Dammit, I like our team!!

[dino]

[Car54]

[Car54]

[kobe_somebody_odom]

[Sentient Meat]

LouWill averaged 1.3 pts more than Kuzma

Kuzma shot horribly last season... it's more likely he improves and Lou declines due to age.

Caruso and Shamet averaged the same.

Harrell averaged a point more than DMC... but Cousins was still recovering from his injury.

People think Rondo is trash but he's one of the all time great passers... and actually has shooters to pass to this season. He got 8 assists per game playing with the 29th best shooting team from distance... imagine if we are league average what he will average. No Clipper is close to LBJ or Rondo in passing ability.

I don't get how you can think the Clippers are great and the Lakers are trash... there seems to be little difference between the two.

[slavavov]

[rst08tierney]

[lakerican]

Way to derail a thread. He.

1. Our 6th man now is Ex-starter Kuz. If we got an injury to either LeBron or AD, Kuz will start.

2. Offensively speaking, The great Caruso can do the same or better job that Lonzo did last year and in more than 50 games. Lonzo had lousy handles, fear to contact, straigt line driving, poor shooting and worst Cat's and the poorest offensive body language I have seen.

3. Other teams will have more problems dealing with us than we will have dealing with them.

4. Clippers, especially this year, don't have a chance to even sniff a victory in the 8 games that they will play against us.

Do I like this team??

Of course I like this team. I see them in the top 3 in the conference and above the Clippers.

[TheBlackMamba]

Rockets roster last year (2nd best team in West):

Harden
Broken down CP3
Capela
Tucker
Gordon
...and then a bunch of minimum guys (literally Austin Rivers, Gerald Green, and Danuel House just signed for the minimum or close to it).

Lakers projected roster:

Lebron
AD
Kuz
Danny Green
Boogie
Mcgee
KCP
...and then a bunch of minimum guys.

Obviously, we're praying that Iggy is added to the list above, but even proceeding without him - we should have enough for a solid rotation around Lebron and AD and overall just as strong of a team as the Rockets, if not better because AD >>>>>>> CP3. Now Harden is likely a more reliable one-man offense than Lebron and probably any other player in the league at the moment, but if you have faith that he can still access another gear in the postseason (which I do), it's not that wide of a gap.

[Vancouver Fan]

Lebron at 35 isn't carrying us to anything. Our team lacks the depth to be in real contention.
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Music is my medicine

[unleasHell]

[unleasHell]

[Kobesystem]

[The Juggernaut]

[rst08tierney]

Lol @ everyone $hittn on Kuzma.....

[dcastillo]

[Car54]

[hype]

At the end of the day we can go back and forth with little nit picks here and there or a bunch of "what ifs" but if people are saying the Lakers have no chance at being a contender they are either trolling or haven't seen the rest of the nba rosters next year. It's absolutely wide open and for the Lakers like all the rest of the possible contenders they will need to have a few things go in there direction to get there but that's a mass problem not just a lakers problem.

Kind of like how I have had several people tell me how lebron is old and ad is injury prone and the clippers are going to dominate haha.. You got Kawhi who literally used having to rest 15-20 games a season as part of his agreement because of his injury concerns and then you have george coming off surgeries of both shoulders and likely wont be ready to go until the pre-season so he wont be doing much this off season and will very likely be rusty at the beginning of the season. until proven otherwise I absolutely consider them contenders as well but it's insane to me how so many people are considering them the obvious favorites over the lakers.

[Vancouver Fan]

[Car54]

[ssiknick833]

[gng930]

X-factors next year IMO:

1. Health of AD and Lebron. I'm a bit more optimistic considering Lebron's off-season started more than 3 months earlier than usual.

2. Health of Cousins and/or further emergence of Kuzma. I'm optimistic here that one of these two will work out in our favor.

3. Emergence of one of Quinn, KCP, Rondo, and Caruso as consistent closing options. I'm less optimistic here but it's certainly achievable.

I think our bigs our set between AD, Kuzma, Javale with Lebron and Dudley taking spot minutes. Cousins would just be gravy. In term of the perimeter and with Rondo's improvement from the 3, we no longer have any obvious liabilities on offense, at least 3 guys you'd be unwise to leave open (Green, Quinn, Daniels, maybe Caruso and Korver), and a handful of guys that will make you work for your shot (Dudley, KCP, Caruso, and maybe Iggy/Bradley). Add the high likelihood we will pick up a valuable player soon or at the deadline with the leftover room exception along with Lebron and Rondo's ability to elevate their games in the playoffs and I think we'll be in the contender conversation when it's playoff time.

Finally, the team is setting itself up to be a player in free agency in 2021 (hello Giannis). I could see Lebron taking a paycut at that point of his career to accommodate that.
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Luxury Tax/FA Spreadsheet (Save to your Google Drive to edit)

[moonriver24]

Are Chandler and Stephenson in their final contract? The names are still in Lakers roster list.
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Kobe's Top 5 Dunks, 81 points, MJ last gm @Staples

[poppajons]

[moonriver24]

Kuzma wouldnt have been selected for natinal team? If he had not been perceived worthy.
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Kobe's Top 5 Dunks, 81 points, MJ last gm @Staples