I agree the organization as a whole needs to adapt I love them being old school in so many ways I love the tradition But this new generation is not buying into it As these kids come into the league as much as I hate to say it we need to cater to them Ugh I just threw up a little Us old fogies are dying out This new generation is taking over. Lord help us all
Not being a downer, these are legitimate points. I’m also very concerned about the reload post LeBron. Magic was a terrible hire. Jury is still out on Rob. And lets face it, Kawhi could have been a Laker and chose to go to the Clippers.
As Original 81 said, you are not being a downer. Today, as we stand, our team is a great basketball team. It's the best and most balanced team we've had since Kobe and Pau won back in 2010. But the points you are bringing up are real concerns. In two years, Lebron won't be Lebron anymore. Does anyone actually think we got Danny Green and Boogie because Rob Pelinka and Kurt Rambis sold them on the mystique of the Lakers? No. They came because Lebron and AD are still both relatively close to their primes. Is just AD and MAYBE a good Kuzma going to be enough to attract free agents? AD does not seem like the recruiter Lebron is. Without Lebron on this team, we don't have AD, we don't have Boogie and we don't have some other guys most likely. We need to fix our issues soon or when 2021 comes around, we may be looking at a team of AD, Kuzma and a bunch of garbage. Lebron coming here to milk the Laker fandom in order to start his after basketball life is why we are relevant right now. Without Lebron being interested in Hollywood, we would not have him, AD nor a few other free agents. Lebron is a band aid on the festering wound that is our team's management. This team is something the front office fell into in spite of themselves. We were so bad for so long we were able to draft a bunch of really talented players that we could flip for a buddy of Lebron's.
Well, why did Lebron and AD come then? Please, spare me the Lebron came to LA to be a movie star. He will NEVER be a movie star. Anyone who knows how it works in Hollywood will tell you that. AD came because of Lebron? Why would he? Lebron is on the downside. Why else? I'll let you figure that out. You think Shaq came to LA in 1996 because of the "mystique"? No, he came to LA because he asked Jerry West for 150 million and Jerry said I can give you $121 million. You know what the "mystique" is? It's not Jeanie, it's not Rob, it's not the Staples Center. It's the Lakers killing their young draft picks for you. Like they did for AD. It's freeing up money for you to come to them. Lakers track record is once they win, they keep refilling the best they can to keep winning. Lakers mystique was 5 non-playoff years in 65 years until that piece of s*** (bleep) (bleep) (bleep) short (bleep) (bleep) David (bleep) Stern destroyed the Lakers and Kobe's ending and had them in a tailspin until now. When the Lakers win the title in 11 months, gonna be right here, god willing, and I will remind everyone what the Lakers are about in case you forget.
This is one of the few times I agree with everything OX said and not Weezy or Savory. What a weird day.
I do agree though that we should look into hiring outside the FO. Laker exceptionalism should start and stop with how we treat our players.
I specifically posted that Kamenetzky tweet to hammer home that I wasn’t saying this is a fan issue, it’s a front office issue. Jimmy wasn’t the Dr., Jeanie isn’t the Dr., Rob isn’t Jerry West, those days are looooong gone. Going forward we would do well to look to hire the best people in management to make our org look at high class as possible. This isn’t about getting all fired up and saying “F that, we’re the Lakers!”, that’s the kind of thinking that cost the FO Kawhi and couldn’t even get us meetings with George and friggin Aldridge. That’s all my point was, hire actual people to put in charge with experience and league connections, people that will be open to getting the league to do business with you in good faith, and make us look well run to star free agents. LeBron did come here because it’s LA, and David did come here because of LeBron, and Cousins did come here because LeBron and AD convinced him. When LeBron is gone who does the convincing? Stay in denial all you like, it will bite us eventually when we have to reload or do a full on rebuild if we don’t get top people put in place, free agents aside from role players not seeing the appeal of Lakers legacy for years now hasn’t shown me that. That’s all my point was, we don’t seem to disagree in the end at all. Jeanie, Linda, Rob, and Kurt should not be running the entire Lakers upper management, it’s very unwise going forward. We’ve literally just seen two teams conspire behind our backs in the Clippers and Thunder to keep us from becoming a dynasty again, and we can’t keep hunkering down with our Laker family and saying it will be ok, we need to start playing this buddy buddy game better and building some positive relationships with opposing front offices, not keeping solely a guy in charge that many reports say is hated around the league. I hope we do win a title and shut people up and attract more stars that way, but it’s not the smartest way to go about setting up future success because you have 29 other teams that can win it all to make the same case.
So much wrong here it's hilarious. Kawhi and PG didn't come to the Lakers because of Lebron James not the Lakers brand. Had Lebron went to the Clippers last year, Kawhi and Paul George would be Lakers right now. It took a commissioner to butt in with a veto to stop the Lakers. Lakers than went on a run of very good draft pics that needed time to develop, yet the fan base and idiots like Magic Johnson kept harping at management and to win now, and it ended turning into a s*** show with Moscrap and Dung being signed. C Bags sucked for 20 years until Lurch gifted a franchise player to him and they won all of 1 title in that. Danny Ainge is a genius and the C Bags are running game on draft picks all over the place, they have the greatest coach on the planet, yet, they still suck and arent winning d***. My point here is, when you do not win titles in LA and being the Lakers, everything is called a disaster and poorly managed. Before the Pau Gasol trade, Lakers fans hated Mitch. Kobe was pissed at Mitch and Dr Buss. Media live off drama. Fans are moths to the flame of the drama. Fans and Media are parasites to the core. The reality of it all is the Lakers have had to adjust to a lot of things and unfortunately Laker fans have been spoiled for so long, one half decade stretch of futility is all of a sudden a Clipperesque run organization that won't get out of it even those they got Lebron freakin James and Anthony Davis in back to back off seasons. You have a right to your opinion, but you are 100% wrong.
