Yeah. But those moves were knee-jerk moves knowing we weren't getting any free agent meetings. I'm just sort of trying to say that I am not going to look at PG-13 as the only barometer of success. I'm tired of talking about the guy. This thread is sitting at 183 pages and we may be over a year away from knowing whether or not he's coming.
There is a possibility that would be the case but I firmly believe that the reason we struck out was due to Byron Scott and the FO's lack of being contemporary. We now have Luke Walton who is a great young coach... a players' coach. We have a front office that understands the modern day NBA player. I think we are so much more attractive as a destination from the summer where we struck out on Aldridge. In my opinion, we are so different now. Regarding PG, I still believe he will be a Laker soon.
I actually think the difference is Pelinka, not Magic. Magic is the face and the salesman, but Pelinka is the guy with the connections and the shark mentality. The plan itself wasn't awful given the market we're in. What made the plan awful was that we had nobody willing or capable of doing the backdoor deals you need to do in order to pull these plans off in today's NBA. You need the player connections and we didn't have any. We needed long-term plans and we didn't have any. I don't believe that's an issue anymore.
i don't buy the whole "players want to come here just because it's the lakers" argument guys didn't want to play in LA for a while because of kobe. since kobe's been gone, we've sucked so there's another reason why no one wants to play for the lakers. mitch and jim tried pushing the "history and traditions" narrative but the truth is that players really don't care about that magic and rob will probably improve our chances of landing big FA's but the truth is that this team needs to actually prove that they're on the up and poised for success, or else the big FA's will only continue to pass the lakers over
Paul George is the only player since Derek Fisher who tried to work his way to LA. Before then, it was Rick Fox who turned down 20 million, which was a lot back in 1997, to come to LA for the minimum. Shaq came because of Jerry West's 120 mil versus Orlando's 84 mil. Players will come to LA next year if Lonzo Ball turns into Jason Kidd. Why? Because wins, max money and a passing leader. The NBA player trifecta. Lakers are 4th.
That's true. I'm definitely not arguing that. If we go into this season looking as bad, but worse as uninspiring, as we have the last two years then I sincerely doubt anyone is taking that cap room. The good news is players already see something in Ingram and Ball has great buzz. We need those two to have some great moments next year.
Players just want to be respected and treated fairly. They don't want to get jacked around by management. And they want a chance to win. They want to know that the FO is willing to do whatever it takes to bring the right people in and get things done. I know people are bummed with the DLO trade, but I have to think that Magic was hearing things through the grapevine. While our own players may not have had any problems with DLO, it is very possible that other players from other teams are not too high on him. I have heard some comments made about DLO over the Young fiasco, that indicated, they thought he was a snitch and a bit of an idiot. If Magic was informed of this behind the scenes a few times, I could see why he would have come to this conclusion. Point is, I am not privy to these comments made by others in the NBA so, I can't assume anything. All I can do is look at the life long achievements and attitude and decide whether I trust someone or not. In the case of Jim Buss, when I looked at that, he made me way more than nervous. When I look at Magic, I am more than willing to let him have a few bumps in the road. I think he will get things done in the long term. I am not certain, as this is a new position for him, but I am rooting for him and not eager to jump on the haters bandwagon. This is the thing that I don't really get around the Lakers fan base. So many seem more than eager to jump on the hate wagon and disparage our new FO team at every opportunity. Some people just are NOT pulling for them, it seems that they kind of secretly hope they fail, just so they can say, I told you so, look how smart I am, I was right all along, Magic is a megalomaniac!!! Look how cool I am, this team sucks!! The only thing that sucks is that mentality. Winning rings is NOT about winning rings. That is a small part of it. It is about the journey, about the hardships and mountains you had to climb. The better the journey, the sweeter the victory. 1971 was super sweet as was 1985 and 2010. All years where we broke through tough barriers to win rings. When we finally get back to the top after this horrendous down era, it is going to be super sweet again and I for one will be glad I was along for the ride. I feel positive about our future. We are out of the rut we were in and the culture is changing. I wish more of you felt this way.
I think the steps Magic and Rob have taken so far shows the NBA things are different now in Laker land. The edition of Luke and young guys like ball/ingram have changed the perception a bit. I think we will land a good/great FA soon.
so... trashing jim buss, mitch kupchak and d'angelo russell (and i guess now clarkson?) = not a sucky mentality questioning the greatness of magic and pelinka as managers = sucky mentality got it. nobody's hoping someone fails. actually, i can think of at least one exception, but this individual would qualify under the "good fan mentality" label as delineated above...
Abeer those guys are no longer on the team for a reason... so what're you talking about. Guys that weren't seen as part of the future, what did those guys do that was soooo great?
When did they trash jim buss? Was not aware of that. And yes, setting a standard is a good thing. Russells mentality wasn't cutting it. A bit early to cut loose in my opinion, but im good with it. And I think its great to question Magic and Pelinka. That comes with the territory.
Question Magic and Pelinka in a downer of a vision after a draft and one trade before free agency...lol. Question away y'all.
First domino the Lakers have control over is winning. We need Lonzo to hit the ground running from a distribution stand point and wins and improvement will follow.
