Jeanie Buss interview on the team's future

There you go. I never bought SAS's line about her cleaning house now. She will respect the self-imposed timeline that Jim has given for turning the team around. As head of the ship she needed to re-emphasize that fact both as a motivator and as a warning that the clock is indeed still ticking.

It's not looking great for Jim and perhaps Mitch as well right now. They cannot afford to just skate by this summer again while striking out on free agents. They have to field a competitive team or their tenure is over. If the team is mostly our young core with a couple other second tier agents and makes the playoffs, I'm not sure they don't get another year - at least I think they should if we can at least prove to be competitive. It's not realistic to think we'll be a championship contender next year unless we land Durant, which I wouldn't bet on.

It sure does NOT sound like Jeannie is the one in the FO thinking Byron should get another year. Not that she is saying they should get rid of him, but again, she's saying that she's not getting involved in the basketball decision making side of things. She just wants a more viable, competitive product. That does not sound like she is pushing for him to stay.

In other words, Jim and Mitch have made their beds . . . if they want to succeed and keep their gigs they need to produce starting this summer. That's the same accountability we've all been talking about, so it's nice to hear Jeannie come out and emphasize it.

 

I recommend listening to it! It's long, but it's very, very revealing.

Some things that Amick doesn't go into, but I found incredible:

- Jeanie revealed that she doesn't know much about her players. She repeatedly referred to Larry Nance Jr. as a 2nd round pick and then wasn't even sure how many years he'd been in school. Now, I'm not exactly sure that every owner can give you the personal details/stats on every player BUT it really hammers home the disconnect between her and the basketball side of things. I'm not exactly sure that it's a horrible set up if you have the right basketball minds in place. I don't think a lot of other owners have a super hands-on approach with the basketball aspect. However, how is she going to know what to look for in a replacement for Jim if she knows so little? Something to keep an eye on I guess.

- Jeanie really does a good job of being cognitive of the situation. It's easy to sense her frustration and anger with the situation. I think she's very much looking into moving on from Mitch and Jim. I think Magic's words about a change in the FO were taken directly from Jeanie (who is still close to Magic). No changes might not happen this summer, but if they whiff on FAs (which seems likely) then it's coming like a thunder storm. It seems like she's finally tiring on her father's vision and she's willing and ready to move on it as soon as she feels right with it.

- Mitch and Jim didn't just not pick Phil Jackson, but they have actively kept her out of the loop. She brought up the situation with D'Antoni and D'Antoni was told by Mitch and Jim to stay away from Jeanie for some reason. What the hell is that about? Dr. Buss might not have been incredibly hands on, but he'd absolutely be a part of the conversation. How incredibly strange. No wonder they're such a mess up there. Keeping business and basketball two separate entities is somewhat understandable, but they're still supposed to be symbiotic even synergetic. What kind of weird set-up is this where Mitch and Jim have apparently isolated Jeanie away from all decision making processes? What the heck?

Now the things that Amick DID cover:

- Jeanie seems to have attached Mitch to Jim's timeline. I think it's certainly time to realize Mitch's seat is every bit as hot as Jim's this summer and next.
- I love that she spit in the face of the "Kobe hurts the kids' development". Bull**** argument from Mitch, Jim, and Byron.
- Byron doesn't even go to Jeanie's office? What the **** is up with that? Three conversations since he started?? Dr. Buss wouldn't sit for this **** and neither should she. If he won't go to her office, she should call him there or she should go to his office herself. She needs to be able to have that kind of powerful presence. Byron as of today is 32-107 the last two years. That's unacceptable.
- Even Jeanie didn't seem extremely confident in the Lakers' ability to attract FAs this summer. Not a good sign.

 

Thanks for the recap @therealdeal.

If we need to jetison Mitch to turn this thing around, so be it.

Get Jerry West back here as team President.
Promote Ryan West to GM.
Hire Luke as HC.

 

We could also find a home for Oklahoma's assistant GM who happens to be one of Durant's favorite guys. Might not get us Durant this summer, but would be something to think about anyway.

Teams all over the place are poaching talented basketball minds, but not us.

 

I like this idea, but especially if it doesn't net us Durant I kind of want to give Ryan West a shot at GM.

 

Was I the only one afraid to click on this thread, like to see something cringe-worthy or fear-confirming? Thanks for the recap, real, I'll actually listen to it later, but for now I see good and bad in your recap. Jeannie and Jim seem way too separated from what you said for this to work, which leads me to believe he's gone at some point, because one of them needs to go and she's not firing herself. We've heard they don't work closely together, and we've heard there's a divide there, and she didn't seem to deny any of that, this seems like a house divided. We aren't going anywhere of note if our sibling owners don't get along and don't even talk to eachother. Or if our owner is being kept out of the basketball side for any sneaky reasons on purpose, I don't like the sound of that at all. I don't care if she's not in the basketball side, she needs to be more involved in coaching decisions, because they've been awful, and when the Kobe draw is gone, that's going to start hurting the business side.

 

Oh I wouldn't necessarily hand the GM job over to the guy, but maybe put in a call and see if we can find a home for him.

I just hate seeing other teams piling up great basketball minds in their FO and coaching staffs and we're sitting on our hands.

We've let Quin Snyder and Steve Clifford go as assistant coaches and we didn't even give them an interview for the head coaching position. Why?

 

It's pretty demoralizing to see what Brad Stevens has done with that C bag roster, and see that our talent isn't that much worse.

 

I maintain that our talent top to bottom is much better actually. Outside of Isaiah Thomas, they don't have anyone all that impressive on their team. Evan Turner? Marcus Smart? Kelly Olynyk?

Our roster is not as bad as our record. If Brad Stevens was our coach, we'd be fighting for at least the 9th seed.

 

Maybe top to bottom, but IT has been beasting this year. If we had one player playing like him, we'd have 6-7 more wins just based on that. But 1-12, you're probably right. We are more talented. But in basketball, one player having a fantastic year can do wonders.

 

But 5 players playing on the same page will beat that one player 999/1000 times.

I'd prefer our roster today to their roster today and I think most everybody would agree with that. Outside of Isaiah, they're hot garbage. We might not have an Isaiah, but they don't have anything near a Julius Randle. Jared Sullinger? Whatever Zeller kid is over there? No thanks. I think Tarik Black is probably as effective as any of their big men. I like Jae Crowder, but he's not really a great player.

 

It just occurred to me that maybe she does have a little involvement in the basketball side of things right now. She comes out with this not agreeing that you can't have this season be about Kobe AND the youth, the same exact time it's announced that Russ will start the rest of the season. He starts AND finishes a game for the first time I can remember in a long time, right when she's saying this? Maybe I'm thinking too deep on this, but I don't feel like B0ron made the Russ decision on his own, somebody told him to do it, and that might have come from the top, saying it's time to start playing the #2 overall pick more.

Ramona Shelburne said on The Jump today that Russ messes around in practice and takes trick shots and stuff and that's why B0ron went "tough love" on him, in a tone like she agreed with him doing it. That confused me greatly, because that seems standard for today's players, but she was saying the Lakers wanted him to "earn it" not just be given the start. I don't know if I buy that the "Lakers" wanted that, or B0ron wanted that, and whoever it was in the FO finally said enough, he's our future, start him and play him more. I had hoped that was Mitch, but if it was Jeannie to Mitch to B0ron, that wouldn't be bad IMO.