Imo there's more to it than meets the eye on this one. Zu trade stays bad cause that remaining roster spot ain't filled yet. Zu helped us get a few good wins, but dude was playing sparingly while he was here. Even now, cLips are playing him 19mins vs the 16mins he was getting here. Learning a new playbook withstanding, he want from 58% shooting here to 47% with them. Now I'm sure this is me conspiring again, but does Luke like small ball? Let's say his job is on the line and the bosses that never hired him said, look you got playoff Bron activated, Zos hurt so Lavar's currently got a muzzle on him, Kuz and BI are worthy offensive counterparts and even tho dude was in a dark place, we moved Beas cause we your bros and we need the lockerroom to be in your favor. Now what do you need? A small ball stretch center? But what about Moe? Still need more...alright we'll bring you Mus. Anything else? Alright we gotta also bring more shooting in cause everybody and their momma said Bron needs more shooters so we'll bring that in. Listen we wanted to bring you AD, and even though most in the league seem to appreciate our revenue sharing... ...they stay hating when we need to make a deal. So sorry for the trade distractions, but we want to give you every opportunity to show us why you deserve your job. We'll make Bron happy with his shooters. You're happy with your small ball. Trade deadline gone, guys can breath easy...Lavar ain't going to say s*** with his boy in street clothes in the studio laying down tracks...Beas can't call you bruh no more...s***, we'll even hold off on signing Melo...the distractions will hopefully stay to a minimum from here on out...so let's see if you can bring this home for us doing it your way. /Conspiracy theory Btw, BLo was out the game for the better part of the 2nd half cause they needed to adjust to our small ball lineup. Not keeping BLo was a mistake...but then again he did have a career low in minutes played last season at 23mins per. This season with the Bucks...28mins per. Dude can shoot, but can he run? Where do Luke's teams stand in terms of the desire to push PACE?
My tin foil hat figgers BroLo wanted to stay and would give the hometown discount and stay the starting center. Lakers really wanted Javale for all the good reasons he showed us start of the season before getting sick but he would only come here as a starting center.
The last 4 seasons JaVale has avg from 9.5 - 11mins per game. Nothing about him said starting center. His moms was a Spark and he already had 2 titles. I think LA was a bucketlist signing and for him to open up more opportunities post-basketball career. I really believe that Jules/small ball was the play with Javele & Zu providing the more traditional center for matchup scenarios. BLo gave Bron spacing with his shooting, but not the PACE that we wanted to run with. So BLo went for the same bag, but a starting gig in Milwaukee. I'm not saying it was the smart play, but Luke & his assistants clearly prefer small ball & pushing PACE (no different than his Kerr/dubs upbringing). It went sideways cause of Mintz and for nearly most of the summer all our signings went towards wings and and guards. Everybody here was like is McGee really going to be our starting center? We opened the season hemorrhaging points...Magic admonished Luke for our defensive effort...Bron made a call to JJ to gift us TyChandler. We were doing okay for a bit then McGee went down (an asthmatic with a respiratory infection is going to take longer to recover) along with a plethora of injuries and then the losing and then the FO giving into getting more shooters and going small ball again to see if Luke's approach would work. Losses to tanking ATL, Grizz and Pels followed and here we are. That's my tinfoil and I'm sticking to it.
Well if it was, and it should have been .... how freaking good would we look right now .... they should have acted like they had it mind for as long as you're suggesting here. That's the main crux of a lot of us Jules coulda been treated better types. They should have had a good dialogue all along and thrown him the nice props as well along with the other young guns. Why would you not do that with a player you had that big of plans for. I mean what if we had just kept Jules and Brook and still brought in JaVale. And really had Luke and Magic sell them on the whole team thing regarding starting and minutes and all for one ...one for all stuff. We'd be dominating teams. Beat you silly every which way but loose.
I know this is a constant retread here but we said all the right things (see quotes below) and did the right things (make trades to create cap for a near max in Bron - shave about 2m off the top - and both Mintz clients with Paula on a 2m shaved near max deal & Jules's caphold by extending a qualifying offer....all of that was in place, but it didn't matter for whatever reason. Not to mention Jules himself said he would like to play and learn from Bron if he was to come to LA. But fans are going to believe what they want to believe. Unlike the other side, I'm providing material that says otherwise. Paula/Mintz said she was hellbent on coming home...then didn't. Jules said he wanted to play/learn from Bron...then didn't. Jules/Mintz said they wanted a different role and commitment and that is why they left LA. They then picked Nawlins where they expected to get those things...then didn't. Apparently I got my definitions f***ed up but if that isn't hypocrisy, what is?
You make great arguments for that case and it has to be a huge pain to have to keep posting the relevant and good quotes. Maybe it's just a problem of perception more during last season whenever the FO would throw some shine on BI, Lonzo and Kuz they rarely if ever would mention him. If fact if they were smart if one of our prime targets does not sign .... pry Julius out of NO to come back. He has an opt out right? For something less than what we have saved for the big fishes, keep the kids for one more evaluation season and then bring AD in as a free agent. I would be hella more thrilled to bring JR back than signing someone like Middleton for a lot more. Julius gets better every year and he's still 2 or 3 from his prime.
What if Rob and Magic’s master plan was to show the world that Kobe was better? Some things would make more sense...
