I may be wrong... but isn't Mark Madsen just the guy who handles the communication between the analytics crew and coaching staff? Wouldn't it be helpful to have the actual analytics crew or the head of that crew be at the meeting? I don't really have a problem with MM being there, but it just seems like a more natural thing to do. Eh, whatever.
I'm still curious as to how we know if that plan is going to work now? We gave up on 2010, but 2016!? Again, Love didn't come because of UCLA, why will Westbrook and we talk about wanting to go young but get the panties up in a bunch when we talk about Durant. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for Durant, but he's getting older too, so why are we excited for him? I think we need to do trades. Sign some decent people now, have Byron do whatever he has to, to make them good and trade them all between December and February for who we really want. ALSO, sign them for a bit of money and years. If you do it right, maybe you pull a Pau trade and get Cousins without giving up Randle and/or Russell because MONEY!!!!
I think Westbrook coming here is a possibility, because he actually does seem like a big city guy who's business career would benefit from being here, and if the Thunder continue to not win he may want a change of scenery and his own team. That's a long way off though. Durant, I'm not gonna say I don't want him, but I need to see how he recovers from that foot injury first. That's the sort of thing that can linger and derail a career, it's not a little injury you get over and you're done with it. If he ends up like Rose with his knees, only with the foot issue instead, I don't think we even go after him.
I'm somewhat concerned about Durant's foot, but at the same time you have to remember that he's a jumpshooter and he's 6'10 with long arms. He can rely on his shooting and size/length when his athleticism starts to go. Basically what Dirk Nowitski is doing now.
I'm not so much concerned about it hurting Durant's game, because like you say he's so tall and long he can get his shot off any time he wants. My concern would be it keeping him off the floor, missing games, or even further surgeries. If that doesn't happen and the worst thing is that his athleticism goes down a notch, I absolutely go after him with the max offer.
I do hope LMA makes a decision soon, regardless of which team he chooses. If it's us, we need to get a center. If it's not us we need to get a center and hopefully a small forward as well. Oh yeah, and a backup PG wouldn't hurt either.
There's no news that came from the second meeting besides that it was over and Lakers focused on basketball. Either something's cooking, most likely not, or it was a pity meeting.
Let's move on LaMarcus, we need to make deals with other guys. Are you in or out? An LA Legend or an ordinary citizen?
I want to believe the Lakers know his answer already. They need to move on. If they don't know that yet, the FO is worse than I thought.
Taking time to think it over is most likely code for giving someone time to make a move or get commitments discussed in the meetings. SA has not heard from Manu, Phoenix may have moves to make as well. It may be that we asked that he give us a day to get something in place that was discussed. We'll see. I'm still believing that he and Jordan were our FA targets. We may absorb some contracts and sign a vet or two for no longer than a year to fill out the roster again and hope that next year we can get the big one to bite. Seems to have been the plan for a while now.
Waiting for all the articles ripping the Spurs for their "desperate" request of a second meeting with LMA. {sarcasm}
Unfortunately theyre putting all their eggs in one basket They're delirious I thought they'd have a contingency plan but at this point theyre just gonna stay pat and tell kobe we tried. Let him expire after this season and start from scratch next summer What i dont get is why not lock up a younger mid tier fa this season before the cap goes up next season. I can see mid tier free agents easily getting 20 mil to start so locking someone up this year would have been ideal Like i said earlier i hope we dont go out and trade our young players for someone for a quick fix that would be worse
It's amazing how the Suns are in top consideration for the same plan we could have sold LMA. And here we are dead last because Dumb and Dumber go into the meetings talking about money to a millionaire. Unreal.
