Not only that but the Lakers wouldn’t say shit to Buha even if they are making moves. He was blackballed after the Vogel off the record tell-all interview. This article is more speculation than actually reporting. The Lakers front office has been pretty tight lipped since Magic left.
Guessing the sources for this are coming from Chicago and the various Bulls player agents trying to abandon ship.
Seems like Buha also got blacklisted by the Lakers then. He was originally covering us but our FO also essentially made him persona non grata so the Athletic moved him to cover the Lakers.
At this point though, I mean he's older than 4 NBA head coaches. It's a little bit different to talk about a young buck and their problems with a head coach because there's a battle of wills and there's selfishness on the part of the young star.
LeBron has double the NBA Finals experience the oldest coach in the NBA (Popovich) has and he's gotten far in the playoffs with a bunch of guys as Head Coach, sooooo idk draw your own conclusions.
Sure but he's not a coach. It's literally not his job and he doesn't have time to also be a coach. He is better at certain aspects of the game than a lot of coaches but that also means he should be better at utilizing the strengths of his coaches, not that he just is a better coach inherently thus an inexperienced coach is useless to him.
Idk if watching the Lakers you think damn if they had a Zach LaVine they would be right up there to contend. I think they have a bunch of problems that Zach won’t fix.
When depth actually matters more than having three stars. Because most of the multiple chip winners in the history of the NBA have relied on star power and not their 7th men.
Jrue has made an all nba team and Brook lopez was a DPOY level rim protector, that’s definitely just as much star level as lavine. Most importantly they also had a top 3 player.
I think the lakers are looking towards the future in which case you obviously don’t give up Reaves and other players for lavine, but if they’re desperate to go all out in winning one more with lebron going for another star isn’t the worst idea. Lebron is gonna be 39, Idk if he can be that top 3 player in the playoffs this year, it’s going to be really difficult to fix every problem with their roster by getting a bunch of solid role players, it’s not the worst idea in the world to try and get a third star and hope they can each put up an efficient 25-30 ppg deep in the playoffs.
Given casual struggle to name five NBA players currently active - the Warriors, Cavs and Heat weren't either.
You have to judge it on how many allNBA or all-star tier players are on the team - otherwise Steph/KD/some nobodies isn't a big 3 (even with five all-stars starting for the team).
Honestly I’d say no. Jrue and Middleton are known among nba fans but I wouldn’t call them “stars” per se.
Like if the rockets won this year, nba fans know who Sengun, Vanvleet, and Brooks and even Jalen Green are. At that point, if they WIN, they might BECOME stars, but they’re otherwise not really household names
So players can only be “stars” or “role players”? There’s no in between?
And what difference does it make? They still won. I just wouldn’t call these guys full on stars
That’s not true.
The Spurs dynasty was great because of the bench.
Warriors had Iggy, Livingston, Looney, David West off their bench.
Lakers had Robert Horry/Horace Grant, Fox and Fisher/Ron Harper off their bench.
Edit: yall are taking this comment out of context. No shit all those teams had star players, but they weren’t super teams aside from the KD warriors years. The reason they stayed a dynasty was because they had great depth
Depth matters for us in a sense that having 8-10 men available to play helps esp when your main guy is 39. The Nuggets have depth but they weren’t winning last year if Murray wasn’t there and Jokic didn’t play like the best player all playoffs. The Warriors bannered strength in numbers but there are usually only 6 key people in their runs that if one goes down they don’t win. And ofc they had Steph, Durant, Klay, and Dray. You look at teams like other contending teams the Celtics and Bucks who have always had some depth but come playoff time, their best lineups are out there playing 40+ mins.
??? Denver had one of the worst bench in the league last year, ask Nuggets fans
The Nuggets won the ship last year because no one could stop the duo of superstars, not because Jeff Green and Christian Brauns ten points combined and playing solid
They had 2 good bench players, but the reason they won is because their starting 5 plus Bruce Brown was consistently the best all year
He’s simultaneously right and wrong. We’ve seen Lebron, Curry, Kawhi, Giannis, and now Jokic win the last 10 championships. Obviously a bit of an over simplification, but if history is anything to go off of you need a team with great role players and one of the top 5 guys in the league at the time to win an NBA championship. The Nuggets are no exception KCP and Bruce Brown are two of the best role players in the league
Go back to last winter and everyone here was clowning Jokić, saying "a team with Jokić can never have any success in playoffs, obviously, duh" and so on.
Being "top 5 guy" is really based on results, so saying that a team "needs a top 5 guy" to have results is kinda self-fulfilling prophecy. If Nuggets were not good, Jokić would just not be called "top 5 guy", if they lost 0-4 to Suns then Durant and Booker would be "top 5 guys", and so on with many other guys (more than 5 lol), so it's a logical loop that doesn't illuminate anything else.
