This was about whether or not we should have resigned Randle this offseason. How does Russell come into this?
Maximizing LeBron's time here is contending. Not making the playoffs. To me, lottery or first/second round playoffs both = failure when James is on this team. I support the fastest route to contention while James is on the roster, which to me is signing a max FA and trading for Davis.
Good for YOU! You're clueless about what's going on here. Your fandom doesn't equal everyone's fandom. And it is ludicrous to say that we are now set up better for attracting FA's this summer after missing the playoffs for the 6th year in a row with LeBron James on the roster and looking like a **** show. It's just wrong dude. If we had made them and maybe gotten to the 7th seed and got to the 2nd round the FAs would be looking at us a whole hell of a lot better. That's just a fact.
I don't think that's a fact. Sounds like Leonard is out of Toronto one way or another. And it's pretty clear we would have made the playoffs if not for a host of injuries. On the other hand, us having the lottery pick puts us in a better position to acquire AD or another star. So I'm okay with that outcome.
If that’s the cost I can live with it. Lonzo is already starting to show flashes of being really good, but AD has already shown to be an MVP candidate level player.
Observation: Sure is a lot of arguing about players besides Lonzo in this Lonzo Ball thread. Maybe some of you guys can take your discussion to PM if you just have to be right. It actually doesn’t make for great reading when things get testy. I’m hoping we keep the kid and he pulls out of his tailspin of crap shooting and free throws. He has great potential. I’m just not sure we’ll get to see his best play until a Lebron is gone... Strictly because I think his best version of himself is as the initiator of the offense.
I'm banking a lot on him having a complete offseason to improve his shot. Whether or not it happens, we'll see. The perimeter defense is what's most important, though. Being able to switch onto bigger guys is also a huge plus. And why I think we should try keeping him above our other young players. If we upgrade the team next year, then even him shooting something like 35% from 3 (about 2% more than this year) on 5 or so 3PA will be enough to keep defenses honest. Then, we get his passing, along with defense, too.
I hope we sign a max FA and keep most of the kids. I really want to see what they can become. Lost a couple decent ones already, and I get it, but the home grown ones are easy to root for.
honestly, for me it's more about commitment than youth. yes, this is part of how mozdeng happened, but when you only have one guy you know you want to keep long-term, that's impactful, psychologically. it hinders efforts at real team-building. get a core you like. if you don't think ball and ingram are part of that, move them now. just not for f***ing cap space. for guys you think might be.
If I was really into taking receipts, the last few pages would be fascinating material. A few things: no KCP/Klutch no Bron no front-runner in AD sweepstakes. Y'all act like we would have an inside track to AD without Bron...try running that angle at the local barbershop. Good luck. Also what is it 2 years running that George has an injury? 2 yrs running on possible 1st round exits with a former MVP and Aquaman...and this coming off doing jacks*** vs Bron in the East. Come'n ma'am..uh man, George plus our young core would have done next to nothing in the West. And f*** an eyeball test...look at the usage rate. DLo had a 46% usage rate in his first playoff game and is 2nd in the playoffs at 38% in the playoffs only behind Harden. George and Jules were 28% in usage for the regular season while DLo was at 31% like Bron. Putting up stats sure means a whole lot of ball in hand....so do we have enough balls to cater to team Mintz? (And I finally worked in a Ball reference to prevent further derailing of this thread). Actually speaking of Ball, he's an asset, no matter how distressed of an asset he is, he's here and can either help us himself or be used to bring a guy that can help us. We're not projected to attach him to a salary dump cause our books are clean. If we didn't clean them that's 15m in dead cap that blocks any future movement (ie MozDeng stretch). If we didn't stretch them then they stay in the way of adding free agents this summer like Kawhi. If we needed to get off those contracts, then you still got to trade assets to do so. This revisionist history and hindsight needs to stop already. Come up with solutions rather than this trash the Lakers approach that seems to be all the rage these days. Again, it's wild that it's on a Lakers board cause you would expect more patience and a higher threshold here. What most of you are doing is punishing the current FO for the previous FO's transgressions...and that previous FO had left Jeanie largely in the dark with anything bball ops related. Before Magic bounced, it's really been Jeanie/Magic/Rob with ALL the power...for only 2 years. We've been out of the playoffs for 6 years...do the math.
I blame Linda tbh Cut out the cancer at the source, and begin to heal from the inside out. Prosper. www.firelinda.com
