I don't understand this leniency with Pimple. Judging him by results is so so wrong, IMO. It's very much AD playing out of his mind, Bron playing through s*** and AR and Rui being awesome. The actual things you can for certain say were actually done by a coach indicate total idiocy. Not starting AR until he had no choice, not playing Rui enough on some trumped up charges, playing 3 midgets, not having any ATOs... not calling timeouts... The list goes on. Bottles the mind.
Reaves & Rui need to stay. Schroder & DLO are maybes. Vando & Max are on cheap contracts already..Everyone else can go.
The last time we over corrected after a disappointing playoffs we ended up with Westbrick and missed the playoffs completely. As annoyed as I am with several players on this team, I think the best course of action is to try and bring as many people back next season and see what a full/proper training camp does. This should go without saying, but hopefully players work on their game this summer. And hopefully Ham learns from these playoffs and is better with his timeouts and rotations next season. That said, I think Troy Brown Jr and Lonnie Walker are gone in favor of more playing time for Max Christie.
We don't really want anyone gone right away. You either have those guys that are "must-keeps", such as Bron, AD, Rui, AR -- productive guys who are dependable in their role (Dennis, Vando), and the rest you likely want to sign to either keep or trade for better fit. I don't see any huge move coming right away. The team is good, with perhaps minor adjustment at the 1 and the backup 5; they need health and training camp, and goal now is WCF at the minimum. The last thing we want? A panic move leading to another Russ signing.
After the exit interview for ham and pelinka ..... LOUDLY TELLS ME WE KEEPING THAT 17 PICK AND GOING THE YOUTH MOVEMENT W A DEEP TEAM and are looking to fill and find some gems with 17 & 47th
We have plenty of options, and pieces to make moves. It depends on who is available, but Russell and Beasley can be flipped for better fits.
I don't know. This is a tough one. And I think the reason Lebron even hinted at retirement is he realizes the limits of this team. We will lose some players, no question. So this was pretty much our best chance. He knows the odds of AD being this healthy again come May or June are pretty slim. We will lose some of the role players who will probably be replaced by lesser players. And there is no reason to think that the Nuggs might not be better next season. This was his shot, unless his foot was really bothering him as much as he says (which I don't believe).
We only need to replace two players, I'm not getting this mass turnover angle at all. We won't be losing any role players of any big significance. There are a lot of good players in the NBA. Guys can be replaced. Nobody has made it to back to back Finals in awhile now. I don't think a master blueprint exists roster wise. Simply get the best players that you can find, to surround your main guys.
Call me crazy but I have this feeling Rob and the talent evaluating faction of the front office are going to explain to Jeanie how unlikely it was to get to this place again with legitimate player / contract assets following the year and a half of Russ hell to the opposite of that by virtue of his contract and his play …. and how vitally important it is if we want another chance at a championship next year and the year after …. to not blow any of them by “cheaping” out on 20-40M bucks or whatever to not eek out every last bit of value we can get out of the players on the roster now. And probably not, BUT she may agree and bite the bullet. Realistically .... not every single player but the most valuable of them salary wise to that end game.
I think Jeannie was all in on spending whatever, when we traded for Westbrook. I don't know why she's still getting the cheap flak.
Pissed me off too highly ^^^^ was because of not spending the extra 20-30M in repeater tax penalty to keep AC after the basketball types in FO chose THT over him in priorty. And I know your take on it that it didn't make sense to you either at the time. We can disagree as to the value of his play if he had still been here, whether it would have equaled that penalty for a team ALL IN for a chip.
They moved on from everybody, that didn't play well in that Phoenix series. Much was made about Lebron and AD wanting Westbrook, but they also wanted Dame or Derozan. Dame contract was just as high as Westbrook's. Derozan was a sign and trade, that would have hard capped the team. The financial situation was going to be about the same in either scenario. Rob simply chose Tucker over Caruso, and would have done it with Dame or Derozan too IMO.
They didn't move on from THT and sorry but that is BS about why they moved on from Caruso IF(??) that's what you're truly saying. You have harped on this failure of any of our "role players" to win that series after AD went down. The other 1/2 of the big 2 that you also have harped on being necessary "playing together" to win anything, and for Russ not to have sucked in his own performance metrics as a Laker.
Talen was in his 2nd year in the league man. What part is BS about Caruso? They chose Tucker. You keep trying to make it about Westbrook for some reason. Like I said Dame or Derozan, they still would have let Alex walk. I'm not following your position here. And No...Dame or Derozan, if AD and Lebron played in 21 games together, we weren't winning jack with them either. The FO wasn't happy with that squad and made a change, it didn't go as planned.
I’d only really like to see us upgrade from DLo, or at least just find a better fit, you can’t disappear to that degree in the playoffs as a Laker and get the money he is expecting. Beasley I’m not sure I’d even move because he’s useful in the regular season, Vando is a fantastic situational player to have at only 4 mil per, and even someone like Troy Brown is only 23 years old, on the minimum you can do a lot worse. I’m not high on Bamba I guess, if he can be moved for a better player that could be worth looking at.
