No. Butler isn't going anywhere for them and we can't afford that huge new contract he agreed to. Even if that CHI rumor is true we would likely get back either Snell, McDermott, or Gibson.
All I could say is that @therealdeal and others do have a valid point about Mitch's inability to allure top-tier talent. Perhaps we can seek some outside help in that area. BUT he is so freakin lethal at everything else, it kinda seems like nitpicking at this point. Similar to how you'd complain about Shaq's free-throw shooting in his prime. You still have to leave him on the floor because he's so dominant. Mitch is the same way. Other teams are helpless against Mitch's wand. We are going to be the most improved team this year. You can book it.
Yeah I'd say good job until we hammer out the details. If we end up getting Anderson for Lin, I'll call it great. We're not quite done yet. Right now it's good, with room for a lot of improvement. It wasn't a media narrative about the Lakers messing up the pitch. It came either directly from Aldridge or from his agent which is why SO MANY of the media members got a hold of it and took off. Now, it could be that Aldridge is a special case and the pitch was just bad specifically to him, but we're still behind in terms of modern pitching. We need to catch up. I'm not sure that can be debated at this point. Aw shucks! Well you're looking at it from a Laker fan perspective. We're also adding an unproven rookie, a still developing sophomore, and a chucker who Toronto let go of. We're adding a guy who collapsed in the Playoffs. And more unproven rookies who may or my not work out! I'm optimistic that they'll work out, but it was never about the personnel this summer. Not exactly this team, but something LIKE this is pretty much what I was hoping for this summer. This is about as well as could be expected. In the process though a lot of bad stuff came out of the FO. Those things need to be addressed, I'm not sure why that's such a negative point of view. I find that to be fair and quite honestly I don't know why anyone would argue against that. There's things that need to change. Is that so bad? I'm no longer calling for Mitch and Jim's head, I already said that multiple times. I'm calling for change and adjustments and that really needs to happen. I don't disagree with the team! I like the team. I like the roster moves we've made the last 2-3 days. All I'm saying is there needs to be a change in the way we approach star FAs if we ever want one. I don't get why you guys are so against that statement. Just because Mitch is a master trader and role player shuffler, doesn't mean he is beyond reproach and didn't make any mistakes this summer. I am still the resident optimist. I definitely think this team has a shot at the playoffs if the rookies step up and we can get some gel time in there. A lot of our pieces just seem to fit nicely together. Russel/Clarkson and Randle/Hibbert really make a lot of sense. I love that.
It's absolutely not nitpicking, it's just honest criticism. I'm not sure why so many of you guys don't want to hear that he needs to change things up. None of us are taking away from him that he recovered well. If these moves happened two weeks ago before we had all the negative press a team can handle, then I don't think any of us would be upset right now. However, it's been shown that our approach to FAs needs work and we need to be more active with analytics and work more modern techniques into our approach. That's good, constructive criticism.
This offseason acquisitions so far are the result of the past years not going too well. Who did Indiana have as a possible partner to dump Hibbert on? I like the move but this isn't Pau here. The wanted him gone and flexibility in return. Who else can absorb that kind of contact? Williams is a solid pick up but far from a significant building block. We've heard 3 years but we haven't heard if there are team options that reduce it. Bass is another nice pick up but again this isn't a guy who will be here when we are truly relevant again and the terms of his deal I'm sure allow us out at some point. I still think all eyes are on the next star here before we get serious about rebuilding. One of the young guys turn into that and we'll be in a much different situation. I'd love for that to happen but it's seems that the mentality is that building piece by piece isn't preferred. I got no problems with the summer so far. Do I think we're back on the right track? Ask me in December. We will be much more competitive and maybe get 35 wins or so but I don't think we're a playoff team. We've set ourselves up for next summer pretty well and IF we can get one really nice piece in FA and at least one of the youngsters step up we could be well on our way. If all that happens maybe Kobe stays another year.
