Such a great post. I agree 100% this has been our last attempt at luring Kobe another shot at a title. If that was not the case, I think we'd go hard at a guy like Tobias Harris who can be a building block for our future studs, instead of wining and dining the DJ's and LMA's. Fine we struck out, now we do as you say. Rebuild the franchise properly and make everyone beg to be a part of it again.
But most of us were content and optimistic two days ago. I don't care if ONE player (LMA) didn't see enough to want to sign with us. We have a young core on rookie contracts and plenty of cap space to work with. We messed up in the past, but now we're on the right path. The fact that we didn't sign Caroll or Chandler isn't going to be the thing that ruins our rebuild.
What's one freaking year. None of these max guys have ever even been to the finals. So just put in work for one year and after that you'll get another max player next to you and you can compete for the title.
Closed door meeting? This isn't the State Department. It's a Media Consumable. The more consumable they make it the more they can charge. Seriously the agents are the guys "leaking" this stuff out. If not them then the GM's If you look at the last 5 or 6 years the unholy alliance of Twitter, Facebook and blogs has had a constant stream of "league sources" and "hearing" comments. Anyone ever kept score of the accuracy? If it's over 10% I'd be surprised. It keep interest high in the offseason. I'm sure they are working on a way to extend the draft to 2 days.
Why do you think John Black was in the Aldridge meeting? Who do you think leaked the story to CBS this morning that "Kobe did very well" in the meeting... Is it a surprise that story 'leaked' before the LA unimpressed headline hit and the kobe backlash started?
Sure but John Black is a Laker mouth piece. If anyone's gonna say positive things about the Lakers it's him. all the stuff coming out has been bashing us.
Ahh..missed your point. Sorry. As for that...agree its all about getting viewership...lakers draws attention...lakers haters draws more attention.. Agree.
i called it everyone was tired, still no excuse but not a lot of good things happen when you're tired
^Pfffftt...maybe Jordan will be so tired that he may sign with us thinking we're that other L.A. team. Yeah...I know. I'm tired too.
Actually I will say this too: the negativity around free agency has been part of why we're all down not necessarily the targets we've missed. If we're not representing ourselves well in these meetings that's really more concerning than the ultimate decisions made. I think it's horse crap that Aldridge's people let their side get so out of hand. That's incredibly unprofessional of them. To Jordan's credit, he and his camp quickly squashed those rumors even if we all know we're not going to sign him. I hope Mitch finds a way to get back at that agent and that group for the way they treated us. If you don't like our offer, just say so privately. No need to hurt our brand and attack us personally. There's still hope to be had for getting a FA. Not everyone has turned us down just yet. There's still a few names that could salvage this free agency period. However I still think that if we fail to add even smaller guys like Monroe and Harris who could go to small markets or even New York over us... it's time for a change up top. Either fire Kupchak and Buss or bring in help that better understands the new generation of player. Preferably both.
It was odd...I saw what looked like the Lakers Delta charter parked by the executive terminal tonight at LAX on my ride home....was thinking 'who did they fly into town.' Still wondering if there is an east coast prospect they flew in for dinner.
I think it's less about understanding this generation of players and more to do with who is alpha dog, what kind of winning team do we have, and what kind of system are we running. I don't think Byron is our guy. He's not an X's and O's guy, he's a leader, a motivator. He's the guy you bring in for youngins to get the best out of them. He's not a Steve Kerr or Pop, or Phil, he's not making minute adjustments to exploit tiny differences in 7-game series to help you win. Byron is the stop-gap between coaches. I said this a couple of years ago - what if this is all a ploy to appease Kobe? If the achilles injury doesn't happen - we go with recruiting FA's and trying to contend no matter what. Hear me out for a second. Now that the Achilles has happened, we sign Kobe to a lucrative contract, he can't say no. We can say we tried to bring in talent year after year - Dwight, Carmelo, LaMarcus, DJ (while secretly tanking and piling up some future assets), and "hey, Kobe we tried. Sorry bud". Kobe finishes up his career while we seemingly get good draft picks, then he comes off the books right when the salary cap spikes dramatically and by then some of our assets might actually be solid players. Meanwhile Byron has one more year(?) left on his contract and we can re-evaluate that whole situation right there. He might be the Mark Jackson - he sets the team up, but falls short of making them true contenders. Then we've got a few assets who a KD or whoever may want to join, and we can also determine what kind of philosophy we want as a team. Again I don't think Byron's a championship coach, and I feel like this was the Lakers "best of both worlds scenarios". We've kept Kobe and tried to build a contender, and if it doesn't happen, let's re-evaluate our situation when we do have the talent to make some moves. Even if it isn't all pre-meditated, I still think the problem is our roster and our basketball philosophy. Byron is too old school, and we need a more modern offense. I think if we had that part of our pitch down, the backlash wouldn't be what it is. Also would help if we stopped talking about hollywood glitz and glamour.
George Karl is about to be available. Jerry Sloan marching and chowder society just started banging their drums...
I'm honestly not broken up over who we didn't land but this is an epic fail by the FO. They clearly don't know WTF is going on with today's talent. I have zero confidence in this group landing a Durant when he's avail. To me, this is more disturbing than anything we've gone through in the last two years.
Bring me your tired, your elderly, your injured... Seems like a perfect fit. Dont we have a minimum salary requirement? Now Im sounding tired...or like Phily GM
