I get it but the Celtics were a title contender when Shaq was here so it's not really the same.
The Lakers Reality Show
- Thread starter wade boggs chicken dinner
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I hope West never goes back to the Lakers. Jerry West and Red are on the very top of a very short list of guys who understand how to build championship teams.
West is a prickly soul, who internalizes every slight, no matter how small, and never forgets or forgives. I think when the Lakers bumped him out it irrevocably damaged his relationship with Dr Buss' heirs. This is of course, all speculation. As a fellow West Virginian and WVU alum, I followed his career closely. His book is a good read and a peek into a deeply unhappy life
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Seconded; it isn't your typical athlete autobiography. Even after all his success, he was still tortured by a few failures.
Yeah, I know AD is great, but I'm not sure he's gonna solve this if they trade out everything for him. Especially another year or two from now. They had to win this game.
Sounds like a good read. By "a few failures" does that include 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969?
The Cs were 28-9 with Shaq in 2011, and 28-17 without him. Shaq shot 66.7% with the Celtics, the highest percentage of his career by far, albeit at a low volume, because there was plenty of room for him to beast with the Big Three out there. If he stayed healthy, that team might have gotten by the Heat and won a title. The fossilized remains of Jermaine O'Neal and Nenad Krstic was quite a downgrade from an old Shaq.
Yeah, we were 37-11 when Shaq went down with his calf injury. Even as a shell of his former self he was so effective for us that year on both ends of the floor. The guy could barely move but still was such an impactful presence.
Thirded. Much less about bball than life itself.
I love that Phil Jackson shitted on the logo and burned that lakers bridge forever.
I will say, Lonzo seemed to be figuring it out before his injury and Ingram seems to be figuring it out recently. Still a weird fit with LeBron, but despite the struggles and the injuries could make an argument that as a transitional year the young crew (Kuzma more consistently) has advanced this season. Of course, the key is that consistency and, for Lonzo, staying healthy -- but if the Lonzo and Ingram can sustain their progress then despite Maginka's missteps the Lakers might be in pretty good position next year with the addition of a top free agent.
But, even if so (and that's a rosy scenario), not convinced Magic (or LeBron) gets how to value players in today's NBA.
edit: to add some stats to that,see here: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/2/27/18243524/los-angeles-lakers-youth-development-lebron-james
But, even if so (and that's a rosy scenario), not convinced Magic (or LeBron) gets how to value players in today's NBA.
edit: to add some stats to that,see here: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/2/27/18243524/los-angeles-lakers-youth-development-lebron-james
still very small sample size, of course, and the flip he's still just 21.
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Almost the entire rotation was there when Lebron signed as a FA. They were 27-35 last season at this point, 30-32 now, with Lebron taking up Randle's minutes. (24-20 with LBJ in the lineup, a 45 win team if he had played all season and they won at that rate). Lebron should have known what he was signing onto. Two of the flotsam signed for this transition year, Rondo (39%) and Stephenson (38%), have been their best three point shooters all season, a scary thought for a roster. The recently acquired Reggie Bullock is a career 40% shooter, and he has been getting 32 mpg and is shooting 44% on the longball.
The biggest problem is their two volume three shooters, LBJ and Kuzma, only make 4 of the 12 threes they take each game, and that's why they're 28th in 3%. That's a lot of inefficiency for a team to overcome. If they had two 40% shooters taking 12 threes combined per game instead, they'd be 7th in the league in 3%. However, they've only lost two games all season by less than four points.
If the Lakers make the playoffs, they're going to get dispatched in five games or less. I guess LeBron's endgame here is to try to toughen up his teammates the rest of this season with his verbal jabs, and then in his role as GM, jettison the ones he feels can't handle it.
He could have surrounded himself with talent if he didn't decide that the most important thing in the world to him was to go play for a specific team because a long time ago they had great players. For example, he could have figured out a way to play in Milwaukee.
It's worse than that. He goes to teams, dictates that the acquire or dump players, and then complains about the results. A lot of the mess on the Lakers, and on Cleveland before that, is because they brought in players on bad contracts specifically because LeBron wanted them. Wherever he goes, you get the best player in the league and the worst GM at the same time.
LeBron hitched his wagon to Magic, who I never thought was up for this. The Paul George whiff will haunt them badly.
Yes, its absolutely worse than that and BOTH whiffs on PG will haunt LeBron. I'll eventually stop making this point, but he could have just stayed with his 'hometown' team and built around Kyrie and Paul George. Two of the three best players in NBA (healthy Kawhi is the other) plus another top 10 in Kyrie is not a bad place to start. Yes, I acknowledge the advanced stats don't always agree with my take.
