2024-25 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Yet..Rob chose Tucker over Caruso, that had nothing to do with Westbrook. We were over the cap already, and he let Dennis walk for free. We needed a Pg anyway.

AD himself plainly stated, the he, Lebron and Russ, never played together enough, to develop any chemistry on the court, and work anything out. I think 6-7 games were the most they ever played together at any time. That's a problem because Westbrook was never a shooter/scorer.

Folks act like he was supposed to lift, that sorry a** roster that Rob put together, in his first season here, up all by himself.

Now granted Russ disappointed me too, he blew too many layups, he had a lot of careless turnovers, and he loafed on D sometimes.

I just don't blame everything on him, with the worst trade in history jazz, some around here touted.

I always said, that if didn't work out on the court, his contract still had value, and we could flip it for more pieces. We did, however I still feel like, it could have been Kyrie and another piece, instead of Tinkerbell, Malik and Jarred.

I also didn't really miss Trez, Kuz and Kcp that much, even though I always liked KCP.

Hey...Old news now, we got Luka, and I'm perfectly happy with that. Finney-Smith and Vando are the residuals, left over from Westbrook 's contract, so we manged to still have something of value from that trade today.

Now of course.I do like arguing with LT and Abeer period tho, they are both sharp dudes, and neither are ever afraid to engage. That makes this site fun for me. Along with several other guys, yourself included.

I think Russ caught too much flak, but now is now. Bring on the chip chase with Luka! Abeer and LT are going to jab at Russ forever..that's cool ..I still disagree with a lot of their angst and anger over the subject.

I'm done talking about Russ, he gone, Luka da Don is here. s*** is beautiful presently IMO.

Lakers in 6!

 

Lol my dude...You are still arguing about Russ the player, that you didn't like. I was always on, Russ the asset, could be still be valuable. It's not exactly the same thing.

We won't ever see eye to eye on the subject, but you made some valid points over the 2 seasons. I still stand my ground on what I said tho.

Now hopefully, I won't end up defending Luka, against the whole board one day too. Let's get these chips mane!!!

 

I bet if we took a poll of LakerNation and asked who was the worst Laker of all time as well as worst Laker trade of all time, 90% of us would say “Westbrick.”
The ones who would make up the 10% would be the natural contrarians.

 

I guess that would depend on your age and memory.

Adrian Dantley for Spencer Haywood
Eddie Jones for Glen Rice.
Van Exel for Lue and Battie
Caron Butler for Kwame Brown

And of course Steve Nash for 2 FRP and 2 2nds. So it's a matter of prospective IMO.

 

I put that whole experience out of my mind, and I log onto read Laker news and find people are reliving that horrible experience. Is there really nothing better to do than this?

 

yeah, those are all bad. i could quibble on all, but the biggest issue is that aside from the nash deal, those are all "dang we gave up the better player" instead of "omg we got trojan horse-d". and we did give up a 1st for russ, too. and nash's deal was only bad because he broke his leg in game 1. i wouldn't be as mad about the russ deal if it failed due to unforeseeable injury. instead, he just...kept being the guy we had exploited to our own benefit in the playoffs. nash was an allstar and leader of a winning team the year before we got him. russ was on his third team in three years or whatever, and was just putting up empty stats for a loser.

anyway, yes, we've made other bad trades, for sure.

hell, you even forgot zubac/muscala!

 

Adrian Dantley traded away before the title run. He with Silk at power forward would have been almost unstoppable with Magic lol

 

He didn't get along well with Isiah so maybe it was for the best for the long term*. Dantley and Worthy would have taken up the same spots on the court anyways a few years later

That Aguirre for Dantley trade remains one of the coldest moves in NBA history. So Dantley maybe one of the most tragic figures in NBA history trade away by two teams before historic title runs. The dude had a freakin TS% of 64 in the pre 3 point era! Maybe he was such a black hole on offense that other guys just didn't like playing with him

 

Yes, you can see this in his eventual meltdown in Utah too.

 

Westbrook was the worst trade the Lakers ever made. He was the most destructive player the Lakers have ever had on a "competing" team. At least Smush was part of playoff teams.

 

I would love to see us get Gafford away from Dallas. That dude is a beast down low. Luka loves playing with him. Lively is a great player but too injury prone.

 

Hey Muscala could have been the best player who ever played here, except for one thing. The drugs wore off!!!

 

just can't see dallas dealing with us again any time soon. even if they were clearly getting the better end of the deal.

but yeah, gafford would look really good here.

 

I don't think Nico can deal with us unless he goes into WITSEC after. Maybe the next regime, which might be coming as soon as this summer.



Speaking of disasters...

 

why would beal give up a cent at this point? they've publicly embarrassed him. is someone offering him a two-year tpmle? maybe. but that just offsets the lost money. if i'm holding the cards, i'm not sure why i do that after you've publicly embarrassed me.

 

Marks: One thought came to mind after Malone was fired: I hope Nuggets ownership ran this by Jokic. The three-time MVP still has three years left on his contract (he has a player option in 2027-28), but that does not mean anything if a player is unhappy. The true sign of what the future holds in Denver is what happens once the NBA Finals conclude, when Jokic is eligible to sign a three-year, $212 million extension.
I don't think he's coming to Lakers

 

Funny thing Jamaal was the power forward in the Warriors championship season lol