OK that is a fair point, and I feel the same way. Perhaps they can assemble a team to rectify the issue. It feels like we're arguing over process vs result. You are criticizing the process. I am praising the result. In the end, the objective is to make the team better by any means necessary. And Mitch has done that. We can worry the process again when the opportunity presents itself in 2016. However, we may never have to worry about it if our young core develops into a core similar to GSW, SAS, or OKC. I'd say we sit back and enjoy Mitch's brilliance for time being.
Identifying a weakness is criticism. Identifying a viable way to correct that weakness is good criticism.
Ya think. Jeezus and I thought we lost the option for Bully Ball if needed when they didn't take "shortie" ..... errrr.....Okafor
We got guards out our butt. Russell not true enough FFS? Get one more SF. How bout Justin Anderson thieved from Dallas for Lin and bag of pretzels?
Everybody is misunderstanding what @therealdeal has been saying. He is NOT criticizing Mitch for not getting LMA or DJ. He's criticizing the FO for their PREPARATION and DUE DILIGENCE to PITCH these top tier FAs. Yes, all of those teams that met with both players clearly had better rosters. Yes, we couldn't offer a winning situation right away. However, the fact that we absolutely BOMBED the meetings is what disturbs ppl like myself and realdeal. That should NOT be happening and there's no excuse for it. Changes DO need to be made. Mitch has recovered nicely with Hibbert, Lou and bass, and more could be coming. I love Mitch for that. But that doesn't change the fact that we sucked in our pitch meetings. We gotta change it up. We gotta change this perception that seems to be catching on with all the big name players. Suddenly it's "cool" to NOT sign with big market teams like the Lakers. We can't let this trend continue. And it starts with HOW we are pitching these guys. We gotta go back to the drawing board and do our homework on these guys before you pitch them with TWC execs and AEG peeps. You gotta customize your pitch in the same way you gotta customize a cover letter or resume for a specific company or job. This is pitching 101.
Agreed. My only hope is this team full of solid role players and youngsters can overachieve and make the FA pitching easier.
No we get that. You're not getting that we get that. And the FO gets it too. Otherwise there wouldn't have been reports of them apologizing in their 2nd meeting with LMA. They have learned their lesson and they don't have to hear it from the fans. I feel like it's beating a dead horse at this point.
Is this line of thinking plausible? 1. Aldridge and DJ had their minds 90% made up before July 1st. 2. All other meetings were just ego massages. 3. Lakers are know as ritzy and prestigious, so ego massaging hopes were high. 4. When those expectations weren't met, disappointed egos tend to exaggerate shortcomings unfairly to the media. 5. Future FAs that don't already have their minds 90% made up for elsewhere, only looking for ego massaging, aren't going to be so easily disappointed because the Lakers were already a serious option. 6. Conclusion: there's nothing wrong with Lakers pitch. Aldridge just being a douche.
^All probably true, but the FO still miscalculated on Aldridge... went with the Carmelo pitch on the wrong guy. I think it's okay, they're allowed to miss once in a while.
Tada, are you thinking that the Lakers have already learned their lesson? I guess we will see next summer...or I guess we will see when the Lakers are finally good again and have cap space to get a superstar...at THAT point, we will know if they've truly learned their lesson. No more selling bright lights of LA and entertainment opportunities. Let's sell our basketball brand...because that is what made the lakers so Attractive all these years: their brand of winning championships.
Thumbs up if you feel our team has a chance at the playoffs with the clippers going backwards with no DJ!
At this point, sorry, I am freaking happy that we finally got the word from Aldridge that he wasn't coming, like he knew all along. Who doesn't like the defensive potential of what Mitch has put together better than it would have been had Aldridge signed. And we needed that big time. Aldridge terrible fit with Randle. Hibbert great fit. Hire a freaking FA massaging scout so we know what his favorite color is. Like advance scout for next game. What is this massive overhaul that is needed. Aldridge was not coming. We couldn't not go after him though. The team we put on the floor this year will surely help next year. We had a bunch of rookies and Kobe to sell this year. Surely they will pay more attention to analytics after this media circus over it.
Yes, I think they have. Why would you think otherwise when they apologized to LMA? Although I do think a player like LMA would never come here. There's way too much glamour and distractions for his private personality. And that's why I think Durant is a long shot as well.
