i know several of us were displeased with this one. ahead of time. i liked the previous two. if rob's handcuffed, vogel's stuffed in a bag at the bottom of a river.
The part that I keep hearing debated on pods that I listen to are : Frank hasn't adjusted to the roster he has irrespective of the flaws. Starting Reaves instead of Bradley, switching on certainty opponents, instead of playing a drop coverage, rotations, odd lineups, etc. That's what I hear. Some of these are valid, and I get it. But I go back to the roster construction. When Reaves (undrafted FA) and Stanley (signed off the street on a 10-day) are already some of your best players, that's a bigger indictment on the roster you created, Rob. And I like Rob a lot. Probably more than most of the forum does, but he should have went more wing heavy when putting this roster together. Also, avoiding DJ would have been a good thing. Also, I called Wayne Ellington a "Troy Daniels" (who ended up getting cut), etc. We need athletic wings and bigs around LBJ who have a semblance of skill like Reaves and Stanley.
*** Meant playing a switching style against certain opponents instead of switching*** Defending against pick in roll.
i think people might confuse my defense of vogel with love for vogel. vogel's a pretty meh nba coach...as are pretty much all nba coaches. much like gms, it's pretty rare that someone's GREAT, and the stratification is difficult. TERRIBLE is pretty easy to spot, and these guys don't last in either job. so yeah, i wish vogel had done some other things earlier in the season. but i also understand how hard it would be to bench all the veteran ring chasers in favor of 10-day contract near-washouts and undrafted rookies. i think rob made some mistakes, and i think ownership was definitely the reason caruso isn't playing here. but i actually have some degree of trust in both rob and vogel to do better in the future. what i'm not sure about is whether they can get around rambis and lebron/AD's meddling in team-building. rob's big strength is these agency relations, and it certainly cuts both ways.
I like Rob too, but I have no idea why he packed the roster with a bunch of guards when guys like Otto Porter Jr., who plays good minutes for one of the best teams in the League, were available for minimum deals. He gets an “F” for this season just because he let LeGM talk him into one of the worst trades the Lakers have made in the past 35 seasons.
Rob definitely hasn't been great and has regressed every year with unheard of over correction. How good/bad he's been depends on how much credit you give him for Bron and AD. He had a championship roster, flushed that for last season's roster. One where he brought on DS, promised him a starting gig and then offered to overpay him A LOT. Brought in Marc, gave him a starting gig. Then brought in another C mid season who is also promised a starting spot. Awful negotiating. You earn your spots if you're not AD, Bron, and now Russ (just because of how much he's making). That one didn't work because injuries. Flushes it again. Now on to this past off season where i want to spend sone time.. Goes all in on an ill fitting Russ. Ok, he might've been forced into that by Bron and AD. Fair. I liked nearly all his offseason signings independent of one another. When you think of them in the concept of a team and lineups, it doesn't work. The only way it works is if injuries don't happen, covid doesn't happen, and everyone he signed overachieved. All had to hit or it falls on its face. Age, one trick ponies, repetitive skill sets, and no wing size really f***ed us. Luckily he had three unexpected players fall into his lap and are instrumental rotation players. AR wasn't expected. Bradley is only here because all of our guards got injured during the preseason. And Stan was finally a Christmas gift to Laker fans when they finally admit they need some size on the perimeter. But the success of those three late additions emphasize how bad his free agency was. Monk was his only hit. Melo was all Bron. Ariza looks cooked (hoping we can work him into 12-15 useful minutes a game by April)...and he was supposed to start! DJ- nothing needs to be said here. Rondo- fine with. He did his job, good coach and emergency PG. Dwight- fell off, OK 3rd C. Ellington- also was penciled as a starter. If we don't go small and had defenders, there's a role but as it stands he's out of the rotation. Baze- worst wing signing in the NBA this summer. Nunn- awful use of the mid level when we didn't need a PG. what could be have done? 1) Caruso 2) Signed a f***ing wing defender! Stan looks great, but part of that is the bar is so low because there's no one on the team capable of doing anything remotely close to that. 3) not wasted the mid-level. Bron. Ball dominant. Russ. Ball dominant. THT (with new money). Ball dominant. Rondo (when he plays). Ball dominant. So the answer is to give your only money to another scoring guard who needs the ball?! I was OK with the signing when it was clear we're only going after PGs and after we missed on Mills (that hurt), on paper Nunn is a solid backup choice for something we shouldn't be targeting. Who would I have targeted instead? Minimum offers Wings: Bembry, James Johnson, Otto Porter, Ennis Bigs: Taj Gibson, Biyombo Or if we used the mid level to address that need instead of signing a guard we may never see on the court... Mid-level offers Torrey Craig, Jeff Green, Mo Harkless, David Nwaba If you roll out this lineup, I think we don't struggle nearly as much throughout this year's adversity: AD/Biyombo/Dwight Bron/Melo Jeff Green/Porter/Wes Monk/AR/Ellington Russ/AC/Rondo Would've told THT to take a hike. Could've gotten an asset out of him (recoup some of that draft equity we gave away) . Green and Porter can each play up a position in small ball. Roster is blended with age and some younger players. Defense, size, switchability, and shooting is emphasized. Everyone is slotted in a successful, winning position.