Lol puh-lease. Our FO is so behind the times we weren't even using analytics until recently lmao. When you can get meetings with star players, just a single meeting, you dont think something's wrong there? Kawhi didnt come because Kawhi didnt come and you giving reason to it is pure speculation just like all these bunk sources that said it was gonna happen, signing with us was already agreed upon. How many people on this forum were saying Kawhi wouldn't hold us hostage while the Claps or the Craps built something behind our backs keeping us from signing available talent but you know, what that's exactly what happened. His camp told the Lakers to hold off until Sunday to sign AD and didnt give a reason why.... I agree with some of what you're saying, we had a great owner that spent to acquire talent to keep reloading but there is another aspect to that you're leaving out. Dr. Buss was outgoing with a dynamic, charismatic personality that people were drawn to. Everybody loved him and players wanted to be here in huge part because of him. We don't have that amazing personality in our FO anymore. It's one nepotism mistake after another these days and we just keep shooting ourselves in the foot over and over. Magic is a quitter, that's in his rap sheet. Quit the talk show, quit as a coach, quit as our president...was a terrible hire from the jump. Jeanie does business with her heart and almost zero business sense. She feels like she owes all the long time loyal supporters (yesteryears players and affiliates) some kind of personal debt. Dr. Buss wanted this organization to be run by his kids as his successors but I'm pretty damn sure this isn't the vision he had, and I would go so far as to say he would probably want to bring in outside professionals to straighten everything out and bring us back to prominence. We can't live off of the Laker lifestyle/exceptsionalism anymore in the ear of social media. People are far more informed now in a couple clicks of a smart phone. Major markets don't hold the same advantage as years past and that's why we need to have professionals running this s*** show we have now bottom line. Rambi is a joke and everyone hates Rob. Jeanie doesnt' owe anyone s***. She needs to wake the f*** up and do whats right for Lakers as a business and leave her feelings at home
I hope so but I aint' counting on it. I'm glad everyone is optimistic but I'm going to just sit back and enjoy the season one game at a time with no expectations. AD hasn't made it through a full season forever, Bron was hurt for the first time in his career for a significant amount of time last year and all it's gonna take is for one of them to go down and buh bye championship aspirations. We aren't that deep with rich talent. We have a fairly decent roster but like I said let's wait and see
Optimism is for divorced middle aged women looking for a man. I only speak in realism. And every team who has an injury to its main player is screwed. Let's not act like that's some revelation.
Then you shouldn't be optimistic at all with AD's injury history. Last time I checked to father time has never lost(Bron)...just keeping it "real"
I don’t think anyone discussing this is particularly wrong. It’s that same Laker fan arrogance that corporations identify as “brand identity”. The Lakers are different from other teams in that they’ve developed a lot of consumer confidence over the years by winning. Acquiring a player is a business acquisition now. Players work tirelessly and shamelessly on their “brands”. The Lakers are the strongest team brand in basketball, and we pull in more money in revenue than others. This is where we inherently have the upper hand on other teams. This advantage does not override errors or give us leeway to make mistakes. Maybe the in past, not in 2019. Hell, not even in 2014. Forget the Clips, the entire league is serious. The Magic vs. Rob debacle is an organizational disaster no matter which way you slice it, even for the Lakers. Jeanie has A LOT to do in that she has to bolster the front office. This needs to be a well oiled machine before free agents just start knocking on the door at Staples.
I’m still not understanding this argument. What I am saying and what you are arguing are not mutually exclusive. The Lakers can win a title this year based off of our star power and depth, and I sure as hell hope we do, and our FO can still need to be upgraded. I don’t see why that is such a crazy thing to say.
Once again it became clear this off-season that you can recruit stars...and they are willing to move...Player mobility seems to be a real thing. but it takes organizational excellence... Nets have it..they hit 2 HRs Clippers have it...they hit 2 HRs Lakers don't have it...striked out Knicks don't have it...striked out As you can see, both franchises are in the same city...the smaller/uglier franchise with less history got the nod over the presumably much more history-rich franchise...Nets beat Knicks handily and Clippers beat Lakers handily. You can legitimately say the Warriors suffered even though they have excellence...but they didn't have the cap and KD's problems were deeper and not related to basketball or the franchise per se. They also still extracted Dlo (all-star) out of it. You can also legitimately say Toronto has it and they also struck out...well they put all their eggs into Kawhi's basket and had no choice with no cap room. They extracted a championship out of this signing so they can justify not moving him at the deadline. But to me it is still clear that if you have a calm and professional and respected FO....then free agents can be persuaded to come. This is encouraging on one hand...the fact that our FO has such a devastating rep is the discouraging factor.
She will never get it , she needs to sell the team or to be replaced by the board votes . I think we never will win a title with Jeanie in charge
