Hey Slick, We are ready for the “you were right about Russ being a cancer within the Lakers” post now.
Aaron Larsuel is speaking on Twitter spaces now, answering questions about the deadline, I didn’t catch the whole thing, came in maybe in the middle. They were asking him about Russ and the reports on him from today, and while he danced around it trying to be professional, he did say Ham felt disrespected, and did concede it was fair to say that Russ had been a bad teammate. From there he talked about Rob and said he was impressive in his ability to move from one desk to the next, and to take pieces from other deals discussed and move them to a different deal. Was asked about if Bryant asking for a trade made us move from looking at a wing to a big to replace him. He said it didn’t cause that directly, that he told Rob to monitor amp Bamba and that situation a couple months ago. We know they were interested in him in the off-season, but he was out of our price range, so that definitely makes sense. He also said the Bryant trade is a little funny because he thinks he’ll get less time in Denver than he was here. Then he was asked about sort of how trades come together, what that holdup was with Minnesota wanting more draft capital, said it was simply that, but it worked out as we know. He said Utah and the Lakers had a framework of a deal already in place, but brought in Minnesota to help get more of what each team wanted, sort of said that means we wanted a player like Russell and the options his contract brings over Conley. After that it was an interesting peek behind the scenes, says these discussions are had about potential deals every day all season so they’re ready for all options when the time comes, able to pivot easier.
that part is ominous to me. once all the dust settled, the thing that stood out most to me is that we are STILL left with the potential to have basically nobody but lebron and AD on the books come july. all the new guys are FAs or have team options. and i mean, great--if things go terribly, you're not locked into anything on any front. the other possibility is that the front office might be bracing for lebron and/or AD to ask out as soon as the season ends and want full flexibility to be able to adjust on the fly. i hope that's not the case, as we FINALLY look like we'll be able to bring the vast majority of the team back and expect to be competitive next year. after that, we can start operating like a regular team again.
It is ominous, you’d have to think it means they’re leaving the cap space option open for Kyrie. Would be hilarious and sad to not get him for a third time. But I guess we will see how this team does and hopefully if well, they’ll stop wanting to go the third star route and embrace depth. But yes that concern is always there for me with this front office.
I REALLY don’t want Kyrie anymore now that the Brick Anchor is gone. Three Star method is a Plan for failure.
I would have no respect left for Lebron and AD if they ask out. Those two and the FO are equally responsible for Brick and the 2 years we lost. If anything, they should be thankful that Rob cleaned up their mess.
Works been really busy this last week, so I haven't have a chance to give any thoughts on the moves at the trade deadline. Gotta give it up to Rob, he took me by surprise. I just didn't think the moves he made were going to be available. I thought for sure moving Russ was going to cost us 2 unprotected firsts and I was against it. To me, Russ and DLO are similar caliber players at this stage of their careers. Russ is a better playmaker and defender, however DLO is the better fit by being a much better shooter across the board. Classically DLO hasn't been a great 3pt shooter, but this season he is at 39% on 7 attempts, so that's a huge upgrade shooting wise. That's already a win for me. Looking further into the trade, we've top 4 protected ours which is a huge plus. Beasley is who he is, a volume shooter who can chuck at times and doesn't play a lot of defence, but he's going to get some good looks here and could be really useful. I like Vanderbilt quite a lot, as he defends hard and does a lot of the dirty work in the same way that Gabriel does. On top of that we got Hachimura for Nunn which was a great trade in a position of real need. Lastly we got Mo Bamba, who I was hoping we'd go for in the offseason with our MLE. The guy is an upgrade over Bryant (who I am sad to see go), he can actually provide some defence at the rim and can also hit it from outside. We'll miss Bryant's energy when AD is out, but Bamba is a much better backup big. The negatives; - We improved quite a bit, but it all came a bit too late. Trying to integrate 5 rotational pieces so late means our season is likely over whether that's in the play in or the first round. - I didn't like the comments about Russ on his way out, whether that's a fabrication or a real source is irrelevant - Russ did his best at being a square peg trying to fit into round hole. It just didn't work and I'm glad we got to move on. - I'm also kinda bummed Bev is gone - never thought I'd say that. That guy came on quite good after a terrible start - defending and shooting well. We also needed his leadership on such a young team now. - Don't like that we have so many SGs. Schroder is basically an undersized SG. DLO, Beasley and Lonnie are all similar sized and offensive minded players. Reaves is a great glue guy and I hope he doesn't get lost in the rotation.
Hell No. Some more " anonymous insider " BS IMO. That line of crap has been debunked, by the players and FO everywhere he's played, including on this team. From Reaves, Schroeder, Walker,Gabriel, Rui to AD here.. Anthony Davis on the Russell Westbrook trade: “I think he’s in a good place and he’s ready to get back to being Russ … Outside of all the basketball stuff or what people say about him on the floor, he’s a really good dude.” The only notable absence is the Kang...It would seem that maybe AD, was more pro Russ than Lebron from the start. For all I know, his dustups with the coaches, could have been about, the staff being more concerned with getting Lebron the scoring title, than winning games this season IDK. Anyway..the players come and go, they will all be gone eventually. I don't get too attached to them, I'll still be a fan of the Lakers regardless. Russ is now gone, some of you guys are more obsessed with him than I was. Taking petty personal shots at people, that you don't actually know is petty to me. Moving forward..I'm cool with the trades myself. I've never been a big fan of D'Angelo, however he’s going to get his shot at redemption here. If we don't succeed and I feel like he's getting unfairly critizied, I'm going to defend him too. It's what I do. Besides even if it all goes left, we are in a better position to trade for Kyrie, Turner, Grant or somebody else this summer. The beat goes on..the arms race never stops in the NBA..Go Lakers!!
