Giannis is not coming to the Lakers in 2021. And he for sure ain't coming because of Jason Kidd. That's just not happening.
I 've heard of good things about Ryan West and Jesse buss with scouting. but sadly I don't think either one has that much pull as the ones that were mentioned.
If they hired Jason Kidd as an edge to sign Giannis, all I can say is. I remember some young immature posters mentioning this as to the reason of signing Kidd on another board awhile back, and they got laughed at too.
Never mind Lue.. he's a clown that did us a favor. The Lakers' coaching staff looks wonderful to me IMO. No idea why people are trashing Kidd as IF he's a peaked coach. Point is, we got a great staff that has the potential for us to HATE the fact if we have a successful season to be pounding the table for Kidd/Hollins not to leave.
So much more than just scouting which yes he learned at a young age on the road in arenas with Jerry. Have you read this Ding article written 5 years ago? https://bleacherreport.com/articles...kers-past-into-the-future-as-key-scout-for-la All I can say is if Jeanie Buss some day loses him to another club because of fear to promote him to that position due to nepotism with her talented brothers or the Rambi connection, or even Rob who is the GM and will grow in that position, but nowhere near the talent evaluator or allegedly the respected face of the franchise Ryan West could become, then I will say she IS a complete and utter moron to lose the 2nd West. And possibly a better West due to temperament. Which is talked about interestingly in that article with Ryan himself and Mitch Kupchack.
I'm going to get alot of hate for this,but I used to hate Jerry West and Kupchak s drafts. Even going back like 30years they drafted a total of 1 star, and even that 1 player Kobe only wanted to play for the Lakers or the knicks. Calipari wanted Kobe but he didn't want to go to the nets so they drafted kittles. And during those times many misses drafting kids straight out of high schools, that was another reason Kobe fell so much and with Shaq coming in Vlade had to go. I remember in high school I d compare my picks with West s drafts and I d draft better lol. Back then no internet, no cable, just whatever games I can catch on TV was my only scouting tool. West got Shaq because it was the lakers and buss wanted him at any cost. As for Durant, Curry, Klay and few other flew out to the Hamptons to recruit him. Kawhi, reports were it was because he wanted to lead his own team and Doc was the major factor. I also don't remember a lopsided trade favoring the Lakers during his time either. Think it was more timing, luck and location, In Memphis he wasn't much of a factor either. When Jim Buss and Kupchak took over, that s when the Lakers drafted better, Jim wanted potential verses solid but unspectacular, also better trades. I don't really blame Jim and Mitch for Deng and Mozgov deals, because that was their last chance to create a winner and Jim had to go for it or he was out.. They were put in that situation because of Kobe s contract and Jeanie had to sign him to max, Byron Scott sabotaging, another Magic Jeanie guy, Jeanie trashing them through the media and god knows what else. Lakers almost created 2 separate championship windows during Jim and Mitches short tenure together, while being pressured and sabotaged by jeanie and magic. If it you really look through the Lakers history after the implementation of the salary cap, Lakers had the best run with Jim and Mitch were in charge. I hate Jeanie and Magic, they could care less for the Lakers, as long as they get what they want.
Yeah I dont think that would work. Having Kidd around in general would probably work and be useful to entice Giannis but making us worse wouldn't be the answer. If we're successful under Vogel, that is the selling point. Keep Kidd around if he's helpful with recruiting, otherwise I don't see it.
Giannis looks like a pipe dream right now. The Clippers went into detail with Kawhi...WHO HAD EXPRESSED interest to be in LA. Giannis hasn't even expressed anything so not sure how much energy we should waste on this.
Seems like it's the "reach" goal and I'm fine with that. There's no harm in being available for it especially if it's not the only option we're relying on. We'll still have AD, we'll still have the best moneyband situation for LeBron. We'll still have Kuzma and we'll have a ton of money to spend. No problem trying to shoot for the moon if it doesn't cost us anything.
