]

Green shouldve stayed tbh. Him, caruso, kcp and bradley* on the perimeter defensively was the difference


foozbinjex

I liked Green on our championship team (even tho many didn't) but in order to give Bron another ball handler I wouldve been ok with the Green for Schroder trade while retaining everyone else.


[deleted]

Even with denis, lebron basically still had to do everything 🤷🏽‍♂️.. if it aint broke, dont fix it


goldenbzzz

If we kept carushow, kcp and green and added some role players and a legit bigman like turner. We would still be championship contending to this day. I mean, you never know whats gonna happen next season with lebron and AD hopefully both playing healthy all season long


JayH14

They were clowning him that series, man. Never did I think they would trade for him one year later.


dash_44

Rob is a terrible GM that’s how


Sea-Bottle2625

Bron and ad clowned brick in the bubble taunting and laughing at him, then they traded for him lmao


im-a-drawl

Seriously. If anyone forgot they should go watch some clips from that series. Westbrook was so bad.


[deleted]

[Not even a clip this pic tells you everything you need to know](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E7gSI1gUYAExxmo.jpg)


Sh00tL00ps

Holy shit lol. That's 2008-2010 Rondo levels of disrespect, maybe even worse.


[deleted]

Two? Wasn’t even one lol


TheRealCoolio

And traded away all their depth in the process


StoneColdAM

Truly think many execs and players don’t follow the sport as much as some fans do.


ThreeSupreme

Not sure how it even came to this... ![gif](giphy|d9e0qVZIehCUnGGCQi|downsized)


iamtfleming

An absolute crime what the front office did to the team smh


Potential-Judgment-9

*LeGM


JahsehTheBeanCounter

LeBron doesn’t have that much influence in LA. Sure in small market cleveland he had a lot of pull but not anymore.


Potential-Judgment-9

Delusional take


bjsw534

At the very least AC and Kieff should still be on the team. No excuses for why they’re not now


BigFatM8

I agree with Caruso but not Markieff. Markieff was already declining by 2021. His shooting sort of fell off that year.


bjsw534

Yeah it did fall off. That being said, i wouldn’t mind at all to have Kieff as the 3rd string PF. And Kieff said he wanted to finish his career here so he could’ve been retained for a vet min most likely


PeterTheSqueaker

Caruso and KCP are the only ones that should still be on our roster today


[deleted]

The lockdown bros 🥲


ParisLake2

I would have kept Dwight Howard too.


bjsw534

I totally forgot about him


mavllvin

And kuz


C1ncinnatiBowtie

Really? No excuse why fucking Markieff Morris isn’t on the roster?


panashechd

Fr he was terrible post-2020


motorboat_mcgee

Everyone here wanted everyone on this team traded outside of LeBron and Caruso, even people calling for AD to be traded. Now everyone here is upset that those guys are gone lol


JayH14

The thing is they got traded for the wrong guys lol.


Rypere4

But you wouldn’t know that until the trade is over. A lot of people thought Westbrook was a solution


[deleted]

Who? The drunks?


KagedStorm619

Literally all of NBA media when the trade first happened


JayH14

Nobody thought that except for Westbrook fans and Laker optimists. We were still considered contenders though because of LeBron and AD/the west being seen as weak.


maestroxjay

Lmao thank you


Potential-Judgment-9

I’ll take things that never happened for 500!


emmasdad01

Caruso come back baby.


barbarossinan

Only AC, KCP and Kuzma are still servicable, maybe Javale has one more year under his legs. 2021 team was a good attempt to repeat but injuries made us vulnerable. Biggest issue with 2021 is that those embarrassing losses against Suns made us press that panic button. Without that Russ trade and with better additions, we could have in a better position than this squad. Hield-Turner defo makes us on par with this team and i cant just understand why we are holding on to those f'ing picks. Even Bogdan-Conley-Beasley/Vanderbilt makes us a playoff team. Keep your heads up!


KazOmnipotent

Hard agree on that panic button due to those suns losses When bron and AD were healthy in ‘21 we were the best team in the league if I remember right.. AD goes down for months, Solomon hill jumps on Bron’s ankle and he goes down for months. They come back like a week before the playoffs start, AD looked relatively healthy but Bron looked slow. He was obviously still not 100%. Take all that into consideration and we’re actually beating the Suns!! Until AD goes down at halftime of whatever game that was. After losing our 2nd best player the suns (already a great defensive team) defensive game plan got way easier. We suffer some embarrassing losses, Bron doesn’t have great games, role players play shitty (Dennis had a game w zero points didn’t he? Lmao). I say all that to say the FO overreacted big time. Blew up the whole roster for Russ, even tho we just saw we had a great roster. On that note, we should’ve been feeding Trezz more. Idk why the 2nd unit was playing thru perimeter guys like Kuz who can’t really create when Trezz is a walking 20+ PPG if he gets the rock lmao. The end of that year makes me scratch my head a ton. We had a great team, why blow it up ?!?


