Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

What I'm most interested in is the comparison between last years cavs and this years lakers. The warriors swept them pretty handily, but the games weren't laughing stock blow outs. Lebron plus our roster is much better than his cavs roster. We are right there, imo with the rockets and C Bags.

 

If lonzo can shoot a respectable % and play 70+ games in addition to Ingram blossoming into a quasi star, we're riiiiiiight there with the warriors (if you squint).

 

This team is built to win a championship now and that is exactly what is going to happen. Lebron with our young guys was going to be great. Lebron with our young guys and these other acquisitions is spectacular. Rondo is the piece that puts us over the top. Not sure many people realize just how good he is. Two of the Warrior championships were made much easier by key injuries to other teams. They are far from unbeatable. The C Bags had a great run with their youth, however, if they were in the West that run would never have happened. Unless CP stays healthy Houston has no chance. It is the Lakers. Hard to even imagine the kind of motivation Lebron will have against the Warriors in the playoffs. Other than Love almost everyone on our team is better than what he had in Cleveland. We are going high 50's and a Championship.

 

I’m done “chasing Kawhi”. It’s seems all of our focus has been on him when we have a perfectly capable team in front of us.

I was in the camp to trade BI for him, but now I’m not. We haven’t seen BI play next to star and it could REALLY improve his game to another level, especially next to a complimentary player like Lebron. We saw how a young Kawhi benefitted playing next to the Spurs Big 3, let’s take a year to see how BI responds his year with less pressure to “lead” and focus on getting better. The nice part about what we built is that we have options. We can still go for Kawhi next year, if BI doesn’t pan out, he’s still a cheap effective role player, but his trend say otherwise.

I want the focus off of our young guys from being included in trade talks, and focus on training and how to support Lebron as much as possible. Right now, we put together a good cast of hard nosed players in Rondo and Stephenson, we’ve added shooters like Svi, Moe to go along with Kuz, Hart who’s improved his shot, KCP, and BI, and we got some rim protection with McGee. Lopez would be icing on the cake to a SMART offseason by the front office.

This team gave Golden State fits last year when healthy, and we just added Lebron and a slew of strong contributors. Everyone’s expecting Golden State to steam roll over everyone, I sat they will get complacent this year and we’re going to sucker punch them and the league with our Suicide Squad this year.

Let’s go Lakers.

 

Definitely not expecting McGee to log any significant minutes, most likely be running a small ball lineup for the most part.

But, he did show to play within his role as a pick and roll target and anchor. He hasn’t done any Shaqtin a Fool type of plays the last two years. So that’s all I’m happy about.

 

The only signing I really dont like is McGee. Never been a big fan of his. A man that gifted who can't play for more than 15 min because of his lack of focus for a game is just not someone I like on the team. Even if Walton does what Kerr does with his playing time, I really didnt see the point of him being brought on. Defense? meh, never really struck me as a defensive presence. I actually think if there was a guy to have for defense 15 min a game, bring back Bogut. He was always good for those 12-15 min stretches in the game on defense. Or someone like him.

I agree with Lebron on the smart players part. We want this team filled with smart basketball players. If they have an edge to them, even better. But not flighty or unfocused.

 

Bogut was literally a walking body out there. He was tough, but here’s nothing left in that Aussie tank.

Like I said, McGee’s definitely reduced the amount of “dumb” plays he makes. He usually plays within his capacity, and it’s effective. Hes a strong finisher at the rim and a great lob target, his length and athelcism makes up for his lack of defensive IQ, something we really didn’t have last year. I’m not saying he’s our starting center, but the guy has learned to play his role and he does it well. His 15-20 minutes is also limited to his asthma.

 

I’m at the point where I’m fine rolling with what we’ve got. We have solid youth, a couple of which should have great breakout seasons. We have experienced vets that add value in their own right and to the youth.

If you factor in the synergy of these players playing together with championship leadership in LeBron and Rondo, I think they all will play better and with a purpose knowing that the Finals is a real possibility.

Now, regarding Deng, I’ll make the bizarro comment just to put it out there. He has been the pin cushion since he’s been here and rightfully so. But he was once a really good player. Considering the synergistic effect of a talented team playing together, what if he were actually able to provide a contribution with his play. Pipe dream probably, but what if...

I’ll put myself on record now to say I see this as a championship season and I think the Lakers can get that with the team as assembled today.

 

"Asthma my a**. The asthma field is over there," pointing to the parking lot at Valley Ranch.

-Jimmy Johnson (2-Time Super Bowl winning coach)

 

Ok I was just going over future cap numbers with a friend and it's pretty promising for our 2019 outlook. As it stands we are a very formidable team but we still stand to lead the league in available cap space next summer.

If we keep all of our youth, trade no one, renounce all 1-year deals AND find a taker for Deng's last year on his deal we will have 45.3 mil in cap space. Even with Deng, we'd have 26.5 mil, however It'd be hard to believe that Rob won't offload the last year of Deng's deal by next summer. We may even play him some this year and show he's still alive. He'd probably look good with LBJ/Ball/Rondo distributing instead of Ennis/Caruso. It will be FAR easier and more realistic to dump him in the last year of his deal with some picks and maybe a youthful prospect (not one the core 4 of course) as sweetener. Maybe even do it during this season for an expiring and toss in picks/youthful sweetener.

Having 45.3 mil and all our core youth as well as LBJ would be huge. If we made a Kawhi trade, we'd be able to sign another max as we'd have also sent salary out. We'd also have his bird rights allowing us to sign him and go over the cap. Magic was not kidding about us not being in a rush and with LBJ agreeing to come on board already, he basically made Magic and Rob the most powerful FO as far as FA goes and the upcoming deadline and summer.

 

So now that these six years of hell are finally over (I'm including the year of Nash's glass leg, Coward, Dr. Buss RIP, and Kobe's achilles), what do we call it? The Nick Young Era?

 

Veto Era.

 

Korver is available with about 3 million guaranteed for his last year, Deng and two 1st round picks?

 

Cleveland can get under the cap by moving Kover and not taking in salary and then letting someone like Hood go so yes to the picks but a big no to the Deng. That Clarkson contract sure isn't looking very good now either. Poor Cavs.