Look around the league and see how it works before saying Pels did a "fabulous job". That's nonsense bro. He deserves a critical perspective as the next exec does. Folks keep making excuses for him thinking last year wasn't the same dude helping Magic with those moves. Unless of course, you refute the report that Magic wasnt into the day to day and actually was, which resulted in trading away assets for cap space that turned into primarily Green this summer. Again, which is it? Magic takes most of the Ls from last season but then gets the W for Bron or our cap guy in Rob gets some of the blame as well as does he get credit for bringing in Bron. Had Magic still been at his post and had we still had this type of off-season, I would have been critical of Magic/our FO just the same. I'm a Magic guy, but that doesn't mean I'd heap praises his way that didn't have merit and shield him from unwarranted criticisms. Same goes for Pelly and I'm going in extra cause it seems like some of y'all won't admit our FO needs more experts in charge. That's facts. Thank you! This makes perfect sense to me...and I'm not even agreeing with you about your comments you made towards me. In fact you way off base with that one haha. But I'm happy you understand that this isn't about Magic vs Rob for me...it's about bringing in savvy CBA guys to help transition Rob/Rambis in till they find their footing. I am beyond frustrated with how the Lakers chose to handle Magic quitting on them. That opened the door to bring in someone that was truly deserving of that position and we didn't take up a search to find a candidate seriously. That's a missed opportunity. Which is exactly how I look at our cap space. A missed opportunity to bring back win-now assets in salary dumps (Harkless, Meyers Leonard, James Johnson, Iggy, etc) AND replenish our draft capital. If you do that, you can head into the deadline and still go disgruntled star shopping. Meanwhile, with our current configuration, we have Kcp that can block any trade, so we're down to a package of Green/Kuz/McGee/AvBradley who ALL have to be part of the package to bring back a player on a star's salary cause Green/Kuz/Mcgee alone can only bring back 26m in salary which means we're short in trading for the Bradley Beal type contracts of the NBA. @Satriani im a Magic fan, so I'm going to disagree with you on your recent take. But I completely understand your frustrations (which are similar to LT among other members). Again I'm not going to shield Magic from valid criticism... but that means I'm going to also not stand for over the top praise for Rob either. Dude needs help imo, till he becomes more CBA savvy.
@vasashi17, I think if we made a poll on LB whether members wanted someone hired for the PBO post, the majority would say yes. For me at least, that is a separate issue. That in now way affects my opinion on Rob’s performance this summer. It’s not Rob’s faults there is no PBO. He doesn’t own the team. We also employ a cap expert. How much criticism or blame should that guy get based upon your issues with how we used our cap space?
Cook, there are some here stating a Prez isn't necessary till 2 years from now. Just keeping it Real. Rob brought in AD which is a boss move. But imo he didn't do it efficiently and again didn't use the cap space he created over the last 2 years to his full advantage. And if there was a Klutch tax to be paid, instead of Kco, give it to AD via his trade kicker so that we can offer him a full 30%max extension later this season and take away the anxiety of him possibly leaving this coming summer. The added benefit is that the trade kicker is entirely paid by Gayle Benson/Nawlins. As it stands, we can't even offer him an extension now. And we can't trade Kcp even if we wanted to. All that being said...I agree that Jeanie needs to step her own boss swag up. Just like her dad brought in the best at his position in Phil, she needs to bring in the best at the Prez position.
