I'm just gonna read Cookie's posts from here on out. It's like she downloaded all my thoughts and typed it on here.
As is, we're a play-in team. We're also one month long injury to one of our starters, to be out of the PO picture for good. I wish i could be optimistic about this sorry a** put together team. Pelinka either pulls some miracle out of his a** or he can't go kick rocks fast enough.
Bro, not only that, I thought the report(s) stated that adding Vincent and Vando would be our key FA additions because they were out most of all last season & the thought was having those players HEALTHY all season would help our team. I'm wondering if the Lakers knew Vando was still hurt when that report went out and they tried to sell us that narrative because of the disaster that this summer has been; irrespective if you want to put lipstick on a pig and excuse Rob and his incompetence this summer, go right ahead. He's been awful, but it all goes back to that Westbrook deal. However, he wasn't the only one who participated in that trade debacle. He did get out of it with a good trade and we had a run to the Western Conference PO's, but now two players included in the deal are issues, IMO. Russell is rumored to be moved & Vando is always hurt. Don't even get me started at the center position. I haven't been posting because I'm just not interested in hearing the excuses until the roster is fixed. Rob has up until the trade deadline to figure it out. We'll see.
Yes because nobody knew for sure if the Russ experiment would work or fail. Many of us didn’t think so, but at least we could talk ourselves into it, with a tiny sliver of false hope. This summer, we lost TWO decent role players off the bench and replaced them with Bronny and Knecht4(I like the kid, but gambling on him being a dependable piece, day one,is not a bet I would take). Don’t even get me started on the much needed gaping hole at Center. I guess we are fine with not giving AD what he wants so he grows increasingly more frustrated with our FO. We all saw how that turned out for the Pelicans.
Oh you know where I’m at with Rob. I said awhile back I wouldn’t be upset to lose a single person in the front office and that still stands. I haven’t been that vocal in my criticisms because I honestly just don’t think we’re very well run from top to bottom so I can’t keep having high expectations. I always hope for the best and want the team to succeed but it seemed pretty clear early on that we weren’t going to get much done. Granted, I didn’t think we’d do nothing, but I can’t say I’m surprised we didn’t. We’ve gone into the season with clear roster issues multiple times now so it’s just kind of the reality of how the franchise operates. I would have liked us to give our rookie coach a complete roster from the jump but it feels like we’re going to do the same thing we did with Ham. We’re going to again be hoping we don’t dig a hole too big to claw out of and that we can make a deal during the season. We’ve managed to claw our way to the playoffs twice this way so maybe we do it again. We will see. I’m over the debates at least for now. We look very much like a play in team and we have a complete unknown as our new coach. My expectations are low. I don’t care about being wrong on the internet though. These guys can feel free to overachieve and I’ll be happy. I just don’t see it. Feels like we’re worse than last year but I have to assume JJ will at least play his best guys so maybe we do a little better. yeah. I don’t know. We will see.
In all the years I've been following the Lakers on line (the year Kwame Brown came) I have never seen a Media day and first day of practice following that, going on with next to no activity (interest?) .... well at least here on LB.
You’re killing it, though, LT! I agree that it’s weirdly quiet. not just here, either—not a lot of league buzz despite some buzz worthy quotes etc.
It's the same team so not a lot to talk. I think when the first preseason games start we will have more traction. We play Friday
There’s very little to care about. Even LeBron said his focus is on like enjoying his last time in the NBA, no mention of trying to win a championship at all. The FO is content to sell tickets off of he and AD while moving on to develop the “youth” on this team, so it’s very hard to care too much for me. That and Cranjis was on Irwin’s pod yesterday and basically said our coaching staff is like the C-G list of staff that nobody else wanted and had all been fired from their jobs, they were available, we poached no coaches we wanted, no coaches wanted to come here because we don’t pay as much as other teams yet they coaches still have to pay for the cost of living here. He said Brooks had responsibilities slowly taken away from him and was eventually fired, Nate I’d rigid in his ways and was like bottom 5 in defending such and such, and the G-League coach was passed over by her own franchise when they had 3 openings to fill there. It really puts a damper for me on things, like all is not rosy in Lakerland, we’re falling behind the times. Another point brought up is we haven’t really had anyone on the roster from like euro leagues in a long time, because we don’t seem to have many scouts for that sort of stuff. Makes me feel like we are losing touch, falling behind the pace of the league and relying on the Laker name and aura too much. They mentioned how we act like we have the luxury of the next star always around the corner, like we can take LeBron and AD for granted, it’s a very spoiled attitude. When in reality we could never manage to get a star to join Kobe here, and had LeBron not signed we were screwed. This is a play-in team as is if healthy. If not we probably miss that too, we’re a lottery team. Teams like Memphis that were out of the picture last year got better, Phoenix looks better as well, just to name a couple. Not sure what there is to get excited about other than seeing how our young guys develop and watching LeBron’s final games.
I agree. I don't remember the last time I cared less about a Lakers team going into the season. I'm rooting for Rob to pull off a trade by the deadline that impacts the roster, but as is, I can't get excited.
What Euro league players have we missed out? This is really nitpicking lol Micic was amazing in Europe and couldn't crack the rotation in OKC. Vezenkov didn't crack the rotation in Sac. I don't get that one We are clearly in a limbo between competing with Bron/AD and preparing for the future post Bron. Yes, we are not top of the class, but we have a punchers' chance with this group while still being able to continue competing after Bron. You can disagree with that approach but there's good arguments each side. The alternative is to go all-in with this group, but whatever trade(s) we can do with both our picks and tradable players still don't put us in the top of the West imo. So between what we have and going all-in for a slightly better chance to win, with the price being sucking for the upcoming 5 to 7 years at least, I prefer this approach. Something people don't talk about as they should is that if we do make a trade with all our assets and get for example Grant, we're still an injury away from Bron or AD to be as bad as we are if we have such injury with this group. And considering the high probability of them not being fully healthy, that itself should refrain us from doing such a move. Clippers got worse, Denver got worse. Minny got worse. West is open and not much changed imo. We were 23-10 with this starting lineup. We got 47 wins with an awful coach. We were 5 wins away of the 4th seed. If you watched the games, Ham's decisions contributed for at least as many losses so with a better coach, which is the expectation, we may finish higher in the standings. If Bron or AD get a lengthy injury, yeah we probably miss the playoffs. But that's true with or without any possible trade we can do, so it's a moo point.
my wmc is just that we already have two injuries and camp has barely started. historically, we randomly lose a guy during preseason/camp for the year, so i'm worried we'll be down three guys before things even get started.
I don't understand the point of all of this; sounds like this is better off in the optimism thread. lol
Yeah. Always pulling for the team, but as I said a few weeks back, I've reached acceptance about what we've got on the floor and in the front office. Still rooting for these guys to be successful though.
Be careful what you say - you might be an essay in reply to you. ROFL. I'll be invested until the trade deadline. If nothing happens, I'll way less invested.
Yeah, it's tough enough staying up late here on the east coast. Team will again have to earn me going to work sleepy. lol
