So why did we have to blow up the 2019/2020 team?

[anth2000]

Like this year, 11 new players..
Why?
Too much turnover the last two seasons

Poor ownership and management

[DrDent]

anth...I can't give a why, but iirc:

Lakers went into that offseason needing another ball handler to cover LBJ minutes. During the championship run the non LBJ minutes got rough at times. Rondo fixed that during the playoffs, but the FO was not counting on that.

Enter DS. That cost something...cya later DG.

Then a bit of a surprise "get" popped on the radar - Trez. They pivoted.

As they did that, Dwight said cya later. So now we wanted a more reliable big...out went Javale, in came M Gasol.

Rondo? He got his ring, wanted that last big pay day. Cya.

AB? That was just a wierd situation, team and him parted ways after he did not go into the bubble.

That's off top of my head.

Those were the primary big losses.

Last year's team had talent and got off to a good start; a healthy team may have made a deep run.

The bigger losses were frankly this offseason. Gone: DS, Gasol, Trez, AC, KCP, Kuz, Kieff. That's basically (over) half the rotation.
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"One thing I admire about Kuzma is his unwavering confidence. He truly has no idea that he’s not as good as he thinks." - Killer_Z

[troy]

I guess because Lebron wanted it that way. But everyone is afraid to criticize him. I also think Rob gets off and just signing players. To him, the challenge is in just signing players, not adhering to any sort of vision for the team.

I don't trust Lebron or Rob. Both are in this for themselves.

[Lakerz113]

No wings, to many guards, and no offensive system. If your going guard heavy, you have to have ball movement and players that will make opposing teams pay.

This team is in no mans land.

[anth2000]

42 years as a Lakers fan and I don’t like this lack of team here…
Feels faux

[lakersfever714]

because Pelinka'd
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Playoffs is good enough. - Jeanie Buss 2024

[bluehill]

I don't doubt that both LeBron and Rob both want to win. Their interests are mostly aligned with us fans because they don't want what they're experiencing right now.

IMO I think either LeBron or Rob or both felt like they were smarter than all the critics and thought that this would work. There's a fine line between confidence and hubris. They still have time to figure out, but early results are not promising.

On a side note, I saw that the Wizards just signed their GM to a multi-year extension. How happy was that guy when Rob called? In some ways, Rob is in the same situation as Jim and Mitch: win now at almost any cost. When other GMs know that, probably takes away some leverage.

[SGV-Laker fan]

Stop overrated the 2020 title team. It was a bubble title, and they didn’t exactly face a power house in the finals either. The entire league was still in flux after the long lay-off and then the bubble experience. Take off the Laker homer glasses, if there was ever an asterisk title, that was it. That team was not a juggernaut like everyone think, they were also patchwork roster that happened to get hot toward the end.

[Ksig]

Rob Pelinka.

[windycitycane]

13 months. From Championship to lottery team. Embarrassing.
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"I bought the Lakers so I could beat the Celtics" - Dr. Jerry Buss

[lakersfever714]

If we are all in agreement that Pelinka is the problem, now the million dollar question is "what does Jeanie think of Rob?" How long will she retain Rob? She stuck with Jimbo for quite some time and the Lakers never really progressed during his tenure. This current Laker team is regressing and fast.

This is why bad franchises remain bad because of bad ownership. When owners make dumb decisions, the teams suck and the fans get to endure a bad product.
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Playoffs is good enough. - Jeanie Buss 2024

[Ksig]

[bluehill]

[lakez34]

We had a recent thread on poor ownership, and while I agree the Buss kids aren't the best in the business, I worry that if it gets sold off to a corporate entity, it may get worse. We need a high roller billionaire type to come in and use the team as a personal toy/shiny object for it to be worthwhile, and not some entity that runs it as a pure black/white business to show on its corporate filings.

Re Pelinka, there's a thread on him already, but I think he's stuck between a rock and a hard place, and there's no point pinning the blame on him. He has a LBJ/Klutch team that is going to essentially dictate what they want or need in order to remain happy, and then he has an ownership group that is trying to save pennies wherever it can. He's also limited in his options in that many teams don't want to do anything to help LA just because of our reputation.

I do think our teams have been poorly constructed the past few years, but who do you blame for that, Pelinka or LBJ/Klutch?

[BandwagonLBJhopper]

The mistake was Russ. Pelinka takes the buddy hield deal and adjusts around the edges on the margin and we are ready for another run.

I think both he and Lebron also take for granted team chemistry. That title team wasn’t just hot in the bubble, they were great all season from day one and prior to the shutdown had taken out both Milwaukee and the Clips.

Was never a need to completely discard the core of that team.

[BandwagonLBJhopper]

[J.C. Smith]

I hate the narrative that they "blew up" a championship team.

Rondo got a $15m deal when they were willing to give him what he's making currently, the league minimum.

Avery Bradley opted out, and signed for the same money elsewhere. KCP got an extension and would probably be taking AB's starting job after the strong bubble.

Danny Green was getting death threats. Lakers fans had turned against him. He had to be moved and they got Schroder out of that deal.

Dwight Howard took slightly less money to play with the Sixers after they signed Trez. They were not anticipating that.

They did trade Javele and acquired Gasol but Javele had barely played in the playoffs. They expected they would have Dwight.

The only two decisions that they willingly made there were swapping Javele for Gasol essentially and Green for Schroder. Signing Trez and acquiring Gasol apparently scared Dwight into signing with the Sixers unexpectedly. That was not their decision. Rondo leaving was also not their decision unless you wanted to pay him $7.5m per season? And his departure is what made signing another ball handler essential.

"Keeping the team together" would have involved paying Rondo $7.5m per year, keeping Danny Green who would be a free agent the next year and who Lakers fans had turned against, somehow convincing Bradley to come back when his starting role had been taken, passing up on the chance to sign Trez for the MLE, and then whispering sweet nothings into Dwight's ear to convince him to stay. And then assuming that each of those guys was willing to do that.

[lakersboy]

[Batguano]

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

[Batguano]

[PenG_]

[troy]

[roger_federer]