I mean every front office have their reasons why their team blows. But that's exactly what I don't care about. If you can deliver results, you're welcome. If not gtfo. There is a huge difference between I deliver and I try to deliver. I want no part of the latter. Put your money where your mouth is. You have extensively told us that you are great. Get the job done. Unfortunately we are so obsessed with stars that we lose sight of BUILDING. We want to go from lottery to contention in one off-season. This ish is destined to fail. In the meantime we are giving away years of rebuilding by giving away assets for free. By giving away Randle and Russell we effectively threw away 2 years of tanking. That's not acceptable anymore. It just isn't. If you want to rationalize why that is... I'm saying I don't even care. The results are garbage and that's what I care about. This illusion of our greatness before the injuries need to stop. We were merely average playing pretty much the softest schedule in the NBA. We were 4th because teams like Houston etc were flat garbage. Things have evened out. And honestly staying healthy is a skill too. When you accumulate glass players, get used to it. I say I don't care. Then go get durable guys. Do what it takes to be successful. Or at the very least... STOP to insult my intelligence by telling me how great your master plan is and how it's unfolding to your full satisfaction because it's not working for me. Every front office has a story to tell. It's the results that separates good management from bad management. If you make solid sound moves and the results are trash, I can give you at least a little benefit of the doubt. If you make garbage moves and the results are garbage, it means that you are garbage. Simple and plain.
And this is my issue. Everyone (well, almost everyone) was scratching their heads with the moves from this summer (Other than LBJ). A lot of us were livid at the Russell trade at that point. You also send mixed messages. They start drafting and talking about guys with high character and high basketball IQs. Then they proceed to sign Beasley, Stephenson, McGee, KCP, and Rondo. Some of those guys are low character, some of those guys are low IQ. Some of those guys are BOTH. When half of this message board would have been able to construct a better roster, and still keep our cap relatively clean, you have to wonder what the heck is going on. Our lineup this season should have been Randle/Lebron/Ingram/Russell/Ball with Kuzma as our sixth man. I get wanting cap flexibility, but having a guy like Randle on a 4/44 contract (ballpark of what he wanted before last season) is AN ASSET. Or having a talented guard like DeAngelo...these make things easier when the big trade comes up. Do you think we couldn't have dropped Mozgov on a moments notice with Russell, Ingram or Kuz? Of course we could have. We dumped him using Russell at a severely deflated value. If we hadn't dumped guys without knowing if the cap space could be used, AD would almost certainly be a Laker right now, if we even wanted him. The team above is probably a 3-4 seed in the West right now. Klutch probably doesn't even try to force a trade here because we aren't in a desperate situation. We are probably letting the above team gel a bit more, get next season under our belt and Deng and Mozgov off our books, then we sign AD in 2020. Instead our front office got antsy and thought Magic's million dollar smile would act as as a magnet for every superstar in the league.
His head being too big to fit through most campus doorways presents an odd problem. Guess there's always the on line courses though.
The media catching on to Magic's incompetence regarding asset management. Dlo, Lou, Randle, Lopez, Zubac.... all for a bag of peanuts... smh I don't even know which is worse anymore. Signing bad contracts (Jim/Mitch) or giving away assets for free (Maginka).
DRuss hadn't blossomed when we let him go. The consensus was that Magic made a good move. As to Randle, I think we were expecting him to command a much larger payday that we couldn't afford. Turns out he's only getting around $10m/year which is a decent bargain. Kuzma is not developing at the rate we hoped he would. He's nice, but not the steal he seemed like at one time. Finally, we just don't have good shooters. Bron is our best 3pt shooter at ~35%. That's not going to get you a Ring. I give Jerry West credit for assembling a young backcourt of SGA and Landry Shamet (acquired from 76ers in Tobias trade) who is popping 42% from 3pt in his rookie season, SGA is 37%. So yeah, I agree that Magic-Rob have not produced. Time to look at hiring talent that can get the job done. Not to harp on what the Clippers have done, but they've hired a number of people that know what they're doing, including Jerry West. EDIT: I will say that Clarkson ain't all that, glad we got rid of him. Nance Jr. is kind of nice, like his effort and energy on the boards and defensive end.
