A sure win tonight against the Knicks, even if Scott does what he should, play Brown, Clarkson, Black, Sacre, and Kelly major minutes. But after this game that's what should be Scotts lineup if they want to see what those guys got, and they want to ensure they keep the pick. I'm betting they have approached, Boozer, Lin, Young and Hill about shutting it down so they can bring in more D leaguers for auditions but were rebuffed because those guys want to showcase themselves for a contract next year. Just crossing my fingers the Wolves run off a few wins...
I don't think the Lakers would ask that honestly. If anything I'm guessing Mitch and Jim handed orders down to Byron though that the young guys need to play. The veterans' minutes should definitely be limited. Now that Brown is up, Lin shouldn't play much. Clarkson (25)/Brown (15)/ Lin (10) Ellington (30)/ Lin (10)/ Brown (8) Johnson (24)/ Kelly (24) Black (20)/ Boozer (20)/ Davis (8) Hill (28)/ Davis (20) That should pretty much guarantee most losses.
I'm willing to get as *** backwards as possible for this one season alone. This season is as lost as they come, I can barely even watch the games, it's beyond depressing. Our one bright spot was going to be watching Randle develop and he freakin breaks his leg. So yes, I'm sorry real, but I do want us to sit our productive players, at the END of close games where a win is on the line. Play them all game, then get the hot hands outta there. If that makes me like a Sixers fan I honestly don't care. I know you're our eternal optimist and I like that, but I'm not, and getting and not getting this pick could be the difference between sucking another 5+ years and suddenly being competetive. As I have said before that can either be by drafting an instant impact player, or even trading the pick for an All-Star if it's high enough. I'm really don't care about our pride, looking like a bad fan, or some meaningless wins in a season no one will ever remember in a few months with that pick on the line. I know that rooting for the tank doesn't make it happen, just like rooting for wins doesn't make them happen. I know nobody cost us any losses last season by rooting for us to beat the C Bags twice, but I'm still going to root for the tank and be pissed at wins. I cannot be happy about wins in the most meaningless Lakers season I have ever seen. This is a new thing to me, I've only been a fan since '93, I have never seen us this bad. I hope to not see us this bad again for a long time, so I will continue to support the tank. Lastly, I know you aren't worried about the pick, but I am. Being 4th worst doesn't guarantee it, our luck has not been good lately, and I don't like having fewer lottery balls. I honestly don't like those odds even at 4, and I also don't trust the league. They're doing fine with us down like this, and as much as I've joked that Silver owes us, I don't trust him, or the slimy owners behind the scenes, especially with Dr Buss gone now. Too many weird things have gone on for me to truly trust in the lottery being fair, like the Hornets getting the #1 pick the year the league owns them, and Cleveland constantly getting it. Call me a conspiracy theorist all you like, I don't deny it. I just feel like we need to do whatever we can to help the odds, we cannot count on the league to do us any favors. I'm sorry if my attitude has you or anyone else down, but this is a special situation, and I'm dealing with it in my own way lol.
In all honesty I think Byron has been placed in an excruciatingly Catch 22 situation. Preach and seemingly succeed in restoring Laker pride & winning mindset, all the while having to not be transparent to the players while knowing full well the importance and necessity of the "TANK"."
