Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

And the roster is really set up well for a mid season move of Westbrook: Simmons and Windhorst were speculating on DeRozan coming available if the Bulls start off bad in a very tough Eastern Conference as an example.

PG with Nunn/Schroeder/some reaves, SG: Reaves/Walker/JTA all look like reasonable rotation pieces or better. Nunn and Reaves look in particularly just a whole lot better then anything we had last season in the backcourt

 

There are certainly more reasons for optimism than we could have hoped for just a couple weeks ago. All key players are healthy and in shape, Nunn looks better than advertised, Caruso 2.0 seems to have made progress, the coaching staff is implementing some actual (and good!) offensive peinciples, even Russ seems to be buying in to some extent. But the most important thing (to me at least) - it looks like the team cares out there and out starters have been better than the opposition so far.

If a trade does happen and we get some good wing players for the primadonna, this team could actually be really good this season.

 

Ok. I liked this till #7...lol. I think our team will get better all season long and with some of that playoff luck that all championships teams need we can go all the way. AD and Lebron returning to top five, Nunn will be a scoring machine, we will play great defense, have a great coach. I just don't see any teams out there I'm scared of. #18 coming up.

 

That's a big reach. There's just no way to know if we have LeBron and AD for at least +60 games. And then be available in 4 straight 7 games series. West will still be strong enough that no playoff series this year appear to potentially be a sweep, meaning it's deep. It's not +10 team deep, but 8 deep. That's a big IF.

Then, even if you get them healthy, we still have a weak roster compared with others. We still have Russ and his awkward fit. Russ doesn't go a constant minus for a full year to All-star level. We don't go from 11 seed to Champions with the same core. We still don't have wing defending. We still have no shooters. We still have a max trio that it still hasn't shown can play together. Let's get real for a second, we can't feed those unrealistic expectations. I would love to see it, but it's not happening.

Nonetheless, I think we can be better than anticipated and be a fun team to follow who is competitive every game and with a serious contention to top6 West. Gotta stay healthy early to build some momentum and then in December start managing AD and Lebron's minutes with the team gelling and give some more responsibility to Russ, Nunn and Reaves. I imagine them being those guys that when a star doesn't play, their numbers bump to double.

I can't wait for next week

 

I trust my eyes and this is an optimism thread. You need to take that post to the gloom and doom...lol..

 

Yeah Pika's post was assuming a whole lot about what we don't have based on what we had last year, such as NO shooting. Give me a break there, though I generally agree with him a lot. Different season, different rotation players and I guarantee some of them will be over 35% from 3 or at the least will not be left alone out there as were Russ and Rondo before him at least during the regular season.

 

I can honestly see this season playing out similarly to 08. Start the season off pretty strong, stay 5-6 games above .500 and just wait for the right trade opportunity to present itself. Both conferences are too deep for a few teams not to disappoint and sell off, and the tanking will be hilarious. A few people now have mentioned a Bulls retool scenario, if we could flip Russ/picks for DeRozan/expiring Vucevic I'd feel pretty good about something like this going into the playoffs:

Beverley/Nunn
DeRozan/Reaves
LeBron
AD/JTA
Vucevic

 

^^^ you would huh? yeah you think?

Just teasing

 

Vucevic is already expiring and DeRozan has only one year left after this season. I don't see the Bulls dumping 2 of their 3 "stars" just to enjoy the pleasure of Westbrooks' company. Even as credible as a few fans or Youtube personalities can be....

 

never know--russ may be the third-team piece that provides salary relief, we take the overpaid-but-still-useful vets, and the team sending those out adds picks to get the most talented player.

so, maybe beal becomes available and he wants to go to chicago, so they move derozan/vucevic/white or williams and a couple picks, and we move russ to washington with the picks and the young player. washington has a blank slate instead of paying derozan to lead them to 12th place, we upgrade the roster, chicago upgrades the roster.

obviously this isn't the thing that will happen, but things like this.

 

Thanks for the re-title. But being “that” guy and having to view it daily …..

“Lakers’ “ …. please

 

Trading DeRozan and Vuc for Beal ain't a great upgrade no?

 

From your lips to God’s ears

 

i have a high opinion of beal and a lower opinion of vuc and derozan than most of the forum.

 

They’re ready to go which is definitely a good thing.

 

AD and lebron look pretty good. nunn has looked good overall. walker and reaves have both looked good. honestly, christie has looked better than i expected against nba competition, too.

our centers have disappointed, bevs has been a train wreck on offense, and russ has been russ, which is not a good thing.

the optimist in me says the shooting last night was an aberration, though. it was horrible and won't be that horrible most nights.

 

The last three years I've turned into the preseason and frankly expected LeBron to look worse physically, but he looks negligibly worse (if not just as good) as he did in 2020. Just incredible that he can keep doing this. I am concerned about Bryant and Jones, I think the idea was that AD would start at the 4 and having two true bigs out there would mitigate the downside of our guard-heavy rotation. If their poor play continues there may be pressure to seek out Russ trades that specifically return a starting-caliber big.

 

that or supersized wings. but yes, my lack of concern over the back court size was because i expected to have two bigs on the floor for at least 30 mpg.