Magic took credit for most of those moves and even justified the Zu trade saying he didn't do anything in the playoffs. He also admitted letting Randle go for nothing because he wanted a two year contract and Magic only wanted to give him one year, plus he didn't like the lack of spacing. Check out the full interview. Magic is a jerk. The only thing he regretted was letting Lopez go. I'm rolling with the snake right now. I want to see what he does without Magic. If he strikes out this summer it'll be a shame. But Magic quit on us and frankly I am thinking we may be better off actually.
The one thing I agreed with Magic about in his god awful interview was there are too many people with a voice in Jeannies war and she needs to sort that out.
It was seriously messed up how in order to defend himself for the terrible Zubac trade, his approach was just to trash Zubac and claim that Lebron and Lonzo were the only reason he was decent. Dude is an upcoming free agent and here Magic is attacking his livelihood just to defend his ego.
I saw all of that LJ, but I don’t believe Magic was making ALL those moves alone, otherwise what was Rob even doing day to day. I believe they worked together, and of course Magic took credit/blame for those moves when he went on tv to defend himself against accusations he didn’t do any real work. At this point it’s he said he said. I have little to no faith in Magic or Rob, but yes, like I said before, this is Rob’s summer to prove himself and build a competent roster around LeBron. It’s entirely possible he does it, and I’m hoping like hell he does, I’d just feel way more confident if we had a GM with experience running things like Griffin for example. We’ve already seen in his short time there how he’s quieted things down for them and has started to make them appear more professional and less of a mess.
Is she even capable of doing that? I think that’s the real problem. Many have pointed out common sense things she needs to do, but the question is whether she has the balls to do it. Doesn’t seem like she does. I just saw that.
Agreed, that was incredibly petty and unnecessary. Zu didn’t have a great playoffs, true, but he barely turned 22, and it was his first time, plus against a team that a bad matchup for him. It isn’t surprising that Magic went there though, as he’s the same guy who took a shot at Russ when we drafted Zo and said something like we now had a “real leader”.
Jeanie needs to call Jerry West. Not to try to get him back, that ship has sailed but to get an unbiased outsiders take on the state of the Lakers. She using Phil somewhat in that capacity but Phil was a terrible FO person with the Knicks. She needs someone who will talk straight and tell her what she really needs to hear. Even though there’s some bad blood between them, Jerry really loves the Lakers and I’m sure he would be willing to do this. Jeanie doesn’t have to do everything Jerry would suggest but needs to be really open and LISTEN. Jeanie then needs to take a long hard look at how she’s running the Lakers and make adjustments. She can’t continue to put her friends in positions they are unqualified to hold. We haven’t made the playoffs for 6 years straight. Something needs to change and that starts at the top.
Well, this will be the first off-season since 2016 where we don't have Magic, so now we can truly judge Rob/Jeanie/whoever by how we construct the roster and who we draft. I just hope they don't try and over-complicate it and make a reach pick at 4th. Keep it simple. Get Garland, Culver or Hunter at 4 and call it a fricking day. Don't try and reach pick someone that was projected to go 8th-14th (Reddish, Bol Bol, Huchimara, etc) because you will get crucified for that pick if it doesn't work out but nobody will bat an eye if you take one of those 3 at the 4th spot.
Livelihood? Dude is still in LA with his new wife sleeping in his own bed with full bird rights still available to him and the cLips. Had we renounced him this summer to make 2m more in space than there goes his player rights with it. Zu's a nice kid, but my goodness is this transaction being made more than it really is. Doc Rivers once started an offensive inept Perk...but chose to bench and DNP Zu when the cLips were getting blasted by the dubs. Their large comebacks and their 2 wins came with Zu on the bench. Doc f***ed up his money, but that's Magic's fault too, right? So Magic messing with his livelihood...HJ, I understand your position bro, but that's a bit too much.
Magic’s Zubac comments were a pretty direct result of the ESPN hit piece acting like we traded Kareem in his prime.
I’m not saying Magic was messing with his livelihood with the trade itself. I’m talking about his interview yesterday. Magic was dismissing the dude’s talents and publicly bashing him for a subpar playoff performance just to defend the trade and himself. You think that’s a good look for Zubac heading into free agency? His former team’s former president saying he was only ever effective because of Lebron and Lonzo. At the end of the day it’s probably not going to be a huge factor when teams decide what kind of offer they want to throw at Zubac, but it could be still be A factor. It was incredibly petty and classless of Magic. I hope you’re just misunderstanding me and not actually defending Magic for what he said.
Right. Don’t forget Rob was the main culprit with the tampering. But I guess the presser is an example of how he keeps managing to win over Jeanie Buss and crew as it seems to be making fans forget and smooth over his role in things.
I don’t recall such a hit piece. But there is a difference between explaining why the trade was blown out of proportion given the logistical unlikelihood of us retaining Zubac, and actually bashing Zubac personally to try to deflect the blame for what regardless of proportion was still a bad move.
Magic is great at being Magic. Anything else, he has been a miserable failure. Sometimes in life, being really good at one thing is enough.
There's way too much smoke to make an accurate assessment of the situation, but what I know for certain is that Magic is a cancer to this franchise. I can't stand self-serving and petty human beings. He could go f*** himself for all I care. I'd like to give Jeanie/Pelinka a fair shake and judge them after the summer.
But unfortunately you didn't stop it long enough, Mag. LA Times Tania and Brad wrote a primer style piece on the Laker heirarchy. It's a must read to at least partially understand where we stand now. Magic is gone...has been gone. It's time to see what we're really dealing with in the new FO. We already somewhat know Rob, and I know enough to personally not expose my back to him, so lets get to know the Rambii.
