2019/20 Players' Transactions: Breaking News , Trades, Free Agents, And Rumors

The correct retort would have been, "what do you mean, you people?" @LTLakerFan

 

Hey @Barnstable ! Great question.

It has less to do with the Lakers and more to do with LeBron. He is pretty much the biggest selling piece the league has other than Curry, and the NBA is severely missing his presence in the playoffs. Especially after how things have proceeded in the front office after the Lakers fell out of playoff contention, the NBA decided to step in. If LeBron was on the Knicks, I bet they would have done the same. Also, for what its worth, Silver had a hand in moving Phil Jackson out of New York, just like he did with Hinkie in Philadelphia, though he was far more direct in that case.

Best Regards,
Mr. Rambis

 

Small update: I will be in the meeting tomorrow afternoon. I'll give you all an update if anything meaningful happens.

-Mr. Rambis

 

No you're not.

 

Stop harassing our only "insider" OX

 

Ya’all so suspicious



Let Mr. Rambis have his fun.

 

i just think people are getting antsy as FA looms, so what started out as an amusing addition in Mr. Rambis is becoming a bit annoying... i for one and am enjoying these little morsels (/popcorn), which are helping me to cope with the sad state of affairs.

the stress we go through every summer just isn't sustainable... so sit back and enjoy the ride!

 

According to Shams, we're one of the teams linked to Marcus Morris

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiret...nterest-In-Knicks-Kings-Lakers-Clippers-Bulls

 

Everyone will be linked to us... as always

 

Shams has been pretty good lately. However Morris is only good if you get the title team put together first.

 

Complimentary piece at best. He can get more money elsewhere, and he doesn’t even like Lebron.

 

Wow, finished with the NBA-AEG meeting a little while back and I was not expecting what just happened! I will type out an explanation shortly. Nothing of immediate concern for the fanbase, though.

Best,
Mr. Rambis

 

Hi all,

Everyone on the AEG side was expecting a discussion, but if I were to characterize this meeting, it was more like a bad scolding or beatdown. The NBA consultants went off about how AEG's desire to do brand promotion was messing up the front office's ability to make realistic plans. They told us that there is no plan in the front office, and that with the lack of experience internally (they specifically named Kurt and Rob), we were just aiming for another moonshot in free agency. They said the backup plan was to again sign 1 year deals and try again for Anthony Davis in 2020. There was some rumblings about bringing on Chris Paul but they shot that down instantly.

They berated us about how we had been operating under this plan for years now, starting with going after guys like Carmelo Anthony and LaMarcus Aldridge, and then trying to remedy the failures by bringing in veteran players on short term deals to try to mentor the young guys and find "gems" in some of our draft picks. They told us this was not a sustainable strategy, and said if we continued to push the envelope on bringing in all star talent they would have Silver and Tatum pressure us to sell our stake in the franchise back to the NBA.

Seems as though execs in the Lakers organization pointed the blame partially at AEG for instituting this mentality in the front office. The NBA consultants told us that their advice to the Lakers was going to be to forget about bringing in a star player like Kevin Durant or Kawhi Leonard, and instead focus on more "realistic" player acquisitions, such as Bradley Beal.

After this, the consultants took off, and the AEG execs had an immediate meeting to figure out any next steps. I was explicitly told to leave, which is very rare given my relationship with them. I'll text some folks for an update tonight, and hopefully I'll know what happens next. I need to process and internalize all this as well, to be honest.

Best Regards,
Mr. Rambis

 

Discouraging that we have no shot at FAs; encouraging that we may be forced to abandon 20xx plans.

 

bronny jr n wade jr plan 2026

 

I’m new to this forum, but from what I’m reading I’m questioning the decision making of everyone involved.

The idea of hiring vets only to mentor the young guys doesent make much sense, because the problem was never their ability (at least currently) but more so the way they were deployed and how they were (at least Ingram and zo) put in positions that didn’t maximize their skill set and instead demonstrated their weaknesses.

A kyrie/butler level hiring would automatically put the laker in contention if they were able to get their coaching right and if they were even mildly competent in free agency, never mind if they managed to get Davis. Kawhi is an auto favorite

The lakers young core ARE gems, it’s just the utilisation of zo and ingram have been pathetic, and the offensive playbook was literally below a D2 level.

It’s not a horrible strategy for the situation because strategies are, well, situational. There’s just such a clear lack of understanding of ball’s playstyle and skill set from literally all parties including the lakers, it’s as if they didn’t even see how he played in UCLA. With Ingram they simply tried to make him something he’s not and gave him such a huge role as a pick and roll player when he’s not there yet in terms of making reads off of the pick and roll.

With Lebron healthy and a (hopefully) competent coaching staff, we would have been a much better team last year. People don’t really understand how bad Walton was overall. Yes, the talent didn’t neccessarily fit together but there was so much sheer talent that the team should have been fine. It’s just offensively nearly every piece of misused or just weren’t able to utilize their strengths because of the system (can’t believe playmaking was a focus without having an offense that had plays which required high playmaking ability to make reads)

Especially with how much weaker the warriors are gonna be next year, the lakers have a totally legit shot at a championship if they get a butler/kyrie tier free agent (personally prefer butler because of defense. Kyrie is a better player on offense and a better fit but they could field lineups with no weak point defensively which helps a lot in the playoffs where mismatch basketball becomes an emphasis. Also butler technically has been a decent player on catch and shoot threes throughout his career, his percentage is a lot lower on pull-up threes. Not as good as kyrie obviously)

The consultants advice should be to hire a good proven offensive coordinator, preferably one that’s can help Vogel in terms of being more creative with 5 out sets and someone that can help teach players how to execute plays in a scheme because that was a huge reoccurring problem in Orlando (execution was way worse than design iirc)

The lakers have a rare luxury of having 3-4 potentially high impact players on small contracts, with only one expiring next year. Not potential as in they can be good but potential as in they have the skills to be good under the right condition. We’ve seen a common theme of Lakers players succeeding immediately after leaving Walton’s system. Hell, D angelo became an all star and randle is averaging 21-9. Yes there are other factors involved, but escaping Luke’s system is a much bigger factor than people realize, and both zo and Ingram are much worse used than either of them were. The only player utilised competently seems like kuzma, who still suffers from the system sucking in general (although his role in it is fine).

Why would you sacrifice that potential cap space and flexibility for a high level of talent because it’s “unsustainable?” It’s still the right move at the moment (more my thoughts on Beal being considered a better option over signing a max player atm, I know they aren’t mutually exclusive)

 

I’m also assuming Lebron gonna nope them not pursuing a max player lol