Saw some discussion criticizing Rob for dumping JJ/Bonga/Wagner instead of waiting for the max guy first, and for how he used the cap. Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents. Heard an interview with Rich Paul last week about why AD waived the kicker, and he mentioned that they felt Kawhi wouldn’t even allow the Lakers into the process without them already having a max spot cleared. He said that’s how he himself operates as an agent for his star clients. It was absolutely worth it to dump those contracts. I wouldn’t get rid of a single player on our current roster for one of them anyways. So I disagree that this is an example of a bad move by Pelinka. On the contrary, the way Pelinka set up Jones contract to allow for the possibility of the max slot was shrewd. In terms of how we used the cap, KCP was the only one that seemed too high. Even then that seemed to be market value for SG’s of his caliber. Everybody else’s deal was fair, and that’s part of what we want to exude as a franchise. Could we have maybe nickel and dimed some of the signings, shave a million each off of Cook, Cousins, JaVale, etc? Maybe. But what would that have really accomplished? Freed up another few million for who at that point? Morris? It was mentioned that he stepped away from us because he thought the front court was too crowded, it wasn’t about the money. Meanwhile those players don’t feel as wanted. Especially would look bad for someone like JaVale who waited patiently through this process for us.
Rob back, "thanks for your shout(s) out too Mag." But seriously we all hope the entire Lakers family is back on the same page pulling for a championship. Or 2 or 3. And keeping count of the nice ones from Magic, that's 2 now starting with the shout out to Rob for landing AD.
So olive branches and peace doves...? It's a start but not for awhile. Sifted through Johnson's twitter account. Really snarky posts in there about him being Captain obvious.
Man I used to believe in #playerrelations alot. But Kawhi effectively broke that narrative for me. Alot of narratives were weirdly reinforced this summer: Kawhi to cLips by the media; other stars not wanting to play with Bron; media saying no stars were linked to LA with our cap this summer. Im just shocked with how much actually came true. Still I do applaud Rob for thanking Zo, BI and Hart...that was classy, although it was weird be gave no love to fellow Wolverine, Moe tho haha...but hey overall good presser by him and thankful no sermons were shared this time. @Helljumper you do know rest of year contracts in the NBA is common practice. I along with a few others here thought we should of did the same thing last year when Melo wasn't going to occupy that slot. Woods was someone the Pels ironically took on before we went with JJ. Right when it happened, it was assumed at that point dude might be used in salary matching for AD. You know what's shrewd? Figuring out a way to salary match without giving up every asset you have. How long were we out the playoffs? You can begin to trade at that point. Moe has the most value of our remaining bunch at that point. He makes 2.1m and can bring back up to 3.8m by himself. With Zo/Bi/Hart, we only needed to send out 3.7m in salary. Plus that new salary can be part of an aggregated package (no reason in waiting 2 months) cause the new CbA year would have started on July 6th. That's the shrewd route. And I'm only saying this cause we really have wasted opportunities in collecting future assets by letting our current assets go for nothing. Jules, Zu, TB, Moe, Svi, Bonga, JJ and Nwaba were all let go for cap, instead of cap AND future picks (at the very least future 2nd rounders). What I would have done with our cap space is lock up Greem and use the remaining space to bring in a win now asset along (ie James Johnson) while also replenishing our future assets post-AD trade...and we do that by being opportunistic with the Russ/Cp3/Beal&Wall/disgruntled stars musical chairs portion of free agency. If Klutch is now a presence in these Okc/Mia/Wiz talks, the Lakers as a 3rd team with cap space would have allowed us to eat off that opportunity. Oh well...
I'm not sure I would base any opinions on Kawhi's actions at all. Players are supposed to have good relationships and communication, and even Danny Green, Lebron freaking James, and AD had no idea what that cat was thinking. He's a one off. A strange dude. Nothing in the way of how we react or shape our future actions should be based off of a dude like that. IMHO.
Pelinka was endorsed by Kobe. That should have been enough to trust him. Jeanie and Magic, well, they have shown they are who they are before so there was a track record of incompetence. All we saw was hearsay with Rob. Bottom line is winning it all. Lakers win it all, everyone comes back kissing behinds.
I would never go off of a single person's endorsement and take it as gospel, but it sure helps to know someone you trust thinks highly of a person. Not a whole lot of better thumbs up out there that you could get than Kobe's approval. I'm sure it hurts to feel like they Chose Kobe's guy over Magic. And it appears it was the right thing to do for this particular role. Hopefully he remains in the cheerleader role, and learns to keep his trap shut when he's supposed to. This last incident came across like he desperately needed to be validated, and let slip his role in speaking to Kawhi's people. "I'm still important to the Lakers!!!" Take a break Magic. Don't call us, we'll call you.
Then again since Jeanie started calling the shots from a short 2 1/2 years ago, MozDeng, and in spite of the bumps in the road, stacked against us media, Lakers tax and Magic doing what he did ..... we have LeBron, AD and are favored to win a ring this year. So yeah Jeanie is incompetent. BS.
That's a cool story except Lue, Monty, Adams, Kawhi, Butler, Ky, etc all denied us. We made most of those guys our primary target but they still balked, so is that entirely Magic? Nah....get a legit Prez to help Rob. That's the way to get our FO back to elite. Till then...it's amateur hour.
@vasashi17 : Our backstabber GM is completely unqualified and sucks at his job. Laker Nation: ***Me thinks he's messing with us***
um, we have Kurt Rambis. What else do we need bro? Obviously with Magic out of the equation, everything is going super smooth. I HEART KURT
He did a good job this offseason, and I think he'll get better. Let's just hope our health breaks right, and we'll be in the PO's; finally! LOL.
