The Lakers Reality Show
- Thread starter wade boggs chicken dinner
- Start date
Yup, they probably won't consider it, which I suppose is good for us, since they'll be stuck treading water for a long time in that case.
They won't consider trading Lebron, but they should if if they miss out in free agency this summer. They don't have any bad long-term contracts on the books and Lonzo/Ingram/Kuzma is an okay starting point for a rebuilding franchise. Add a lottery pick this year and what would be an absolute haul in any hypothetical Lebron trade and they'd be well on their way to a legit rebuild. Fans would probably be okay with it, too; that city just isn't taking to Lebron like many expected.
Who could trade for LeBron though? It would have to be a team with at least two, impressive young assets, plus draft picks, and still have a star player or two so LeBron knows he is going to have support. Plus they would probably have to be in the Eastern Conference because if the Lakers were in the East this year, he would probably be the 5th or 6th seed.
You can always do the Brooklyn special, and offer unprotecteds for after your window will have closed. Maginka might not have enough job security for that variant though.
Me too. It's the exact same "FML" face he makes in that other classic LeBron clip from the 2014 Finals where he looks over at the Spurs bench and sees Kawhi getting ready to check to back in.
It's an excellent thought experiment. Houston and Philly are typically aggressive and would have the need, but they are far enough in their window that they lack the young players and draft assets to really put together a good offer. Boston, of course, makes sense on paper, but the Lakers and Celtics would be unlikely to do that deal for a variety of reasons. The Knicks have the assets and probably the need as well, but a lot of pieces would have to fall into place this summer to make that viable. After that you get teams like Dallas, Chicago, Milwaukee and Denver, all of whom might have interest, but probably won't interest Lebron. It's not an easy fit anywhere, but teams would get very creative if the Lakers really acted like they were courting offers (which they won't).
Cracks me up that Lebron is pulling a prime Kobe, missing the playoffs with a crappy roster he helped select and Lakers fans are crying for Kobe.
!5 seasons under the belt, 44+K minutes plus another 10k playoff minutes, three full seasons worth of playoff games, to a guy who amazingly had never been injured before. Who could have guessed he would have ANY injury issues when LA signed him as a FA?
For this to not consign the Lakers to another half decade of futility, LeBron needs to lure a top 10 FA there before he ages out of the league, and that FA will need to be the cornerstone of that franchise for the next half decade or more. AD could have been the guy, but the hamhandedness of Lebron's people, plus the lack of interest in the Lakers' assets, scuttled that deal. If Kawhi is set on the Clippers, and KD isn't feeling dealing with Lebron's sideshow, they very well could come up with a second tier all star in free agency, which maybe gets them to 53 wins with a healhty leBron.
Kobe screwed the Lakers when he insisted on that last big contract, instead of taking less and allowing them to sign a superstar like LBJ in some of his prime years. Now they face the possibility of the other transcendent post-MJ superstar of doing the same thing - taking up big money, not jibing with younger teammates, not being able to stay on the court due to injury. Remarkably, the last two Kobe years, the Lakers had a better record without him than with him. LeBron's Lakers aren't there yet, but it's been a clusterfuck ever since he answered Magic's midnight knock on his door.
For this to not consign the Lakers to another half decade of futility, LeBron needs to lure a top 10 FA there before he ages out of the league, and that FA will need to be the cornerstone of that franchise for the next half decade or more. AD could have been the guy, but the hamhandedness of Lebron's people, plus the lack of interest in the Lakers' assets, scuttled that deal. If Kawhi is set on the Clippers, and KD isn't feeling dealing with Lebron's sideshow, they very well could come up with a second tier all star in free agency, which maybe gets them to 53 wins with a healhty leBron.
Kobe screwed the Lakers when he insisted on that last big contract, instead of taking less and allowing them to sign a superstar like LBJ in some of his prime years. Now they face the possibility of the other transcendent post-MJ superstar of doing the same thing - taking up big money, not jibing with younger teammates, not being able to stay on the court due to injury. Remarkably, the last two Kobe years, the Lakers had a better record without him than with him. LeBron's Lakers aren't there yet, but it's been a clusterfuck ever since he answered Magic's midnight knock on his door.
The Lakers won 35 games last year and are on pace for 38 this year, so not tangibly different. Lebron did miss a chunk of time so it's not a totally fair comparison but they haven't been lighting the world on fire since his return either.