See how it works? You mean how Pelinka reshaped the roster from top to bottom and built a contender? You mean how our coaching bench is now filled with veteran coaches and high level assistants? You mean how we're poised to compete for a title for two years with complete flexibility after two seasons? Who the f*** else has that? Good thing you're here for that. Oh good only took a paragraph for you to bring up Magic's name. How many times you going to talk about Magic? He's f***ing gone. He didn't even want to be here, has said as much himself, and is happier being gone. I wasn't f***ing here for the mess of a season, which is great because I couldn't imagine reading this stuff from you every day for a year. You want to keep blaming Pelinka for that s*** and it's utter nonsense. Once again: nobody is talking about Magic Johnson more than you. Nobody is pointing the finger more than you. Nobody is comparing the two more than you. Most people, including myself and every other poster you're baiting by implying we're not rational thinkers, agree that both Magic and Rob were culpable for the problems of last year's roster. You know who also agrees? ROB F***ING PELINKA who said in Davis's press conference that he learned lessons from experience and then went out and fixed it. If Magic were still around wanting to President and he raised his hand and admitted he f***ed up, he'd be getting credit too. Instead he bailed in a wildly unprofessional manner and so yes the fans are rightfully upset about it. But if we're all honest, it's water under the bridge for 90% of the population, even people who were directly involved. You're the only one still attacking Rob Pelinka for this, not even your boy Magic is at it anymore. By the way: I haven't seen a single person on this site give Rob sole credit for bringing in LeBron James. Nobody. If they say "Rob has done a great job", it's because Rob is the only person left since Magic bailed. You want to be mad at anybody, be mad at your guy who took off. Also by the way, we have a cap expert. His name is Marshall Rader. We hired him away from the Spurs and he's a highly respected capologist who helped us navigate the AD trade. In case you weren't aware. I'll take your word for it that you'd be so critical, but at the end of the day your criticism are completely unwarranted anyway. You've continued to spout the same things that I've proven to you are false or at the very least not nearly as flawed as you want them to be. 1) Bonga, Wagner, Jones, and a 2nd for space. You keep saying it was a mismanagement of assets (and now are claiming all it netted was Danny Green which is demonstrably false), when it was completely justified. Tell me what those four assets would do for us this season competing for a title? Even if those four assets turned into Dudley, Daniels, and an empty roster spot that's a win. Those three assets are better for us right now than Bonga, Wagner, Jones, and a 2nd and that's the worst case scenario in terms of asset management. Of those assets the only one with any real value is Wagner and he wasn't ready to contribute meaningful minutes to a contender. This is your best point by the way. End of the bench players costing the Lakers a few roster spots and a few million dollars. That's your best weapon against Pelinka. 2) Should have gotten involved in the three way trades. You've used the Harkless trade, we couldn't be involved with that. You've used the Iguodala trade, we couldn't be involved in that. You've used the Westbrook trade, so you wanted us to wait potentially 2-3 weeks after FA, meaning we lose out on almost all the assets we ended up signing (Cousins, Green, Cook, Bradley, Pope, even Caruso) all so we could absorb some big contracts in order to gather picks. What you're essentially doing is punting on competitiveness with both LeBron and Davis on the roster, this is a horrible move. What we did was exponentially better in making sure we can compete in the short term while maintaining maximum long-term flexibility. Infinitely better than acquiring some late 1sts with Goran Dragic and then filling out with minimum contracts, likely missing on all the quality players. Now we have a worse starting lineup, worse depth, but at least we have late 1st round picks. Just about every single person I've seen has said that the Lakers should be getting a President of Basketball Operations, myself included. Having someone to lead the vision of the team and letting Pelinka handle the dirty work was a good idea if Magic had been willing to do the job. He again, was unwilling and/or unable to do it so he left. Most people, including us "irrational" people that recognize that Pelinka had a tremendous summer, say that having a guy like Myers in charge would be a good idea because Jeanie clearly doesn't know much about basketball. That does not mean that Pelinka has done a bad job. That does not mean that Pelinka doesn't deserve credit. That does not mean that he's f***ed up this summer. It means having more smart, talented, and willing executives in the FO is always a good thing. The real fact is Pelinka won't win your respect and that's fine. We're not going to agree on Pelinka and that's fine too. What sucks is having to read 7 paragraphs of the same Pelinka bashing over and over again while people (me) try to reason with you and you refuse to budge no matter what. We don't need to agree, but can you at least stop posting 3 or 4 paragraphs of the same Pelinka bashing in multiple threads? Just agree to disagree and let's move on into a great season without you trying to bait me into this s***.
@vasashi17 The ring is the thing. How many ring huggers on this very forum are out there that have been preaching this and caring not what as of yet not ready for prime time talent had to go out the door to be put in a tremendous place, barring injuries, to win one this year with this lineup with still room for one or two more strategic moves should they present themselves. I wanted a ring too but as well am a fan who enjoys the journey with players that I really like who can grow into something special, but finally crossed over with all the ring stans in my thinking, seeing what we have assembled this year. Plus with all these vets there are players I'm going to learn to love as well. All of your reconfiguring and waiting to become involved in trading contortions for future assets, in deals not even known to be in the works, when it was time to rock and roll with plan B .... would have left us weaker this year in the attempt to get us that RING. You stated a couple days ago even that yeah maybe it costs us Danny Green and JaVale McGee (in our lineup this year) but "you would be OK with it". From the amount of waiting around interminably your arm chairing would have entailed, my bet is it would have cost us even more of the pieces most of us are excited to have THIS year. Yours truly, Beaten into submission for my own good and converted RING Guy.
