It's interesting me that AEG is just now thinking about certain things. I feel like those are a lot of questions and thoughts that should have been expressed back before we even hired Magic and Rob. Honestly though, we've been through the worst stretch of basketball and front office turmoil in Laker history and the fan base is still intact. A couple of solid playoff runs and a finals appearance completely changes a lot of narrative around the team. Multiply that by a million if we win a championship. I'm not interested in another plan that involves just chasing max guys. I don't mind how we structured our contracts though because we need the flexibility and I wouldn't want to be tied to any of these guys long term given their ages and playing ability. But we're just shooting ourselves in the foot if its being done strictly to chase Giannis. Invest in beefing up the front office on all angles from working the media to the daily ins and outs. That's where our efforts should be IMO.
Honestly, what worries me about Mr. Rambis is that AEG has authorized him to be posting all this stuff here. It has to be fairly obvious that they know he is posting and are able to identify who he is. I mean, how hard could that be?? At this point, I believe that AEG is trying to undermine Jeannie Buss. Not sure what to think about that. Not sure if I agree with them on this or not. If they continue down this path, they are insuring that the Buss family will be continually maligned by the press. You know that the press is reading this right? How long until they start running with this line of reasoning? Realize that even assuming this is a winning direction for AEG, the Buss family will NEVER sell out to them after all this. They will sell to anyone else first. Not knocking you Mr. Rambis, not sure I don't agree with the methodology but it does worry me. Not sure this is the best thing for the Lakers future.
It speaks to Jeanie’s ineptness that she cannot assuage AEG about the signings this past weekend and the AD trade as such that the Lakers are one of the favorites to win it this year. Like I said, she’s in over her head-the hopes of landing Giannis without a concrete plan to do it or a contingency plan if they fail, when trying to articulate the 2020 plan speaks volumes. That no one from basketball operations chose to speak up in defense of their own recent moves and the AD trade could mean there is a power move working to undermine her ownership of the team via the Trust via continuously maintaining the perception of her and her silver spoon brothers being morons. I’ll defend the FA signings till the cows come home, but she is also inept in her own right.
The fact of AEG thinking the clips gaining a higher traction in fan base than our Lakers is absurd. Clippers have a squad of competing but wont take away from what we have. Our fan base is just too much, even through the these tough times, we are and have still been relevant. And once we get into playoffs, forget it, its all lakers everywhere.Once the Lakers make a playoff appearance our presence will be through the roof. The FO did what they can along with AEG and everyone was blind sided and it hurt but gotta believe with this squad we will make a run for the chip.
i'm taking that dramatization with perhaps the largest grain of salt possible. it's a block of salt. a deer is currently licking it. but let's say it happened... i do think that at some point pride goeth before the fall. if the clips win a couple titles, they could snag some serious market share--especially if we implode like 2012 again. and i DO think our terrible management over the past year definitely factored into kawhi's decision, so yeah, that sucks. fix it. good news is that since magic left, i haven't really been mad about any move or statement, so that's a positive. let's see how this season plays out and if some stability can be found.
The Clips are coming. May take a few years, but these are definitely not our daddies' Clips from the Sterling days, they're now the Clips run as a tight ship by deep pockets Ballmer at the top. They're building out their own top dollar training facility and they are going to get their own arena deal right near the Lakers' neighborhood in El Segundo. Jeannie should consider her butt kicked into overdrive. Let's hope she took that meeting seriously. If she's keeping her brain trust, then she better hope the basketball side is good enough with Vogel, Lebron and Davis pulling out serious runs at the Finals.
One more, Magic needs to be kept out of team internal deliberations. He cannot keep a secret to save his life.
If the lakers only plan is to try and sign Giannis than I fully understand AEG's frustration. The Lakers need Plans A,B,C and D. Swinging for the fence all the time yields a bad batting average.
Agree with the Clips gaining traction, ever since lob city I knew we cant sleep on them like before, nothing bad in having competition, im excited about it. But yes, Magic will always speak his mind, always has, Jeanie just needs to keep things all in order.
