Brandon Ingram Discussion: He Is Who We Thought He Could Be

How is listing scenarios claiming one is a genius?

KD/Klay
KD/Kemba
KD/Khris
KD/Kyrie
KD/Butler
KD/Kawhi
KD/Butler
KD/Brogdon
KD/PG
KD/Harris
KD/DLo

Kawhi/PG
Kawhi/Klay
Kawhi/Kemba
Kawhi/Kyrie

etc.

My point being even if you eliminate half of these permutations due to incompatibility in terms of fit or desire to play together... there still are several combinations one could find where you pair two elite agents and keep most of your team and draft picks. Maybe most aren't as good as AD/LBJ but there are several that might have worked while keeping more depth and flexibility.

We signed LBJ... not many seemed to want to play with him... there was the Klutch factor to consider so we eliminate a 100 possibilities and narrow them to one. All I said is there were many ways to play this but by being under the influence of one agency there really only became one way in terms of having two elites and keeping depth.

No one's claiming to be a genius, I'm only saying we had choices if our hands weren't tied.

 

can't you factor in your mechanic skills in the first case? that's what i was getting at re: foreseeable issues. i feel similarly about the second set of proposed issues--particularly point #3. if say, AD went down with a career-ending knee injury that could/should/was noted by the team prior to/during the trade, that gets factored into evaluating the decision. but that's not the case here. if we find out he had an underlying issue (heart condition?) that nobody ever detected or could have reasonably suspected, that doesn't suddenly make the decision to trade for him a bad one. if so, it makes all decisions bad ones, always, really.

me too. despite some things that were bad decisions ending up with positive or neutral outcomes.

it's like when people claimed that we got hart and kuzma for russell. no--we got two late 1st round draft picks upon which we happened to hit. now, going back to your points, can you factor in that we have a recent history of making good picks later in the first round as part of that decision analysis? sure. still doesn't swing it for me, but it's also still not about outcomes.

 

I don't think we had an option for the top tier players once we signed LBJ/Klutch... it was AD or bust which put us at an enormous bargaining disadvantage
I think two elites plus some youngsters and draft picks would have been a better outcome than
AD/LBJ plus Kuzma and random signings.
I do give the front office credit for recovering nicely from the Kawhi fiasco... but a lot of this was dumb luck in terms of Dwight falling into our laps.
I think Klutch dictated the LBJ/AD pairing and that put us in a tough spot.
Now that we're here, I'm rooting for this team wholeheartedly but I fear the long term outcome of this play.

 

no fear of long-term outcomes on a kawhi signing? that injury is a) known and b) no joke.

 

Kawhi wouldn't have cost us the entire core and draft picks.
You sign him and then we'd be like the Clippers except with LBJ/Kawhi and BI/Lonzo/Kuzma/Hart/Mo/Bonga and our picks intact.
Once Klutch got involved our tunnel vision focused on AD first.
I mean obviously Kawhi wasn't too hot on playing with LBJ but that's the type of outcome that would have been preferable.

 

Two elites? Until Lebron came NO elites were giving us the time of day. What the heck. Why I laughed at your hypothetical 100 ways or combinations (when you said it) you could have done that.

 

I think PG was headed our way, and then once LBJ became available, the front office dropped him like a high school kid would his girlfriend once the homecoming queen showed him some interest.
PG plus Kawhi and most of the young core and picks would have been a better outcome.

 

I object to post AD moves too, yeah we had to move players for cap for Leonard but it could've been done AFTER his decision...I feel throwing in Hart was just so Rob could absolutely guarantee he'd be in the running with cap space for Leonard. Most team gm's dont make move till they know its a done deal, Morey for example didn't even have cap space 4 Cp3 but he didn't force himself to create the cap space either until Cp3 was in the bag. Hart, Wagner weren't game changers but they would'v at least given us more depth...sort like how Dlo did with Minn, Minn had "plans" to make cap clearing moves IF he said yes but they didn't pre-emptively do moves to clear the cap and in hindsight they'd be SOL right now since Dlo ended up with GSW instead.

 

i think no way PG was coming here once we didn't trade for him.

agree with khmrp on timing of dumps: you can generally find places to move small salaries if need be. i think the lakers simply thought those guys weren't that good and could be replaced at cost with vets in the short term. long term, doesn't matter, as none will be a big impact guy. that read is probably right, but again, you could keep your options open. would things be slightly better with wagner over dudley right now? maybe, but i'm not even positive about it.

 

If you could get PG to sign in OKC, you could get him to come to the Lakers.
Come on guys, this is the best organization in basketball in terms of history.
We are going through a rough spot in terms of management but you can't tell me we couldn't have got PG to come to LA if we put our heart and soul into it.
We are on Klutch auto pilot right now, and as long as they keep winning I suppose you can't complain, but we need LBJ to retire when he starts his decline rather than a long drawn out farewell tour, and we need to replace him with the best possible candidate and not the Klutch approved heir apparent.

 

What exactly is “putting you heart and soul into it?” I honestly don’t know what you’re suggesting. Clearly being the historically best franchise wasn’t enough to sway him, so what is this heart and soul going to do? Ask him pretty please?

You’re pining over things that are 2 years out and about a million variables in between. If “Klutch auto pilot” results in an 80% winning percentage, AD, and competing for the next few years, then I’m just gonna sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.

 

All this happy HS again.




Hypothetical Stuff.

 

yeah PG wasn't coming to the lakers because he was insulted that they didn't try to trade their entire core for him

 

BI with 28 points +18 in a victory.
Can't say he didn't contribute to this one.

Holiday had a good game until the end where he almost cost them the game
BI had a terrible first half and played well at the end.

Holiday made a lot of bonehead plays for a veteran... can't wait until Zion takes over.