Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

Deng:

Zubac:

 

I could have signed all those players and made those trades....if they only gave me the chance!!!

 

Jim in his post-Laker career, teaching Chaz how to shake 2 Martini jiggers at once.

 

You know how we all questioned maybe the "LA scene" and the intangibles that our market could provide was all hyped up since FAs were spurning us summer after summer. Umm, methinks it had everything to do with our basketball ops headed by capboy and his yes man. LA's market can't be touched as seen in the article that I posted below. In a nutshell: last season, the Lakers made in a week what the Grizz made all season (including the postseason). Also after Uncle Sam ravages a player's salary, they only pocket roughly 50% of what their reported salary is (regardless of market and state taxes). Its true that Harden will pocket more since Houston has no state tax, but in terms of NBA salary alone, it will only be in the amount of 1.5-2M annually over the life of the contract. So when we go big game hunting next summer and can offer max deals to a couple of guys, in truth, those players will only pocket half that amount. So where do the players make up those losses...that's where the intangibles of an LA market come into play. And simply we can offer that to players that no other team can offer in terms of an entertainment medium and endorsements. So why couldn't we use that to our advantage in previous summers? You all should know the answer by now. In addition, the Lakers can still be profitable even if we suck. However with our current FO, we want to be title contenders again and players are once again starting to notice...it all starts small, but with us winning the Summer League and now key free agents like KCP and even Bogut choosing us over contenders and securing a more lucrative deal should tell you all something.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst & Zach Lowe report:

Again, I'm not saying that playing for LA vs Houston/MIA won't cost a player in annual pay. But it is not as vicious of a hit as we once thought (considering players from a team that have no state tax, will still pay a "jock tax" as visitors when they come to play in other states). Not to metion the fed tax is higher in percentage for other states compared to Cali. For example, look at the breakdown of Harden (Houston no state tax) vs Blake Griffin (Cali state tax). Again in a nutshell, Harden will pay roughly 40% in fed and state taxes while Griff will pay 43%:

So the major deterrent for players not coming to LA was not really about the money...it was actually more about who was at the head of the table. And now with that out of the way, we'll finally get a summer to talk about.

 

Need...... More.....

 

I like all this talk but let's see if they walk the walk.

 

Yeah f***in' Bertka is the worst .... always running his mouth.

 

It's called we ought to can this rote "we have no chance at the playoffs this year" talk around here.

 

Don't look now but aside from Lonzo who we are going to hope like hell doesn't get hurt because of the unique skill set he has toward affecting the way this team plays the game and of course Ingram ..... we are going to be able to weather a few injuries a lot better than any time in the past like how many years (?) due to the quality of depth this year.

 

KCP. We need his D.

 

Our big man rotation is fire this season.

Brook/Zu/Bogut
Randle/Nance/Kuzma

Gone are the days of Jordan Hill, Kaman, Ed Davis, Brandon Bass, Ryan Kelly, Sacre.

 

Added to that.

Don't laugh .... unfortunately or fortunately to help get rid of him however you want to look at it .... I wouldn't be surprised to see Deng step it up considerably too.