^ the Dlo trade was considered GOOD because we got Brook Lopez in return. We then let him walk for nothing, which makes that trade BAD. The way we handled Randle is just downright horrible. Those 2 transaction alone is worth 2 full years of tanking. Wasted and gone.
We had a restricted Randle, we could have told him to go shopping and then decide to match or not. At the point where we just let him walk, the market was pretty dried up. Hell, you have him sign the qualifying offer so he can become an unrestricted free agent the next year if he still wants out. We let a 7th pick that was easily putting up 18/8 and a damn good fit into our small ball plans walk for nothing. Also our coaching staff were begging to resign BroLo and Randle. BroLo and Randle might have been able to be kept with the money we gave Rondo, Lance and Beasley. They would have provided continuity and level headedness. Inb4 people point out various factors surrounding Randle. Point still stands though, asset management. We’re giving talent away trying to hit these home runs when sometimes hitting singles isn’t so bad.
I think that trade was the final one that either cleared up the full max spot for one player, or cleared the 2 max spots, can’t remember. I didn’t mind it at the time and I still don’t, Clarkson is a really dumb player and I liked Nance but he was a very limited bench player and got hurt a lot. We got a little boost initially from IT last season, we got a good locker room guy in Frye and we got the 1st round pick like you said. That’s one move from the FO I have no issues with at all.
Agree. I liked Nance, but he wasn't going to get much playing time, especially with Lebron and Kuz already here. Clarkson is as dumb as a box of rocks. He is talented, but there are streaky sgs all over the league. Disagree with this. He was the 27th pick and he's starting and averaging almost 19 ppg in his second year. That type of production is usually drafted in the top ten. If Kuz never improves from what he is right now, we still got a fringe starter that can score points in bunches and isn't afraid of the moment (almost to his detriment at times). That's a steal at 27 by any measure.
Kuzma isn't a starter. He's below average on offense and horrendous on defense. He's a good 27th pick, mind you, but I don't see him "developing." He came in with a high floor, and that's about what he is as a player, in my view. He's sixth in Win Shares in that draft class, but 18th in BPM and trending down. Nance is a tough case - as he has problems staying healthy and hasn't earned heavy minutes, in part because of that. If he develops the three he has shown this season, he's obviously a starter. But, again, he can't give you 30 a night for a season. He's actually 5th in Win Shares and third in BPM for that draft class, and his stock is likely to rise or stay the same for his prime years.
Yeah. Ideally Kuz is a sixth man/fringe starter depending on matchups. A great player to have off the bench and can play either forward spot, but for all the people wanting to keep him over Ingram...Ingram still has the potential to live up to his #2 pick status. It's why the Russell dump is so infuriating. Kuz could have been our sixth man with Lonzo/Russell/Ingram as our "small" starters.
What is Russell's improvement most attributed to? -He's just matured as he's 2 years older -Brooklyn coaching has done a much better job than the Lakers of developing his skills -The increased role he gets to play on the Nets gave him the needed experience to develop -He needed a change of scenery from the lights, pressure, and fun of LA -He needed to be humbled by being traded as a salary dump, putting his ego aside to really work on his game and act more professionally I think it's all 5, with the last 2 being necessary and then the first 3 falling into a natural progression.
Some of all of it, I guess. I think he had the talent to do it in LA eventually, but Brooklyn has done an excellent job developing young dudes.
Top to bottom, man; from Marks to Atkinson, to their athletic team. Everything is top notch in Brooklyn...
Or on his youthful indiscretions. He doesn’t get a pass for breaking locker room trust. I don’t see how we could have kept him and less we traded everybody else LOL
