All the anti-LA talk is irritating, but at the end of the day if we pull out a Harris signing and are able to grab a big in FA or via trade then we had ourselves a very solid offseason.
I don't think there is a realistic chance that Durant leaves OKC. OKC will be loaded with talents. I see them as 1st tier contending team along with GS and SA. Only team that he might think of leaving to is Washington.
So the FO had a year to prepare to make a case for a free agent and couldn't land one. Not even a B+ level FA to join our great franchise. Aside from looking totally incompetent to the current high caliber players out there (who are all private businessmen building their brands and have all seen Shark Tank and know what a compelling business case looks like), how much confidence could our rookies have in their leadership? All these mixed messages about family, while trying unsuccessfully to package players for trades and giving Kobe that contract for three season ending injuries. All the crap about fans being inpatient so need to win sooner rather than later without mortgaging our future. Failing to trade, failing to sign, going all in on guys that we have no realistic chance to land while others get picked up. The Lakers have publicly tanked in such a way.
Pretty much what I expected: Everyone's source on the Lakers' offer right now is Monroe's agent. Whichever LA writer that said we DIDN'T offer max is getting his info from the Lakers. Who do you believe? I believe the Lakers talked about the max, but they may not have given the actual offer, just said "we want to talk about a max level contract for you when we're done chasing the big names." Maybe that's not how they worded it, but it's essentially the same thing.
I posted it earlier that his decision was probably easy. NY - Bottom of the east with no signs of rebuild. LA - Rebuilding team in competitive west. (Originally thought they didn't offer max). MIL - Playoff team in the east with great young core of Parker, Greek Freak, and Middleton.
Koufos is quickly becoming my main target here. A chance to start and a good salary and I think we'd be able to get him. He's only 25 and his per-game numbers aren't anything special, but his per-36 numbers are great and he's always looked decent when asked to play heavier minutes.
Holy crap I just realized something. The Knicks haven't been relative for years but for some reason they think they have a shot at everyone.....is that what we sound like?? Lol
Sure we're probably a year or two behind Milwaukee in the player personnel department, but we're the motherf***ing Lakers and we can't convince a guy to sign here over Milwaukee? Yikes. I don't care if the kid thought he could make the playoffs his whole career in Milwaukee, they aren't winning anything any time soon. Neither are we, but they trusted Milwaukee to come closer than us over the life of a 3+1 year contract. That's not a good sign.
Wouldn't be a bad signing. Where is the KJ Mcdaniels love from the Lakers. Him and Koufus would actually be a decent offseason with what we had to offer.
Ultimately, I can only hope that some good will come out of all of this. I think we would have still missed the playoffs even with Aldridge, but it doesn't lessen the sting of him being completely uninterested in what we had to say. Worse was losing Monroe to the Bucks which should be a big wake up call to the front office. They have to step it up in all areas. Analytics and how to run a good presentation should be at the top of that list. At the very least stop with the desperate hashtag campaigns. There seem to be too many chefs in the kitchen. The outside guys like Time Warner need to but out and let the basketball people do their thing. I can't imagine them selling the team, but I do think Jim and Mitch's days are very much numbered.
Yeah, I mentioned him before free agency. Hey, is there any way of getting an updated list of free agents and putting it on the first page?
The basketball side will always suffer in presentations as long as Byron is the coach. What will allow us to alleviate that potential complication in future meetings is a more talented roster. Nevertheless, Byron is very weak in this area. That won't change until he's gone...
