LeBron & AD should’ve skipped the Olympics. Just sayin . At least LeBron , I mean didn’t he already win the gold ? .They keep bringing old school guys back because they know younger guys will get beat and US won’t settle for silver
I'm sure we'll pay the price in some form or fashion on this year's squad. While I can't blame them for wanting to play, there are repercussions.
Unless something is obviously related to their participation let’s not jump to blame any injury big or small on it. One comment was that actually AD staying sharp and in shape in the early summer “might” be a positive. Seeing LeBron working under the barbell yesterday in that pic indicates it doesn’t seem to be keeping him away from his normal routine that’s allowed 20 seasons and playoffs.
i'd like to see a serious deep dive on the olympic effect. i imagine it's different depending on the guy. some folks (AD, i'm looking at you), it might help keep them closer to game shape for longer. other guys, it might be too much wear and tear (reaves kinda looked tired early last year). in the end, though...is 24mpg (or 16 if you're AD) for like, 10 games in a 6-week period THAT taxing for a professional athlete? i feel like this is lore. the stuff mark cuban was (rightfully) concerned about wasn't wear--it was the risk of significant injury (paul george) whilst not playing for the nba/your team/your contract. neither lebron nor AD got hurt in the olympics to any great degree that we know of, so i think it's a nothingburger at worst. at best, maybe they convinced a young guy that being a laker in the future is a good idea!
I would agree with a lot of that. These guys play basketball constantly, even if not as HARD as they have to in something like the Olympics. For a guy like AD it might be a benefit. It only really concerns me with LeBron, because there’s genuinely only so much left in those legs, he’s almost 40. But, I would never actually be upset at these guys playing for their country, I’m glad they won gold, it was a good time.
Won't fix a squad, that's poorly put together though. Im happy Ham is gone but Rob didn't do JJ any favours in the offseason.
Nahhh, it’ll be fine. Sure we were a play-in team last season with 70+ games out of LeBron and AD and we lost Prince and Dinwiddie and only added Knect, and Vando still isn’t healthy, but it’ll be fine, championship contender baby! Sure multiple West teams got better and a team like Memphis who was out of the picture will probably be back healthy competing for a top 4 seed too, but it’s fine, totally fine, just have to hope for the health of a 40 year old LeBron and an often injured AD again, hope Gabe isn’t Nunn 2.0, that this Vando injury stuff isn’t becoming a trend, Austin and Max take some leaps in their play, DLo repeats a historic shooting season, Knecht is ahead of schedule, Wood returns to pre-Lakers form, all possible stuff to be fair. Totally fine.
Cool that JJ found his basketball “sickos” though. He was looking for basketball junkies, and if nothing else, he team will be ultra prepared. that will be refreshing for a change hopefully the play calling on the fly is equally outstanding. And hands don’t fit in the pockets of skinny jeans, so that’s a plus.
Lakers aint winning s*** whether they played or not so I would rather they play and win the Gold. USA first.
