again, i felt like AD's comments threw vogel under the bus a bit, and that might be part of the fuel for that particular fire today. i think it's generally frustrating that we've needed another big wing (besides lebron) for two years, and all we did was trade our only version of one (kuzma) without replacing him. i get that ariza was meant as kuz's replacement, but we still needed another one. also eagle.
The front office really needs THT and Nunn to produce when they return or this move is going to haunt them for a long time.
Aaaand I’m pissed again I don’t think, if you’re looking for stats, any Laker lineups measured higher in like whatever positive you want to find, than ANY featuring LeBron, AD, and Caruso.
I don't know if this has been discussed or not yet in this thread (or AC's thread, sorry mods), but seems like the Caruso deal was contingent on length as well. He wanted long term security as well as the dollar amount, which the FO didn't want to provide. The FO basically wanted a clean salary cap with basically only AD and THT's player option after LBJ and RW contracts expire. They would've had to pay an extra $25 million in luxury tax for that 8.6 million salary he's on. With his salary (even just on the two years they wanted) and luxury tax combined, we probably would've been paying him more than the Bulls are. Anyways, still gives the look of cheaping out.
we'll never get a full accounting from our side, but it's quite clear they thought he wasn't worth the money. to be fair to management, caruso just revealed that basically nobody would offer the full mle (bulls were quite close, though, right?). as we're seeing, we and other teams were wrong. so many teams could have used him as their third guard, tbh. i'd like to know when we had a line on nunn--was that a scramble save or something that greased the wheels of caruso's exit? in either case, nunn being a vital contributor is kind of important here. if he is, i guess it's not a huge deal. if he's not, his money should be in caruso's pocket, and we weakened our team over a few million bucks among billionaires. edit: two more things: both sides are telling lies of omission to look good. rob said they pursued him and offered a deal. true. but it was low. caruso said he'd take less, but he was talking total money, not annual salary. word (that i believe) was that he offered to take 3/30 from the lakers, which was a higher annual salary. i also think it's possible that the "less than 2/15" statement meant less annual salary than that, but not necessarily less than 2/15. like, maybe they offered 3/18 or something. still bad, but i find it hard to believe they offered him the mini mle or something. though who knows because... i feel like we have to be clear that our current tax bill includes nunn, so this is an overestimate. had we kept caruso, we wouldn't have signed nunn. so it's really the 3.5 million difference in their salaries that matters here, not caruso's full 8.5.
I haven’t watched the video. I don’t want to get pissed again. Might as well wait till after we lose to MIA tonight. That way I’m already mad and I can just add to it.
They (the FO) do - and they (THT & Nunn) probably will. Fortunately we found Reaves, so it hurts a bit less.
They tried to sell him on money he wouldn’t actually be receiving being more important than money he would
It’s a tough one. You hate to see us lose AC Fresh for nothing as we did. But the tax ramification was tough. They felt they had to choose between AC and THT and they went with youth with the higher ceiling. That part was smart. We still haven’t seen Nunn in action. Between Nunn at 5 per year and Reaves at whatever little money he is making they may combine to be a suitable replacement for what AC brought, although no one replaces AC’s heart!
Bump! Oh no Rob… you’re not hiding on page 2 of the discussion boards. YOU ultimately signed off on this crap wingless roster. I’m not letting you off the hook that easy
Its time for Pelinka to be on the hot seat but trust me, the Lakers will never fire Kobe's agent. He is here to stay and his stupid roster construction is an issue. He never played in the NBA so there is a good chance he simply doesn't have the acumen to make the right judgement. Bob Myers gets it right though...
Eh. Jeannie canned her brother. I think she is capable of getting rid of Rob. Problem is that we will just end up with Rambis running the team. it also wouldn’t address the star driven mindset of the franchise. A pretty vocal contingent of fans wanted guys like Joe Ingles, Harrison Barnes, etc. The Westbrook trade came out of nowhere IMO. But it is absolutely the kind of deal our team would do because he was the biggest name. It’s the franchise’s mindset IMO and Rob is in line with that.