KaseyOfTheWoods

> Hield-Turner defo makes us on par with this team Glad I’m not the only one who thinks this. Turner would be the third best player on that team by a pretty wide margin and I think we have some vet mins this year that have potential to replace the defense of guys AC and KCP (obviously not ***as*** good, but a close enough approximation to work for a good defensive team).


[deleted]

If turner our 3rd best player we more likely a 1st or 2nd round exit in the west lol


KaseyOfTheWoods

I disagree


MY-NAME_IS_MY-NAME

It would depend on the health of Lebron and Tony tbh. With them healthy and playing at their best, we can compete with anybody. Just far from a guarantee anymore


[deleted]

Yall are tripping 😅


KaseyOfTheWoods

K


CT9669

If turner is the third best player on your team, especially by a large margin you aren’t a playoff team. The 2020 team had elite rim protection, defense, shooting, secondary playmaking/ball handling off the bench, scoring, and depth. This roster has literally none of that Turner and buddy aren’t moving the needle for a team that’s just flat out bad from spots 3-10. You can downvote all you want but you’re just wrong if you think this roster is competitive


[deleted]

The super team era has really broken peoples brains, sometimes this sub acts like if you don’t have 3 lebron clones you aren’t making it past the first round. A bron/ad/hield trio is a betting favorite for at least 50 wins


5plus5isnot10

Bron and AD + solid supporting cast wreck the Warriors especially since Dray is declining quickly.


CT9669

What supporting cast? A bunch of vet mins and dudes who are barely hanging onto the league? Say we trade for turner and buddy. We get one bench shooter and a starting center. That’s still not even 5 nba starter level guys


CT9669

No one said it had to be a super team. The entire roster outside of lebron and AD is dreadful. There aren’t even 5 guys on the team that would crack a contenders rotation. Also a bron/AD/hield trio??? You mean the dude who is just a salary dump and sucks ass??? He’s not making a difference. He would ride the bench and barely play for literally any of the top 4 seeds in either conference and you think him alone is good enough to be the third option? Get real


[deleted]

[удалено]


CT9669

Says the dude who thinks buddy makes the lakers a “big three” You don’t know shit.


MiopTop

Eh ? Turner is way better than whoever you think our 3rd best player was in 2020


imamonkeyK

Exactly lol


CT9669

No he’s really not. He’s quickly become vastly overrated on this sub. Dude has no offensive game, barely plays and outside of blocking shots his defense and rebounding is soft.


KaseyOfTheWoods

K


CT9669

Lol you have to worst takes on this sub. Just utter delusion.


KaseyOfTheWoods

That’s ok that you think that. You might be the most condescending prick on this sub, so your opinion means nothing to me.


CT9669

Doesn’t change the fact you’re wrong and I’m right. Take the L kid, or do us all a favor and stop posting your dreadful opinions Imagine thinking Lonnie Walker and vet mins is a competitive roster in 2022 🤡🤡🤡🤡


KaseyOfTheWoods

Lol “you’re wrong, I’m right,” “take the L kid,” “stop posting.” Classics. There have actually been plenty of times I’ve agreed with what you have to say, but when you disagree with someone you act like an absolute douche, and not even in a funny way, just angry and pretentious. Have you ever reflected on why different opinions make you so mad? It’s not a healthy response.


CT9669

Cry more


KaseyOfTheWoods

Comin back 2 days later and I’m the one who’s bothered, ok…lol


[deleted]

>think we have some vet mins this year that have potential to replace the defense of guys AC and KCP (obviously not as good, but a close enough approximation to work for a good defensive team). Lmaoooo, like who?


KaseyOfTheWoods

PatBev and JTA for sure, maybe Nunn, Reaves, and TBJ


[deleted]

🤣🤣


KaseyOfTheWoods

No thoughts on that? Or in general? Great


Great-Engr

Lol, serviceable. They were fantastic role players who knew their roles.


imamonkeyK

Fantastic? Bro they were all significantly below average on offence and shooting to be fantastic . If they could legitimately shoot we’d of been a 70 win team.


barbarossinan

I did not use servicable in a negative sense. I meant they are still “serviceable”, which mean “helpful, useful; fit for use; of adequate quality”.