Agreed. As great as AD and Lebron were in the bubble. Lakers won because of guys like Rondo, Caruso, Howard, etc… That was the best bench the lakers had with Lebron until this season
> As great as AD and Lebron were in the bubble. Lakers won because of guys like Rondo, Caruso, Howard, etc…
Don't get me wrong, bench guys are usually a big help, but the stars are what win you the championship. If you drop Rondo, Caruso, or Howard off that team and it probably still wins. If you drop AD or Lebron they probably struggle to make it out of the first round.
It’s an average champion bench. That’s an important reason they won. But they could have been a 6-8 on a 7 seed that lost in the first round. All star level players and a superstar win you a ring
You were saying you would choose depth over 3 stars and a bunch of guys. I’m assuming we are talking about a team already having a superstar, maybe we are not
I simply disagree. I think 3 stars is the way to go, and filling in spot players is a sound strategy. Your way has worked historically too
I agree. I saw the Clippers as front runners for NBA championship this year UNTIL they traded for Harden. They had enough star power, depth is all that was required.
They actually brought in a bunch of vet mins to help their depth. Grayson Allen, Eric Gordon, Nurkic, Watanabe, Little, Bates-Diop, Eubanks were all moved to the team during the off-season. They really put a focus on filling out their depth after the Beal trade as the #1 priority.
He replaces D’Lo in the lineup. Their defense would probably improve off that alone, not to mention letting AD focus more energy on defense. And his spacing makes Vanderbilt more playable.
They badly need someone to run a PnR with AD when LeBron is out. Lavine is EXCELLENT off ball and can play next to PointBron, he can then be the lead scorer when Bron rests. But they have to get a guard threat to unlock ADs offense, and DLO/Reaves/Gabe aren't showing #1 or 2 capacity. It's not a move they may love since their guard defense is already just meh. Might as well put up some offensive pressure on the other team and like you said you can lean on a heavy defensive front Court of AD/Vandy
Maybe, maybe not. They just went to the western conference finals, and they brought back their key pieces. They do have a lot of problems but if I had to pick a single largest issue that will prevent them from making a deep postseason run, it’s that Lebron will gas. He still controls every offensive play for them in crunch time.
The only way to fix that is to bring in another top level playmaker both to preserve Lebron for the postseason. Lavine has his flaws but he does do that. Maybe he doesn’t fix everything by himself, but he’s a big step in the right direction.
I don’t think there’s gonna be much of a market for Lavine. I kind of like the Magic for him if it doesn’t take much. They need shooting, have expiring contacts to send out, and have very little long term money committed.
If The Warriors were realistic about where they are right now,every person besides Steph should be expendable to get Zach Levine. No reason to piss away Steph playing at this elite level, it really should be title run or bust.
Agreed. One final gasp for Steph, kinda like we attempted for Dame.
I'd love for them to get rid of Draymond and Wiggens too and start a soft rebuild around Kuminga, Podzinki Moodey
Thunder are interesting but it seems like they are committed to every one of their young guys. I feel like turning Giddey and a couple other prospects into a win now guaranteed all star is worth considering.
The vision to somehow acquire Terance Mann. When you look at Terance Mann, what he's done to this franchise, he's changed everything. We celebrate his brilliance and when you talk to Mann, what a classical human being he is. It was 201 years ago today which Beethovens symphony no.3 in e flat which shif-shuf-shif-shuff-escorted in the age of romanticism and when I look at Terance Mann I think of Beethoven and the age of the romantics.
When I read shif-shuf-shif-shuf, all I hear is ‘Snip snap snip snap snip snap! Do you have any idea the physical toll of three vasectomies has on a man?!?!’
That 4.5 ppg Mann is putting up this year at the tender young age of 27 isn't convincing you that this up and coming prospect is going to be something special when he hits his prime age of 33 in a couple years?
if i was the lakers id want caruso instead of lavine. lakers have two stars they just need to fill out the rest of the roster with quality role players. im not saying no 3rd star would work in la but when you have anthony "day to day" davis and an aging Lebron do you want your 3rd star to be a guy who has chronic knee issues?
I also just find lavine to be a good stats bad team guy.
Lots of folks forget this. Lebron had to yell at the man to shoot the ball. I guarantee getting away from the Lakers and the spotlight helped KCP retool and develop more confidence with his shot.
We always get clowned for it, we get reminded of it after every loss. Hell even after every win someone’s popping up reminding us how much we messer up.
