Jeanie Buss Discussion: Following In Dad's Footsteps

Fake support for the situation Jay. Sorry I call BS. 2 bedrooms in the same unit makes more sense. Separate condos on separate floors? Pass.

 

f*** the Asstros. This one will never change, ever.

 

Full interview

 

Yeah that sounded like a shot against AD when I think AD had every right to voice concerns about not being put in the same position that previously led to a title.
He was pretty much a model citizen who kept on mentioning that he wanted to bring a parade to LA (no parade due to Covid with the bubble title)

 

Honestly it's hard to play 2 non-shooting bigs in today's game. (in 2020 AD could shoot) As much as I loved AD as a player I always felt uneasy about building a team around him after Lebron retired. His 3pt shot continued to deteriorate (which was puzzling) and his playmaking never improved. Those 2 things are hard to overcome especially when he was basically requesting to fill 2 roster spots with similar weaknesses.

 

AD is not an elite fit for today's NBA .. Perimeter defense is more important and you have to launch a ton of 3s .

Wings are quicker to close to 3 pts shooters and his transition D was horrible .

On the other end , his offensive game AND shots profile weren't good enough to exploit some of the opponent bigs weaknesses like Jokic or Zu .

It's no surprise we blew Denver out and beat the Floppers 3 times in a row without him . They can't defend in space , spread them out ..

 

i disagree here. and i side with AD in that we didn't use him properly for most of his time here. and we never even attempted to build a roster to suit his strengths, imo. felt like it's been about lebron, first and foremost, the whole time. and i'm not saying that's entirely wrong, but you got a glimpse early this year before AD's first injury of what a team could look like that tried to really use his unique talent.

all that said, when AD did the interview, i came out and said he shot himself in the foot. all the center prices went up after he publicly pressured the FO, imo. it also provided this kind of cover for rob and jeanie in the aftermath--"you clearly indicated you weren't happy; we were worried about a future trade demand", etc.

and before kyrie's injury, one could argue that AD was indeed getting what he wanted--he was going to play pf and be paired with an elite scoring guard and some shooters and defenders. we'll probably never see it now, but i think that in theory, he landed on a good team that would have finished near the top of the conference for a couple years.

 

Well yes, he did improve slightly as a passer, but he was never going to relieve enough pressure from Lebron as a playmaker. AR's development made up for what we needed in that department.

As for building a team around AD, I will always build a team around a ceiling raiser like Lebron and not a floor raiser like AD. That's just the proper way to build championship teams, imo.

Ultimately I think the FO was fed up with AD constantly yapping about wanting a center. The problem is, it isn't 2020 anymore and the same roster construction won't work. AD can't shoot 3's anymore, and whether he likes it or not AD is currently a Top 3 center. But the more problematic issue is that Lebron has aged into a Top 3 PF. Adding another big was going to be too taxing on Lebron. Ultimately the Bron/AD dynamic was getting awkward and I feel it has run it's course.

 

I don't think that the Lakers were down on AD for speaking his mind. Everyone was saying it. AD was getting beaten to death here and he wanted some help. F'ing A, he deserved it!! But it was very difficult for us to find that perfect fit without getting ripped off by all the opposing teams. A good trade never materialized. On top of things, AD could not run this team other than vocally. I was worried about him being the focal point of this team post Lebron.

I think this was a one in a million trade opportunity and frankly, even if they had offered Luka to us for Lebron, it would have been really hard to say no. Thank god he is 40 years old. Seeing this trade in action, it is amazing what having so many good ball handlers can do for a team. Truth is, we are a lot better than we were. Surprises the heck out of me. A number of things converged and it is hard to predict outcomes but this matching of Luka with Lebron and Reaves along with a bunch of defensive pieces seems to be a unicorn matching. It is like when Steph and Thompson were at their peak. Unique matching that other teams had a hard time with.

Truth is, the league would have better served themselves to have thrown us a bone on a decent center for AD to stay happy. Honestly, it would have made us competitive, but not as good as we are now. It would have kept us from even being able to sign Luka.

 

Great post ^^^

"But it was very difficult for us to find that perfect fit without getting ripped off by all the opposing teams."

"Truth is, the league would have better served themselves to have thrown us a bone on a decent center for AD to stay happy. Honestly, it would have made us competitive, but not as good as we are now. It would have kept us from even being able to sign Luka."

How ironic. Looking at YOU Danny Ainge and your 2 picks on top of what young talent (certainly Dalton Knecht, with hindsight, would have been included) we were willing to give up for Kessler. So you're the Guy who facilitated another 5-10 years of the Lakers being a premiere destination and one of the TOP teams in the league.

 

I made a longer post somewhere where I outlined some issues on the roster construction between AD and Lebron. Lebron has lost a few steps since 2020 and is at his best defensively at PF these days, he can’t chase hyper athletic wings around the perimeter anymore.

Which meant you needed to find a center that could switch onto the perimeter, rim protect to an elite level so AD could roam as weakside help and shoot the 3 on offense for floor spacing. How many of those guys are there? Myles Turner?

On top of that you probably need a premier POA and a wing defender that can both shoot the three. Something like Christie / DFS / LeBron / AD / Turner - but even then you’re missing more players that can create their own shot so you’ll probably play Reaves at PG and still be cooked by fast guards.

It was just too clunky of a fit with two players that both wanted to play PF. Building around Luka and LeBron is considerably easier. Mainly because offensively you’re kind of sort, just focus on the defensive side of the floor and you’ll be top 10 in both categories.

 

yeah, i imagine some gms are kicking themselves right now. if they had dealt with us in good faith in december, maybe they wouldn't be staring at a decade of luka in la.

yeah, i've been saying that for a long time. i hoped that lebron's better three point shooting would help, but it wasn't enough.

 

I do want to point out that I think AD can be built around successfully and have a Giannis like impact. If Kyrie and Klay were a few injuries younger, that team would be scary dangerous. Kyrie / Christie / Klay / AD / Lively with Dinwiddie, Exum, PJ and Gafford off the bench is deadly.

I always thought KD and AD would have been a perfect fit at the 4/5, give them a solid PG like Jrue holiday and they'd have been perennial contenders. Lots of ways to build around AD, but an old Lebron was just too limited.