Author Topic: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?  (Read 13762 times)

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Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #45 on: July 06, 2015, 08:58:56 PM »

Offline Fred Roberts

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The Lakers fan nailed it: Byron Scott is not going to get it done. That is the beginning and the end right there.

Lakers embarrassed themselves going after LaMarcus, never got a sniff from the Love / Rondo combo people thought they'd pursue and generally had to settle for peanuts outside of their draft pick (which many believe should have been Okafor!).

Now,  next summer sans Kobe and Hibbert, they have an opportunity to sell some new stars on a whole new generation.

This season,  they'll be lucky if Kobe doesn't get hurt again. It'll mostly be a season about watching Russell and Randle.

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #46 on: July 06, 2015, 09:04:04 PM »

Offline Rosco917

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They're hurrying the rebuild to keep Kobe happy.

We have no idea what Randle will play like, Russell is a talent, except he has to play next to Kobe, Hibbert is a one demential dinosaur. And Kobe will inevitably break down.

Oh...I forgot Byron  ::)

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #47 on: July 06, 2015, 10:02:17 PM »

Offline tazzmaniac

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I think the only loser in their moves is Philadelphia. They now have a team that could win 35-40 games if their young guys can play and Hibbert is a little better after a change of scenery. That makes them not good enough to make the playoffs, but better than most of the terrible east teams and the worst teams in the West. What looked like it could be the 6th pick in 2015 is looking like a 12th-14th pick in 2016. I dont think that is what the 76ers were hoping for when they traded for that pick.
Which teams in the west are the Lakers better than?  Even if they are better than most of the terrible east teams, the Lakers have to play a much tougher schedule.  The terrible east teams benefit by playing each other a lot.  Before the recent acquisitions, the Lakers were a bottom 3 team.  Now they'll probably get 28-30 wins and finish 6th or 7th worse.

I think they will definitely jump Denver and would be shocked if Denver does not unload some of Lawson, Faried, Chandler.

Portland has had the worst offseason of a team I can remember and could be the worst team in the West

The timberwolves are still incredibly young and should be still bad

The Kings will either be a success or a disaster

The suns got a nice signing of Chandler, but are they trading bledsoe?

Finally Utah played amazing to end the season, but are they for real?
The Lakers have an old, inefficient Kobe who has missed most of the last two seasons due to injuries.  They got a slow center whose former team was happy to dump his salary for a 2nd rounder.  Lou Williams was a nice pickup.  Russell and Randle have potential but probably won't be impactful in this year.   

Portland should be worse and probably Denver too.  The TWolves have young talent but they also have Rubio, Martin and Pek.  The Kings should be better but I think they fall short of the playoffs.  If they are a disaster it actually benefits Philly more.  The Suns are clearly trying to win now so I can't see them trading Bledsoe unless they get equivalent talent.  Utah is more real than the Lakers and should challenge for the 8th spot. 

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #48 on: July 06, 2015, 10:13:34 PM »

Offline vjcsmoke

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Hibbert has a lot of question marks.  There's a reason the Lakers got him so cheap.  And they only traded for Hibbert after swinging and missing on top tier free agents like Lamarcus Aldridge and Kevin Love.

As for Russell, of course it's a high upside pick, but if you win the #2 pick in the draft, you better be getting a good player!

I'm not really impressed with Lou Williams unless the Lakers can dump Nick Young.  There's an article out there that states that with Kobe, Nick Young, and Williams, the Lakers will have the worst guard unit out there in terms of jacking up contested jump shots.  There might not be enough balls to go around in LA to keep the shooters happy!

According to Spor****, the Lakers took 283 more contested jumpers than any other team last season, even with Bryant playing only 35 games. Add more Bryant plus Williams and L.A. could lap the field in that category. Among 166 players who attempted at least 300 jumpers, Bryant ranked first (69 percent), Young ranked second (68 percent) and Williams ranked 20th (46 percent) in regard to what percentage of their jumpers were contested. And Clarkson ranked 30th at 43 percent.
http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2015/07/05/report-lakers-got-somebody-lou-williams/

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #49 on: July 06, 2015, 10:26:31 PM »

Offline LooseCannon

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This season,  they'll be lucky if Kobe doesn't get hurt again. It'll mostly be a season about watching Russell and Randle.

