It doesn't hurt for me because it was all worth it. We got three great young players in the last two years. The best young core possibly in the NBA. Yes it sucks we lost so much, but again it's all worth it to me. Just like it was worth it for the Spurs when they tanked for Duncan. When the Cavaliers sucked and got LeBron. The C Bags sucked and ended up getting KG and Allen and won it all. It's all worth it to me and doesn't hurt much at all anymore because we've got as bright a future as anyone.
I'm glad you're already past it. That's fantastic! I've got a long way to go to get past back-to-back worst seasons ever... After all these years of playoffs and Finals appearances we lowered ourselves to barely better than a team that was openly trying to lose games. It's going to take me quite a while to shake that one. But yes having the youngsters helps quite a lot. I'm really excited about our five young players. They fit perfectly and hopefully within a couple years they can create a dynasty of their own which would help me forget the pain of the last few years. I think they'll have it in them, we'll just have to wait and see.
the mud-dragging really won't be over until the lakers are back in contention. i'm still pissed about the paul veto, which led directly to all of this. and yes, i'd trade all the youth to not have had the nash/howard twin debacles, because right now, we'd probably be signing durant into our open max slot next to paul and some other superstar (maybe even howard?). so yeah, i'm salty. i'm just hoping that this is the beginning of the way back. i thought it was going to be last year, but things went downhill quickly, beginning with the putrid FA period. hopefully, we're done with that.
True true. I do believe we're on our way back though. We've got the young bloods and a young blood coach. Even if we strike out in FA, I think we're in a good spot to have a fun season at least. I think we're at least not so depressing next season.
Credit goes to hinkies_ghostwriter from Reddit. Apologies if the video invoked some grit-related PTSD in some of you
That video does a great job summarizing just how bad we've had it the past two seasons. I propose we sticky it so when go through the inevitable losing streak this season we can watch it again and remember just how good we have it now compared to the last two years
Short Luke interview on Jim Rome today. Interesting point for me was he said he thinks Ingram is so versatile that once in a while we can even use Russ off ball and have Ingram run point, I assume in a Draymond Green type of way. http://jimrome.com/2016/06/27/luke-walton/
To paraphrase Kobe, if you didn't win the championship, then it's a failed season... so don't see the last few years of losing as any worse than years where we lost in the playoffs, and I especially prefer it to losing in the finals.
I want to suggest that Kobe's final gift to this franchise is Brandon Ingram. Think about that, y'all.
Well if we want to turn D'Angelo into Steph Curry, then him being effective off the ball is going to be really important. Curry is deadly off the catch and shoot. I always assumed that Jordan would be the one initiating the offense though. It's definitely interesting that Luke thinks Brandon is already ready to take on that responsibility. That's awesome. We've heard to no end that Simmons has elite vision (and he does), but people around Brandon say he's a better passer than he gets credit for. I hope that's true and we see it soon.
I watched a good deal of duke basketball and Ingram can definitely pass extremely well he has good vision. I can't even explain to you how many times I saw him get into the lane and give it to the open man, the only problem is his teammates missed a lot of gimmes. That's why he didn't have that many passing highlights
Russ worked off-ball at OSU. He is also good at finding open seams with the defense and cutting to those areas.