2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Rewatch the game please.

Deandre Ayton was owning Domantis Sabonis. I heard wincing from Sabonis. Ayton screaming. Getting rebounds. Controlling the paint. Looking big out there.

What I really paid attention to was Aytons intensity. You can’t teach or coach preseason compare it to scrimmage and regular season. You have to see it.

Ayton looks so dialed in. He looks intense. Great to see. Playing with that fire. He can get a comeback player of the year award and defensive player of the year award.

He really looked athletic in that Kings game. And I was thinking wow we got that from a buyout.

 

If Ant has any other injuries the rest of the season, I concur. Even if he's healthy they're not in an ideal spot. It's early but Conley looks 100 years old out there and the wings they have stepping up to replace NAW do not look like NBA level players. Gobert is one of the biggest frauds in the NBA.

 

Wemby has the DPOY in the bag every year he is healthy. Ayton isn’t even close.

 

Okay man, but you have to admit there’s levels to this, right?
When people make comps in basketball, they try and come close.
I don’t, and nobody else, thinks that Shaq would ever be a comp to what Ayton has done throughout his entire career. I mean, he’s not even a poor man’s David Robinson yet.
Yea, I’ve seen “Inside” hundreds of times since its inception.
20 and 10 is very nice, but Shaq had entire defenses schemed to stop him and would often go up with two defenders draped all over him and jam it home.
My point is numbers will never tell the entire story.
Ayton is a complimentary piece and Shaq, when I’m shape, was the focal point of an entire offense until Kobe started to draw just as much attention.

 

I agree. Gobert winning all of those “DPOY” awards just goes to show that award is just as much of a sham as the MVP one.
We all know that AD, in his prime, was literally guarding positions 2-5 and sometimes even PGs. He was the most amazing defensive big I’ve seen since Hakeem. Gobert has never had that kind of range when guarding any group of players.

 

Gobert’s defensive presence lowered attempts at the rim and percentage at the rim - which is basketballs most efficient zone.

The problem is teams just started scheming against him. Pulling him out of the paint, making him switch and take advantage with back door cuts. But the real paint point came when he wasn’t doing anything on offense.

Wemby as a point of contrast, is a significantly better defender, who can put 40 on you.

 

Agree trust me I saw it all from when Shaq was 275 pounds on the Orlando Magic. He was pure muscle. I was at game 7 at staples in front of Leonardo DiCaprio and behind Vanessa Bryant.

I saw the Kobe Alley oop to Shaq nothing in my experience basketball experience. Basketball in game experience compares to that. Loudest Staples Center has ever been.

There is no comparison to Shaq. People tried to do it with Howard.

I think Ayton with his type the way he plays can be a David Robinson if he stays with his defensive craft that was always the comp in College. But not as skilled but I’m super impressed how he is hitting his jump shots. He looks great offensively. I haven’t seen him this great since he’s been in the league. I mean he looks better than he has in Phoenix.

As for Shaq league dominance no answer to him. You could compare Wembyana just in regards to like coaches having no answer to defending him.

 

Load management has destroyed the credibility of the league every player has a DTD back soreness ankle soreness. It’s a joke.

if the league if Adam Silver wants credibility. Get back to players playing. Enough of this load management b*******.

this is me talking a guy who saw Kobe Bryant play every game. You’d have to pull Kobe off of a court. We didn’t appreciate it. But now we see with the players of today.

BTW Luka is not load management.

 

Hey now!! Good for Mac!! He's been grinding for years.

 

Covid year totally messed up the draft. Halliburton going 11.
Then again they're always bigs who miss at the top of the draft board. Kandi man, Kwame, Kwiseman

 

Feels like today is going to go bad.
With all these injuries AR needs to go for 50 again and Ayton and Rui at least 20 each.

Then on the other side Blazers have a lot of good defenders to throw out AR: Jrue, Avidja, Camara, Thybulle. I would full court press the s*** out of the Lakers like one of Rick Pitino's Kentucky teams if I was them. They got enough bodies to do it the whole game and the Lakers have AR and Bronny? Yikes. When you start wondering if Vando can bring up the floor against pressure it ain't looking pretty.

 

Thybulle is out I saw. And kind of a Slick "MEH" ... IMO. AR's handle keeps getting better and his TOs are way down last couple games. Can always throw a pass ahead too. Ellis, everyone's new POA heartthrob and others with T-Wolves did the pick him up full court too, some of the time, and how many if at all times did he lose the ball? This has become overblown over the years with no adjustment for his handling improvements and experience. Same as not a point guard, when he's out there on his own running the team's whole offense plus putting up big scoring numbers efficiently. But we'll see soon enough of course.

Now when he has to sit .... whoooboy, yeah not sure who's going to be trying to run the offense and handle the ball.

 

Why Edjecombe wasn't 1 pick ?
He played for Bahamas at Olympics qualifying tournament, scoring like all star already
Flagg is meh so far . Today he scored just 2 points before half time.

 

lol federal investigation

Anyway Lakers need a way to get Jrue Holiday. What a nice combo him and Smart would be -

 

Yeah pretty much can't win when you literally have a g league bench

 

Honestly, not that disappointed in the Lakers overall effort. Still a winnable game but they basically pulled fans out sitting on the court to play. Back-to-back in a grueling game against the Kings, the Lakers were just tired and out of ammo. Can't see many teams under the same circumstances performing better than what the Lakers did.

My only gripes are for those who DIDN'T play against the Kings and wet the bed....

Bronny looks lost out there. I don't see any improvements compared to last season. Easy to trap him, he can only go right, can't shoot, poor passer, and just not good. Safe to say, Lakers drafted him as a feel-good story because he simply isn't ready...

Knecht... C'mon! This was your chance and you blew it. JJ would have played you 35 minutes if you showed up and played well. Now, he'll never give you more minutes than what he did tonight... Very disappointing. He's 24 as well.. not exactly a youngster. I think he's going to end up getting traded eventually.

Tough to blame the rest of the G-League dudes... they aren't ready for the NBA and are new to JJ's system. They're just going out there like it's a game in the park.

Rui, Ayton, Vando, etc., all get passes in my book... showed up against the Kings. Just too gassed for tonight's game.

Props to Reaves for doing the best he can but he can't do it all.

Sucks that the Lakers have probably the most injured roster in the league right now... could easily be 4-0 right now!

 

The league needs to get rid of back-to-backs altogether man, The injuries are already bad as it is, It's crazy to me that the NBA doesn't protect its own sport by avoiding injuries to its main players, in favor of tradition and a few more regular-season games.

 

^ this.
Same thing is happening in tennis right now. People are not machines/robots FFS