We know most of the reports about Rob before he took the job: he didn't have the best relationship with GM's because he was a shark when negotiating for his clients when he ran his agency. Then, he takes over this job; we get reports of him not calling back GM's, etc. I believe the NBA Is a relationship business. The NBA GM's are a small fraternity, and I don't know how well Rob fits into that community or how many relationships he has created, established and built. Maybe with Daryl Morey, Altman from Cleveland? Deals he has done with toys in the past. If he possibly worked on his relationships with GM's and ready made it s mission to build some relationships, maybe just maybe he could have worked a trade out with WB. Just speculation. He certainly didn't do himself any favors. I keep asking myself: if Mitch was in the same position could he have got it done? Well-liked, respected, fair. Not that I want Mitch back by any means, but it just makes me wonder. I'd pay (ownership won't) a lot of money to Sam Presti, dude from Toronto, or just start poaching other top teams and their assistant GM's; similar to what Detroit did with Troy Weaver who worked under Presti. Just rambling before I gorge on this food. LOL.
I’ve thought the same about GMs. Feel like a better guy in charge gets a Russ deal done. Or better yet, doesn’t get Russ to begin with. I definitely think there are some good minds out there who could run things.
Yeah, I wanted to see how things went with Russ. But GMs with a higher pay grade who know the game would have looked at the fit and said "nope"... Wondering if tha report is true about Demar; did we really balk at giving him an extra year? I would have rather dealt with that scenario by a country mile. Lol
That’s the craziest part to me. It really feels like we’d have been better off with literally any other rumored deal other than the Russ trade. Lol. I gave the trade a chance until December when it was clear to everyone that the move was a dud. it’s beyond that with Rob though. Also think we’d see improved overall asset management with a better GM. After all the talk of improving the team, we’re marginally better but the pieces don’t appear to fit well. Gotta hope for some last minute miracle on the trade front, Hsm to get off to a fast start, and AD and LeBron are ready to dominate the league again.
My feeling on Rob is that he has not gotten the job done. It’s that simple. He did not put together a contending roster which is what his job is. This is a 7 or 8 seed team as constituted today. The pieces don’t fit. He’s still got time to fix it, but it’s running out.
i agree with your longer post, but any move involving derozan hard caps us and would have been difficult. i'm skeptical SA participates in a way that doesn't hurt us, too. a better guy doesn't take our job because they wouldn't have autonomy. i'd also be curious to see how presti (especially) and ujiri would deal with a) expectations and b) the laker tax. any gm not working for la could have moved russ for less than 2 1sts. it's ridiculous the negotiating positions these teams have taken. you're saying it's personal with rob. i doubt that. it's about organizational envy. same reason owners didn't freak out about the chris paul veto, which should have triggered a full-on revolt (and would have if it happened to literally any other team).
if we got back to being a top defense, we could survive the shooting, as we did in the title year. it's our only hope, really, and i'm glad that ham has been hitting that hard in every interview i see.
I do think we will have some improvement with Beverley, JTA, Reaves and Bryant towards or above 35%. But we may not have a single 40%+ shooter which is a real shame. Some teams boast 2-3 or sometimes even more. Nets have Kyrie, Durant, Mills, Curry, Harris, O’Neale and Warren who will all shoot close to or above 40% (Nets just have so much firepower).
40% isn't normal though. It depends on the makeup of the team. The C Bags got to the finals with their top 3 pt attempt guys shooting less than 36% from three. Golden State had 3 high volume shooters from deep in Curry, Klay and Poole. Nobody shot 40% but Steph and Klay were at 38% and Poole 36%, Klay and Steph were awesome at that level of attempts 9 and 12
I never really understood why 35% shooters were so frowned upon, thats like shooting 52.5% from the field. But having a couple of dead eye shooters is always a positive in the space era.
I haven’t been here in a little while, but seeing what’s been happening and what’s *not* been happening I knew this was the place to be. The WMC thread is what I need right now. Lol. This roster is terrible and I’d be surprised if we win 30 games this season. When LeBron and AD miss games which they will due to injuries and just being old we have a summer league/G league roster. We won’t even compete with the bottom tier teams like Sacramento, Detroit, or so 2nd and 3rd tier teams aren’t even in the conversation. 1st tier Contenders? Hah, yeah right. I never wanted LeBron here as I said when the rumors started for reasons. I guess I can tell everyone who told me that I should be happy that he chose us, that I told you so. The Lakers/Lebron has destroyed our future for a fake championship that no one even wanted to compete for and now we literally have nothing to show for anything. No prospects, no draft picks for potential future prospects, in cap space hell where we can only acquire vet min guys. And to make it even better we see guys like BI, Lonzo, DRuss, Clarkson flourishing elsewhere. I’m not gonna say that they’d be flourishing here, but hmm, I guess we’ll never know. I’m just so frustrated with the Lakers vision of win now and win big, instead of building for longevity like a lot of the other teams do. Oh well I guess I can assume we’ll accidentally win another championship when everyone is hurt or a major world event is going on where no one actually wants to play basketball. Okay rant over. I’ll go over to the optimism thread and try to find something good to say.
Another 2020 title hater. Sorry it wasn't picture perfect for you in an absolutely s****y year including losing Kobe at the start of it. "That no one wanted to compete for". Now there's an objective provable fact. But hey it's the WMC thread.
Anyone who doesn't think 2020 was a legitimate title is a used dildo. Then you might as well take away the 2021 title, 2012 title and 1999 titles from the Bucks, Heat and Spurs since they weren't all wrapped up perfectly for everyone to compete. Take away Super bowl titles from the 1982 Redskins, 1987 Giants and 2020 Bucs while you are at it. In all honesty, this discussion is an argument of knobs. Prisoners of the moment b******* that shows clueless ignorance fueled by trolls whom always try and find a way to discredit s*** they don't like. f*** them and f*** this discussion. Seriously.
how was it a fake championship? and how do you know no one wanted to compete for it? were you in the bubble? yeah man, i totally would've been down to keep those kids (they wouldn't have been able to afford all of them anyways) and continue finishing in 10th every season! aside from BI and maybe clarkson, you think lonzo and russell have "flourished"? quite a stretch there. those guys aren't winners
Lol calm down OX. Why so upset at our fake championship Seriously though, it’s clear we’ll disagree on 2020 and we won’t change each other’s perspective, but the fact remains we didn’t and haven’t competed since because of bad deals, bad coaching, bad injuries, and bad management. 2020 doesn’t prove we had or have it together as can be seen by the lack of contention the past two seasons and the foreseeable future. But kudos to you for WMC about my WMC. Hehe; staying true to the thread.
