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2024-25 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Discussion in 'Lakers Discussion' started by TIME, May 22, 2024.

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KareemtheGreat33 - Lakers MVP -

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KareemtheGreat33, Sep 13, 2024

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KareemtheGreat33 - Lakers MVP -

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Let’s go!

KareemtheGreat33, Sep 13, 2024

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KuzmoBall17 - Lakers Starter -

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Who 's that ?
Wikipedia
Christian Junior Koloko (born 20 June 2000) is a Cameroonian professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Lakers ???
basketball -reference

2022-23 22 TOR NBA C 58 games
2023-24 23 Did Not Play (illness—blood clot

KuzmoBall17, Sep 13, 2024

#3923

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He’s been out of the league a season or 2, but he had some tools to play. He’s skinny and light, but long.

I wouldn’t be mad if we gave him a look, but he reminds me of Jaxson Hayes a bit too much and we already have that skill set and body type.

Last edited: Sep 13, 2024

Barnstable, Sep 13, 2024

#3924

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Barnstable, Sep 13, 2024

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KareemtheGreat33 said: ↑

Let’s go!
Click to expand...

LTLakerFan, Sep 13, 2024

#3926
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What do you think Kareem …. another vegetarian? He’s pretty husky.

LTLakerFan, Sep 13, 2024

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Slick2021 - Lakers MVP -

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The end of the Castleton experiment? Blood clot? I'd like to hear more on that subject.

I wonder what AD thinks...that side eye could become a good meme.

https://heavy.com/sports/nba/los-angeles-lakers/anthony-davis-preference/

Slick2021, Sep 14, 2024

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We need size so that’s a plus but the blood clot situation was serious and we have awful luck with health / injury issues.

ElginTheGreat, Sep 14, 2024

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KareemtheGreat33 - Lakers MVP -

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LTLakerFan said: ↑

What do you think Kareem …. another vegetarian? He’s pretty husky.
Click to expand...

probably get cut after the preseason

KareemtheGreat33, Sep 14, 2024

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Barnstable said: ↑

He’s been out of the league a season or 2, but he had some tools to play. He’s skinny and light, but long.

I wouldn’t be mad if we gave him a look, but he reminds me of Jaxson Hayes a bit too much and we already have that skill set and body type.
Click to expand...

He's got a higher ceiling than Hayes. I hope it happens, but we would have to trade someone first if we wanted to sign him.

TIME, Sep 14, 2024

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Well if Castleton can’t outplay/outperform him in camp they can always give the new guy HIS 2-way contract to help while our regular season is going. If there’s any help to be had there. What’s this guy weigh?

LTLakerFan, Sep 14, 2024

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KuzmoBall17 - Lakers Starter -

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He missed 16 months with blood clot.
Koloko did not play in NBA because Raptors described his status having breathing problems ..
It looks like he's following Bosh career he's definitely not Embid jr.

KuzmoBall17, Sep 14, 2024

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Uggghh!

LTLakerFan, Sep 14, 2024

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FrontOfJersey22 - Lakers All Star -

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pika1708 said: ↑

Absolutely. They were the best players on a team full of superstars. They do benefit from tournaments like these that happen in a short period before a rest, like in the bubble. But it was never because of their play in the court that we haven't succeeded, albeit AD's offensive game can fluctuate at times.

I think people, mostly because of media, overrate the results, when a lot of times they are only outliers. I think to analyze the quality of management you should consider the results, but at the same weight of the strategy, context at the time of key decisions, the rationale behind it and the opportunity cost of such decisions.

Like, we lost consecutively to arguably the best team in the league and the best player. Both times by very thin margins. Raptors won a title after a shot bouncing 3 times!! Had it go out, Kawhi ain't that good and Embiid is not a playoff choker.
Narratives change suddenly in the NBA when a lot of times it's just a small detail that defines it. A timely injury, a suspension, a buzzer beater that changes entirely how a team or a player are perceived. I don't buy this polarization and try to look at things at a larger landscape.

