if we want to be positive bout this pg situation, they are 1 loss away from being 9th n out of playoffs. how do you pitch pg on winning when you cant make the playoffs cause 1 role player got hurt?
That's what Magic, Rob and PG's agent are for. So PG for some unfathomable reason is not dumb enough to get "tricked".
Hell Magic's net worth is $500M. No way he goes into luxury tax hell. Sign PG then he has to gut like crazy. And PG would be crazy to not see that. All to be Tonto on the prairie when he has a beautiful home in Encino.
would a team trade our collection of young talent for westbrook? i think the answer is yes. or better: would okc trade westbrook for ball/kuzma/ingram? i think not unless they expected they were going to lose him via FA. george's main concern is winning; he's been pretty clear about that. he has a better chance winning over the next three years with westbrook and three little sisters of the poor than with the lakers' daycare facility. and i do think the lakers need to be concerned with sign and trade and opt-in and trade scenarios with george, too. if lebron decides to stay in cleveland, you don't think gs and houston won't immediately turn attention to george? you think he wouldn't listen? you think okc wouldn't take klay thompson and change? anyway, my point is that everyone's asking a lot in terms of long-term vision from george, when we haven't seen many nba players approach their circumstances like this. his next contract will take him through his prime. he might not want to waste half of it waiting for things to happen (trusting that things will happen). he's already lost a year to injury in his career, too. i think he's more urgent than the lakers need him to be...which is why they're trying to clear the second max, of course.
That day care facility is 4 very unique types of players with huge primes ahead of them. (aside from KD being in the league already ahead of BI) With the jumps to be made by even next season in talent, sorry I don't see your statement of PG and RW and three little sisters of the poor being better after the necessary gutting as being accurate. At all. But then you consistently undervalue how good these players are going to be. PG's better shot by far for his prime and his enjoyment is to come to the Lakers. Whether LBJ comes or not. Didn't address your PG to the Warriors or to Houston points as haven't even thought about them and they're a brand new wrinkle in your narrative.
I disagree and I think the Lakers do too which is why they made it a possibility to go get LeBron this summer. If George was willing to come here alone, the Lakers wouldn't have opened the second slot up as they'd have been confident in their standings on the market. Personally obviously we'd all love it if George was willing to just sign here no matter what, but I don't think that's the case. Now that there's two open slots, I think the odds of us getting him have increased by a lot. It's up to the kids now to show their value both in trade scenarios and as teammates to a better cast.
eh, history would say you're overvaluing them and the odds that they'll be stars. i think george understands this. and, as both real and i have said, so does our own management team.
@therealdeal You agree that a gutted OKC roster or rather RW and PG and three little sisters of the poor offers PG a better experience than to come to the Lakers next year?
Right. Going to play the history and odds card rather than look at the players themselves, how good they already are and the improvements every year in their short careers while being years from their prime. No eye tests for you I see. When I say star I really don't care whether it's got the formal all star vote attached. I'm talking about their comparative talent very reasonably to be expected in the future from seeing where they are now. Who you got for that false hope flash in the pan between Ingram, Randle, Ball, Kuzma?
better chance at winning next year. neither represents a real chance at competing at the highest level, which again, is why we should be fearing s&t options as well.
i'm wary of eye tests that are accompanied by emotional attachment. they tend to be particularly egregious and problematic with young players, as we dismiss the countless future stars who weren't and focus only on the success stories.
Who are you worried about? I edited before your comment. Who's not going to be all that good in 2 years even? Ball? Ingram? Randle? Kuzma? What's going to be his or their (if you question more than one) downfall to being just average?
i dont share abeer3 bleak out look bout our future player but i do agree that our chances are higher in regards to pg if we get james to commit, otherwise it would be 2-3yrs before we could theoretically contend with just pg n the young guys developing into stars
But PG's not going to contend with just RW and a gutted team either and then he's stuck there with no hope as the Lakers get better and better.
This. Without a commitment from LeBron, George is absolutely taking a step back in terms of competing in 2019, 2020, and probably 2021 as well. Westbrook is better than any of our players now and likely for at least a few years. So is George willing to take a step back, be less competitive, just to come home and be the guy? I'd argue no. In fact I'd argue he's made it clear to LA what he wants: he's said he likes playing off another ball-dominant guy since he gets to pick and choose his spots, he's said he wouldn't come here unless it was as an avalanche of players coming here, he's said he wants to compete. All of that points to the Lakers at least using our two max slots to bring in he and LeBron. It might also mean parting with one or two of the young kids if there's a deal to be made for a more seasoned veteran a la the Love deal where they sent out Wiggins. Who would that be? I don't know. Those trades tend to be a little more out of left field, but there's some names out there in AD, Wall, Gasol etc. It's up to the kids we have now to prove they're capable of playing at a high enough level to keep us from moving them if/when we sign George/LeBron. Those two will want to see the talent of our youngsters translate into wins before they simply accept them as teammates. So, let's all hope for a big win streak from these guys with Ball coming back and blowing the lid off. If that happens, the Lakers can argue that they've got enough talent to compete with just LeBron/George and then hold off making a trade until they have to. I'd still prepare to lose a kid or two though if we have a chance to compete this summer, the Lakers are going to take that chance.
Real I don't understand. On the one hand you acknowledge that OKC has to move pretty much all the big contracts, including Adams which would really hurt them, once Melo opts in, as you expect, and they open the checkbook for George. Gut the team. They had and have NO guarantees this year even to get to the WCF. Whether RW is waaay better than any single one of our players is irrelevant when the overall number of up and coming talented players is here. He and RW alone aren't going to do jack. Why is this assumed he stays if that is the case you have made yourself. The guy is NOT a billionaire. He can't pay that kind of tax so he has to gut.
Because the point is OKC will make sure to re-sign George at his max no matter what. What happens after that, is on the team and has nothing to do with George anymore. They sell him on "we'll figure it out, we always field a competitive team, etc" and he signs the deal and at that point it's over. They've sold him on it just like they did with Westbrook. All the future issues and future problems don't matter anymore because the deal is signed and George is staying. The argument that OKC will gut their team will be downplayed probably to nothing during the contract offers. We all see it, the league sees it, but when they're trying to woo George they'll say whatever they have to so that he signs the deal. It's up to the Lakers to point out their position of strength in the future, but without another person in the fold, that position of strength is just code for "we don't have it yet". So what's more important to George? Being set up in a situation where he and Westbrook can be a 3-5 team in the West every year and maybe get lucky once? Or is it babysitting these kids with no other star in place? Our promises of keeping a max slot open are not too dissimilar to OKC promising to pay for a contender: they're both empty until someone signs or Bennett puts his money where his mouth is. That's why I think it's vital to have another max guy signing and with Boogie out, that leaves LeBron. You have LeBron in the fold and suddenly we're a better team than OKC by a solid margin with or without George. WITH George and LeBron, we're at least the 3rd best team in the West, maybe second depending on how Houston's summer goes. Without LeBron, we're a 30-35 win team with a bunch of great young kids, but no real title hopes for, what, 3-4 years? At that point George can sign up when we're ready to compete! Got to be competitive now.
I understand LBJ being super useful in wooing him. I don't understand nor would I expect PG to be that dumb to not see the handwriting on the wall in OKC even if James doesn't come. And come next year we shouldn't be referring to our main young talent as the kiddie core needing to be babysat. For those that do that.