In all honesty, the Westbrook trade basically tanked this season as well as next season. I say this because Westbrook is untradeable so there’s a high probability he’s a Laker until his contract expires. I feel like a guy who broke up with my high school sweetheart (last year’s roster) for the superficial pretty girl that everyone knows it won’t work out in the long run(Westbrook), and now wishes I never did such a thing lol. I can now confidently say with 100% certainty that if we just never did the Westbrook trade so we keep KCP, Kuzma, and Harrell, retain Caruso… and let Schroeder walk but replace him using the MLE with Patty Mills. Proceed with signing Melo, Dwight, Monk, Stanley Johnson, Ariza and Reaves for the minimum. Had we just basically tweaked our roster, We would be top 3 in the West right now and still have roster flexibility moving forward. Mills/Caruso/Monk KCP/THT/Reaves Lebron/Johnson/Ariza Kuzma/Anthony AD/Dwight/Harrell This would be Top 3 in the west right now. Tell me I’m wrong
Lebron lost faith in last year's group. He didn't want to carry a large playmaking and initating role anymore...which is weird because thats what he mostly does even with Russ around. We could've kept the 2019/2020 model around but he was too enamored with having a Big 3...which also signals he doesn't believe him/AD are enough The only thing I would blame Rob was to give in to Lebron's demands for the Westbrook trade instead of saying no and just letting him do his work. Its hard to fill out your roster when you have 3 huge salaried players removing all your flexibility to improve your squad.
lol just posted this in another thread. the murder of flexibility was always my concern with a russ trade, as much or moreso than the questionable fit.
Heard on a podcast I recently listened to that we had a deal lines up for Rudy Gay with the MLE. Instead, we pivoted toward Nunn. On the podcast, one of the gentleman suggested they brought in Nunn (who signed with Klutch around the time we signed him) to replace THT (if here were to be traded to fill in roster holes on the wing). Conspiracy theory. Was interesting I thought.
yeah, a bunch of us wanted gay, who seemed like a better fit than nunn. i can't believe i didn't realize nunn was a klutch guy. i mean, of course. and honestly, had he not been hurt, it might have paid dividends (and still might). not as sure about the conspiracy angle...they had to know THT would be our lone trade asset, but i can't imagine the agency signed a deal here knowing that he'd likely be moved. that said, my own "conspiracy" theory is that we spent on THT and not AC because we had gotten better trade offers for THT last year than we did for caruso, and that set our internal valuation process.
I honestly feel like we took a "LeBron can make anything work" perspective and rolled with a lot of moves without much thought to roster fit or how the guys would play together. I don't mind not standing pat on last year's team. Particularly when factoring in age and injury. They just didn't bring in pieces that helped lighten the load for AD and LeBron or help with the issues we had last season.
Well Rob, we sure hope you learned a big lesson. There’s still time to turn it around, but to say this team has underwhelmed is putting it nicely. Side note: Buddy is also way over payed for what he brings.
To be honest I'm not sure Hield works out with us too. I think he's had great games against us but I'm not that high on him. I wish we would have just ran it back with the same squad as last year and moved Schroder to get something in return + keep AC. Most of the 2019 - 2021 guys were individually imperfect players but they played their role just fine to complement Lebron + AD. Continuity and chemistry can be quite valuable