Pure speculation: I also believe it was this episode that had Kyrie moving to the exit for a strong franchise committed to a long term vision. Or the Knicks.
It's not just advanced stats that disagree with this take. Paul George is an excellent basketball player. He is not a top three player and never was and never will be. Kyrie's peak is top 10'ish, but even that is a stretch
That’s a bizarrely categorical take wrt to George. RPM has him first in the league this year by a comfortable margin, and most MVP talk has him easily in the top 5, often in the top 3.
I put him somewhere around 3-6 myself, but “never was and never will be” is extremely debatable.
Yeah, LBJ and Curry are the consensus top two; most GMs would also have Durant, Giannis and Harden ahead of George or Kawhi, PG13’s career year notwithstanding.
MVP is a regular-season award; PG13 will deservedly finish 3rd in the voting (behind Giannis and Harden, probably in that order). That doesn’t make George a top-3 player.
A silver lining for the Lakers is that Brandon Ingram is playing really great basketball now. His trade value has increased.
He is having a great year, no doubt. And yes, he is likely top 6'ish this year for sure. However, the talk of him going to CLE was from 2017 though offseason. Don't think anyone would have categorized him as a top 3 player when this hypothetical trade didn't happen.
Now THAT'S leadership that the youngsters will look up to. I cannot help but feel joy and satisfaction over the Lakers performance this year.
I felt the same way but they're still losing. How good is he if he's not impacting Ws?
Dell Demps wouldn’t trade Davis to LA, we don’t know how Danny Ferry feels. And if the Lakers land a top four pick in the draft, it’s probably a cinch that the Unibrower does end up in LA.
Even absent that a late lottery pick might be enough to tempt the Pelicans with the way Ingram has played of late if they can get enough for Ball to make it worth the while.
Even absent that a late lottery pick might be enough to tempt the Pelicans with the way Ingram has played of late if they can get enough for Ball to make it worth the while.
Players his age usually don't. With him, it's a matter of gaining weight and putting in effort on the defensive end. The offensive game is pretty good, especially if the 3 point shot is falling. He doesn't turn 22 until September. I'd guess the average player starts to impact wins around age 24, but that's just a guess. I'm expecting the Wolves to be significantly better next year and the only difference will be Towns. He'll be putting up basically the same stats he did this year but they'll be better anyway. Sorta like the Bucks this year with Giannis. Just not as good. Brock Lopez helps but not that much.
Ingram since the all star break: 6 games, .570/.529/.750, 27.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 37.2 mpg.
For the year, Ingram's at .497/.330/.675, 18.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 33.8 mpg and the shooting is trending upward. It looks like the one huge difference this year from last is his game from 3-10 feet. His first 2 years he was at .289 and .207. This year, he's currently at .437. With some weight gain, that may improve even more. His TS% is now up to 55.5%. Tatum is at 55.3%.
Carmelo Anthony apparently doesn’t want to sign up for this mess for the remainder of the season, per Woj:
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26134208/lakers-melo-press-pause-deal-talks
My moneys on Tyrone Lue, but I think Mike Brown would be interesting. But it’s whoever Lebron wants, so...
Other teams aren't knocking down Lue's door to hire him. he has shown he can coach a LeBron led team to a title, as a Laker pedigree, as a scrub but a Laker nonetheless, and is close enough with LeBron to attend Bronny's AAU games.
Brandon Ingram announced out of the Battle of Los Angeles tonight with a shoulder issue.
This seems a bit overblown. Silas and Brown both got gigs after coaching Lebron. Spoelstra has obviously succeeded since Lebron left. So we are talking about Blatt and Lue. Not sure two coaches not getting another chance after being in the league for 17 years is all that out of the ordinary.
I think this assures that LAL won’t wait out AD for 12 months, they will use their cap space on whoever they can get this summer as they can’t afford another season like this. LeBron’s bullets are starting to wane.
I know this sounds insane, but if they strike out this summer on premium FAs (which is looking very possible), they're going to have to seriously consider trading LeBron. His contract wasn't eligible for a no-trade clause (per reporting at the time of the deal); there is a 15 percent kicker.
LA doesn’t trade away stars. They would never seriously consider trading LeBron. What they’ll do is re-shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic a million times.
Fun stat from Romona Shelburne’s amazingly titled article, “LeBron's first season in Los Angeles has become a disaster” (remember, LeBron injured his groin on Christmas):
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26137383/lebron-first-season-los-angeles-become-disaster