Oh I don't blame anyone who is on board the tank. I am too! I know it makes more sense for the Lakers to lose and the Lakers really need that pick for a cost-controlled potential starter. What I'm upset about is the fact that we're HERE. We're HERE and there's so many posters and Laker fans that are willing to embrace this type of team. Even rebuilding Laker teams make the playoffs. This will be two years in a row we miss the playoffs and I'm disgusted. This site should be thriving with new business and new, bright posters every day but the team is so bad it's hard to even be a Laker fan at all. And sitting guys who get hot is something we already do! Byron pulled Jordan Clarkson before Jordan could get to 30 points. Through 3Qs Byron works the tank. Then in the end he throws out whoever is playing and lets them win or lose. I'm alright with that because most of the time they're going to lose. Lin, Wes Johnson, and Jordan Clarkson have been playing out of their minds since the All-Star break... I can't imagine that continues knowing their playing history. We're going to lose a lot of games and I'm sickened by that still. We are on a very dangerous slope here. When we start to try to lose games, we DESERVE to lose everything. So far I completely agree with you that we've had awful luck. Buss dying, Howard leaving (good luck?), Nash and Kobe injuries, Randle injury... none of those things we could help much. Paul getting vetoed and D'Antoni getting hired work into that... But I don't feel like we as a franchise have tarnished our integrity by lowering ourselves to the Sixers of the world and I don't want to. I have too much pride for that. I don't even think the Knicks have done that or the Magic or the Jazz or the Nuggets... I don't want to root for a franchise that tries to throw games. I really don't. If we suck, we suck. If we try hard and fail, then we fail. I never want to be a part of what the Sixers are doing. I think we tend to overreact to the wins and underreact to the losses right now. It was one game against an opponent most of us thought we'd beat. Besides that little win streak, we are on pace for the worst season of all time. We're probably going to win tonight too. We should expect that. Even if we win though we're still two games worse than Orlando. No reason to panic yet. As for Silver helping us... I think the league is doing alright for now, but there's two things to keep in mind: 1. We're the second most profitable franchise in the NBA even when we're down. When we're back up, those profits will go up too. 2. Even with our struggles the last two seasons the Lakers are the #1 team across the country in terms of fandom and #1 worldwide. It behooves the NBA to make us more competitive. That being said, I don't expect favors. I expect the odds to prove what they should: We have an 82.8% chance at keeping the pick. Those are good odds. They're not 50/50, they're not 66%, there's a greater than 80% chance we keep the pick and those are odds I can live with. I'd prefer 96%, sure, but even then there's uncertainty. I say we finish the season, lose all the games we're likely to lose, then think about the lottery in which I firmly believe we have a great shot at keeping that pick. I just am so sick of losing man. I can embrace the necessity for losses, but I can't bring myself to purposely sitting guys if they're healthy enough to play.
If we lose the pick it will guarantee 3 years of this crap. Get the pick and make a solid choice due to Ryan West, Jesse Buss and Mitch and Jim's best judgement and lots of new members hopefully will have a reason to come in and share their opinions on a re-emerging Lakers team that we all can be proud of going forward and root for.
I completely agree with that, but I am more confident than most that we'll get this pick I think. The odds are certainly in our favor right now. If we move to the 5th spot we're a lot iffier. Maybe I'll start to worry more if Orlando catches up.
No dammit we need the worrying vibes NOW. All the negative vibes we can get. Smack my head. By the time Orlando catches up it may prove to be too late, one of Kobe's little sharing sessions with Clarkson or Ellington or whomever may win us another game that at that point screws us out of 4th. As someone else said yesterday, "embrace the tank, Man". Of course said tongue in cheek. As Free the People wondered in the other forum why do we go through this kind of speculation when it makes no difference anyway.
The only bright spot this season, honestly... is lakersball.com forum. That's it. Great community, bad basketball, impending sense of doom. And I'm an optimistic guy. But listen, Phil could really do us a favor tonight. I mean, it means nothing to them at this point. The only problem is -- they are as bad as a D-League team. I don't know if they can actually win it, if we're not openly tanking. If Lin/Ed combo starts doing some damage, and Clark has a good game, they are toast.
NY his horrible. D-league terrible. Either way, we'll win this game. It'd be nice to actually finish a game with Clarkson and Black this time. Clarkson sitting the entire 4th quarter is so foolish; it's Byron-esque, actually. I don't even care about the winning; I'll take the 4th lottery position and take my chances. Just please let the young players finish the game, Byron.
Ramona Shelburne @ramonashelburne · 5h5 hours ago Phil on the Lakers: "They’ve been more competitive than we have in the last month, so it’ll be interesting to see who wants this game most" Phil's a funny guy.
i agree with your sentiment, realdeal, and I don't care to see them tank any harder to try and "catch" the bottom three. I do think the 80% chance of keeping the pick at 4 versus the 50% chance of keeping it at 5 sort of weighs heavy on the mind. enough that if it's close at the end of the year, I'd be fully in favor of running sacre off screens for fallaways...sad, but true.
Mike Bresnahan @Mike_Bresnahan · 29m29 minutes ago Byron on the Lakers' final five weeks: "The evaluation period has started." This could get...interesting? Boring? Chaotic? I thought it 'had' started. Hmm...whatever. At least, we get to see what we have for hopefully longer periods of time...