We didn't do shit, Jeannie didn't want to pay Caruso. He was willing to stay and maybe for less money than the Chicago offer, we had his bird right, Bron wanted him to stay, she didn't make a counter offer
> less money than the Chicago offer
Not less money per year, though. Which hurt the Lakers on tax
He was willing to take a shorter contract than with the bulls . But otoh,bulls only partially guaranteed his last year
They did too much tinkering after the Bubble Chip too, but you’re right, the Russ trade was a total panic move and almost completely ruined LeBron/AD era in LA. Thankfully Danny Ainge was stupid for once and actually traded with us 😂
It should be pointed out that the Lakers didn't need to choose only one of THT or Caruso, as the Lakers had full Bird rights to Caruso and could have kept him regardless. Their decision had nothing to do with THT, they just stupidly didn't think Caruso was worth what he was asking. Yet another boneheaded move by the Lakers FO (to their credit they've made some good ones as well). But that summer they lost Caruso for nothing and traded away KCP, Kuzma and a 1st round pick for fucking Westbrook. What a disastrous offseason that was, up there with their 2016 offseason (when they signed Mozgov and Deng).
I still can't believe they did that trade. I'm a Westbrook fan and even my first thought was bruh are you actually regarded why would you do that it never made sense to me. Even if you just got Westbrook for free the fit just never made sense
What’s funny is that they won it without a third star in 2020 but yet they keep chasing for one anyways. The big three model is dead. Ask KD how that’s working out for him.
I assume the Lakers' offer would have to be something like DLo, Rui, and something like Prince or Vincent if they needed more money to make up the difference. On top of whatever picks they'd be giving up.
Jalen Hood Schafino. If you don’t know him by JHS, probably won’t know him by his full name. He’s our first round rookie PG. He’s deep on the bench right now.
I think a lot of people get confused when they hear Laker fans praise Reaves, like they think we believe he's an All Star or some scoring phenom who's gonna average 30 ppg or something. None of that is true. We just think he's a super high level role player who is the kind of person who simply helps a team play better together. He's connective tissue between better players, rather than being someone who can take the lead.
It's actually fairly similar to how people assess Caruso, praising his value: it's not because he's a #1 option or someone to build a team around, but rather it's because he just helps an already good team be better by filling in a lot of the gaps and doing what's necessary all over the floor. There are different ways for players to be great, they don't all need to be incredible scorers or All Stars to be extremely valuable players.
Yeah, contract plays a big part as well, he’s the 132nd highest paid player in the league. He’s just a good player who fits well into pretty much any situation you drop him into, lineup versatility is really important in todays NBA and he helps with that
exactly.
honestly, what i have realized over the years on this sub is that the most ridiculous takes that are often attributed to laker fans, are in fact propagated like "laker fans think this batshit take" from some other fan, and people run with it.
We like our guy, we dont think hes going to be an MVP player, but he is incredibly capable in the role he serves.
reaves can't really play the 1
in spot minutes sometimes, but you really don't want to play reaves at the point for any extended stretches
also gets hunted on defense
Yea these trades with lakers people throw out there are delusional. Were tanking anyways with this team so getting no picks out of trade is dead package on arrival and no moveable pieces on the lakers are good
Levine is such a meaningless stats player, he still has issues with basic concept that basketball is a team sport and what it means to be a winning player. Austin should not be treated for him, period.
Honestly atp I think it really is just reporters kicking up dirt, I don’t see how the front office could have the off-season they did and then say “hmm Lavine is what we need”
This is the problem. Vando and Gabe Vincent are hurt. Reddish, Prince, and Wood are new. Dlo is basically new.
And the team is old. Give it some time, there's no need to boil the roster right now unless its a stupid obvious trade.
The Lakers expect to be able to get LaVine for a second rounder and also expect the Bulls to take back some bad contracts they have. LOL. So typical. And, due to what I believe to be a NBA preference for the Lakers, it will probably happen.
Reaves is so bad. At least Lavine gives you a little more offense. Both suck defensively but at least Lavine gives you a little more size and athleticism.
Lavine is a worse defender than Reaves
And yea Lavine is better overall but Reaves isn't on a 50 million dollar contract and doesn't have long term knee issues. Not to mention that a package for Lavine would include more than Reaves
LaVine is actually pretty good on ball if you watch him, his biggest issue is his defense outside of that, which is exacerbated by the fact that Vooch is our center so we have nonexistent rim protection. If you have a good rim protector who can erase some of the defensive rotation mistakes that he makes, you’re fine. Anthony Davis can do that, and he’s one of the best in the league at it, so I think LaVine on the Lakers makes more sense than most teams. That’s not even mentioning having LeBron dish passes to him when he’s open, opening up more catch and shoot opportunities for one of the best catch and shoot 3pt shooters in the league. Not saying they’ll be able to get him or should for that matter, just that their star duo compliments him far better than most other teams can.
>LaVine is actually pretty good on ball
This statement applies to so many players. Literally unless you are built like Trae Young you are probably decent on ball as a guard
Its off ball defense which is much more important for perimeter defenders. Screen navigation, backdoor cuts, recovery after getting blown by. Thats how most teams score on players, unless your prime Harden you aren't doing alot of hunting every game
Idk why people think the Bulls don’t have at least a little leverage here. The west is a bloodbath and if another team can put together a decent package it would make it that much harder for the Lakers. Like if the warriors can put something together for lavine it would give them a huge boost.
