The part where you lay all the blame for the stretch in Lakers history on one person's feet is scapegoating. But its fine. We will quickly see if these guys improve without him. Early returns on Randle, Ingram, Clarkson, etc suggest otherwise.
How am I laying it on one person? It was a collective. Mitch/Jimmy (FO) - gone! D'antoni/Byron (coaches) - gone! Moz (bad K strong-arming cap maneuverability) - gone!...Deng (part of rumored trades) - pending. DLo/Swag (losing stench uncoachable malcontents) - gone!...Randle/Clarkson (part of rumored trades) - pending. Most of our free agents were not retained, while Ennis (a late comer to the losers club) was brought back on. It's the same reason BI and Zu gave a longer leash, cause they were late comers to all the losing. However, if BI regresses from expectations, then he too joins the trade litter. Even my guy Nance can join the heap if he doesn't put in the work along with bringing the right mentality. Bottomline is that a culture change is happening, and for those that are not willing to embrace it...they're gone! DLo obviously wasnt down with the change, so we werent down with him. Nothing in the last couple seasons shows me dudes a winner, so I ain't regretting the move one bit. Those that are...I don't understand your reasoning cause the proof is in the pudding. As one of our leaders and as our floor general, we lost in historic fashion.
Well, to step back a bit, it’s beyond just DLO for me. I’m concerned about how well we’re developing young talent. We’re it just one guy, then fine. Ship him outta here. But when everyone seems to struggle, there is a systemic issue in my opinion. Are we going to just keep getting rid of everyone young guy or is the organization going to really figure out how to get most out of them. Right now it just seems like we pick a fall guy and everything becomes their fault. Right now that guy is Randle IMO. Then it will be Clarkson, then Ingram, etc etc etc. I don’t think just getting rid of the young guy’s especially if we’re not getting back equal talent is ever going to get us back to winning.
I agree with you 100% ETG! The higher ups (Jeanie) had to look in the mirror and do something decisive. IMHO I think she has. Fired her own brother and a 36 year loyal employee (by firing Mitch you can already see that we've caught up with how the free agent game works ie tampering charges). Brought in a state of the art health and practice facility. Brought in 2 Lakers Lifers (Magic and pseudo Kobe via Pelinka, who have been successful in their previous endeavors). Kept Luke, even after an eye-gouging losing season, since they took into account that we got the #2 pick from it and the players like him and we need to show some stability after our years and years of coaching turnover. Hired a new medical and training staff (for proper diet and body composition development). Developed and hired a new analytics dept (which the previous regime largely ignored). We're making moves and she obviously has to keep making them especially when its easy to just be content with all the changes that have already been made. The previous regime did not really pick up DLo and make him strive for anything great (possibly cause Kobe was still there...but still they could have challenged for the next star to emerge where Kobe can hand them the keys). So when Magic is doing it to Zo and BI, I think its absolutely the right thing to do in their development. If it doesn't work out to plan, at least you have upped their trade value. He's upped Randle and challenged Clarkson to become 6th man of the year...again, you have them believe in themselves and at the very least, you up their trade stock. Our previous regime did not do these things in a public setting (maybe privately they did)...but one thing is certain, it did not work with our youth at that time...so anything Magic/Pelinka do that is different from their predecessors is a welcoming sight for me. The FO shouldn't be criticized for doing what they're doing in terms of hyping up its players. Cause the way I look at it, our previous regime did absolutely nothing for young player development and it led to a bad-locker room setting with a whole lot of Ls. If the FO is doing something different, then maybe its that difference that changes the toxic environment that has plagued us for the last several seasons.
We have a lot of options with Julius this year; his agent is the same as Paul George, right? Aaron Mintz? I don't know if he has much trade value, and I'd probably just let him play out the year; and address his situation in the off-season. While I'd think it'd be better off if he came off the bench, I'm willing to see what he and Lopez can do together. I think Lopez will open up the game for everybody else; and I'm hoping Jules can take advantage of an open paint, attack, make smart reads utilizing his passing capability to find open shooters. Hoping for the best w/him.
I think both are fine and I think both sides are just defending themselves. I think there's plenty who still believe in D'Angelo and that's great, but we don't all have to agree. Disagreeing on something doesn't have to mean someone is wrong and someone is right.
No one is laying it on one person. In fact it's been many. Randle and Clarkson are the most recent vets on this team that have shown negative improvement in winning basketball.
Would you like to share his plus/minus this game? Most on the team, yet some people think he's the worst player on the team. Absolutely has shown improvement. Strange how that works. Matter of fact he's one of the only tenured young guys that HAS shown improvement. I think he played both ends really well tonight. Made a 3, made some defensive plays, hopefully he can build on it. INB4 he gets picked apart.
I thought tonight was his best game of the preseason, very nice game. Credit where it’s due, he played well. That means there’s still a chance to pump up that trade value, just have to pit him against the other team’s oldest, slowest players like Randolph, or against their bench guys. :Randallconfused:
his progress is very slow but steady. making more off-ball defensive plays than ever. still has a helluva time finishing in the paint, though. those odd duck hooks are hard to watch.
Maybe that’s how all his post-game interviews go, but he seemed kinda grumpy/short with his answers to Ireland just now. Hope he wasn’t pissed about coming off the bench, because I’d like if he put the team ahead of himself in that regard. Also, does it really matter if he doesn’t start, but he still plays a ton of minutes and finishes the game?
i'm wondering if he'll get a shot to start next to lopez in one preseason game, too. honestly, if it were my team, i'd be starting nance but playing randle more minutes. additionally, he and clarkson seem to have some chemistry--which is important, because clarkson looks like the monstars took his game.
Yes, good point on Clarkson. If we must play Clarkson, at least he and Randle have a feel for eachother’s games by now, and they had some nice plays together. I don’t see Randle having chemistry with anyone in the starting lineup (or Nance wherever he is), but off the bench he seemed to not be in anyone’s way, and just able to play his game out there.
Yeah I actually thought he looked great in that lineup with Kuzma/Clarkson/himself all being dynamic out there. He and Kuzma looked like they had potential to work well together (for similar reasons that Lopez would look good next to Randle too). I saw Randle and Luke butting heads, so I'm assuming Luke is still being hard on him and I'm sure it wasn't easy to hear he was coming off the bench. Still this was absolutely his best game and I'm glad to come in here and see the positivity for him. Not many young men out there are putting up 17/10/3 with 3 steals and a block. He's still going to make some bonehead plays, but he's proven to me that when he's involved, he's going to positively impact a game. On the flip side I keep forgetting Larry Nance is on the team.
Nice rake and take (Doris Burkism) and weak-side block. Even had a trey. Muddled it up with Z-Bo all game even if he got schooled on some instances. If Randle starts, I would believe that Ball will get him involved.
I think, at this point, we need JR to start. Rebounding, unless Kuz plays like 40 minutes too, will be an issue. Luke, should, but won't start: Ball, KCP, Kuz, Randle, Lopez Shooting, defense, rebounding, scoring. But since Magic, as usual, was an idiot and ran his mouth, we are now stuck with BI trying to be Kobe.
