the second guy is accurate, the first guy is just a standard lakers doomer: "they'll try to do X but won't be able to so hahahahaha fakers". it's totally possible to move westbrook for overpaid role players to restock the roster, imo. and then, yes, THT/nunn can be peddled. or kept! the beauty of not having all your money tied up in three players is that if things don't work out, you have options to make in-season trades. imagine that!
When LeGM is gone, THT will look a lot better. For every other player who needs the ball in his hands to be the best version of himself on the court, it’s EXTREMELY difficult to play alongside another guy who does as well. How many examples over the past thirty years can someone provide of two ball dominate players succeeding side by side?
Westbrook/KD, Manu/Parker, Steph/KD, Pippen/MJ, KD/Harden, CP3/Booker I think there are plenty of cases of two players who need the ball to be successful. It’s just about finding how to play of one another and having a coach who can make it work.
in most cases, though, both were great shooters. lebron/wade was an awkward less-than-the-sum-of-its-parts fit, and they were both in their prime.
taken from the article jsm posted: these are my thoughts, and why i'm not keen on moving him unless it fills an obvious need.
As of December 2020, 4,374 players have cycled through the NBA and you guys came up with a list of only five ball dominant pairs that have been able to do it and win a Chip together. I rest my case.
This is a weird take. Since 1991, 18 out of 30 champions had two ball dominant players. Bulls - 6x Lakers - 3x Spurs - 2x C Bags - 1x Heat - 2x Warriors - 2x Cavs - 1x Bucks - 1x It’s the most feasible way to win a championship in the modern era. Followed by a star doing a one man carry alongside a good support cast (7x; Hakeem x2, Duncan x2, Wade, Dirk & Kawhi). The last is having a platoon of good players that play hard defence.
I hope several GMs feel the way that coach does. I don't want to move him to move him. BUT I definitely want to move him. We have so many needs on this roster with so few means of getting better. I don't think THT can be the best version of himself next to the players we have and that's even if we move Russ. We're going to have a few ball dominant players and THT will not be better than them. We can't afford to have a 4th guy with redundant skills when we have holes and an incoming player would be the best on the roster at that skill set (such as shooting and perimeter defense). I disagree with the coach that we're not good at developing talent. We're not good at trying to turn young guys into something they're not (THT into a 3 & D) or allowing them to be the best version of themselves when there's another player on the roster who is better at their thing.
Full rebuild starts now. Trade Lebron for assets and clear salary. Trade Westbrook at the trade deadline for the same. Give the kid the ball and develop the young talent we have on the roster. Retool with players worth watching, and rebuild this thing super fast. Prosper. The chances of us winning with a 38 yr old ball dominant Lebron is slim and none. I don't care if he breaks the scoring record in a Laker uniform, but I can see why some would. Namely Jeanie. I'm ready to move on, and let Rob retool this squad. Trade Lebron to Chicago.... Lebron for: S&T Levine, Caruso or..... Vucevic, Caruso or...... DeRozan, Caruso
lol, THT looks like valanciunas compared to the drew leaguers. the sheer size of the nba guys is pretty amazing. i still remember sitting near the court when i was in hs and seeing sam cassell and being like--he's a pf on the varsity, maybe a center. meanwhile, he looks tiny out there.
Definitely wild. In HS we had twins in our starting front court, one was 6-5 and the other was 6-6. We were a big team. In the NBA, they would be undersized, limited SFs (didn't have guard skills). The two NBA'ers that really shocked me in person -- Mutombo and Priest Lauderdale. Mutombo's length was insane, I remember when shaking his hand just staring at how long his fingers were. Then Priest is the biggest human I've ever seen, an enormous 7-4. That's tough to mentally compute when face to face.
Seeing Shaq close up and understanding how big and athletic he actually was gave me a bit of admiration for anyone who even tried to guard him.
I was on the floor level of Staples and saw him within about 20m or so, and just his size compared to all around him was so comically ridiculous. It was truly unfair at his peak.
Hell I got that from watching on television him bulldoze, elbow and bully normal sized big men and then mock them for being soft.