2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

Dame dropped 71 tonight..damn

 

What in the hell do you mean? ROb improved our team in 2021. We started the season 21-7 before injuries messed up our record. Even then, that roster played mostly without Lebron and AD and we still made the playoffs. We were 2-1 on Phoenix about to go up 3-1 and AD got hurt and that ruined our playoffs. We improved on that "model" but injuries killed our season, not the roster.

 

agree here. the narrative about that offseason was rewritten because of the results, much like the malone/gp season, imo. we would have gone to the finals again if AD didn't go down, and i'd have given us a decent shot at repeating. i think the 2021 roster was, on paper, superior to the 2020 roster, actually.

i would prefer not to talk about the 2022 roster ever again.

 

Yeah. I think we just need to toss 2022 and the start of this year in the trash and move on. Lol.

 

That's the thing though: championships are not won on paper. If they were, things would be mighty different in Brooklyn right now. There's a big difference in nba 2k and the real game.

There's a human element. Fit, ego, and personality all matter. I get what Rob was trying to do that year and had the turnaround from end of bubble to start of the next season not been so quick, I think there might have been less shakeup.

You cannot convince me that was a better team with the restrictions in place based on promises made to players by Rob just to get them in the door. Schroder, Marc, Trezz, and Drummond were all made promises that were impossible to keep and that caused friction in the locker room. Ultimately, I think the was a very good team and had AD not gotten hurt, we probably face the Bucks. But they were not a cohesive unit like the bubble squad.

 

Very astute analysis of your position.

 

i thought the promises to marc (starting) and trez (getting consistent minutes) were totally fair and necessary to get them to sign for what was below market value at the time for each. the promise to schroder was bad and unnecessary. the promise to drummond was near cataclysmic basically because a) he was worse at basketball than gasol and b) you had already promised gasol and trez the c spot!

had we run it back and not won, all we'd have heard was that the team was stale or whatever. we retained kuz, kcp, and caruso, along with our two stars, which constituted the bulk of the championship rotation. danny green didn't do what he was supposed to do for us on the floor, and i really think that gasol/trez was an upgrade on mcgee/howard. we still managed to have a great defense that year, and i don't think team chemistry was really why we lost. AD's injury was why we lost.

 

Agreed. We had Phoenix in that first round and I'll stick to that take forever. They give the Bucks a run for their money in the Finals. We could have easily been back there.

 

I mean they pasted Phoenix in game 3 and were up 2-1 and honestly that series was going to be over in 5 when AD went down in game 4. The same phoenix team was 1-2 possessions away from winning the title and I thought the Lakers were going to beat them on cruise control till the injury!

 

The thing about the Phoenix series, was that AD was already gimpy heading into that series. He had missed most of the season and he wasn't at 100 percent. Lebron was playing on a high ankle sprain too, and it's not a given at all, that AD would have made it through the later rounds.

If he had been healthy, we definitely beat the Suns. I automatically assume that Lebron would have been able to make it through to the Finals too. That might not have played out that way either.

 

sure, but the point is that we were well-constructed and had the talent to win the title that year. the next year, we were not and did not.

 

Those moves looked pretty good at the time . I was confused with the Trez signing though. Once AD went down, it was pretty much a wrap for that team. Lebron held it down for awhile and then he got hurt. Its been the same story pretty much ever since.

 

It goes back to the chicken or the egg thing . Was it the balanced, well constructed roster or mostly due to having a healthy Lebron and AD? We don't win a chip with them not being at 100 percent either. At least we got 1 full season out of them, the results were fantastic.

 

let's not forget the non-existent offseason between the 2020 finals and the start of the 20-21 season. lebron/AD getting injured that season and missing extended time was pretty much inevitable

 

I think that contributed to a ton of injuries to major players league wide. The NBA won't admit that, they will chalk it up to an anomaly.

 

I agree those promises were necessary to get them but I'd rather miss out on them than royally f*** up lineups and tying the hands of Frank. I think we really missed out on the best two man pairing off the bench by starting DS. He and Trezz would've killed. Agree on DS and Drummond.

Who's the last team to win it all and then 7 players on that roster get sent packing? You bring in 5 new guys, including two starters and a 23 mpg Trezz. That's not normal.

Out: AB, Green, D12, McGee, Rondo, JR, and Waiters.

In: Marc, Trezz, Wes, McKinnie, DS

I think that team would've flamed out if kept together, but they also earned the right to come back and defend their title. You see what they can do and address upgrades as you get closer to the deadline.

I think the bubble team was closer than any Lakers team in a really long time. The pandemic bubble created a brotherhood and familiarity that I think is exclusive to teams that played in Disney that year. On top of that, the organization had the biggest loss in franchise history (probably in NBA history) in losing Kobe. They turned inward and those circumstances created a close knit unit similar to a combat unit. Bron and AD still love them some McGee


You lost locker room leaders in Rondo, Green, and McGee. Rondo provided coaching insight that none of the new guys were capable of. You lost cheerleaders in McGee and Dwight, those two cheered harder than anyone else in the bubble. Chemistry and continuity matters. Multiple reports said how bad the locker room was late in the season that following year. Makes sense, Rob created a hostile environment where it was about "me" and not "we." Let's not forget AD was also irritated that he went from Rondo who could find him anywhere on the floor to DS, who couldn't find him on a 5 on 0 drill.

The deeper in the playoffs you go, the more pressure gets put on these cracks and weaknesses. Again, chemistry matters. Leadership matters. The follow up team was devoid of that.

 

I'd try to sign will barton now.

 

Multiple weeks...ouch ouch