Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

Our optimism is just suffering at the moment.

 

I missed the game and still in a pretty good mood. I expected us to lose today, but didn’t have to suffer through it. Feels like that was a good call.

 

When the team that blows you out by 22 fires their head coach minutes later...

 

lol Thibs it was time

 

wow n here we are having fans still defending luke

 

Well, our inevitable lotto pick will be a nice trade piece for AD this summer.

 

I just want BI and mentally weak players gone this summer. No more s***heads. Lakers have done a great job getting rid of dead weight and keeping themselves in financial flexibility. They were able to bring the best player in the NBA. They are doing the right things. They let the kids show them what they got, unfortunately, too many weak minded players.

Magic and Lebron need to sit down this summer and talk about his ability to work with a head coach. He is one of the worst stars I have seen with coaches. What coach can the Lakers bring in that he will trust? Can Lebron focus on sports and winning instead of politics and social status with coaches and management?

Lakers need the next up and coming coach or an established one who has won titles but I have no clue if there is one out there.

 

Our young core is showing that they don’t have what it takes to be centerpieces anytime soon. They need Lebron, and without him they’re collectively still one of the worst teams in the league.

... but so what? We do have Lebron. We don’t need the young guys to be franchise carrying players at this point in their career. They already showed they’re more than serviceable in their roles playing off the opportunities Lebron creates for them. Keep that up and keep working. We have another max slot coming this summer to allevite that burden off the young guys even further. So they can continue to underwhelm relative to our draft expectations and it’s not the end of the world. They’re still good enough, with Lebron. Add another star on top of that, and we’re golden. Won’t really matter if Lonzo is invisible and we won’t ever need to run our offense through BI ISO’s.

So use that time to continue developing. Realistically, we can wait. We still have the flexibility to become an elite team. Ride the wave off that and maybe in 3 years they’ll be closer to the players we expected out of them.

And if not, I’m still confident we’ll be at such a good place as a franchise that it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if we end up having to count our losses and sell low on them.

Not being complacent. This stretch has revealed a lot of flaws in our organization and roster. But I still think we have so much positive momentum as a franchise that I’m not gonna overreact to some losses in January while our team is decimated by injury.

 

Miami went 2-5 in games LBJ missed in the first 2 seasons he was there. That's 2-5 with Bosh and Wade in the East and it's not like those were vs the cream of the crop:

'10-'11
Denver L
Chicago L
Toronto W
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'11-'12
Wizards L
Atlanta W
Boston L
Wizards L
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More so than any player in the NBA it's disrupting to a team to lose LBJ but particularly a group of young guys that were just figuring out how to take advantage of having him as a teammate and leaning on him while not having found their own way completely yet. Guys like Ingram and Ball haven't proven they can carry a team or even really get a game under control. And regardless of what he says, it's clear Luke was not ready for this and didn't prepare for it. Not saying he could have done much without Kuz, Rondo & LBJ but it didn't appear there was a definite plan, more like back to scratch and play around with the lineups for a few months again.

 

Not gonna lie, I laughed my head off when I heard that!

 

Can’t believe it! Gotta log in and see this.

Who do they pick to replace him I wonder. Wow!

 

We played so bad, the Wolves FO was like "Thibs, no one takes you seriously, just look how the Lakers played... You're Fired.!"

 

Ironic he traded for Jimmy Butler who ends up being the beginning of his end

 

Rumors of Fred Hoiberg ir Monty Williams.

 

I got nothing. Without Bron and Rondo we are the worst team in the west...

 

If lebron misses a bunch of games, we actually own our pick this year, and it's a really quick trip to 14th place in the west!

 

Yupi, another young "future game changer" is all we need

 

maybe the lottery balls will be kinder in bouncing our way a Number 1 pick this time?