Jesus Christ how the f*** did Kurt f***ing Rambis get this much power. The whole front office is such a cluster f*** I will be genuinely shocked if the AD trade goes through. Wish jim had the charisma of his father cause it seems like he was more competent then his sister. I know moz and deng were really bad. But he drafted Dlo and Randle. And I bet if he was still running the team we would have drafted Tatum or Fox instead of ball...
Dude, are you kidding? This is what it's come to? A Jim Buss renaissance? Jim was completely incompetent. He was the fail upward ne'er-do-well son of the team's owner. I can't even begin to enumerate the ways in which he completely failed at his job and hamstrung our organization for YEARS. I will give credit where credit is due. The Ariza trade and the Shannon/Ammo trades were both pretty savvy. And to the extent the Dwight trade was a no-brainer, he didn't derail it. But GOOD GOD he was terrible.
This. I figured Jeannie could not possibly be worse, but she may be. Comparing the 2 is like choosing between cafes that have a D and an F in the windows.
Reasonable minds can disagree on this, so I'm not going to push back TOO hard on someone who thinks Jeannie is worse. But to me it's apples and oranges. Jeannie is an executive. Her failure is in hiring the wrong people, and listening to the wrong voices. That's the kind of thing that her dad was great at. But it's always easy to Monday morning quarterback those decisions. Did Magic royally blow it as president of basketball operations? Absolutely. But who WOULDN'T have given Magic that job? And are some of us anxious about Pelinka? Yeah, in retrospect, definitely. But it's not some idiotic hire. On the other hand, Jim was supposed to run the show on the basketball side. And he blew it on a near daily basis. He stuck to the same failed strategy year after year of clearing cap space and expecting FAs to flock here based on the allure of Hollywood and the Lakers brand, no matter how many times the strategy failed. He let Dwight walk for nothing, and then made the same mistake with Pau. Meanwhile, his FA signings were abysmal. And that's before you get to Moz/Deng. He also failed to bring the Lakers into the 21st century, and we've had to scramble to catch up to other teams in the analytics department. All of the above came together to cost us Aldridge, and god knows how many other FAs. Remember when we couldn't even get meetings with some of these players any more? Jim's management of the team was atrocious. The fact that Jeannie has failed to right the ship in the interim is it's own species of negligence, but I just don't see it as being worse.
Jim and Mitch could not have possibly gotten Lebron. That wasn't going to happen. They simply could not attract top tier FA's. And they hired bad coaches as well. Mitch did a good job reloading what Jerry West had started here. But once Jim was in charge things went to hell in a hand basket. Jeannie was right to can him. The jury is still out on Jeannie's tenure since then. If we get AD and/or a big FA signing this summer we back in the fold.
By all accounts Jeanie is really good at running the financial side of the Lakers. For instance, that 20 year Time Warner deal that's fattening all NBA team's pockets was created under her watch. She just knows nothing about the basketball side, and because she doesn't have a good knowledge base, she makes poor decisions on who to hire based on loyalty to the organization... What was Jimmy good at again?
When he was hired, I assumed that's what he was. I figured he'd be the face the of the franchise, and the guy in the room who seals the deal with sought-after FAs. Not sure why that couldn't have worked out.
he wasnt good but we never looked this pathetic/dysfunctional under his regime till the moz/deng happened lol
That wasn't due to Jimmy doing anything well. It was due to the remnants of what Jerry did. Since Jerry died the basketball side has steadily and continually gone down hill. But the revenue side has done really well under Jeanie. Again, Jimmy did nothing well. Jeanie at least keeps the team flush financially.
Does Jeanie listen to the Rambises to some extent? No doubt. But I have a suspicion that this picture of them and Kurt especially of late ...... grabbing for as much power as possible in some machiavellian fashion, especially in this thread, is either fictional or way exaggerated and overblown. Either way I personally don't believe the extent to which it's being portrayed.
Any 2 competent people can keep them flush financially, Barns. The Lakers are a cash cow. Jeanie's problem is the people who are around her that she allows to influence her decision making on the basketball side...things can change, though. However, while I think she's more competent than Jim, it isn't by much.
