2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

And absolute a-holes like Dort deliberately targeting them. Where’s a good Kermit Washington punch when it’s richly deserved.

 

JJ says we are trying to figure out our identity. OK coach.

https://lakersnation.com/jj-redick-believes-lakers-are-still-trying-to-figure-out-their-identity/

Lebron says he's going back on ball. Watch out for the upcoming turnover feast between he and Luka

https://lakersnation.com/lakers-news-lebron-james-willing-to-play-more-on-ball/

Rich Paul says the Lakers "culture" needs a refresh.

https://lakersnation.com/rich-paul-critical-of-lakers-culture-compared-to-heat/

 

the paul thing is old and ridiculous. that guy really needs to start avoiding microphones.

and a reporter tried to bait lebron into asking to be back on the ball, and in typical lebron fashion, he sort of demanded it by saying he wasn't demanding it. he needs to stay off the ball, even with reaves out.

jj's been lobbing some shots at the front office, imo. he said we didn't figure out our identity until january last year (my note--when we traded for DFS and jj started playing small and switching everything).

i really think jj wants to revive dantoni ball. probably felt like it almost worked with harden/cp3 + a bunch of 6'8" guys who can defend and finish either lobs or threes. i know he's said he wants a center, but i don't think his heart's in it, lol.

 

Lebron should get a pass on that one - he dodged it and just said whatever the teams is.

Rich Paul just like to create drama - it's interesting that when Lebron left Cleveland with the infamous decision, it was Paul who wrote a conciliatory letter to Gilber the Cavs owner. A lot of folks in Cleveland felt that letter was a big reason the Cavs and Lebron mended fences later on. He seems to have forgotten that and he's more worried about keeping the Klutch rep as an agency that will go do anything for it's clients

JJ seems like Hayes and Ayton a lot this year. This goes against what happened in the Sota series. I think he's frankly conflicted not happy about having his junkyard dog crew but him being JJ Redick once guys who can shoot - JJ plus Vando in one body. Hard ot get those lol

 

JJ is not going to win a power struggle with Rob, he needs to chill on that stuff. At some point, Rob is going to make a public statement about, working with what we have and not making excuses. I have my doubts about JJ as a HC, especially for the Lakers. That being said, Rob hired him, maybe even without Jeanie being a true believer (She was disappointed, that college jackoff turned us down) so he should think about biting the hand that feeds him, his little extension notwithstanding. We could very well end up with a Denver type situation here by the end of the season .

 

i'd have preferred him to say he thinks it's best for him to be off ball (because it is), but he went with the diplomatic "that's the coach's call". i just feel like in the modern nba, players saying things are the coach's call are generally passive aggressive comments, coming from lebron or anyone else. the tone of his response in the video i saw just felt like he was claiming to be uninvolved in these choices. and maybe that's true...but i doubt it.

yeah, i keep forgetting he loved goodwin, too. DFS and goodwin were dogs, and we played better when they were out there. wasn't enough in the playoffs, though. and tbh, jake and smart have both done a lot of the things those guys did.

keep in mind it's just me saying that jj's throwing shade at rob. he may not be.

i just feel like he should be better with the media about some of this. like, we all know we have personnel problems. and you can acknowledge that you haven't figured out how best to deploy the roster we have (which he's basically saying with the identity stuff) and not just beat the effort drum. and that part is real, too--i watched the first half of that detroit game with an eye toward effort, and it wasn't there, almost to a man. but i'll repeat here that if nobody looks interested in getting back on defense, it's the coach's job to make them care. unless the argument is that literally nobody on the roster will do it, which i doubt.

the only solace lately is that other teams are experiencing this malaise as well. gobert went nuclear after the wolves got smashed by the hawks (like we did, probably for similar reasons) last night. everyone top west teams but SA is either 5-5 or 6-4 in their last ten. we're not the only team struggling with consistent effort.

 

Not sure Rob is on better ground than JJ. I think at best both would go. If one survives it might just be JJ given the carousel of coaches we’ve had.

 

Yeah. While the losses are frustrating the only team really playing well remains OLC in my opinion.

There’s still time for us to find our way.

 

Agreed. I was mainly thinking of the West.
Crazy enough, I think we’d perform better against Houston and San Antonio in the playoffs if we are healthy

 

going into the season, i thought the teams clearly better than us were okc, denver, and houston. i thought SA would be on our tier with minny and gs. instead, fvv went down and houston's on our tier, and SA arrived a year earlier than i thought.

so i guess i'm not super surprised with how things are going overall. the quick start gave me some hope we had some weird magic that would upend my expectations. but we don't. we're who we thought we were.

 

It was 4 guys that really changed our post Luka trade identity and they had a nickname Vincent Van Doe + Goodwin. There was a run from mid January to start of March where we went 20-4. We were the hottest team in the NBA.

Gabe was shooting lights out, DFS changed our defensive mindset, Vando was healthy and Goodwin was trying to stick in the league. Those guys brought energy night in and night out, LeBron, Rui, Reaves all fed of that and Luka was decent with his Hayes connection and early standout.

We just kind of ran out of steam though, the intensity wasn’t sustainable for our team. That run coincided with inspired play from those 4 guys, we were routinely getting 25+ points from the bench plus great defense.

 

Spurs are playing well but they just had Wemby go down again.

Detroit has actually had a poor run lately.

Denver is 6-4 in their last 10 (granted with lots of injuries) while Rockets are 5-5 and have gone off the boil.

I would even argue that OKC had a bit of a rough patch, they’ve effectively traded losses and wins since they lost to the Spurs in the cup final.

OKC, Detroit and the Spurs remain the standout teams, but I do think this year is quite open still.

 

We were winning based off two things, being strong in the mid range, shots teams were giving us. And we are remarkably clutch. Both of these things are positives for the playoffs, but not if teams out run us in the first 3 quarters.

I still think with Luka, Reaves, Lebron and Ayton all healthy, we’re a tough out in the playoffs. We’re a good team just not a great one, I was saying that during our winning run too.

 

they're the scariest playoff team, imo--as in i think they have a gear no one's seen and can't match. helps having an all-time great at the peak of his powers, but they've also just whittled away a good team. had their gm not left for minny, they might have been in even better shape, tbh. booth really screwed stuff up in his short tenure, imo. that guy won't work again.

yeah, so was i.