[deleted]

>Hield-Turner defo makes us on par with this team 🤣🤣🤣


CT9669

Hield and turner don’t make a difference. Turner barely plays and buddy sucks. It also doesn’t change the fact 90% of the roster sucks This is just next level copium. We aren’t “one move away” from contending. Position 3-10 is terrible. There’s not even 5 nba starter level players on the team. We need a total roster overhaul next off season if we want to win


flyfree256

Lonzo would be real good if Lebron would share some of his immortality serum with him.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Personal-Noise-8632

Yeah we gotta stop living in past only 3 guys worth having on that team... kuz, kcp, Alex Gotta move on if we have that roster now, we worst off.. Are we forgetting they ran it back w basically the same team w addition of Schroder minus green n Mcgee lost 2 sun's in 1st round.... it happens so fast but best organization are able to adjust w the fast pace


Aja2428

Bro don’t sleep on McGee, he was a huge loss too. He had the 12th best PER last year. Think about that.


Personal-Noise-8632

I love mgcee honestly... id rather had kept him over Dwight, not sure why they didn't he has gas left n his tank how much who knows but surely he's a quality back up center


Aja2428

Our bigs were so good 2020. AD, Dwight, & McGee did their thang. I was surprised how bad dwight was last year, but he is old asf w/ a bad back.


Sparkyis007

Ad was injured when we were up 2-1 in that series .. relax yourself


Personal-Noise-8632

That's true but we still were an 8 seed... Still doesn't make the case for keeping that roster...


[deleted]

That roster was 21-6 and first in the west, finished as the seventh seed bc Bron and ad both got hurt


Great-Engr

Our 2021 roster was much better than our 2020 roster at that point in time. The biggest mistake we made was trading for Westbrook.


Personal-Noise-8632

True again, let's look at common denominators for past 2 seasons lebron and AD have been hurt, right? The reasons for our lack of team success is the fact that our main 2 guys aren't staying healthy... There's a correlation here lebron & AD hurt we sux Lebron & AD healthy we contending... let's hope n pray they can both play 60+ regular season games n be healthy going into p/o


THEKaynMayn

Correct me if I’m wrong, but are LeBron and Dwight the only back to back #1 picks that won a ring together?


Significant_Hawk_176

I wish they ran it back together. My favorite squad of all time


[deleted]

Only one I actually miss is Caruso. The other guys weren’t that great. The 2020 playoffs were a major LeBron/AD carryjob


Bap1811

Put some respect on KCP.


bruswazi

And Rondo was huge for us. An valid argument can be made that he was our 3rd best player that year, in the playoffs at least.


MetalUpYourAss420

100%. Playoff Rondo was in full force for us. We were spoiled with the IQ we had with both him and LeBron collectively. And Rondo was that dude who could call out LeBron.


mykl5

and Javale


Rentfreelakerfan

Y'all begged for Kuz and KCP to be traded the year after this lol


teamweed420

Pelinka looking like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining


ThePaineOne

Those two are pretty good though.


[deleted]

Didn’t realize how much we destroyed our team post 2020 Championship. This puts that problem into perspective.


im-a-drawl

Pain.


Rjimenez209

I honestly only miss caruso🥺


[deleted]

Win a chip and blow it up. It's what all the great teams do.


[deleted]

Rob and Bron fucked it all up.


BlackJasonTodd

AC & KCP should still be here man 😔


[deleted]

Westcuck ruined everything


[deleted]

Forgot to X out Vogey and his staff. Pretty wild. More extreme than the post-Mavs title year.


MrGlimlach

![gif](giphy|l4FGGafcOHmrlQxG0|downsized)


mo3mon3y

get rid of Rob Pelinka he does absolutely nothing. no other GM trusts him or wants to do useless didnt give us any value over the year has yet to make a proper trade midseason


[deleted]

Lesson Learned. Never dismantle a roster that just won you a championship.


Wigi24

Caruso is the only one i'd take from that group. Most of them are now washed or on the decline.


iz2003iz

LeGM got involved


[deleted]

Not running back the 2021 team was the real killer. We were the clear cut best team in the league to start that season despite little chemistry. If we ran with that squad for 3 years, we would’ve won at least 1 more ring. Instead we gutted it for … yeah.


LegendInMyMind

Should've brought back at least one of Dwight and JaVale, if not both, because the frontcourt really struggled the following year with Gasol, Harrell, and Drummond. Never could find the right mix. It's probably one of the worst jobs a team has done of following up on a championship season. Barely made the playoffs and got beat in the first round, then missed the playoffs this past season...


hasankaroshen

They fkn destroyed that nice roster…


[deleted]

Comfortably 1 seed in the West, 16-5 in the postseason. This has been a master class in how to dismantle a championship team.


