LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

eh, i think they're both justified (luka is constantly hit without whistles). and it's weird that in a league where harden became a hofer, these guys aren't shooting 20 FTs a game. actually, it's a joke. either we reward strength and skill or we don't. we don't pick and choose.

 

he got a ring and he got big fat extension, what spark does he need?

 

To look on the bench and see NBA caliber players. When you are 38 going on 40 and only have so many of each move left in the tank, wasting it on a play-in team is demoralizing.

 

don't think he really cares about winning anymore to be honest

scoring record and playing with bronny are the only things he's concerned with at this point. he wouldn't have signed that huge extension if he wanted to win another ring

 

Best part of the last week has been all the memes on Twitter about Lebron being a pathological liar

 

It’s not working anymore.

 

He's just following leadership

 

That’s just sad and pathetic.

 

yeah, zero sympathy. you orchestrated the russ trade and then signed a huge extension. vet mins is what you'll get. play better.

to cross threads, i think this is why ham went to the salary structure when asked about keeping lebron from quitting on the team again.

 

Russ trade is heavily on him, Rob has a bigger piece of that blame pie though.

Regarding the money, 99% of players in all major sports take their bag. All fans hope their old star will take the haircut, it rarely happens. Harden is the only active one to do so and I'm not sure there wasn't some other agreement made there. Most of pro athletes aren't Brady. Hell, even if Bron offered, Rob would go Stan to Utah mode and still pay him the max just 'cause.

Historically our franchise overpays on the back end because it shows loyalty to future Lakers. That loyalty to Kobe helped get us Bron (even though I think 90% of his reasons for being here have nothing to do with basketball). Not to mention Bron being here does wonders for our national TV $ and worldwide merch sales.

 

we've been over it, and i'll never agree. rob negotiated a whole-a** separate deal that would have had us in much better position right now. this was lebron and AD first, then ownership for not empowering the gm to do his job. much like nobody empowered vogel to do his job, which is why it took a full year to play russ as a 6th man.

dirk and tim duncan took lower salaries so their teams could pay above vet min for supporting cast members. lebron didn't. play better. you're making 50 million.

i get why we offered it. dallas offered dirk as much as he wanted. he said: tell me what you can do with the money, and i'll try to fit in around it. lebron took 40% of the cap and demanded another 40% go to a guy worth 7% of it. zero sympathy.

and the press with its "lebron needs shooters" crusade is really pissing me off, too. you want shooters with the mini mle and vet min? here's your matt ryan.

 

When you lie and are full of s***, and you are a public person, especially, you will get caught at some point. The receipts are out there.

Lebron has always been full of s*** and Rob Pelinka a used car salesman. Can't figure out why Kobe liked this bum. Only thing puzzling me.

 

Bron and AD brought it to the table, but they didn't tie Rob up and lock him in a trunk. He was in favor of this deal and that's been reported and confirmed by those close to the team and those on the payroll. If he didn't want to do it, I don't think Jeanie would have forced him to. This is the same man who snake charmed his way to an extension before this off-season started.

again, that's a nice dream. I just think it's a fantasy pipe from the perspective of fans. There's been what?...50 stars in the past decade? Give or take. TD, Dirk, and Beard are the only three to take a trim. Based on that estimated that's only 6% of those players. If you want to go on historical talent of guys who still played at a high level on that final contract or two (thinking Kobe or Bulls MJ and not Hawks VC or Raptors Hakeem) then that percentage is going to be waaaay less than even that figure.

It's not Bron needs shooters. It's any team in today's NBA needs shooters to have a functional offense. If we had Antetokounmpo as the face of our team, the headline would be the same. "X (team's best player) has no shooters around him because his GM is a dumb-dumb"

 

so...he tricked/forced an extension offer?

and again, won't agree to the idea that rob could have just said no there and escaped with his job.

i think he snakecharmed his way into an undeserved extension before we got to see that his body was shot and he was just in it for the scoring record.

honestly, though--how many guys signed for 40% of the cap when they clearly weren't good enough for that anymore? kevin garnett's 2012 contract was 3/36. even kobe took less than max when it was clear he was no longer kobe. and he got roasted for taking too much, too!

shaq opted out of 30 million in 2005 and took a two-year extension at 20 per.

the precedent is actually the opposite of your suggestion, imo. guys who wanted to win and were generational talents took less money so that they could compete.

i mean, the actual headline on espn the other day was something like "lebron needs help in the form of shooters".

our best player, AD, needs shooters. get on it, lebron.

 

The only possibility I can come up with that warrants Jeanie keeping her job.

The two most recent examples of the contrary of guys in their mid 30s-- a 33 year old Curry on a 4 year supermax and 37 year old CP3 on a 4 year deal that he's obviously not playing the full contract out, just a way to get him his guaranteed $75m.

 

Business reasons for LeBronze.
Business reasons for Jeanie.
Yes, we won one Chip, but the rest of it has been the most miserable time of my Laker fandom.

 

curry's 5 years younger and just delivered a ring. paul took less than the max and phx thus has money to fill out the roster. he gets paid 30 this year and is partially guaranteed at half that next year. fully non-guaranteed after that. if lebron did that, we'd be in much better shape going forward.

i feel like my point grows stronger all the time? lebron could have taken less and won more. he chose not to. now he gets no sympathy, and i don't want to read about him needing help.

 

Not sure how overpaying an increasingly hurt Curry 3 years from now for past championships is different from paying Bron his full fee. To clarify Curry is the greatest shooter to do it and it's unreal what he can do all the way out to the logo. Not discrediting him saying it's overpaying, but $60m for Curry in 3 years is wild. Once the new TV deal hits, we'll probably see 3rd options making that but today that's a legacy payment.

You got me on CP3. Spotrac had that $75m as guaranteed.

Fine. He could've taken less so we could give Draymond Green the max instead of $30m.


In other news...


That's not ideal. Sounds like this could be a lingering issue. He's already not getting his shots off very well (foot related?) or cutting to the rim on P&Rs with AD which mucks things up and why Russ and AD P&Rs look so damn good right now.

 

we're doomed. the next ten games were where we needed to get it together.