To be fair, I think our current plan is most definitely to run at Giannis, but I think there's actually a tiny bit of smoke there that's been building. Giannis clearly has an affinity for the franchise or at least for Kobe and Magic. Both of our guys speak highly of him and that clearly is something Giannis values. Hiring Kidd was almost instantly rooted out as a potential Giannis move. We played it off as a Lonzo move, but Lonzo is gone now and Kidd is still here. All of our deals, including potentially LeBron's end in 2021 when we're looking at a FA class lead by Giannis. Maybe that fine wasn't so crazy after all... I don't necessarily agree with the plan if that's what we're doing. I think if other contingencies open up, we should take them. That being said, nobody would have thought Shaq would leave Orlando for the Lakers or LeBron would leave Cleveland for the Lakers until it happens. I think the chances are slim, but leaving the door open is actually smart. We could roll into that summer with Davis and a completely empty roster. It would actually be helpful if LeBron opted in and Davis opted out in the 2020 summer and signed a 2+1 contract with us. That would give us (even with Kuzma's cap hold) 38m to work with roughly which would be enough for GIannis. Then you roll with LeBron (for a year or two more), Giannis, and Davis? With Kuzma still on the periphery. Pipe dreams probably, but something to at least keep the option open. A Giannis/Davis tandem is pretty terrifying. In the end, I'd rather not give up flexibility for anything other than a star so keeping us in this frame is okay with me as long as we're competing for a title which we should be.
that read like fiction to me for some reason, but as long as Wiz is entertained, that's all that matters lol.
Wow guys lots of questions and great points brought up! I'll try to address some of these if I can...
@Duncankane Regarding Kawhi, AEG read the reports and felt like the Lakers were his third option, which is why they were upset at Lakers management.
Im sorry but the Clips maybe a better run org then in their past history but for the last 5 years they had a superstar team with a cool nickname and their so called great coach Doc Rivers never got the team to win a division title or make it to the 3rd round. The so called well run org that is called the Clippers just destroyed their future for 2 players to win now. 2 players that have had huge injury issues in their past. PG has undergone how many surgeries each off season? Kawhi just came off a season where he missed 30% of the games and missed just about the whole season prior to that. This Kawhi is at a peak right now but his injury cannot be cured it can only be maintained which means missing a minimum of 30 games a season and playing the playoffs in pain. Their window of opportunity is maybe 3 years max and then they go back to trading their best players and restarting again. The difference is this time they will not have any picks to fall back on. In 2 years i would rather have AD who still would be in his prime and in his late 20s looking to recruit a FA. Now if does any FA want to play with a AD in his 20 or Kawhi and pG in their 30s prolly running on their last legs. I think anyone who thinks the Clips have just overtaken LA or will be the "new" LA team will be mistaken. If lob city couldn't do it with a Lakers team perpetually missing the playoffs and are outright terrible then a good Clips team can't do it with AD/Bron/Kuzma and DMC.
@OX1947 @Miggggy It's not that black and white. One or more members of the Buss family cannot just dump all their shares to avoid placing others in a minority ownership situation, but the equity structure of the business is a little more complicated. There's provisions for some transfers between existing owners, as well as different types of stock, allowing Jeanie to potentially give AEG the 0.5% they were looking for. The cap table is by no means frozen. I left out these details for simplicity's sake, but I'm pretty sure AEG expected her to say no to that ask, anyways.
@MambaMentality It was independent, but now AEG's in a bit of a bind because the Clippers signed Kawhi. If he stayed in Toronto, they would most likely still continue to engage.
@abeer3 @RonStu Sorry this reads like a poorly written fiction piece! I'm trying to tell you the story exactly how I was told, which was more in a casual setting between two friends as opposed to being read minutes for a business meeting. The person who told me the story definitely tried to make it seem like a dramatic meeting! Which I wanted to convey