Apologies if this has already been posted.
The “LeBron is an Epic Douche” folks (raises hand) will especially enjoy it.
https://www.sbnation.com/2019/2/27/18241439/lebron-james-quotes-la-lakers-win-season
The “LeBron is an Epic Douche” folks (raises hand) will especially enjoy it.
https://www.sbnation.com/2019/2/27/18241439/lebron-james-quotes-la-lakers-win-season
Lakers 24-23 with LeBron. 30-35 overall. Lakers give up 43 points at home in the first quarter against the Nuggets and lose by 16. Rondo finishes the game sitting ten seats away from the rest of the team at the end of the game. Lakers play without their Young Three, aka the future core of the 39 win Pelicans.
LeBron passes MJ on the all time scoring list.
LeBron passes MJ on the all time scoring list.
I love Rondo too. If he bought in, I'd love to see him a backup PG for the Celtics as they try for another title the next few years.
Is it possible that LeBron doesn't make an All-NBA team? He is already imo looking at All-NBA Third Team behind Giannis, Durant, George and Leonard. I'm not sure if anyone can bump him off the third team but if he plays under 30 mpg the rest of the way and misses some more games, it could get interesting. If Detroit keeps playing well I could see Blake making it; then it would be maybe Jimmy Butler? Draymond? Siakam? Bojan Bogdanovic? I'm probably dreaming.
Alex Caruso was mic'd up
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Grateful that Alex Caruso was mic'd up for this historic moment for LeBron James. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LakeShow?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc^tfw">#LakeShow</a> <a href="https://t.co/UuRZjUIMRv">pic.twitter.com/UuRZjUIMRv</a></p>— The Ringer (@ringer) <a href="">March 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Grateful that Alex Caruso was mic'd up for this historic moment for LeBron James. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LakeShow?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc^tfw">#LakeShow</a> <a href="https://t.co/UuRZjUIMRv">pic.twitter.com/UuRZjUIMRv</a></p>— The Ringer (@ringer) <a href="">March 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Lakers brass are definitely focused on the important uses of their time:
though Rondo actually did say some very nice things for Lebron on Instagram.
Is now the right time to point out that Lebron is 34 years old and suffered a significant injury this season? Would it be worth also mentioning that Kobe's last effective season was his age 34 season? That Jordan retired (second time) at age 34? That Bird *should* have retired at 34?
Not all numbers are created equal. Before the injury, he was strongly impacting winning whiile putting up those numbers. Since the return, the numbers are there, but it's looking a lot more like "big stats on a losing team."
Between the missed time and shit performance since he's been back, I don't think he should be All-NBA this year.
James may be the best physical specimen of that group. But he had the more physical wear and tear in his career than those guys as well. I think he can play at a high level for a while.Obviously not at his usual high levels. If the Lakers can get him help.
Bird had a history of a bad back. Kobe had a history of a bad knee. I don't know that Lebron has anything really comparable. From what I've seen of him this year, the bigger danger seems to be that he's mentally checking out of games/plays. He's won a championship, has nothing to prove, and it's conceivable that the game just doesn't inspire him to play as hard now.
Regular season LeBron has cruised on the defensive side for a few seasons.
"Maintenance" on his body, the dedication to diet, supplements, training, sleep (plus incredible genetics and luck) are a huge part of what has allowed James to play unprecedented minutes (with sustained excellence). I wonder if his burgeoning media empire and the ensuing time constraints combined with a less than optimal chance of real contention might reduce his will to sacrifice and open the door to Father Time a little wider. Invariably, when a great player retires due to age, it is not his love of competition that wanes, it is his inability to sustain the offseason workouts.
Lebron doesn't have the catastrophic or chronic injuries that Kobe or Bird had, and it's not the 1980s or 1990s anymore. Guys playing until 40 and beyond are not unicorns these days. Nutrition, weight training, massage/PT, arthroscopy/orthopedics, and *cough* supplements changed the game.
If Lebron burns out mentally, he could change course. And catastrophe is possible for anyone. But despite his mileage, there's no reason to think that he doesn't have five years in the tank at least.
I agree with this. The conventional knowledge in the 80s was heavy, muscular players could not last, leapers could not last.
Training, nutrition, etc, has improved, but the game has changed too.
