I'm optimistic that after finding out BScotts 4th contract year is a team option, that we won't be picking it up.
I think you throw a max poison pill contract at Harrison Barnes. Batum is not a "top flight sf." He's 2nd tier, IMO. I'm not sure you can be "Top flight" at that position when you average less than 17 a game. I know he does other things pretty well, but we'd need some scoring from that position the way our team is made up.
It's not really a poison pill if it's a max offer. To get Barnes you're going to have to overpay big time and that means likely a max deal altogether which will be very expensive. Even then GS might match it just to keep their mojo flowing. Batum might not be an elite player at his position but he's certainly a great fit. I don't think we'll need scoring at the 3 as much as shooting which Batum can do. A lineup of Russell/Clarkson/Batum/Randle/Hibbert is solid especially if and when Randle develops that mid-range jumper.
It's about time Scott left youngsters in at the end of the game. Losses like last night I'm not too upset at (other than the fact we haven't beaten Portland in like forever), but it's the only way the guys will grow and get better together. I liked what I saw and if they keep it up, they could be good by next season, very, very good the year after.
Our youngins are looking better. Randle showing some signs of life with the jumper last night too. They'd probably look even better under a different coach, but hey...progress is progress.
Our young guys are playing very well and getting more minutes finally. That's really all I have to be optimistic about rihht now. Luckily that is the most important thing about this season, their development, so I'll take it.
Agree with everyone here, my takeaway from the game was that we have a really good young core. We have seen glimpses before but with Lou out and Russell getting significant minutes we started to see more of what will be in the future and it looked pretty darned good. Add a two way SF to the mix and now we're talking! All three of our guys played very well.
But of course need him out no later than this summer, if it could land us Luke or ?????????? What assurance do we have they don't eff it up again? (aside from Luke)
Westbrook, Durant, and Harden in their fdrooled years started off 3-29; getting Randle, Clarkson, and Russell tine together and getting them to play well on both ends is what we need to develop and emphasize this season. The next step is having that translate to wins on the basketball court.
Now that Kobe is officially retiring after the season, if we have any chance at all to get into the top 3 I like our chances. Seriously. Losing a star, NBA is a money 1st league, the league and Lakers can't use Kobe as that money cow, I honestly can feel that top 3 pick already locked up right now. (As long as we still continue to be lottery bound).
No cap hold is a good thing too. If we have two Max slots, and a top three draft pick, I might kiss Byron after we fire him. Nah nvm
I firmly believe Scott is gone after the season. The Lakers won't fire him during the season unless he loses the next 20 games or something. But I think he is pretty much gone. He might help us to a top 3 pick and the Lakers wouldn't mind "one more" potential star player on their team. After that Scott is gone, thats for sure.
Sorry if this was already posted, but ESPN's Kevin Pelton wrote a decent piece on our rebuild situation: http://espn.go.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/14260165/nba-how-los-angeles-lakers-rebuild-kobe-bryant Here's the text for those without insider: The Lakers are suffering through their worst three seasons since moving to Los Angeles 55 years ago. But with Kobe Bryant announcing his retirement at the end of the season, the team now has the clarity it needs to prepare for a future without Bryant. Since the Lakers' hopes for a sixth championship with Bryant were dashed by his Achilles injury in April 2013, followed by Dwight Howard's departure for the Houston Rockets that summer, the franchise has been stuck in an awkward purgatory -- caught between trying to stay competitive in Bryant's golden years and developing young talent to eventually supplant him. Now, the organization can fully commit to building the next great Lakers team. Here's what that should entail in six steps, some of them easier than others: 1. Build an offense around the Clarkson-Russell backcourt On Saturday in Portland, Oregon, a two-play sequence just after halftime illustrated the potential of the Lakers' young guards. First, Jordan Clarksondrove and dished to D'Angelo Russell, who knocked down a 3-pointer. The next time downcourt, it was Russell who set up Clarkson for a triple. The two guards have the potential to become interchangeable offensive weapons in a two-guard front, similar to how the Blazers use Damian Lillard andC.J. McCollum and the Phoenix Suns useEric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight. Having two proficient pick-and-roll playmakers will allow the Lakers to target the opposition's weaker defensive guard and utilize both sides of the court, swinging the ball from one pick-and-roll to another to catch defenders out of position. Clarkson and Russell aren't at the level of those elite dual-ball handler backcourts yet. Russell in particular still is working to get down the nuances of NBA pick-and-roll basketball, a process slowed by the lack of an effective roll man on the Lakers' roster. Of course, he's also 19 and developing right on schedule after a sluggish start to his rookie campaign. In a couple of years, though, defending Clarkson and Russell could be a difficult task. 2. Mold Julius Randle into a playmaking 4 In what is essentially his rookie campaign -- he suffered a season-ending fibula fracture in the first game of 2014-15 -- Julius Randle has been predictably uneven. One problem is that Randle isn't particularly effective as a roll-man, and just 9.5 percent of his plays this season have come off pick-and-rolls, according toSynergy Sports tracking available on NBA.com/Stats -- the lowest rate for any L.A. post player. For the most part, Randle has created his offense by facing up and trying to beat his defender off the dribble. Amazingly,Randle has created more plays out of isolations than Bryant this season, per Synergy. Though Randle might never become a scoring threat from the perimeter -- he's currently making 36.7 percent of his 2-point attempts beyond 16 feet, per Basketball-Reference.com, and has yet to make a 3 -- he can still pose problems for defenses as a "playmaking 4" along the lines of Boris Diaw and Draymond Green. Randle is averaging 2.8 assists per 36 minutes, nearly as many as Green in his second season (3.0). 