Many people would be wrong. Porzingis had a good month in November and was pretty up and down after that. D'Angelo had a great month in March and after the calendar hit January he was very good. Russell is simply a better player. He does more things, he's more skilled, just not as flashy. As for Jim awfully convient how he doesn't get any credit from you for it. You're basically just saying he got lucky because we had a bad record in there consecutive years. There are plenty of teams who screw up that kind of pick or picks. Jim and co. made great selections and deserve some praise. I still would like to see some front office changes, but it's ridiculous to not give Jim any credit for his draft picks.
Knicks would have picked Okafor instead of Porzingis if they weren't drafting 4th. Porzingis was a pleasant surprise to a lot of people.
I agree, Jim gets all the blame and Mitch / Ryan / Jesse get all the credit. I remember in 2005-2007 just about everyone on Clublakers had it with Mitch (including me) and then Mitch proved everyone wrong. That is why I have learned to let the people in the Front office do their thing and not become an Arm-Chair Gm like some of the guys on here.
I don't believe you can captain the worst stretch in Laker history and leave unscathed. I'm not as down on him as most, but there must be an answer to the bell when we're that bad. I think he needs to go despite the great last few drafts and pretty good off-season. Part of the problem is just perception too. The general public (including NBA insiders) views him negatively and until that changes we've got an albatross. Not to mention his self imposed deadline that made no sense. I've been vocal that he receives too much blame and not enough credit. I'd gladly be rid of Jeanie along with her brother but I'm not sure Jim makes it through the season.
Dude you really want him to have to quit or be fired, don't you? Careful for what you wish for if it means Mitch winds up going too so Jeanie 2 basketballs can bring old f*** Phil back in to have ALL the power. Then you can kiss Ryan West goodbye too. Just sayin'.
Phil isn't coming back, and I'm not sold that Mitch's job security is tied to Jim Buss. That being said, I have two points to make. 1. The role he is playing deserves to have someone who is engaged full-time in that role. He is not. 2. Making memes is fun. People related to sports give fans the opportunity to make new ones every day based on what is going on in their world. I honestly don't much care one way or another about Jim Buss specifically, but I'm OK pointing out the three-year timeline discrepancy, and wanting results for my team. Who gets the results doesn't really matter to me. He creates the material. I just write it down.
If I felt certain Jeanie wouldn't do Phil again and Mitch's job security wasn't tied to Jim .... Would be of no concern because I agree with everything else you're saying. Just me being a worry weanie.
I mean they're engaged, she's gonna do Phil again. Moving on, yes, the last 3 years were awful, but I'll never get why Jim gets sole blame. The coaching hires are inexcusable, but a lot of other things are forgotten or looked back on wrong. Not Jim's fault Dan Gilbert is a lil b****. Not Jim's fault Kobe wasn't the same after the achilles, whether you hated his contract or not, no big stars were coming here anyway because we still had a max slot open with his deal and none did. Kobe did earn that money IMO, and looking at the insane deals players got this summer, good for him getting all he could when he did. I dunno, every franchise goes through a down time eventually, 3 years is only bad by Laker standards, and we never reached Philly levels of suck and shamefulness. Yeah the Lakers are held to a higher standard, but this is a new league under a CBA that was pretty much written up to take the Lakers down. Jim has almost impossible standards to reach when what's called for is a rebuild that will take time and is what we are seeing now. His biggest mistake to me is that self imposed deadline, because this is going to take time, but if it pays off in the end it will have been worth it. We already look to he rebuilding better than a lot of franchises do, those that don't draft well and stay stuck in the middle of the pack forever. We already have a really nice young core built and look like we are about to start our climb back up the mountain.
Jim's an easy punching bag. He rarely makes himself available for the media unlike Jeanie who is loved by the media and many fans.
Jim subjected us to TWO more years of Byron than he should have. That was following the horrible hires of D'Antoni and Brown. He deserves all the grief he gets just for the Byron hire IMHO. Jim is responsible for more health issues and broken marriages in Lakerland than anything in the history of Western Civilization. (Exaggeration for effect)
I am. A bad record for three years resulting in getting two #2 picks out of two protected draft picks, that is luck. I'll give Jimmie credit for that luck, which I guess would be the same as giving him credit for putting together a loser. Since you think Jimmie is so skilled, let's ignore Nash, Howard, Pau, Coach "DVD Defense" Brown, Coach "7 Seconds or Mess" D'Antoni, and of course Coach B.S., and look at the picks: The first draft, you could argue that Okafur AND Porzongis would have been justified picks above Russell. Just depends on your teams needs. Not a bad pick in Russell, but no genius involved there. Time will tell if Russell was the better pick. The second draft, pretty much every basketball mind, and every Lakers fan, said it was a two player draft, Simmons and Ingram. Philly took Simmons, so how skillful and calculating did Jimmie have to be to pick Ingram? Dunn was the only other player really worthy of being mentioned besides Simmons and Ingram. You can give him credit for being a basketball savant for that if you want. But, I won't. This team went through a trough of record low performance for several years that wasn't necessary. Imagine if those fairly remote draft situations didn't occur and we lost both lottery draft pick opportunities. Could you even fathom how hated he would be? It almost happened.
A basketball savant? Just for saying we have drafted well? You point out those picks, but what about Clarkson, Randle, Nance, and Zubac? Nance, steal. Clarkson, steal. Zubac, possible steal. Randle, should have gone no lower than 4th, we don't get stupid and pass on him at 7. That's good drafting. The Porzingis thing, I don't remember many people saying he should go #2. Most people were saying he was too thin and was a big unkown and a risk. Hell, NY was getting killed for taking him at 4. Everyone is a great GM with hindsight available, but at the time the thinking was Towns, Okafor, and then Russ and a few others at 3. Similar to this year, it was said to be a 2 player draft and then more cloudy after that. I still think Russ was the right pick at 2, we desperately needed a PG, to hopefully hit with a star guard, not another PF. Lakers didn't like what they saw in Okafor in workouts either, it's a small ball league right now, and he's good, but he's also slow and doesn't play D. Seems easy to pick apart drafts way after the fact, but I think our FO has been one of the best in the league at drafting for years and years. Even going back a decade or more, after West left, we consistently took players late in the first round that stuck in the league for long careers, and multiple guys in the 2nd round that did too.
I think an hour before and you'll be fine Monday. Friday we were midway. Showed up an hour before the game tonight and were in the nose bleeds. But Monday you should be fine.
