LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

All the kids gone for AD. F*** that. At some point we have to stop shipping out future star "quality" players. If we had Kawhi locked to come too fine. But we wouldn't know that would we?

 

We can all tell ourselves it was the injuries and how Lebron came back to early. Truth deep down is Lebron's team eff'd this season over with help from Magic and crippled the team and it's players. They got bent over by a rag tag management group in New Orleans. I have no doubt had the numbskulls just shut the hell up. Lakers would be in the playoffs right now.

 

We don't want to tie up cap by maxing kids who aren't proven yet. That's what got Minnesota into a world of trouble. The blueprint to win is almost always acquire 2-3 stars and sign veteran role players for cheap. All of a sudden we max Ingram and Ball, throw Kuzma an extension, and we have a young core who's may even be improving significantly, but will be tied down by a 36-37 year old James who's contract will prevent us from adding any meaningful pieces.

You can't mix a youth movement with a *win now* mentality. That's what is tearing the franchise apart. When we signed LeBron we committed to *win now*, so the young core should be an afterthought until they prove otherwise. If we wanted to develop a core of Russell, Randle, Kuzma, Ingram, and Ball, -- i.e. following the Thunder/Warriors blueprint -- that would be fine. But we shouldn't have signed LeBron (or any max FA) at that point. And I doubt even with all of those healthy for a full season, we get HCA in the West.

 

Damn.

 

Then f*** that win now mentality if it means trading every last single one of them and watch all or most all of BI and Lonzo and Kuz become all stars elsewhere, and they have a shot as they keep getting better ..... on top of already blowing out to our real deficit DLO and Jules already. Not my fandom sorry. And no guarantees with top heavy and injured prone AD and old LBJ even if we get the 3rd star. But to blow the rest of our talent that many of us agree on whether you do or not is just unacceptable planning for the future. Plus the revolving door of mercenaries and me really disliking one of our superstars that caused it all.

 

if GSW took this approached they wouldn't be where they are today with 2 all-time great shooters.

 

Injury free the guys we have in house can supply that next year. No guarantees anyone with injuries and you don't blow these guys out because of injuries Steph C. says hello. And we plan for the future post LeBron with one or two of our remaining roster of hard won quality draft picks.

 

I mean not being stupid and offering the same thing we did out of panic again. If NO wants that and if Looney Tunes AD really is bent on coming then we wait until next off season.

 

Not at all true. Was GSW out chasing max level FAs while Curry, Klay, and Draymond were developing? They signed complementary veterans, like Bogut and Iggy, but none of them ate up all their cap room.

That's what I'm saying, if we wanted to role with the young core, we should have not chased LeBron and instead spent time developing our young talent. I don't agree with this approach, since I'd rather our cap be tied up with superstars than guys who, quite frankly, have little to no superstar potential. It would be different if we had drafted Curry and Klay, or Harden/Westbrook/Durant, but that's the game you play when you try to build via the draft.

 

Even if one or more of the young core players becomes all star, by the time that happens, LeBron will be in the 3rd year of his contract, and we really won't have much to show for his time here. And LeBron isn't 37 year old Kobe coming off 3 season ending injuries where we can tank and develop young talent while he plays his last years. Not even close.

 

We wait until LeBron is coming on 36 in his 18th season? At that point, who knows how much he'll have declined. And we took this exact same risk with George and Leonard, and look at how that turned out.

Remember, we wanted to hang onto that #2 pick so bad it cost us Paul George. I doubt anyone, other than Lavar Ball, would keep Lonzo over potentially pairing George and James together.

 

You keep saying the 2 pick cost us George and like everyone else don't really know or if Indy would have dealt with us is any event just like SA and NO weren't going to. But it's your story or opinion .... OK.

 

it's my opinion, too. indy wanted to "win" the deal publicly. the #2 pick or ingram would have done that, imo. we were offering stuff we had already tried to unload for late firsts. of course they were doubly insulted.

anyway, no, i don't see the FO banking on davis coming next year. if they do, someone needs to put them down.

that said, you can definitely spend long-term cash this year and still be in play for davis next year. it's just predicated on being willing to dump ball, ingram, and kuzma. which we've demonstrated is ok by us.

 

We can’t punt again. We need to commit to creating a true team.

And we’ve created a situation where that can be done even if it’s with guys on that level below KD like Beal, Kemba, etc.

There are scenarios where we end up with a solid mix of younger guys playing alongside LeBron so we don’t end up completely falling apart after he leaves.

Magic’s got to assemble a front office that can accomplish it though.

 

...that aged well.

Well, I didn’t say Magic would actually be a part of that front office...

 

We're a bigger dumpster fire than when Lebron signed on...... soooo 1 + 1 =....