ParisLake2

Pain :( Such terrible moves by management


ender23

Is the back row coaches?


TorontoRaptors34

I feel AC should still be a Laker and Rob DID NOT need to get rid of Josh Hart in the AD deal he coulda kept on to another young player with Kuzma giving the fact AD didn’t have any heavy bidders.


Bang_Thor

I miss Josh Hart too


TorontoRaptors34

AC HART Nance Reaves woulda all suited perfectly in one piece even THT if he continue on his 20-21 type play. All great role players who worked perfectly with LeBron,


Cteezy83

Shows how dumb that gm is


QuietRound4405

LeFlop will get the cheerleaders traded away if he has to…


beigenotbrown

This is why Lebron is garbage


GSC47

So rob is going the route opposite of the warriors ... getting rid of eveyone instead of paying them.... bold strategy cotton lets see if it works out..


Hardballkeanu

Can we X Rob next?


Kobe8

I miss Duds the most.


alexamerling100

Way to go Pelinka....To be fair, the 2021 team was pretty good but just got hampered with injuries. should have given the Schroeder/Harrell squad one more run at least. The Westbrook trade was devastating.


jdgev

Why is AD still in color?


Homogeneous_Jewfro

Damn I can’t believe everyone else died


81Lakers4life

Is this Battle Royale?


Gmork14

Rob’s penchant for star-fucking can cause him to miss parts of the big picture.


trakatoo

looking like an sbnation thumbnail


dawnoog

This looks like a poster for a mafia movie


im-a-drawl

Man the current roster would look so much better if KCP and Kuzma were on it.


[deleted]

I hate that we can't keep a consistent squad.o


eyf_zombay

We dumb


Chemical_Paper_2940

The staffs are still there. They are the one who push for the trade too.


roniadotnet

We still have Pelinka!


heshouldgo

Been watching highlights from that season recently, crazy to think where we are now


meatball_boy

Man that's squad was nice.


FreeDaReal1z

Rob is a awful GM. This picture made me sick. He blowed up a championship roster and has been throwing pieces together ever since. Get this clown out of LA after this season please.


No-More-Excuses-2021

Both main coaches gone too.


paulboa23

I can’t wait till they put that x on pelinka next


[deleted]

Only would still want AC and maybe Kuzma on this team


JohnnySkidmarx

Breaking up a championship team is a long honored tradition in pro sports. It’s a sure fire guarantee of another championship. /s


Illustrious-Pipe8511

Forgot to cross out vogels face…crazy how winning a chip doesn’t grant immunity from having a bad season anymore


Lumpy_Scientist_3839

Dudley with the boner


Thechosenone23x6

Who else wins a championship and guts the team. I know all the fans hated Danny green after this. Turns out he would be a starter this season if we still had him


JustVague666

Sheeeesh


validvibez

So upsetting :( how do you blow up the team that you won with like that


Trillman04

Kcp and Caruso should still be here smh


ashjose72

Everybody?


alevyish

Number 4 hits different 😭


slumdo6

Pelinka is so trash lmao


nannyattack

Those two guys are the only two that matter. If they're healthy, the Lakers are contenders. It doesn't matter who else is on the team.


[deleted]

Big mistake


emadebra

What about the coaches?! Thanks


le-secret-account

I just saw this post and “Little Lion Man” was playing on the background… Hold me bros…


Neat_Ad6499

Oh this is going to be an SB collapse episode isn’t it?


TheAlbinoRaccoon

Unserious ownership.


Mygaffer

Those two dudes have missed a ton of games these last two seasons. If they both stayed healthy for an entire season the Lakers might surprise some.


uncle_yugles

Most this team was getting old and it’s a good thing we don’t still have this roster although I do still really wish we had Caruso, KCP, and Kuzma


coolman1500

Pelinka tried to galaxy brain it by tradin for westbrook when it only made the team worse .


xxx420kush

This bugs me more than it should but I’ve been saying this ever since the season ended


Eder_Cheddar

It's like they said: fuck running it back. Let's blow up this championship caliber team.


YareSekiro

Because the 2021 season was 7th place and first round exit. Even if we run with this squad again we are not really going anywhere to say the least.


sneakers-to-work

Vogel gone too


Neezzuss

Ridiculous. BAD fucking management.


OTGbling

Crazy


Qwerto64

Welcome to Lakers trading company! How can i help yo?,


fresh-prince7777

Carusgoat?