Magic is pipe. He's with the Dodgers and isn't giving up that FO ownership position to come moonlight for the Lakers (and what would that look like to a FA?), or drop the Dodger relationship like he already had to drop his stake in the Lakers once, unless there's ownership happening, which is not going to happen. Have to think at West's age and being happy up there, he likes the ownership, that he's pipe too. As a consultant, does he even sit in the formal FA meetings?
Jackson pissed everyone off up there. No one liked him in the FO. If not for that maybe he would have still been there, even if Kerr could have been a better coach, which they wouldn't know for sure because they wouldn't have been looking for one.
true but we could be in a similar situation (except for the coach pissing everyone off part) if we have a good season FO would have to take a long look at scott and see if he's the right coach for the team going forward, taking into consideration the fact that at least one FA wasnt very impressed with his plan for the team
The Lakers already reached out to Magic THIS summer, but he was on vacation. It's far from pipe. I don't see any reason why his ownership with the Dodgers would have anything to do with pitching FAs on Los Angeles. The only problem is Jim and Magic's relationship, which I couldn't care less about. West is certainly unlikely and I'm not sure his son has the same personality and I'm sure his son doesn't have the same cache his father does. Magic and Jeanie are the ones who should be doing it. The fit and responsibility make too much sense.
didnt know that but i dont think that this would impact his role on the dodgers at all he's a partial owner and has no say in the decisions the team takes a part time gig when we wanna bring in a FA wouldnt hurt
Jim will be gone soon enough. Unless we land Durant, our young kids will take longer than two more years to develop into a WCF squad.
Magic is simply the face of that ownership group. His job is essentially to go to games and stuff his face with popcorn and Farmer John hot dogs while the cameras are rolling.
Did not know that about Magic. You mean they wanted him, or Jeanie and Mitch wanted him in the meetings? Just seems to me like it would be perceived by FAs as transparent or superficial if he's not a FO employee or part of the organization, that he was brought in to try to "close" them.
Yeah, I see your point. Jackson was a great coach, and so was Scott Brooks for OKC. But those teams are contenders and expected to go deep into the playoffs every year. Expectations are much lower for the Lakers and Byron. If Byron gets us 35-45 wins, he gets another year. If it's below 35 wins, the FO would have enough justification to fire him.
Honestly if there is a problem with us attracting FA (and I'm not sure that there is) it might be that players don't have a strong male presence to relate to. If Jim doesn't talk much in the meetings and Mitch isn't as charismatic as Jerry West, then Jeanie is probably the one trying to reel them in. In the past, Dr. Buss had that role. I think Jeanie's great as part of our FO but if we had a charismatic male B-ball Ops exec I think that would help with any luster we're missing when trying to reel in FA's.
Tough questions. If Byron oversees a struggling team that goes to the lottery, stocks up on young talent, and then reaches the cusp of respectability, I think he's our coach for the foreseeable future.
They called him while he was on vacation and asked him to get in touch with Aldridge. I'm sure that it came off as cheesy because well Magic was on vacation. But the point is we CAN reach out to Magic. I don't know why we did it while he was on vacation instead of telling him "hey can you stick around for a week and help us out with FAs? We'll pay for another week of vacation for you and Cookie". Magic is the perfect person to put in the room and sell this franchise. He can tell them how it is to be a star in LA. He can relate to their need to win. He can backup Jeanie and Mitch on building a competitive team. Players might like Kobe as a teammate, but I don't think he'd make a good salesman at all. Too intense without trying to relate to guys.
I don't think you need a male counterpart. I think you need a compelling personality that's all. Jeanie is by all accounts lovely, but I'm not sure she's authoritative in these meetings. I'm not sure she's got that commanding presence in these meetings that a leader needs. Dr. Buss was always the man who the room gravitated towards. Cuban is kind of like that too now. We need someone like that in these meetings. I don't know Jeanie personally so maybe it's not her fault, but Magic is definitely that kind of person. Maybe he and Jeanie can feed off of each other. Magic can show what it's like to be a star (relatable for the players) and Jeanie can provide a family feel (relatable for the player's families).
Ha, well I mean considering Kobe is most likely retiring, Thibs playing him every minute of the game would benefit my selfish reasons of wanting to see him as much as possible.
I was one of the guys who was starting to lose a little bit of hope with this summer, considering how things were going at one point. I actually have to give kudos to @KareemtheGreat33 who always kept positive even when nothing was going on here. Right now, I can definitely say I'm happy with our summer, and it could still improve more, which is fantastic. Sure, LaMarcus Aldridge would've been great, but like many have said before, it was really unlikely from the very beginning. Same with Jordan, though in my case I really had mixed feeling about him. I thought Jordan was a great fit, but I didn't really like him and he's definitely not even a second offensive option. He has improved a lot in defense, I admit, but honestly, I prefer a centered Hibbert over Jordan (I do admit I'm still not sure we'll get a centered Hibbert though). Fans memory tends to be really short. People forget how extremely good was Hibbert at his best in defense. He was a guy that really made life difficult for other teams with the easiest shots in basketball. You could see how a guy like LeBron James suffered a lot from having Hibbert in the middle. He may not be athletic, but Hibbert actually has a really good basketball IQ... and yeah, he's kinda really tall. At one point, Pacers defense was not only great, it was historically great, one of the best ever. Of course, that was not only Hibbert, as pretty much everyone in the team was a good defender, but the anchor was definitely Roy Hibbert. Considering the new salaries, Lou Williams at $7M per year is pretty much a steal. Not bad considering no one wants to play with Kobe and stuff, I'd say . He's mainly a scorer, but unlike Young, for example, he's got a whole lot more of abilities. He's a good passer, even if he'll never be a pass firtst kind of guy, he has some fantastic dribbling skills and scores in a lot more ways than just shooting threes. He was fantastic for the Raptors, and before his injury, he was amazing with the Hawks. Finally, I can't say I'm hyped or something with the Brandon Bass signing, specially when we don't even know the terms, but still, he's a solid addition who will probably come pretty cheap. We get a guy who has skills and hussle, who's main problem is mainly being short for his position (but then again, with so much teams going so small, that might actually not be such a problem). We finally have something we can look forward to after two really bad years.