Remember the ol good days... Magic changing mind weekly... He seems to be a Lakersball member. Russell was going to be a superstar until he wasn't. Ingram was untouchable until he wasn't. Ball was going to have his jersey retired until Magic had a change of heart. He was not going to throw the kitchen sink for a player... until he was. He thought Luke was great until he wasn't. He thought Beasley can help us until he couldn't. He thought Thomas Bryant sucks. So he waived him to trade Zubac for Muscala. He also thought Clarkson was a great defender (said in an interview) .. LOL. There you can see the pattern of a clueless guy who makes decisions based on his daily emotions rather than knowledge. Good managements don't flip flop constantly and don't comment black or white to look like a fool...
This wasn’t a great roster but it was good enough to make the playoffs. We win these games against awful teams and we are currently in 7th or 8th place. I put most of the blame on the guys with the clipboards.
So good management is who exactly? I'm assuming Spurs are good in your book, right? Pop said stuff about Finals MVP Kawhi when he helped the Spurs to a title...then it went sideways and what he say then? You gonna criticize Magic for trading a potential superstar in DLo with some serious leadership issues in his record for the space necessary in bringing in a legit superstar in Bron? Is Ingram still here? Does the untouchable tag improve player value or not? Would he be untouchable for Beal (like some of y'all wanted here) or AD/Kawhi? I recall folks here saying how Magic would shatter BI's confidence by challenging him to 20pts per. Forget that BI was actually a killer and up to the challenge...shame on you Magic for having high expectations and challenging your players to achieve greatness. And for the record DLo ain't on Kawhi's level (leadership, player talent or otherwise) and I'm ashamed for using that as an example for management flip flopping. But hey, one bad take deserves another.
I see Princess and you are right with it completely. But Kawhi left the Spurs by demanding a trade. There was some bad blood and Pop actually did make a mistake. Although Pop is a coach. Do you ever hear Buford? I don't even know who owns the Spurs. They are so invisible in the media. They sign a few d league scrubs every year that end up being real NBA guys. Who knew Danny Green, Kyle Anderson, Patty Mills, Bryn Forbes etc. before they popped in San Antonio? They are patient, give these guys a long time to develop. They aren't constantly seeking attention in the media like Magic. I think Magic is terrible. He still has time to prove me wrong and I hope so. But nothing justifies the mess that we are right now.
And what mess is that your highness? Maybe coming off that stool will give you better perspective. We got a max slot this summer with no MozDeng as an impedence. We got LABron freaking James more than willing to recruit. We got a 26 year old arcade stat having monster angling to partner up with LABron here. What we did to get "in this mess" was clean up the s*** from the last regime. Sir KB of House Mamba, you bore me..Now leave me to my beauty sleep...and unless you're Prince Max, don't wake me till the summer.
Magic was my favorite player of all-time, and I honestly think he is in the GOAT conversation with MJ and Kareem. But so far he's been a bit of a failure. Yes, he got Mozdeng off the books for the most part, but it cost us an all-star. Yes, he signed Lebron. But insiders were saying that was a done deal over a year earlier. Jeff Katz got into a fight with Brian Windhorst on ESPN radio about it essentially saying he's 110% sure it's done. Katz knew this because he had deep ties in the movie industry. As long as we had someone competent in the role (not Mitch/Jim) Lebron was coming. We have AD angling to come here, but he's not here yet. We had George and Kawhi angling too, but they ain't here right now. If he gets AD, then the narrative changes. But to call Magic a success because a player on another team with over a year left on his contract wants to play here is stretching. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. No one can come to a final verdict on Magic as of yet, but he did construct a team that had the greatest player in the world and a slew of young talent this season that won't make the playoffs. We can say we had some injuries, but every team deals with injuries. We can say the trade deadline drama hurt the team, but the guys being mentioned in the trade have actually played better than before all the drama started. So far he's been a failure. It doesn't matter if he signs Lebron if he can't construct a team around him that can make the playoffs, let alone win a championship. He may not end up a failure if he can pull off a trade that lands us AD and we keep Ingram in the process. We might also get lucky and win the draft lottery and flip the #1 pick with Kuzma and Hart and keep Lonzo along with Ingram, Lebron and AD. But as of right now (not set in stone, but as of this moment), Magic is failing.
SG, that's pretty much my feelings. Yes he signed LeBron who was supposed to come a long time. Vegas had us at LOCK levels to sign LeBron and they have their ears everywhere, thats for sure. LeBron brought a second house in LA and started renovating it before Christmas. Payton was on TV as he said his son had committed to the school. His wife was rumored to strongly prefer LA to every other destination too. Was Magic a reason for LeBron to come? Yes. Was Magic THE reason? Probably not. But for the sake of the discussion let's say he was. But what's the frickin point if you can't even make the f'n postseason with him on your team? We might not even be better than we were without him, insanity. Getting rid of Mozdeng was good but there was a good chance that other GMs would do too by attaching Russell to it. Also you are not judged by the moves you make. Who cares? You are judged by the results that your moves bring and regardless of what the future holds... This season is a major fail. With that said... If he trades Lonzo, Kuzma, Ingram, Hart and 2 firsts for AD, what is so sensational about it? The old regime got us the cash, now Magic gets to spend it... What exactly is so special about it? Also even with Bron and AD, you still need a good roster around them IMMIDIATELY. LeBrons window is probably closed in 18 months... No room to sacrifice another year. Do I trust Maginka to come through? Honestly, no. Haven't shown any fine tuning ability. Tried to be smart and got punched in the mouth.
