lol Pacers will build thru the draft coz no agent will bring their clients there unless they overpay...
They have to draft their stars, and the owner was hoping to win a championship before he died. Not gonna happen chief
If the Melo-WB-PG Big 3 does wonder and wins a championship, then he can get over winning and will decide to go home. If it doesn't work say WCSF exit, he'll definitely go home. Eitherway, he's goin home. Anyone who thinks otherwise can take his realistic, more plausible, probable, likely scenario/s somewhere else and not jinx this thread or our hopes of a competitive Lakers team. Damn it. No dominoes if PG isn't heading our way. We'll be stuck with another 5 yr rebuild at best. 5 mediocre years. Sent from my E6533 using Tapatalk
If that’s how George feels, that’s how he feels. Good for him, winning should be above all else, that’s the kind of player I want. Still want him in LA, but if he doesn’t come I’m not gonna get pissed at management or something. The Pacers refused to deal him to us, that’s clear from their actions long after he was traded to OKC, and I for one am glad we didn’t give up Ball or Ingram for him when these other teams aren’t having to give up JACK for stars. ALL that said, it’s media day time in OKC, so I wouldn’t expect him to say anything less, whether he means it or not.
It's notable that he said OKC has done a lot to prove themselves, but that he'd still love to play at home. The door is still open if we're able to sign someone like LeBron or Westbrook. If we give him an equal opportunity to OKC, then wouldn't it stand to reason he'd rather play in LA? Still, we've got so much still to do to prove ourselves.
A lot can and will happen in one season . I didn't think George was a lock to be a Laker before he was traded to OKC and I don't think it's a lost cause after the Melo trade , far from it . I can't stress the importance of our team improvement enough . This is where management has been wrong so far . 35 wins (at least) , BI showing real progress and Lonzo showing he'll be a force in the future need to happen
When you say "This is where management has been wrong so far" what do you mean? We definitely need to show improvement this year and much of that rests on BI and Zo. I'm with you on that being a big factor for us next summer.
That guy is such an idiot. Spacing is not going to be an issue, PG and Melo are both excellent in catch and shoot situations with 42% each in those situations, Abrines is excellent at 41% and Patterson is good too at 37%. Melo's overall 3pt% takes a hit because he sucks at pull-up 3-pointers, guess which shot he won't have to take anymore being a third option. They might have 3-4 guys shooting 37-42% next season. Abrines in particular is a guy who aside from one bad month shot over 42% for the rest of the year. If you want good spacing play Westbrook, Abrines, PG, Melo, Patterson - 4 shooters around Westbrook. Colin said that the rockets will be a better team. What I have real trouble accepting is, the rockets were a historically great offence, they swapped Beverley out for CP3. I fail to see how much better their offence can get but CP3 will not improve their defence which was rubbish last season. When people judge OKC, they judge the way they'll mesh on offence, but fail to talk about their defence. OKC swapped out Oladipo and Gibson from their starting line up for Melo and PG. If anything they will improve defensively. Roberson, PG, Grant, Adams, Patterson and Ferguson are all excellent defenders. They have 5 great wing defenders they can throw at SG's, SF's and PF's in Roberson, Paul George, Patterson, Ferguson and Grant. They can roll out a Westbrook, Roberson, PG, Grant, Patterson lineup and switch everything to get a stop or swap out Grant for Adams for more rim protection. Roberson and Ferguson can take turns defending PG's. Patterson and Adams both have great PnR defence. This team can be deadly on defence and everyone seems to ignore that. There is potential for Westbrook to defend better when he isn't doing everything on offence and Melo is okay as a man defender, but having one poor defender in a 5 man lineup isn't the end of the world. Another arguement is they traded away their depth. They traded Oladipo and Sabonis for PG, they replaced Sabonis with a better player in Patterson. Then they traded Kanter and McDermott for Melo. Chances are Wade signs there and they've replaced McDermott with a better player. If anything they traded 4 players for 3 better ones. If they sign wade their playoff roster will look something like: Westbrook (38) / Wade (10) Roberson (26) / Wade (16) / Abrines (6) PG (38) / Roberson (4) / Abrines (6) Melo (34) / Patterson (14) Adams (36) / Patterson (12) That's a more than solid 8 person rotation. 4 good shooters, 5 positive defenders and a force of nature MVP with Wade as a 6th Man. Felton, Ferguson, Grant & Collison rounding out the bench in case of emergency. The size of their line-up would be: WB 6'3 PG 6'10 Melo 6'8 Adams 6'11 Roberson 6'7 or Patterson 6'8 The rest of the arguement is, players are going to be bored in OKC. Yeah, I'm sure two guys who are desperate to win (Melo and PG) are going to just hate going to the WCF with a stacked squad compared to their squads at Indiana and NY.
