+1. The Artist Formerly Known As Ron Artest was a huge key in 2010...with the help of his psychiatrist. The young core that we have in Randle, Clarkson with whoever with nab at 2 have mature, professional attitudes. As the saying goes: "one bad apple..."
This is the most I've looked into the draft probably ever... It's been both sad and fun at the same time. Some of these kids have great talent. I wonder if every draft looks this deep until they hit the NBA and you realize half the kids you loved are just awful NBA players... That being said, today I've just been looking over our mock drafts and looking over who we've had in for workouts... I'm getting really excited for the Summer League to start. We could have an AWESOME team in the Summer League and as sad as that is to say, I don't care. I'm excited about it. If our sophomores from last year play we could have: Clarkson/Buycks Brown/Powell Anderson Randle Okafor/Black I mean... half of those guys are legitimate NBA players. That's going to be fun.
No on Wade. How's that helping us again? He'd eat up salary, he's old, he's injured, and we need to go young. We need a wing player, so get Danny Green or Middleton, or Harris. Why in hell would we get Wade? If the reason is "veteran presence" we'd be paying tens of millions of dollars for that. I think we can find cheaper veteran presence.
Less than 24 hours before the direction of the Lakers takes a monumental turn. With all the back and forth on LakersBall these past few days regarding trades, free agency, etc., I think we should all have a reminder of how bad it once was, just to make us appreciate how good it's going to get... Cheers to a new day Lakers fans!
By this time tomorrow we'll have our answer. I find it extremely unlikely that Mitch drafts a kid and then trades him after we've already put our hat on him and all that. So either we'll have traded the pick by then or we'll be eagerly awaiting the Backstage Lakers show that features our newest rookie addition(s). I'm excited. I have my very strong doubts that we trade the pick. We've gone through a lot of trouble, had guys come in for multiple workouts, dined and watched games with them. I think Mitch and company want the young blood and the available cap space more than they want Cousins. I think they're just holding Sacramento over a flame to see what comes out of them if they get desperate. Mitch is playing chess again, that's all. By this time tomorrow we'll be celebrating and analyzing and probably lamenting about the kid we picked up, but our future will finally begin. It's going to be a great day tomorrow.
Future is bright and all it took was 2-3 years of crap, some teams have been crap and haven't stop being crap. It's fun being relevant again, you quickly remember how much people hate the Lakers. Tomorrow is the first of the dominoes to fall, next season looks very promising and being able to share it with all you awesome people is going to be fun.
Well it's my opinion, but I believe the Lakers are just seeing who they can get to budge. They're playing the same games with Philadelphia. I think they'd take a trade, but only if it blew them away and the Kings so far aren't doing that for us, so they'll take their guy and be ecstatic about it.
Precisely. If we end up with the pick great. We have the cap room to still make the team competitive (especially if we can get Aldridge!). If we trade for Cousins, we'll have the #6 pick likely in two meaning we'll still have youth AND more immediate talent. There's no future scenario I can see where things are worse than last year. #optimism
Optimistic thoughts: Mitch is smart. He won't pass up on the opportunity to have a talented, young core of Clarkson, Randle, and Okafor on rookie contracts (with enough cap space to add max talent around them).
Summer League team is going to be so much fun to watch. Wow. Russell JC / Brown Brown / Nance Black / Kelly Randle
So yeah... about that. Just messin', I think we'll be ok, I'm very optimistic at the moment, feel better about next year's team than this last one already. Plus, not having to root for the tank again, because there's no way we're going to be bad enough to get our 2016 pick back.
Well the main point of my post was that I was worried that we would squander the opportunity to have a young core on rookie contracts for Demarcus Cousins. I'm totally fine with Russell replacing Okafor. Giving up 2 or more of that trio for Demarcus would've been a huge mistake.
Agreed completely HJ, I didn't want to give up Randle or Clarkson for Cousins, and was hesitant to even give up the #2. As I've said since the rumor started, that's trading away 3 very important position players with big time potential on rookie deals for ONE all-star center with a large contract that still hasn't led his team to a playoffs. Not saying he couldn't, he's a great player, he just hasn't, so like with Love, I don't think you give up all your best assets for him.
Yeah as much as I wanted Okafor, I'm getting there. My excitement is coming along slowly for Russell. But definitely I'm happy we didn't trade the pick or Randle or Clarkson for Cousins... I'm happy we're going with the youth + FA big movement.