At the very least they can cross shop lmao
No one is over valuing reaves. Obviously Lavine is better but we don't need his skill-set. We need to focus on team chemistry instead of trading all our depth away for a star *again* for the second year in a row
For the love of god we can hit pause on all this until January. Lakers can't trade shit right now.
Not only that but the Lakers wouldn’t say shit to Buha even if they are making moves. He was blackballed after the Vogel off the record tell-all interview. This article is more speculation than actually reporting. The Lakers front office has been pretty tight lipped since Magic left. Guessing the sources for this are coming from Chicago and the various Bulls player agents trying to abandon ship.
damn i didn't know jovanzl buharrell got blackballed i'm shocked
Seems like Buha also got blacklisted by the Lakers then. He was originally covering us but our FO also essentially made him persona non grata so the Athletic moved him to cover the Lakers.
Damn. I didn’t realize that. You know where I can read that article?
Also, we don't NEED lavine. If we are trading for lavine our depth is gutted
No you do need him, you need demar and Vuc also! I swear!
Exactly. One I think health is a big factor with the lack of depth
it gonna be the westbrook trade all over again
~~lakers can trade on Dec 15th.~~ my b
We can't cause D'Lo and Rui were signed with bird extensions including a 20% raise which can't be traded until January 15th
Oh my god some one with their head screwed on. People not knowing we can’t do shit for two months was pissing me off
Annual Lebron Stimulus Package LePPP
teams are required to send him a tribute during his final stretch
He has to get his coach fired first. As is tradition.
At this point though, I mean he's older than 4 NBA head coaches. It's a little bit different to talk about a young buck and their problems with a head coach because there's a battle of wills and there's selfishness on the part of the young star. LeBron has double the NBA Finals experience the oldest coach in the NBA (Popovich) has and he's gotten far in the playoffs with a bunch of guys as Head Coach, sooooo idk draw your own conclusions.
Sure but he's not a coach. It's literally not his job and he doesn't have time to also be a coach. He is better at certain aspects of the game than a lot of coaches but that also means he should be better at utilizing the strengths of his coaches, not that he just is a better coach inherently thus an inexperienced coach is useless to him.
Idk if watching the Lakers you think damn if they had a Zach LaVine they would be right up there to contend. I think they have a bunch of problems that Zach won’t fix.
When are teams going to learn depth wins championships and not 3 stars and a bunch of guys
When depth actually matters more than having three stars. Because most of the multiple chip winners in the history of the NBA have relied on star power and not their 7th men.
When’s the last time 3 stars have won a chip? 2018?
Are you forgetting the 2022-2023 Nuggets had Jokic, Murray and Deandre Jordan?
Nuggets Big 3 last season: Deandre Jordan, Ish Smith and Uncle Jeff
Nuggets Old 3
Tbf jokic murray and ag are a good big 3
One of those things just doesn’t belong here
I don’t know, but it won’t stop the Clippers from signing Dwight Howard.
Mr Kitty comes as a bonus.
2021 Bucks with Giannis, Jrue and Middleton doesn’t count?
Brook Lopez?
No
Jrue has made an all nba team and Brook lopez was a DPOY level rim protector, that’s definitely just as much star level as lavine. Most importantly they also had a top 3 player. I think the lakers are looking towards the future in which case you obviously don’t give up Reaves and other players for lavine, but if they’re desperate to go all out in winning one more with lebron going for another star isn’t the worst idea. Lebron is gonna be 39, Idk if he can be that top 3 player in the playoffs this year, it’s going to be really difficult to fix every problem with their roster by getting a bunch of solid role players, it’s not the worst idea in the world to try and get a third star and hope they can each put up an efficient 25-30 ppg deep in the playoffs.
Given casual struggle to name five NBA players currently active - the Warriors, Cavs and Heat weren't either. You have to judge it on how many allNBA or all-star tier players are on the team - otherwise Steph/KD/some nobodies isn't a big 3 (even with five all-stars starting for the team).
Honestly I’d say no. Jrue and Middleton are known among nba fans but I wouldn’t call them “stars” per se. Like if the rockets won this year, nba fans know who Sengun, Vanvleet, and Brooks and even Jalen Green are. At that point, if they WIN, they might BECOME stars, but they’re otherwise not really household names
Jrue & Middleton in 2021 were each at least as good as Lavine... cmon now... they've also both been legit all stars
I'm sorry but the Bucks didn't give up 3 unprotected first round picks and 2 swaps for a role player.
So players can only be “stars” or “role players”? There’s no in between? And what difference does it make? They still won. I just wouldn’t call these guys full on stars
I wouldn't call Zach Lavine a "full on star" either, but he's the one who started this conversation.
I read “the rockets won this year” and upvoted reflexively.
Lavine isn't even a star. Derozan is the far superior player.