I meant the previous one which thought it could sign the best free agents regardless of the team record just because we were the Lakers
I don't think the quote changes anything. Most of us have said from the beginning, that waiting until free agency for George would mean we would really have to prove that the team is a legit one talent wise. I think we said we need the bar for amount of wins to be at about 30, with the young guys like Ingram and Lonzo flashing and developing. You can't tell me that playing for his hometown team with two possible franchise guys being there already and a potential max player partner doesn't give him a chance to win as much as the Melo and Russ thunder does.
Your argument makes a couple leaps in faith: obviously the first is Wade, I'm not so sure he signs there at all and the second is the kid Ferguson. If we're talking about the kid out of the draft, he's done absolutely nothing to inspire any sort of confidence that he's a rotation player in the NBA right now. I'd be surprised if he saw much playing time. I agree that the Thunder will be a good team, but Houston is likely to be better. Better continuity, better coaching, and better role players. Like Harden or not, he's been propped up and he's a legitimate MVP candidate in this NBA. I'm with you that OKC will be a good team and Carmelo to the Thunder is a big threat to our chances for Paul George, but they're still the third best team and they'll still take time to gel. I don't expect them to fire out of the gate on all cylinders. It won't be easy for Carmelo to adjust to the 3rd wheel and it won't be easy for Westbrook to have the ball less now.
You're right it's looking pretty clear wade will sign with the cavs. Which is interesting because their backcourt will have IT, Rose, JR, Korver, Shumpert all looking for mins. Guess the allure of an easy path to the final with his BFF Lebron was the draw. Regardless, it doesn't change too much, you have Felton spotting up 10 mins instead of wade and Grant who is a good defender gets a little bit of that extra time. Westbrook (38) / Felton (10) Roberson (32) / Abrines (16) PG (38) / Roberson (4) / Grant (6) Melo (34) / Patterson (14) Adams (36) / Patterson (12) That's still a great playoff rotation. Regarding Ferguson, he won't have a big role this year at all, playing some small mins in the regular season as a defensive specialist. I've seen him play and he will be a good defender, great defensive instinct, size, lateral quickness and athleticism. However, he is the smallest point in my arguement and if he gets no mins that will have no impact on the results of OKC. I agree the rockets will have continuity and perform well, however, as with all dantoni teams they'll be regular season destroyers and get choked out in the playoffs. They very well may have a better RS record, but come playoff time I expect OKC to be the better team. I feel the difference in OKC's defence to the Rocket's defence will be greater than the distance between the Rocket's offence to OKC's offence. Rockets have CP, Ariza, Tucker and Mbah a Moute as positive defenders with one of the worst defensive coaches in the league. Who probably won't give Moute any burn because he isn't a great shooter. When Dantoni roles out his CP, Harden, Gordon, Ariza, Anderson lineup, OKC will match up really well with them with Westbrook guarding Gordon, Roberson on CP, PG on Harden, Patterson on Ariza/Anderson, Melo on Ariza/Anderson. I think right now OKC and GSW have the most amount of wing defenders they can throw at opposing teams come playoffs. PG, Roberson, Grant, Patterson at the very least and Ferguson if he earns the time, heck Westbrook will even get in on the action not having as much to do on offence. Compared to GSW who have klay, green, durant, iggy and Livingston.
