.... still say if we had our full roster, that everyone effing hates, we'd be up in the top 5 waiting to make better deals than were available in the summer. It just needed to be healthy through the top 10. So shoot me.
Actually? Yes, most of us do. And Jeanie to sell controlling shares to the Guggenheim's whom own 27% and whatever AEG has to the Guggenheim's as well. I want the Buss family to be only a memory of their father. I want Klutch the f*** away from this team and I want an ownership group that can run a sports franchise and make it viable. Not some barn yard jerk off Jeanie has turned it into.
Lebron is about to retire anyway, it's not like we are getting 50M to pursue another star caliber player when he does. Frankly right now a 40 year Lebron is still a better player than anyone being discussed on the trade market. Trade AD, be specific and give me some names, that you would take for Anthony Davis. All NBA players that can play both sides of the ball are extremely rare in this League. I'm not in favor of giving one away. Now Rob, I'm not bucking you on that idea at all. He has a rather long rap sheet of questionable decisions under his watch IMO. I don't think this roster is it either. We shall see what he does this season. Jeanie..well...folks were running around protesting, with sell the teams signs a few years back, I recall. Then we went out and won a chip that season. TBD
yeah, and the whole lebron trade stuff is so dumb. they're trying to reframe the story from last year about gs calling us to get him in a trade as if it was a serious venture. "the lakers asked lebron if he'd be interested in a trade to gs" makes it sounds like something happened that did not happen. gs made a (either stupid or disrespectful, imo) call, we told them to f*** all the way off, then we told lebron about it and were like "we were right to tell them that, i assume?" the FA market this summer also pretty much sucks AND we wouldn't have that much to play with if lebron retired anyway. add in that we don't own this year's draft pick, and anything involving immediate blow ups, etc. is just media hot air. the following year, however... i've named some stuff in the past that i'd do, but again, i'm generally of the opinion that you don't move AD unless he wants to be moved. post-lebron, will he want another crack at a ring? if so, i think he'll have value to contenders with a perimeter star in place (okc, i'm looking at you and your glut of young players that you won't be able to afford to pay...). if not, i think it's fine to try to build around him for a short period. will repeat that firing rob without removing jeanie not only will do nothing, it might lead to something worse (even more rambis power, for example). i will also repeat that the mavs had some turbulence after hiring an industry-adjacent guy (nico harrison) and immediately started making very good moves after adding a long-term nba front office guy (dennis lindsey) to the staff. didn't need to fire him, just needed someone else to help and to build relationships, etc. the rambii don't do that. here's toronto: our more extensive list has the buss brothers and a bunch of low-level folks with no real say or power. if you look at most teams, they have two guys--one president or vp of bb ops (rob) and one general manager. we had that structure with magic/rob, but neither had nba front office experience, and it was a total mess. you can have one such guy; you can't have two. did you know dell demps is tim connelly's assistant in minny? btw, dennis lindsey left dallas for detroit last year and now look. she needs to sell. if she's not going to, she needs to fully clean house and bring in some professionals. since neither of those are happening, at least augment the staff with some people who aren't personal contacts.
I don't expect us to blow up the team, but as I've said in a few other posts, I would probably be more okay with that this summer than I have been in the past. It's clear we are just treading water at this point and its honestly causing me to feel a level of apathy toward the team I don't recall ever having. As myself and many others have noted many many times over the years, there's just no real justification for us not having a sound staff top to bottom. There's no salary cap there and some of these positions would not even cost a lot relatively speaking. There are absolutely some execs who would love to come in and be the people who turned the Lakers into the powerhouse we should be. Instead, we continue doing what we have been doing to mediocre results.
I’m just upset at how ineffective Jeanie has been. She has had the opportunity to hire the best basketball minds for the FO, year after year, and instead, she’s stuck with her friends. Just terrible business management skills. She may be a very nice person, but she has no business running the Premier Franchise of the NBA.
While LeBron will never bleed purple and gold like other greats who have played for us, I will always give him credit for being the superstar who was willing to come here and try to turn things around. I wish we’d had more success but the team was literally the worst in Laker history in the seasons before he got here, he got us one ring and we should have at least one more in my opinion if not for injuries. There is no franchise in the league that would not have taken LeBron under the circumstances we were in back then no matter what anyone in the media may say. We had no business being able to get a guy of his caliber and that’s a big part of why other franchises don’t like us.
time for Rob to earn his money Not an easy position to be in nor any easy solutions, but it's why he gets paid the big bucks. Time to channel his inner Kobe and make some magic.
I'm going to take a wait and see approach, on all fronts for this campaign. I just have this feeling, that we are going to pull off a couple of surprises by the deadline. On another topic, possibly related, does anyone know how many FRP Chicago has?
Cupboard isn't exactly well stocked. I was wondering if they had 2-3 FRP, to add to a Lavine and Vucevic, pitch for AD. Guess not.
not that i'm interested, but they have dosunmu, who i think is pretty good (think caruso type) and on a good contract. dalen terry is an interesting prospect, too. but yeah, not the haul you want to move AD. he'd have to demand it, and i'd demand dosunmu, terry, buzelis, and some combination of unprotected swaps and picks.
Not giving AD adequate front court help after two off-seasons of seeing Denver punk us is malpractice on Rob’s part. And I’ve by and large been supportive of most of his moves in his tenure.
yeah, this has annoyed me, too. though the jokic thing may be overblown, as i think a) nobody can do anything with him and b) probably the best individual defense i've seen played on him is by AD and actually lebron. but against most teams, it would be nice to give AD some time off the grind if possible. bugs me that mason plumlee isn't here, for example. i know there are many reasons why that specific thing might not happen, but just the full departure from the formula that won a ring is so weird to me. like...we didn't even make anyone prove it couldn't work again.
i think he may be let go if/when klutch goes. i'm not at all confident we'll upgrade, though. iow, rob is the front office version of dlo.
