Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

I'm glad we are not signing these older, injury prone players and stalling the development of our young guys. We don't need another ancient dream team.

 

100% agree

Give the young guys a chance to see what we have in them and for them to get game speed experience

 

lol, yeah, i had a brief fear earlier today that our endgame was finding a way to get both klay and derozan and just thought of the nash/howard and malone/payton situations.

 

Besides we need size, not old tweeners. Klay is close to burnt and DeMar is redundant.

We need to find a legit big man, and a legit point guard.

 

Actually, we have found them and jj might be smart enough to use them. Austin at point with DLO backing him up, unless we trade him. DLO would be good in the playoffs against the backups. Colin will work well with AD. No sense in wasting our assets on old fossils when we have young talent ready to step up. Commit to and develop Colin which includes enduring the growing pains. IMO, it will be worth it.

 

Austin can't handle the ball under pressure. Unless his handles improve signficantly, and even if they do, he's better as a 2 guard.

With Castelton, I just don't see it with him. If he's able to make an impact in the following summer league games and preseason, maybe, but he is a year away from being a year away at best at this point. He doesn't seem to have the motor from what I can see.

 

I'm optimistic about THIS .... of all things. @Slick2021 can be annoying as **** because when you're on the opposite of a debate with him he will not usually even acknowledge, let alone spend time to give any credence to .... say a well thought out counter to his stance with multi points to debunk them one by one. BUT I will be the first to admit, aside from his laughable explanations for why Russell Westbrook did NOT actually suck donkey bleeps as a player for the Lakers .... and the same devil's advocacy for Darwin Ham as a coach for the Lakers ...... the guy makes strong cases for most of his points. I read them, which were counter to my own and like yeah ... OK that does make sense. But my point for optimism in this post is for those few times when he's off the rails on an island him against the known basketball world, for whatever reason ...... we now have THIS from OX that can be used in our frustration. BTW, IMO OX is off the deep end in negativity now but that doesn't diminish THIS weapon he suggested in another thread with regard to Slick:

.... that's "tongue in cheek" for those here not familiar with our very own real "Picasso", the One, the Only on any Lakers fan site .... @sirronstuff


#JustKillin'TimeUntilNextDaltonKnechtSummerLeagueGame

 

I'm a pragmatic optimist. You have what you have once the campaign starts..like em or not.

 

Redick is saying a lot of things that I like so far. Today he talked about how much better our offense was running set plays versus freelance and that we’ll be leaning into organized offense. Love it.

For anyone who followed the set plays vs. freelance breakdowns last season, it was absolutely maddening. We’d get first and second quarters with play calling rates well over 50%, and then it would drop dramatically in the second half and we’d accordingly blow leads. I was highly skeptical of JJ when the rumors first started but I’ve liked what I’ve heard so far.

 

is that undisciplined player leadership, coach leadership and accountability, or both?

because some players do what they want. Allegedly.

 

OK I’ll be the guy to bring this sucker back up to page 1. Seems to me we have a wide open highway for internal improvement, with health, all through the roster aside from AD and LeBron. All the role players. Compared to last season. Plus Dalton Knecht. Except probably regular season DLO who was very good last year, Max Lewis who won’t see minutes and Bronny same except in blowouts. Everyone else yes …. including the coach.

To get us playing well into the season toward hopefully a meaningful deal by the deadline.

 

i saw a picture of christian wood shooting, and i remembered how excited a lot of (non-me) people were last year when he signed. it didn't go well, but it can go better, imo.

everyone harps on us bringing back the same team, but i think just health and proper deployment of guys like gabe, vando, and wood could make it look like we added three competent rotation players. any real growth from max would have a similar effect. not all improvement has to happen from the outside.

 

That’s definitely my thinking. Four competent rotation players with Knecht. He’s definitely going to play. Many lottery level players do it and he’s that level with the NBA ready body, athleticism, added years of maturity at his age and his offensive firepower off the bench. Of course we lost 2 rotation players in Prince and Dinwiddie too but Redick instead of Ham IMO will more than nullify that with what he does with what this roster has.

 

hard to say we lost dinwiddie, as ham barely used him down the stretch. so we sorta never really had him.

i think we'll miss prince (not at 30mpg, of course), but i'm hoping knecht can at least do what he did offensively right out of the box.

i'm hoping redick has ideas for wood, as he just looked lost for most of the year last year.

 

Ding-dong, Pimple is gone.

OTOH...

Horse-shmorse, JJ might be worse...

 

…. fail on horse / worse rhyme

 

agree to disagree

 

Purple colored glasses on with a croakie cinched tight. Best of both worlds season to me with lots I'm genuinely excited about. I love that we get to enjoy in a long line of greatness stretching back to when Elgin and Jerry came west .... the talent and excitement of watching LeBron James and Anthony Davis play basketball for the P&G. I root like hell for them to do well. 2 ELITE players on my team. And don't look now but we have as far as I'm concerned as many or more young "Kids" again (young pre-prime talent) to root for .....with an arguably similar total aggregate repertoire of basketball talent on the squad, as any of the squads during the tank years with any combo of the "Kids" any one non playoff season back then. Without two HOF superstars also and already on the roster to make it all work and compete magnitudes better and with more excitement.



I'm looking forward to, with the goal of the coaching staff stated to be player development, this season for all these guys.

AR
Max
Knect
Hachimura
Hayes
Vincent
Bronny
Vando

And am looking forward to watching

DLO
Castleton's make or break season
Maybe even Koloko
Wood, under Redick, once he's back again, if he gets there.

For sure I am looking for to seeing how Redick does. We may have ourselves a coach for the next decade, Riley style. That wouldn't suck.

Oh almost forgot …. a “good” deal prior to the deadline too. Hopefully.

 

I'm excited about JJ. That's what I'm looking forward to the most this year. And him putting key players in more advantageous situations (AD, AR, Rui).

I'm looking forward to seeing the historical moment of Bron and Bronny. Fact that happens in P&G is really special, if some can put aside their hate for Bron long enough to realize and appreciate that.

I think Bron will be extra motivated with his son in the building. Health permitting, that should be fun.

AD should be setup for more success offensively with JJ. There sheer fact that he notices AD goes half a quarter without touching the ball is a good place to start.