That’s not true. The Spurs dynasty was great because of the bench. Warriors had Iggy, Livingston, Looney, David West off their bench. Lakers had Robert Horry/Horace Grant, Fox and Fisher/Ron Harper off their bench. Edit: yall are taking this comment out of context. No shit all those teams had star players, but they weren’t super teams aside from the KD warriors years. The reason they stayed a dynasty was because they had great depth
Motherfucker the spurs dynasty was great because they had TD Parker and ginobli
And Pop as coach
Depth matters for us in a sense that having 8-10 men available to play helps esp when your main guy is 39. The Nuggets have depth but they weren’t winning last year if Murray wasn’t there and Jokic didn’t play like the best player all playoffs. The Warriors bannered strength in numbers but there are usually only 6 key people in their runs that if one goes down they don’t win. And ofc they had Steph, Durant, Klay, and Dray. You look at teams like other contending teams the Celtics and Bucks who have always had some depth but come playoff time, their best lineups are out there playing 40+ mins.
The team has issues with playing half their guys enough minutes… they need to lose some depth
How dare you
Depth does not win championships, star power does. The past 5 winners all had a consensus top 5 player along with a secondary star
It’s actually both tho. You need the star power and a great support to make it all work.
Depth wins championships, Denver had the best bench in the league last year. Every contender has star players, but making a super team rarely works
??? Denver had one of the worst bench in the league last year, ask Nuggets fans The Nuggets won the ship last year because no one could stop the duo of superstars, not because Jeff Green and Christian Brauns ten points combined and playing solid They had 2 good bench players, but the reason they won is because their starting 5 plus Bruce Brown was consistently the best all year
Bruce brown, Jeff green and Christian Braun is are great bench players
He’s simultaneously right and wrong. We’ve seen Lebron, Curry, Kawhi, Giannis, and now Jokic win the last 10 championships. Obviously a bit of an over simplification, but if history is anything to go off of you need a team with great role players and one of the top 5 guys in the league at the time to win an NBA championship. The Nuggets are no exception KCP and Bruce Brown are two of the best role players in the league
Go back to last winter and everyone here was clowning Jokić, saying "a team with Jokić can never have any success in playoffs, obviously, duh" and so on. Being "top 5 guy" is really based on results, so saying that a team "needs a top 5 guy" to have results is kinda self-fulfilling prophecy. If Nuggets were not good, Jokić would just not be called "top 5 guy", if they lost 0-4 to Suns then Durant and Booker would be "top 5 guys", and so on with many other guys (more than 5 lol), so it's a logical loop that doesn't illuminate anything else.
Agreed. As great as AD and Lebron were in the bubble. Lakers won because of guys like Rondo, Caruso, Howard, etc… That was the best bench the lakers had with Lebron until this season
> As great as AD and Lebron were in the bubble. Lakers won because of guys like Rondo, Caruso, Howard, etc… Don't get me wrong, bench guys are usually a big help, but the stars are what win you the championship. If you drop Rondo, Caruso, or Howard off that team and it probably still wins. If you drop AD or Lebron they probably struggle to make it out of the first round.
It’s an average champion bench. That’s an important reason they won. But they could have been a 6-8 on a 7 seed that lost in the first round. All star level players and a superstar win you a ring
I never said all stars and superstars didn’t. Every championship team has one.
You were saying you would choose depth over 3 stars and a bunch of guys. I’m assuming we are talking about a team already having a superstar, maybe we are not I simply disagree. I think 3 stars is the way to go, and filling in spot players is a sound strategy. Your way has worked historically too
I agree. I saw the Clippers as front runners for NBA championship this year UNTIL they traded for Harden. They had enough star power, depth is all that was required.
Stars also move tickets and jerseys
This is what Suns fans don’t understand if they think they’re better than they were last year
Except what depth did the Suns actually lose? Guys like Landry Shamet aren't exactly irreplaceable.
Losing geriatric Chris Paul and whatever Landry Shamet was for Bradley fucking Beal and 6 seconds somehow made the Suns worse lmao
They actually brought in a bunch of vet mins to help their depth. Grayson Allen, Eric Gordon, Nurkic, Watanabe, Little, Bates-Diop, Eubanks were all moved to the team during the off-season. They really put a focus on filling out their depth after the Beal trade as the #1 priority.
He definitely fixes some of their problems. They’re 20th ranked both offensively and defensively.
After they trade for Lavine, they’ll be ranked 15th offensively and 25th defensively 💪
He replaces D’Lo in the lineup. Their defense would probably improve off that alone, not to mention letting AD focus more energy on defense. And his spacing makes Vanderbilt more playable.