I think you're baiting me with all the ridiculous over the top praise for dude haha. Jules renounced, Nance/JC traded for 2nd max space, TB dropped, Nwaba dropped, Zu traded, Svi/future 2nd traded, Moe/Bonga/Jj/future 2nd traded... All for space that was used on Green, Kcp and Mcgee. And we don't have any future assets (kinda like the ones we used in trading for AD) to show for any of it. Till this post, you were ignoring my simple recommendation of having some oversight to dude by a more seasoned CBA head. Now that you agree, I better understand your position on the matter. But up until this post, you wanted to remain status quo with our current FO configuration, which was wild to me. So we finally agree on that and we can keep it moving. Btw, all trade possibilities are something we could have been involved in since all trades can't be finalized till July 6th, which was after the Kawhi decision and should have been part of our contingency anyways. As for the Miami/Okc 3way, Presti moved fast with the Russ deal and it is rumored that he will do the same with Cp3. I'm sorry but imo those are wasted opportunities. And we just won't agree on that...so im with you in that we should just keep it moving. Till we debait again haha...
Jules renounced = questionable decision (but Magic was in charge then) Nance / JC trade = smart move (Magic was in charge then) TB dropped = bad decision (Magic was in charge then) Nwaba dropped = bad decision (Magic was in charge then) Zu traded = questionable decision due to no asset return (Magic was in charge then) Svi traded = good decision (Magic was in charge then) Moe / Bonga / JJ / 2nd traded = good decision (Pelinka was in charge) Just wanted to keep straight who was actually in charge when. You say all these moves were made to sign Green, KCP and McGee. That's just hindsight. They weren't. They were made (most of them) in the effort to create another max space with the intention to sign a Kawhi, Durant, or Kyrie type player. Yes, that plan failed, but it was Magic's plan too. When the plan failed, Pelinka moved immediately to a well prepared Plan B and he filled the roster with players capable of competing for a Ring this year. That's actually a solid accomplishment. Not a home run, but at least a double.
This is simply not true. I have been saying we should have a PBO since I returned. All that I have been doing is saying that Pelinka has done an excellent job which you have been attempting to refute.
I look at it as more than just black vs white. Do you really think Magic was the Cba guy to clear cap for Bron? He gets credit for sitting in a driveway and closing the deal, but Rob is the guy that should get credit for creating that space in the first place. So they was a tandem last year the same way he, Jesse Buss and Rambis are our bball team this year. The common denominator is Rob, who seems to throw away assets rather inefficiently. Then you look at this summer and we couldn't close on a number of our top targets, whether that was our coaching search or our max free agency pursuit. But that's not an indictment entirely on Rob. Magic as an ambassador didn't help close Kawhi. Bron/AD also failed on closing on another max guy to join them. So I'm not giving anyone exclusive credit or blame. However that doesn't mean we need to remain status quo with our FO. Go find the best cause frankly we don't employ the best at the moment. Rob could be a goat GM eventually....but he is not one now, so get him some help, oversight and guidance. @therealdeal again, I don't think he's done an excellent job. We can be setup to be competitive AND still gain assets to refresh our lost stash. Imo our FO checked only one of those boxes when we could have done both. I'm only irked cause alot of time and resources were used to gain that max slot and when it doesn't get realized, I wouldn't just rush into exhausting that resource. All the player turnover to gain a max slot works see a max player at the end of it. So when it doesn't happen, you can't just use up your cap with the remaining free agent pool...try to get more creative with that cap space. Anyways, to each their own.
I feel like everyone is missing the fact, or just flat overlooking the fact, that we have KURT FREAKING RAMBIS in the front office finally doing the job he was meant to do. He was miscast as a coach, but it helped mold him into the front office executive he is today. If anything, he's actually overqualified, and we're lucky to have him. and the fact that he's ok letting Rob have all of the praise for assembling this team of Avengers? Well that tells me even more how selfless he is. All about the team - even when he was a player. Just a grinder making it happen. Linda is one Lucky Woman.
Double like on this one. That post didn't describe LT at all. You are going at one of the most respected posters of all time with accusations that make no sense. People like LT being here is what makes this site so much better than the others.
