Awesome. C’mon man tell us more!! Am betting he was a cool dude and appreciated you being a smart Lakers fan and rapped with you awhile?
Even if AD and role players were healthy and we had him most of the year, I don't think this team would have worked out on the court. There are on and off court issues that goes back 2+ years and pointing to the Russ trade, poor coaching by Vogel and injuries is just a copout. The team philosophy was all wrong if their intention was to build a championship team. They heavily focused on being Lebron centric on and off the court and paid a massive price. You go as far as your superstars take you, at the end of the day. Starting from Dec. 2020 AD and Lebron have not been top 5 level NBA players. This year Lebron is out of top 10 IMO. They did not deliver top 5 level play in the 2020-2021 season and lot of excuses given such as fatigue, short offseason, etc. These two set the tone for the organization with bad habits on the court and the franchise made a habit of giving a litany of excuses. Well its no surprise it carried into the 2021-2022 season and only got worse when they needed to win. What did you expect? The bad habits and poor team philosphy carried into this year. There are other issues like subpar coaching, poor 3 point shooting, lack of footspeed and athleticism. We had those same issues in 2019-2020 too but we had a large amount of success because AD + Lebron excellent play on the court (AND UNDERAPPRECIATED ROLE PLAYERS WHO FIT QUITE WELL. THOSE ROLE PLAYERS INDIVIDUALLY HAD MANY SHORTCOMINGS BUT THEY WORKED WELL) At least Kobe empowered the likes of Randle, Clarkson, Russell, Nance on his way out. We had hope for those guys. This team routinely blows games against teams with lesser talent. Earlier in the year they were losing by double digits and were routinely down 20+ often and being non competitive (especially at home). This Lebron stat stuffing legacy chasing self promoting nonsense does not benefit the franchise one bit. Our franchise has lost the plot and needs to re-focus on BEING A TITLE CONTENDER from Ownership, FO, Coach to players on the court. Fans like myself are quite turned off because this team in not competing, lacks heart, lacks desire and unwatchable.
The on court results are worse than the lean 2013-2018 years. At least that team competed even if they were not as talented.
Fair enough: I think KCP's numbers are a bit down but maybe that's because he's in the wrong role. I also forgot about Bradley, Dwight, Ariza, and Baze Second attempt at this rerank trade value IMO (performance, age, contract, fit, etc.) 1) Caruso 2) Kuzma Big Drop off 3) Monk 4) Trez 5) KCP Big Drop off 6) Reaves (again contract/age) 7) Stan 8) Westbrook 9) Dwight (would rather have Dwight than Westbrook but hey) 10) Wenyen Big Drop off 11) Bradley 12) Baze 13) Ariza Looks horrible in terms of in and outs and that's reflected in the stats/season record
kind of a weird article. it's not really unified or centered on a point. just laker doom porn. whatever, windhorst. sorry lebron left you.
Absolutely horrendous lineups and you can check the game thread. Folks were calling these lineups trash right when they saw them on the court
This is what pisses me off more than anything. Rob and the rambii will keep their jobs, Jeanie will stay in her bubble, and Frank and injuries will take the blame. Horribly managed franchise.
anyone with a brain knew the season was not going to go well after the Westbrook trade, but the reality exceeded the most apocalyptical expectations.
Pelinka to team: "You could say this room has the greatest basketball talent assembled on a team in recent history. You could say that. But without the proper mindset as a team, that amounts to jack s---, and we know that." James to the media: "It was exciting helping put this team together this summer. Understanding what I felt and we all felt was going to make us a title-contending team. ... I watch enough basketball to know what I need to do to help the ball club depending on the acquisitions we make per year. So I'm very cerebral about what I need to do for our team to be as great as we can be and to be the counterpart to what Russ brings to the table. ... I always figure it out." reads like a comedy sketch at this point