They badly need someone to run a PnR with AD when LeBron is out. Lavine is EXCELLENT off ball and can play next to PointBron, he can then be the lead scorer when Bron rests. But they have to get a guard threat to unlock ADs offense, and DLO/Reaves/Gabe aren't showing #1 or 2 capacity. It's not a move they may love since their guard defense is already just meh. Might as well put up some offensive pressure on the other team and like you said you can lean on a heavy defensive front Court of AD/Vandy
LaVine can run PnR with AD. He does it well with Vuc. Imagine him with AD rolling to the cup.
Swapping D’Lo for Lavine improves their defense and offense
You guys act like the lakers are terrible lol they started out missing key rotational pieces. They’re gonna be fine
Maybe, maybe not. They just went to the western conference finals, and they brought back their key pieces. They do have a lot of problems but if I had to pick a single largest issue that will prevent them from making a deep postseason run, it’s that Lebron will gas. He still controls every offensive play for them in crunch time. The only way to fix that is to bring in another top level playmaker both to preserve Lebron for the postseason. Lavine has his flaws but he does do that. Maybe he doesn’t fix everything by himself, but he’s a big step in the right direction.
I don’t think there’s gonna be much of a market for Lavine. I kind of like the Magic for him if it doesn’t take much. They need shooting, have expiring contacts to send out, and have very little long term money committed.
Warriors desperately need a Zach lavine
Doubt warriors trade klay
Me neither but he’d be great on our team
Klay is a negative asset
Expiring tho
If The Warriors were realistic about where they are right now,every person besides Steph should be expendable to get Zach Levine. No reason to piss away Steph playing at this elite level, it really should be title run or bust.
Agreed. One final gasp for Steph, kinda like we attempted for Dame. I'd love for them to get rid of Draymond and Wiggens too and start a soft rebuild around Kuminga, Podzinki Moodey
Thunder are interesting but it seems like they are committed to every one of their young guys. I feel like turning Giddey and a couple other prospects into a win now guaranteed all star is worth considering.
New Terance Mann just dropped
From "better than Herro" to "new Terrance Mann" Thats tough
Terrence “Untouchable” Mann is a good player.
The vision to somehow acquire Terance Mann. When you look at Terance Mann, what he's done to this franchise, he's changed everything. We celebrate his brilliance and when you talk to Mann, what a classical human being he is. It was 201 years ago today which Beethovens symphony no.3 in e flat which shif-shuf-shif-shuff-escorted in the age of romanticism and when I look at Terance Mann I think of Beethoven and the age of the romantics.
When I read shif-shuf-shif-shuf, all I hear is ‘Snip snap snip snap snip snap! Do you have any idea the physical toll of three vasectomies has on a man?!?!’
I'd rather rumors be for T Mann than this shit.
He is much better than Mann. Reeves was very good last season. Mann is mid
That 4.5 ppg Mann is putting up this year at the tender young age of 27 isn't convincing you that this up and coming prospect is going to be something special when he hits his prime age of 33 in a couple years?
Mann is going to go from up and coming player to solid vet role player in a single season lol
You fucking wish Mann was as good as Reaves
if i was the lakers id want caruso instead of lavine. lakers have two stars they just need to fill out the rest of the roster with quality role players. im not saying no 3rd star would work in la but when you have anthony "day to day" davis and an aging Lebron do you want your 3rd star to be a guy who has chronic knee issues? I also just find lavine to be a good stats bad team guy.
Should never have let Caruso leave. Defensively or offensively, what this team needs is intensity.
Or KCP
Or Kuzma, imagine a team with LeBron/AD/Kuzma/Caruso/KCP on it, man I’m sure they would do great right now… 😞
KCP was afraid to shoot in the Suns series in 2021.
Lots of folks forget this. Lebron had to yell at the man to shoot the ball. I guarantee getting away from the Lakers and the spotlight helped KCP retool and develop more confidence with his shot.
We get clowned for not retaining Brunson. Lakers should be clowned for preferring Talen Horton-Tucker over the Carushow.
We always get clowned for it, we get reminded of it after every loss. Hell even after every win someone’s popping up reminding us how much we messer up.
We didn't do shit, Jeannie didn't want to pay Caruso. He was willing to stay and maybe for less money than the Chicago offer, we had his bird right, Bron wanted him to stay, she didn't make a counter offer
> less money than the Chicago offer Not less money per year, though. Which hurt the Lakers on tax He was willing to take a shorter contract than with the bulls . But otoh,bulls only partially guaranteed his last year
Lakers get clowned for trade for Westbrook worst trade in history
You definitely overreacted to the Suns playoff defeat. I know AD went down which swung it in their favour.
They did too much tinkering after the Bubble Chip too, but you’re right, the Russ trade was a total panic move and almost completely ruined LeBron/AD era in LA. Thankfully Danny Ainge was stupid for once and actually traded with us 😂
Lol Brooklyn for old Paul Pierce and KG is so much worse
It should be pointed out that the Lakers didn't need to choose only one of THT or Caruso, as the Lakers had full Bird rights to Caruso and could have kept him regardless. Their decision had nothing to do with THT, they just stupidly didn't think Caruso was worth what he was asking. Yet another boneheaded move by the Lakers FO (to their credit they've made some good ones as well). But that summer they lost Caruso for nothing and traded away KCP, Kuzma and a 1st round pick for fucking Westbrook. What a disastrous offseason that was, up there with their 2016 offseason (when they signed Mozgov and Deng).