The Lakers will be unlucky if Kobe doesn't get hurt again.
"The worst thing that ever happened in sports was sports radio, and the internet is sports radio on steroids with lower IQs.” -- Brian Burke, former Toronto Maple Leafs senior adviser, at the 2013 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #50 on: July 06, 2015, 10:38:01 PM »

Offline Bosstown

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The Lakers just have 2 guys who could be really good. We have Smart and a bunch of question marks.

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #51 on: July 06, 2015, 11:02:02 PM »

Offline obnoxiousmime

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Well, yes -- the Lakers "blew" by the Celtics when they secured the #2 pick in the draft.   They smartly played for a top 5 pick and they ended being the only team to move up in the lottery (of course). 

D'Angelo Russel has the most upside of any player on either team. Julius Randle could be #2 (but not necessarily).  Kobe remains the best player at present (my opinion based on his on-court performance last year despite injuries and a poor shooting percentage).   

But Kobe, Bass and Hibbert are not the reasons I think the Lakers have surpassed the C's.  It's because they have a legit building block.  All LA needs is one true building block (once Kobe is gone) to lure a couple top tier FAs.  In 2-4 years LA will be back in contention -- this is the surest bet in sports.  C's could be anywhere at all 4 years from now.  This is not due to Kupchek over Ainge; it's because the Lakers' FA advantage will play itself out eventually.

Took the words out of my mouth. However, I would also mention that a bad franchise will find a way to mess things up even if they luck into drafting a star like Russell could be. If Cleveland wins a title with LeBron it will be the first time in recent memory a totally incompetent ownership or management won a title while doing everything it could to screw it up.

This is why the draft system is so f'd up. Teams are rewarded for being horrible. Teams that are also bad but still trying to win games are penalized.

So yeah, the Lakers leapfrogged us by acquiring a more valuable asset than we have on our team currently, but in the long run I'd still bet on the Celtics front office over theirs. That is, unless Russell turns out to be special. Players are waiting for a reason to go back to LA, and a star player already there is a big draw.

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #52 on: July 06, 2015, 11:02:37 PM »

Offline ssspence

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The Lakers offseason has been a failure, to say the least. They're now overreacting to missing out on the big names by signing or trading for cast offs.

And ours has been a raging success??

We have had one of the worst offseasons in the league..

Welcome to the blog. Ours has only been a failure to those without patience. Ur one of them. Ainge is not.
Mike

(My name is not Mike)

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #53 on: July 06, 2015, 11:26:02 PM »

Offline RockinRyA

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I wish Kobe have the best of health these next few seasons. More Kobe means less development for Russell.

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #54 on: July 06, 2015, 11:35:49 PM »

Offline GratefulCs

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The Lakers offseason has been a failure, to say the least. They're now overreacting to missing out on the big names by signing or trading for cast offs.

And ours has been a raging success??

We have had one of the worst offseasons in the league..

Welcome to the blog. Ours has only been a failure to those without patience. Ur one of them. Ainge is not.
ssspence for three... Got it!


TP
I trust Danny Ainge

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #55 on: July 06, 2015, 11:53:29 PM »

Offline crimson_stallion

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Well, yes -- the Lakers "blew" by the Celtics when they secured the #2 pick in the draft.   They smartly played for a top 5 pick and they ended being the only team to move up in the lottery (of course). 

D'Angelo Russel has the most upside of any player on either team. Julius Randle could be #2 (but not necessarily).  Kobe remains the best player at present (my opinion based on his on-court performance last year despite injuries and a poor shooting percentage).   

Arguably...

I don't see as much upside in Russel as others do.  I admit I haven't watched huge amounts of tape of these guys, but I've seen enough to get a decent idea of the type of players they all are. If I were Boston and I landed in the top 2, there's no way i would have taken Russel over Okafor.

In fact I didn't think there was a single guard / SF in this draft that has clear superstar potential.  They all just look like they'll become 'nice' players. 

