“Ring is the ONLY thing”. Yeah how’s that working out for all those fans yearly with the ridiculous odds stacked against you?
Let’s blow it up NOW and sink it earlier. Was a blast those 6 years last time even with the not happening again incredible luck of high picks in the lottery.
My problem is not saying he still has a chance to be a good player: he's got the requisite size and athleticism for the position, his jumpshoot form looks decent (although it doesn't fall as much you'd like), I really like his rebounding, and he appears to have a good head on his shoulder. I do have issues with folks saying he's shown enough to be an automatic rotation player next yearand Ham messed him up, and he'd have been fine with more minutes. He's played like a project last year and he'll need to show significant improvement in a lot of areas to be one. Could he do it sure but I just didn't see enough to make a strong bet on him. The best thing going for him he has some of the tools and is still very young. Next year he's got to make a leap because by then he's reaching the age when guys like Reaves clearly pop when watching them play
Rob will likely make an attempt to make a trade or two, but over the past month, I think he has realized some harsh truths: 1. Lakers no longer a premier destination for free agents i.e. CA state income tax, Lebron headache, Pelinka rep, Lakers ownership rep tending down, Salaries going up makes it more convenient to commute back and fourth to L.A. (most NBA player live in socal). 2. Draft picks are significantly more valuable and important than they have been in the past. Due to the new CBA restrictions, C Bags also bringing this into focus. 3. Player development is going to be key, but also have to appease Lebron/AD in the short term.
lol, i've been aware of the ship sinking since the russ trade. maybe this is why i'm not raging about not getting buddy hield or somesuch. yes. i also agree you can't just pin him not being great last year on ham. i'm not sure jj won't nail him to the bench this year, either. i'm saying he's now 21, and the league is full of players who weren't ready at 21 but who were good at 23. reaves--your example--was in college at 21 and 23 when we signed him. i feel like 1 has been true for a long time, pre-lebron for sure. disagree on 2 in that it's not that different. we drafted magic and kobe. we traded for kareem and signed shaq. warriors drafted steph and klay but signed durant. the thunder are considered a drafted team but their franchise player came in trade. there have been and will continue to be different ways to build teams. the one thing i think is largely disappearing is the big FA get, but it's been replaced by the forced trade. essentially, almost everyone is a free agent now because they can just demand out and end up somewhere they want to go. we need to be the team they demand. we don't know if we're like that anymore because we have two stars in place at high salaries, making it difficult to swing trades even if a player wants to come here. so we don't know if some of your claims in #1 are true yet. will post-lebron be like the greg monroe years? or will guys like mitchell, edwards, luka, tatum, etc. still have us at the top of the list of destinations? miami has stayed there over time despite being pretty meh most years, for example. one thing that all of these points suggest is that we shouldn't be handing out distant future draft picks like candy right now. which we're not (to many people's chagrin). edit: anyway, this is the max thread. i do hope that the investment in him buys him a little more leeway from the coaching staff this year, and i do think ham prioritizing reddish over max was a mistake in keeping with other things ham did. it was weird to me that he told everyone to be calm about the marathon while a lot his tendencies were for bandaids and temporary improvements.