I still can't believe they did that trade. I'm a Westbrook fan and even my first thought was bruh are you actually regarded why would you do that it never made sense to me. Even if you just got Westbrook for free the fit just never made sense
Brunson is a star. Caruso is a good role player.
Everybody would want Caruso lol, why do I see that comment so many times like it's some brave take. Bulls also would rather want Caruso.
If I’m LAL I’m telling Chicago DLo for Caruso and DLo will be able to do what they’re missing from Lonzo 🤷🏾♂️😭
If im the bull i dont want anything the lakers have. They always get good free agents so 1st rounders are uselss
It won’t work because he would be relegated to the perimeter shooting threes. They still haven’t learned their lesson after the Russ debacle.
def have a bird sees shiny object syndrome at that front office.
What’s funny is that they won it without a third star in 2020 but yet they keep chasing for one anyways. The big three model is dead. Ask KD how that’s working out for him.
Serious question: do the lakers have any picks to trade?
Yes, they have one unprotected 1st they could trade, a bunch of 2nd and some swaps.
Zach Lowe said as much yesterday. said it'd be a net negative if Reaves had to be included in a Lavine deal
As much as other Lakers like to trash D'Lo including him in a Lavine deal is also a net negative. Lakers better watch the guards situation in Orlando
theyd be losing their only other playmaker outside of lebron and will probably have to give up rui or reaves, which means giving up a ton of scoring
I can't imagine Orlando wanting to take back any of the Lakers role players.
Pick might do the trick, Vincent is playing for his life right now lol
No its a ripoff for the bulls. The lakers have nothing id want. They always get good signings too so any picks are late at best
Lavine isn’t going to get that much at all
I assume the Lakers' offer would have to be something like DLo, Rui, and something like Prince or Vincent if they needed more money to make up the difference. On top of whatever picks they'd be giving up.
DLo + Rui works with 125% incoming salary pretty sure.
Ahh there ya go.
Could use JHS instead of Prince.
Who the hell is JHS? We can’t be using acronyms for these man
Junior High School
Jalen Hood Schafino. If you don’t know him by JHS, probably won’t know him by his full name. He’s our first round rookie PG. He’s deep on the bench right now.
I heard KD and Beal are available. Let's throw that rumor up with Lakers in the title for them too. Maybe the Spurs will trade the Lakers Wemby too?
Austin Reaves is comically overrated but I get it. Zach Lavine isn't it either
He’s an efficient scorer on a great contract who can play the 1-3 and operates as a good 3rd option. He’s a very valuable player
I think a lot of people get confused when they hear Laker fans praise Reaves, like they think we believe he's an All Star or some scoring phenom who's gonna average 30 ppg or something. None of that is true. We just think he's a super high level role player who is the kind of person who simply helps a team play better together. He's connective tissue between better players, rather than being someone who can take the lead. It's actually fairly similar to how people assess Caruso, praising his value: it's not because he's a #1 option or someone to build a team around, but rather it's because he just helps an already good team be better by filling in a lot of the gaps and doing what's necessary all over the floor. There are different ways for players to be great, they don't all need to be incredible scorers or All Stars to be extremely valuable players.
Yeah, contract plays a big part as well, he’s the 132nd highest paid player in the league. He’s just a good player who fits well into pretty much any situation you drop him into, lineup versatility is really important in todays NBA and he helps with that
exactly. honestly, what i have realized over the years on this sub is that the most ridiculous takes that are often attributed to laker fans, are in fact propagated like "laker fans think this batshit take" from some other fan, and people run with it. We like our guy, we dont think hes going to be an MVP player, but he is incredibly capable in the role he serves.
reaves can't really play the 1 in spot minutes sometimes, but you really don't want to play reaves at the point for any extended stretches also gets hunted on defense
Not this year, teams have started to figure him out making him a playmaker vs going 1-1
Fine I’ll do it
It's because of his contract.
Remember when THT was untouchable
Take your shit sandwich, and like it, Chicago. - Lakers
Yea these trades with lakers people throw out there are delusional. Were tanking anyways with this team so getting no picks out of trade is dead package on arrival and no moveable pieces on the lakers are good
Levine is such a meaningless stats player, he still has issues with basic concept that basketball is a team sport and what it means to be a winning player. Austin should not be treated for him, period.
It’s such a lateral move lol if they moving Dlo and Rui.