There's also no way Randle is #2.  He's 6'9" and 250 pounds with a 6'11" wingspan (that's shorter than Jae Crowder), no jump shot, no passing ability and horrible defensive instincts.  I don't think a player with Randle's physical profile + skill set has every become more than a 'decent starter' in the NBA.

Quote
But Kobe, Bass and Hibbert are not the reasons I think the Lakers have surpassed the C's.  It's because they have a legit building block.  All LA needs is one true building block (once Kobe is gone) to lure a couple top tier FAs.  In 2-4 years LA will be back in contention -- this is the surest bet in sports.  C's could be anywhere at all 4 years from now.  This is not due to Kupchek over Ainge; it's because the Lakers' FA advantage will play itself out eventually.

I'd disagree. 

If you ask me Kobe is the Lakers only exceptional piece.  Why?  Because this year he's Kobe, and next year he's a $25M expiring contract.

Boston is going to win a LOT more games than LA this year though.

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #56 on: July 07, 2015, 12:05:26 AM »

Offline Lakersalltheway

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The Lakers fan nailed it: Byron Scott is not going to get it done. That is the beginning and the end right there.

Lakers embarrassed themselves going after LaMarcus, never got a sniff from the Love / Rondo combo people thought they'd pursue and generally had to settle for peanuts outside of their draft pick (which many believe should have been Okafor!).

Now,  next summer sans Kobe and Hibbert, they have an opportunity to sell some new stars on a whole new generation.

This season,  they'll be lucky if Kobe doesn't get hurt again. It'll mostly be a season about watching Russell and Randle.

I don't think we embarrassed ourselves going after LA.  If Boston was in the same position as the Lakers, I'd venture to guess that Danny Ainge would take the meeting.  The embarrassing part was botching the first presentation and then having to conduct a second meeting to 'save face' all the while you just know LA is going to choose another team.  That's humiliating.  For about 48 hours, we had our clocked clean with the media and free agents.  No disputing that.

Nobody was going to pay Rondo more than Sacramento.  They were overpaying everybody to join that circus of a town.  Love?  Yeah, we had a meeting setup with him, but he spurned us and got paid in the process.  Good for him. 

I like the Hibbert acquisition.  All he needs to do is defend the rim like he's been doing.  I think Randle will develop into a nice player; so will Russell.  Stars?  We'll have to see.  I like Clarkson.  He's at least a rotation player.

Are we better than Boston?  I don't think so.  I think you guys have had a good offseason.  You'll probably win 45-47 games and make the PO's again.   

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #57 on: July 07, 2015, 08:16:21 AM »

Offline Moranis

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I did not see the point of Lakers signing all these new players. These players together won't come close to being an actual contender so why bother?
they owe their pick to Philly so being bad doesn't help them at all where being mediocre probably makes them a bit more attractive for free agents and will get their young guys a bit more actual experience.
2023 Historical Draft - Brooklyn Nets - 9th pick

Bigs - Pau, Amar'e, Issel, McGinnis, Roundfield
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Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #58 on: July 07, 2015, 08:24:53 AM »

Offline Eja117

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I did not see the point of Lakers signing all these new players. These players together won't come close to being an actual contender so why bother?
they owe their pick to Philly so being bad doesn't help them at all where being mediocre probably makes them a bit more attractive for free agents and will get their young guys a bit more actual experience.
It's top 3 protected in 2016

Re: Did the Lakers blow by us while we were watching fireworks?
« Reply #59 on: July 07, 2015, 08:29:01 AM »

Offline saltlover

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I did not see the point of Lakers signing all these new players. These players together won't come close to being an actual contender so why bother?
they owe their pick to Philly so being bad doesn't help them at all where being mediocre probably makes them a bit more attractive for free agents and will get their young guys a bit more actual experience.

If they tank enough to get a top 3 pick again, then they get to keep it.  Going into next offseason with Julius Randle, DeAngelo Russell, Nick Young, another top 3 pick, and $65-70 million of cap room would have been my goal if I were LA.  Yes, the lottery has to fall your way, but you can help make your own luck.  It's a rough send-off to Kobe, but that's life.

Missing the playoffs and not getting a 1st seems like the worst way to go.