3. Find a coach whose strength is player development Current Lakers head coach Byron Scott has admitted that developing his team's young talent is not his primary goal. "I'm not always thinking about necessarily developing them," he saidearlier this season. "I'm always thinking about trying to win. The development part comes secondary to that, but in practice and everything is where you really work on the development part." Scott's equivocation is emblematic of an organization caught between two goals. As the vision becomes clear, the Lakers need to prioritize a track record of player development in their next coach to find someone who can grow with their young talent. Former Laker Luke Walton, a player development coach for the franchise's D-League team before joining the Golden State Warriors' coaching staff and taking over as interim head coach, would be a natural choice. 4. Find two-way contributors at small forward and center The two obvious holes in the Lakers' lineup of the future are at small forward, currently manned by Bryant, and center, where Roy Hibbert is a stopgap in the final season of his contract. Given the offensive-minded talent elsewhere on the roster, adding two-way players should be a priority for the Lakers. A 3-and-D wing is a must next to the undersized backcourt of Clarkson and Russell. Barring unexpected development from 2015 second-round pick Anthony Brown, that player isn't currently on the roster. At center, the Lakers need quality rim protection because of their difficulty containing penetration from the perimeter. However, they also need a rim runner who can play pick-and-roll basketball with Clarkson and Russell, given that isn't a strength of Randle's game. The 2016 draft could provide solutions in the form of wings Jaylen Brown(California), Brandon Ingram (Duke) or forward/center Skal Labissiere(Kentucky), assuming the Lakers ... 5. Get lucky in the lottery At this point, the Lakers have no control over whether they keep their 2016 first-round pick, which goes to thePhiladelphia 76ers unless it lands in the top three in the draft lottery next May. Even if the Lakers can "catch" the Sixers and post the league's worst record, they won't be guaranteed to have a first-round pick. But good fortune could accelerate the Lakers' timetable. If they somehow land LSU forward Ben Simmons, their plan would change dramatically, as Simmons' playmaking ability might make one of the Lakers' guards expendable. 6. Be patient in free agency This might be the hardest part of the plan for the Lakers and their fans to stomach. For years the team has looked forward to using its cap space to bring in the next generation of Lakers stars, and meanwhile the fans have endured three especially dismal years. The temptation will be stronger than ever in 2016. With Bryant's league-high $25 million salary coming off the books, the Lakers should have enough cap room to make two max offers next summer. But that doesn't mean they should do so. The worst thing the Lakers could do is respond by settling for second-tier free agents who don't fit their needs and would command max or near-max money, like L.A. native DeMar DeRozanof the Toronto Raptors. Instead, the Lakers should be selective. While the 2016 free-agent crop has only a handful of elite players in their prime -- most notably Oklahoma City Thunderforward Kevin Durant, though Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside might also qualify and is an ideal fit for the Lakers' needs -- the 2017 class is loaded. Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook(another L.A. native) will all be unrestricted free agents that summer, and it's possible Durant will be a free agent in 2017 again. Unless they can get Durant or Whiteside in 2016, the Lakers must ensure they remain in position to offer two of these players the chance to team up in purple and gold. The close of Bryant's career has been a stormy voyage for the Lakers, but given the lure of L.A., they are just a few moves away from potentially vaulting themselves back into contention. The Lakers will always be in the mix for top free agents, and if they can pair those expensive stars with cheaper talent developed through the draft, the Lakers may find much smoother sailing ahead.
I agree with eveything except 6. We can't not sign 2nd tier guys and hope for a star year in year out. We can't go after Durant alone and then say screw it we'll go after Westbrook next season if we don't get him. We need to sign talent, even 2nd tier, and start putting together a competent team, or we will become the 76ers. At the very least if we sign a max 2nd tier guy and he isn't a long term player for us, he's a trade piece we don't currently have.
I think we signed pretty decent talent this offseason. We just don't have a capable coach to utilize who we have on the roster. And I forget why this thread even exists right now...
To add to this, Shaq didn't sign in LA because of money and business opportunities alone, we had talent. Van Exel, Eddie Jones, and Elden Campbell weren't 1st tier stars, but they were talent, and 2 of them became all-stars. Those guys led to Shaq who led to more talent. We need freakin players already, even if we end up with teams that were only good and not great like the mid-90's. You have to start somewhere.