I think we have been trying to assemble the best possible team to maximize Bron and AD's window, with the caveat of not breaking the bank.
2021 team was 21-6, had multiple champions in the squad, two 6MOTY and was likely the strongest contender. AD missed half of the games and went down in the playoffs when we were ahead of Phoenix and they had no answer to him.
2022 was filled with terrible decision making, but Bron and AD wanted Russ. Rob wanted Hield (Kuz confirmed he was heading to Sacramento until a last minute change).
2023 and last year we got eliminated (by very thin margins) by the same team, one that exploits our 2 biggest flaws: POA defender and a bruising center.
On the former, Vando was the guy that we expected to cover that but he wasn't healthy. Then we tried to correct with Gabe, but he wasn't healthy too. You can argue it's a bad decision, but with the info available at the time of the signing, it looked like a good one. Schroder didn't want to be a backup, you can't do nothing about it. We did try to fix it, which is good.

Regarding the center, I think it's overblown. I think we need more a backup center (better than Hayes) per se than a bruising big guy to play AD at the 4. AD will play 35+ minutes and most of them as a center, so it doesn't make sense to invest highly in a guy to play 15 minutes. Yes, we need it to beat Denver (like Minny proved) but that's it. We won't use another center to beat any other team in the West or East (except maybe the same Minny team, but you don't NEED it). Plus, not only AD at the 4 pushes Bron at the 3 which is not good as we know, it also means Rui (and Vando's) role are severely diminished, which is not a good use of resources, considering their payroll weight.

In sum, there was little that could have been done better in the last 5 years. Russ cost us 2 years. Sure the use of exceptions in Nunn and Gabe have blown back and letting Caruso go for THT was embarrassing, but at the time we took those decisions, nobody thought it would turn out like this. I don't think we have been missing at clear opportunities to upgrade the roster, when you acknowledge that we don't want to lose key assets for what's ahead

tl;dr: I think results are overrated in analyzing a GM/team job and in the past years the management have been trying to assemble the best team to compete, while prioritizing the future. We haven't been missing in any big swings doing so and we are still paying the Russ disaster
Click to expand...

So, are you happy them with not upgrading a team from last year that just wasn’t good enough?
I’m not.
I wasn’t asking for huge swings- just for our FO to do their job and improve around the margins.
I think not bringing in a serviceable big is going to really cost us- especially now that Wood is out for awhile. Hayes is barely playable, so we have ONE credible big on the team. That’s inexcusable. Better hope and pray that Castleton somehow turns into a real option at the beginning of the season.
This is by far the thinnest squad we’ve had since LeBron joined.
I understand that Rob “tried,” but he failed.

FrontOfJersey22, Sep 14, 2024

#3935
FrontOfJersey22 - Lakers All Star -

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lakerjones said: ↑

I still don't understand why we didn't go after this guy in free agency with Lebron saying he'd give a discount and naming him as one of the players he would do so for.
Click to expand...

Because our CHEAP FO didn’t want to pay him the extra year he got- according to Trevor Lane.

FrontOfJersey22, Sep 14, 2024

#3936
FrontOfJersey22 - Lakers All Star -

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pika1708 said: ↑

Our 2 stars are bottom 10 in the NBA in mid-range.
Will be interesting to follow as JJ is a big analytics fan and understand if we try to cut those shots.
Although from a strategic point of view, AD and Bron are most prolific in the paint, problem is other teams know it too. So they close the paint more when defending, leaving these mid range more open. Also, they need to take some of these shots to make defenders question themselves the next play.

It's a tricky situation and finding the right balance won't be easy, but it's something to follow for sure.
Click to expand...

I’ve always been against the narrative that the mid range game is a waste of shots in today’s NBA.
All of the non-big, dominant scorers throughout NBA history had a solid mid range game. Some of the best bigs, such as Olajuwon and Malone did as well.

FrontOfJersey22, Sep 14, 2024

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FrontOfJersey22 said: ↑

I’ve always been against the narrative that the mid range game is a waste of shots in today’s NBA.
All of the non-big, dominant scorers throughout NBA history had a solid mid range game. Some of the best bigs, such as Olajuwon and Malone did as well.
Click to expand...

Agreed

Teams almost HAVE to have a midrange game in the playoffs since everyone’s taking away 3s and the paint. If you have 3 scoring options, its a lot harder to take away everything.

Barnstable, Sep 14, 2024

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With what roster spot?

edit: oh a 2-way

Weezy, Sep 14, 2024

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LTLakerFan said: ↑

Well if Castleton can’t outplay/outperform him in camp they can always give the new guy HIS 2-way contract to help while our regular season is going. If there’s any help to be had there. What’s this guy weigh?
Click to expand...

When he was drafted and healthy probably around 230 Lb
Maybe he wasn't playing last season because he was part of Siakam trade and not because of blood clots.

KuzmoBall17, Sep 14, 2024

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