Every time I think this team can reach a new low or disappoint me even more, they do. We have the hardest remaining schedule in like the entire NBA, and we lose to the Kings… Russ has 8 points on 2-14 shooting… This team isn’t going to figure it out, we’re halfway through the season and a .500 team, it’s a failed experiment, we’d be lucky to make a play-in game. We blew LeBron’s possible last great year, have no assets left, and are stuck with Russ for 1 1/2 years. It’s going to be a dark time when LeBron retires, good lord.
Weezy, you are correct. This team blows and honestly, it didn't necessarily need a loss to the Kings to figure this out. Its been obvious all year. They started 0-7 (with pre-season) and have looked mediocre in all but 2-3 games. Even a broken clock is right twice a day so its really not a feature to look good once a month. Even the friggin Kings look good every once in a while. The players simply aren't good enough. Everyone was screaming what the hell is wrong with piling up all these 35 year olds... Bron is different. Everybody else is pretty much garbage. Ariza sucks, Baze sucks, Melo can't play any D, Howard and Jordan are done... When Austin Reaves, an undrafted rookie, is pretty much your 4th or 5th best player...the team as a whole must be garbage.
Bron Reaves Monk are the Lakers right now, basically. And Melo. Two of those guys are bench players, and Monk just became a starter, so...
wonder if gs fans talked about how much klay thompson was killing their franchise the past two years.
Tinfoil hat post: Lebron didn’t bring Russ in to win another championship. He brought him in to preserve himself to catch Cap. If they win, gravy.
We might miss the playoffs. And it's probably better that way if that would motivate this FO to get rid of Russ. We'll waste another one of Bron's years, but it is what it is. This is mostly all on him and the FO...
Didn't AD and Bron this? Regardless its looking like out of all the avenues we could've went down this off-season, we chose the worst path.
This is, without a doubt, my least favorite Laker team ever. And I've been watching for over 30 years. I never liked Lebron, and was willing to give him a chance. He sabotaged the team in his first year by actively and openly trying to trade all the players during the season. We finally do trade them and we get one ring, and the ONLY reason we got it is a once in a lifetime pandemic burst out causing a scenario where we could get everyone healthy for a quick stretch run. After an injury plagued season, he decides to trade half the team again, this time for just about the worst fit imaginable.
If we miss the playoffs with Lebron, AD and Russ, that's going to motivate OTHER teams NOT to trade for Russ.
The Lakers actually have several guys playing well: Exceptional: Bron, Reaves, Monk good rotation players: Melo, Howard, Bradley, Johnson The problems though are plenty: -instead of being a star, Russ is an anchor who is actively hurting this team in a variety of ways -insistence on small ball all the time is costing us games: Howard should be the backup center period not Melo or Lebron. I'd argue that both in the Kings and even the Memphis game was winnable till those teams got untracked against small ball -Johnson not getting as many minutes as they try to get Ariza's conditioning back -THT is totally getting lost having to play Russ. -too many guards/wing underperforming (Russ, THT, Ariza) so minutes for Monk, Reaves, Johnson are being watered down - these guys based on what we've being should be getting to 35-40mpg.
^ Yeah, I think you're right. You could construct a good team with those 3 dudes (& Bradley as your primary perimeter defender) with Melo, Johnson and Dwight getting some minutes in very specific roles. Of course, there's AD who will come back, but he simply needs to do more and play better. But Westbrook and the rest of the players are either poor fit or completely redundant. So, basically, you could do something with those 8 players mentioned above, but we need a PG who is a good floor general and CAN SHOOT, and ideally a young center who is quick and athletic and who can stay out of AD's way. If we had that, we could contend. But with THT not fitting, Baze being completely usesless, Ellingon not being utilized at all, Ariza being old and not in game shape, DJ being on the roster for no reason and Westbrook eating 40+ MILLION while actively losing some games due to poor shooting and bad decision making... ...I don't know. It's hard, man.
Since this is the WMC thread I’m not going to try to defend Klay one way or the other but I did think of Klay being injured vs AD the other day and why I would feel different as a fan between the 2 players. Klay has been with GSW his whole career and has played a huge role in their championships. I’m more upset with AD missing time because he’s only been a Laker 3 years and he’s been hurt, 2 of them. I don’t really care how many games he played in New Orleans, he wasn’t a Laker then. I also don’t care how the injuries happened either. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s missing games. Availability in the NBA is of upmost importance. I know you didn’t ask about AD but I happened to think about this scenario the other day when Klay came back.
no, it was indeed in response to complaints about AD's availability. he played a huge role in our only title in the last decade (and likely our only one for a while again). the fact that we've been an average team without him sort of underlines that point, just like gs being a lotto team with klay despite curry's brilliance underscores his value. availability is crucial, but lots of players become unavailable. very few of them deliver titles when they are available. your point about thompson being a gs lifer was a good one, though. i guess AD gets killed here because people don't think of him as a laker or something. that was still the best trade we've made since pau, and he's still one of the best players in the league when he's healthy. maybe we only got one year of it, but that's one year more than almost every other team in the league has gotten from almost every other player. giannis and jokic were not and are not available in trade. half the forum wanted to move him for lillard last year (wonder if they still feel this way).
Those "good rotation players"? I don't think so. 29 NBA teams have passed on those guys. Except for maybe Melo, the three others would be out of the league as soon as their Lakers career would be over. Those are 3rd stringers at this stage of their careers. Not rotation players on championship roater. There is a reason the Lakers are basura. It's the players. Very simple. It starts with Wussbrick and ends with the likes of Nunn who are not even playing past the half way point of the season.
Talent evaluation is not an exact science: see the Lakers trading for Westbrook lol. I don't think guys like Bradley or Johnson would work on Detroit but for the lakers they've played well and Melo/Dwight have good advanced number plus the eye test. I just think with a guy like Westbrook players like GPIII and Toscano Anderson who have thrived in GS, would look pretty equivalent to what these guys are doing. FIt and Russ are really killing the Lakers right now
I don't disagree that fit matters. Low usage utility players are well suited for AD and Bron. Scrubtastic high usage players / ball hogs who can't shoot or defend not so much.