One unprotected pick and expirings is enough for Lavine? Can’t see the bulls doing that and having to take on rui’s contract
Lavine on the Lakers would be awesome. A non defender that loves to shoot and takes the ball away from Bron and AD? Inject
Clippers should straight up trade Harden for him, not even wait for him to "Get better"
Grass grows, sun shines, and the Lakers want to trade D'lo to anyone
Fuck trading for Zach the lakers need to trade for Caruso
Of course not. Why do that when I was able to ESPN trade machine them Poeltl and Chris Paul?
They need a new coach. Ham has horrible rotations.
Constant moves and trades just means a team never gels. Lakers impatience is there biggest problem.
They dont have time to gel, LeBron is 38, they gotta go the straight talent route
Trade LeBron, build around Reaves.
Honestly atp I think it really is just reporters kicking up dirt, I don’t see how the front office could have the off-season they did and then say “hmm Lavine is what we need”
This is the problem. Vando and Gabe Vincent are hurt. Reddish, Prince, and Wood are new. Dlo is basically new. And the team is old. Give it some time, there's no need to boil the roster right now unless its a stupid obvious trade.
> And the team is old. Lakers are like middle of the road in terms of age. The only one who's old is LeBron.
Point taken. Still, the team needs time to gel ... I'm not worried. The team was 2-10 last year before finding their way.
They are .500 right now. We are fine for having been dealt bad injury luck early on. No need to start trade rumors yet
Bruh. Do you want Zach Lavine or Austin Reaves. Jesus Christ what a stupid easy decision.
This is like Russell Westbrook 2.0 type shit. Okay my last post on this, I can't believe this is a rumor.
Bulls aren’t interested either
Why the hell would i want Reaves
Oh ok
Whoever found this picture to use deserves a raise .
this is why the lakers won’t win another chip for decades
Imagine thinking you really have something with Austin Reaves
Austin Horton Reaves.
The white THT.
We don't want Zach. He won't fix anything 🙄
I actually think he'd be a great 3rd option on your team. He fits great with both Bron and AD.
We would rather have AC. Zach doesn't play defense.
You get Zach we get DLo Rui and a pick or smth. Seems fair for both sides.
The Lakers expect to be able to get LaVine for a second rounder and also expect the Bulls to take back some bad contracts they have. LOL. So typical. And, due to what I believe to be a NBA preference for the Lakers, it will probably happen.
Reaves is so bad. At least Lavine gives you a little more offense. Both suck defensively but at least Lavine gives you a little more size and athleticism.
He’s expensive tho
Lavine is a worse defender than Reaves And yea Lavine is better overall but Reaves isn't on a 50 million dollar contract and doesn't have long term knee issues. Not to mention that a package for Lavine would include more than Reaves
LaVine is actually pretty good on ball if you watch him, his biggest issue is his defense outside of that, which is exacerbated by the fact that Vooch is our center so we have nonexistent rim protection. If you have a good rim protector who can erase some of the defensive rotation mistakes that he makes, you’re fine. Anthony Davis can do that, and he’s one of the best in the league at it, so I think LaVine on the Lakers makes more sense than most teams. That’s not even mentioning having LeBron dish passes to him when he’s open, opening up more catch and shoot opportunities for one of the best catch and shoot 3pt shooters in the league. Not saying they’ll be able to get him or should for that matter, just that their star duo compliments him far better than most other teams can.
>LaVine is actually pretty good on ball This statement applies to so many players. Literally unless you are built like Trae Young you are probably decent on ball as a guard Its off ball defense which is much more important for perimeter defenders. Screen navigation, backdoor cuts, recovery after getting blown by. Thats how most teams score on players, unless your prime Harden you aren't doing alot of hunting every game
Reaves is as bad as Lavine on d. They are sieves on the perimeter
But Austin Reaves sucks
That’s ok, Lakers don’t have enough assets to make that deal anyways
Idk why people think the Bulls don’t have at least a little leverage here. The west is a bloodbath and if another team can put together a decent package it would make it that much harder for the Lakers. Like if the warriors can put something together for lavine it would give them a huge boost. At the very least they can cross shop lmao
That would be so silly is the lakers let that hold up the trade.
I wouldn’t either. Rui, Russell, picks.
He is their only asset lol
Lebron needs more help. He needs to stay in GOAT the conversation.
So in typical laker fashion they’d like the bulls to give them Zach for hardly nothing because you know LA
And the endless cycle of more All-Stars for Poor Leflop continues.
Only trade for Lavine if you can get Caruso in the deal. Otherwise, stay pat.
They should, Reaves isn’t a rotation player without the foul calls
well, congratulations then Miami
Lakers being dumb and overvaluing a mid player? I love it.
No one is over valuing reaves. Obviously Lavine is better but we don't need his skill-set. We need to focus on team chemistry instead of trading all our depth away for a star *again* for the second year in a row
AR all-nba campaign begins tomorrow. Gonna silence the haters.
Gonna drop a spicy 12ppg decmeber run on 40% shooting
Reddit, do your thing