Coaches don't go as hard in practice at high school levels, and certainly the traffic around the hoop has almost disappeared , and the reffing has protected shooters better, so Vince Carter was less likley to lang on somebody's foot, or get put into the photographers row than Michael Thompson, or Dr. J. Rebounds are almost not contested anymore, so that is less dangerous too.
Once concern I have with Lebron is the mile s he put on at young age. He was in the NBA playing 90 100 games a year, at the ages past players player 30 college games a year.
LBJ isn’t going to bounce back from injury as quickly as a younger player. All of us underestimated the significance of that groin injury. That said, it’s the first significant injury of his career. I’m not ready to call this the beginning of the end — he looked good before the injury. Like @Jimbodandy I think LBJ has 4 or 5 good years left, though I expect the gap between regular-season and postseason LBJ to continue to widen — I’ll be shocked if he wins another MVP award.
I'd say LeBron is more likely to get bored or frustrated with the grind before the experiences an incredible decline. If the Lakers strike out this off-season, I'm not sure how he will feel about grinding away at another 40 win season with a mediocre supporting cast. It's unclear from a basketball situation what motivates LeBron outside of winning championships. If he doesn't have a path to a championship with the Lakers, I don't know if he will continue to put in the herculean effort in maintaining his body and his game as he enters his mid to late 30s.
I wonder how Laker fans feel about Lebron. He co-opts their franchise, loads the roster up with old retreads, shits on the young core in public, and leads the team to the bottom of the draft lottery. This will be the Lakers' sixth losing season in a row, and seventh in the last eight years. They only had seven previous losing seasons since they moved to LA in 1961.
I hope that most reasonable Lakers fans expected this year to be a building year and will reserve judgment until after the draft and free agency periods close. It would be asinine to expect contention for a championship this year.
That said, the bad juju can't be fun.
Maybe they could have found some vets who could shoot. In hindsight, they would probably have been better off with G league players than head cases like Beasley and Stephenson.
I get that this was going to be a transition year, but any GM who willingly puts Beasley, Stevenson, and Rondo on the same team is looking for problems. They shouldn't have been an option, even if they had reps as stable team oriented players, just for the lack of three point shooting.
Leb
Kobe's last four years were a disgrace, but at least they got prime Kobe and some rings.
I was interested in the numbers here.
There's currently only 2 active 40+ year olds in the NBA--Dirk and Vince. There have been only 28 to ever play past 40.
By last game:
1940s: 1
1950s: 0
1960s: 0
1970s: 1* (Bob Cousy played 7 games that year after sitting out 6 years)
1980s: 1 (Kareem)
1990s: 7 (all from 1996 on)
2000s: 7
2010s: 11
It's interesting that of the 28 guys that played passed the age of 40, 18 of them didn't make it to 41.
Do you mean Lakers fans, or Kobe fans? It's hard to make a distinction anymore and the latter didn't really care for Lebron to begin with and this season hasn't done a lot to change their minds. On the whole they are still kind of in the honeymoon phase with the Lebron experience, but if this summer goes poorly the knives will be out for Lebron and Klutch. They won't turn against Magic. They'll put the blame squarely on Lebron shoulders, especially because every Lakers fan seems to think Lonzo, Kuzma and Ingram are future All-Stars.
We've gone over this before. They made zero effort to target guys that fit around Lebron. It wasn't as if free agency was protracted and they did their best with what was left after everything shook out. Lebron signed on day one and they immediately pivoted to Javale, Rondo, KCP and Stephenson. With the exception of Rondo and maybe Javale those are bad players and they were bad fits. Many pointed that out then and are still hammering it today. They needed shooters, wings that could defend, rim-runner/protectors, etc. We know the formula of how to build a Lebron-focused team and Magic and Pelinka willfully ignored that template because they believed they could build the better mousetrap. Go back to the quotes in the summer; they thought tough guys and ballhandlers that could take the focuse off Lebron were the key to unlocking a latter career renaissance.
NBA players playing until an advanced age is odd, because it does not correlate necessarily with skill, but rather avoiding injury and also providing leadership and support since players in their 40s are going to be playing less. Out of the 12 players aged 36 and up, five of them I would categorize as one-time-star players (Carter, Dirk, Wade, Gasol and Tony Parker) while other guys are role players (Udonis Haslem, Nene, Jose Calderon, Devin Harris, Kyle Korver, etc.)