In reply to the header of this post. I always keep saying if it's not broken don't try to fix it. Ok to make minor changes but you need to maintain what worked. Secondly you own the team don't let others specially those involved in the playing make your decisions.
In reply to the header of this post. I always keep saying if it's not broken don't try to fix it. Ok to make minor changes but you need to maintain what worked. Secondly you own the team don't let others specially those involved in the playing make your decisions.
Every team is dealing with injuries. Nuggets playing whole year without murray...nets aying without Kyrie and few games without durant...KL and PG13 are injured too. Compared to those teams, i think our top 3 played more games combined...
Even with full team we lost to lottery teams..so stop blaming injuries...this is a very badly constructed roster. Wesybrick trade is the worst ever in the history of NBA.
Even healthy, we weren't gonna go deep into the post season the moment we traded for Russ. We're not going anywhere with 44M sunk into a "no 3 & no D" player.
1b. Not making any moves at the trade deadline.
There weren't many available quality 3&D players who we could have afforded. Nico Batum was the only one we probably could have gotten with the tax MLE. Otto Porter had his mind set on joining the warriors and took less money to play for them. Fans would've gone (bleep) if we took Georges Niang over Kendrick Nunn. Same with Batum.
Ennis would've been a low risk signing though and we probably should've given him a shot.
2. THT not panning out.
They put a big bet on THT taking a leap this year. He's our 4th highest paid player after our big 2 and Russ. Chose him over AC and even Lowry last season. If he was even semi-decent, we probably could've used him as a trade chip at the deadline but no one probably wanted him after what he's shown this season.
3. Health.
We were 42-30 last season with both AD and Bron playing less games than they have this season.
4. Not getting a decent offensive coordinator.
Fizdale ain't it. Time and again, Frank has shown how inept he is at the offensive end. _________________ Plan A - Schroder/Hield/Lebron/AD/Gasol
Plan B- Schroder/Powell/Lebron/AD/Gasol
1. Chemistry
2. Old guys don't want to play hard
3. Injuries
4. Vogel couldn't adapt to this collection of players
5. Management didn't want to make any change midseason
1: Disastrous asset management / roster decisions
2: Cancerous culture of Lebron and AD
3. Standing around of offense and initiating a play with 8 seconds on clock / no point guard
4. Inmates running the asylum / lack of strong organizational leadership
5. Too many old boys, not enough men
It really starts with Russ but isn't that simple. Russ was always a bad fit and cost a fortune to obtain. That left little to spend. All NBA owners need to be wary of super max players and contracts. Most super max deals come later in players careers so they will be wildly overpaid later in their career. If you want to go big 3 they better all be durable and fit perfectly because they will consume the cap. Lebron is old and more prone to injury but is relatively an iron man next to AD. Russ is the WORST possible star to pair with James. He cannot shoot and needs the ball to be effective, that is before you factor he is declining and has a game that will not age.
Everyone involved in bringing Russ in should be fired, traded, cut and generally humiliated. The team last year was actually pretty good. Lebron and AD both missed significant time, which is why they were towards the bottom of the playoff standings. They had depth and potential and before AD got hurt, had the Suns on the ropes. It wasn't perfect as 3pt shooting was an issue. They could have fixed that without completing gutting the team. If there was a path to add Hield and Derozan, that would have been much better as well.
This team has way too much in common with the 2012-13 Lakers. They traded for Dwight (not 100%) and then gave a way a fortune to bring in Nash. Nash was way late in his career so not exactly sure about what they gave up. I am not sure Pau & Dwight ever fit well either. But then to complicate things they brought in D'Antoni to coach, clearly infatuated with Steve Nash the superstar (who wasn't at that point). They had a big / older lineup so of course bring in the run and gun small ball guru. This years team they added Russ and tried to build a Russ type of lineup, which means a small ball lineup, with complete disregard to the coach and players they had.
Why is the Lakers FO so incredibly bad at this? Find/hire a superstar GM. I don't know if it is possible but I would throw a ton of money at Sam Presti. In the short term the only path out of this is being smart. In baseball Money Ball helped the A's overcome a lack of competitive income. It worked until the Red Sox, Yankees, etc caught up to the concept. Lakers need that mindset to overcome lack of assets in the short term. I think Presti is that guy. Jeannie's biggest fault is she only uses people close to her (Magic, Pelinka, Rambis, Phil) and none of them have proven to be good at it. Time to go outside the organization.
The thing I've noticed about this laker team is that they don't present as actual team. It's almost as if they are a bunch of highly paid pick up players put together to play whenever needed. In previous seasons, we had role players that were effective, young, hungry, and at least played as a cohesive unit with lebron and AD leading them. This year, we have people like ariza, bazemore, Ellington, a bunch of guys picking up paychecks, casually doing nothing, no emotions no energy no nothing. Just sort of there, that don't even deserve to be in the NBA let alone on a championship laker team. And you have all these late season pickups, a bunch of journeymen leftovers, who are playing key minutes in the rotation when we are striving to get into the play in. As assembled, this is the most pathetic laker team that I have ever seen in all my years of watching the NBA. And I mean that sincerely .So in my opinion , the number one reason as to why we failed this year is because of Pelinka's construction of this team.
The biggest mistake moving forward is to think we have any viable pieces. Reaves Gabriel, nunn, and monk assuming he doesn’t cost too much are guys that work on any team.
The thing I've noticed about this laker team is that they don't present as actual team. It's almost as if they are a bunch of highly paid pick up players put together to play whenever needed. In previous seasons, we had role players that were effective, young, hungry, and at least played as a cohesive unit with lebron and AD leading them. This year, we have people like ariza, bazemore, Ellington, a bunch of guys picking up paychecks, casually doing nothing, no emotions no energy no nothing. Just sort of there, that don't even deserve to be in the NBA let alone on a championship laker team. And you have all these late season pickups, a bunch of journeymen leftovers, who are playing key minutes in the rotation when we are striving to get into the play in. As assembled, this is the most pathetic laker team that I have ever seen in all my years of watching the NBA. And I mean that sincerely .So in my opinion , the number one reason as to why we failed this year is because of Pelinka's construction of this team.
Pelinka simmed this exact roster in MyGM and won a ring. I think he knows what he's doing. Why do you doubt his abilities?
Ariza, Baze, Ellington and DJ signings were a waste. Should have signed young, hungry players with potential that we can develop.
Vogel had to try and create minutes for all of these egos and it never planned out. We never got a decent rotation going. _________________ "Dread it, run from it... destiny arrives all the same."
This mess will not get fixed until the current generation of Busses sells the team. Jerry is rolling over in his grave. _________________ Jerry Buss made the Lakers into the crown jewel of the NBA.
1. First and foremost, injuries to AD/LBJ. We are a top 4 seed when they are healthy.
2. Russ trade. When you take KCP/Kuz/Trezz/2021 1st/likely Caruso off the rotation, and replace it with a high usage, non-shooter player who can't play off the ball, you are fracked.
3. Rob. He has slowly but surely picked apart the 2020 model for the Lakers (long 3/D players around LBJ/AD) and now we are just filling our main rotation out with players who would be back end rotation players at best on good teams. His over reliance on older washed vets that took up so much of the roster, and the exorbitant cost it would take to waive/re-sign new players made Jeanie and Co. hesitant to cast off the washed players.
4. Ultimately, this is on Jeanie. You can say Klutch had undue influence on trading for Russ, but at the end of the day, the ball is in her court to veto. Her father did that when West wanted Moncrief over Magic for example, and there are countless examples where he said "no" (i.e. trading Kobe). There is no salary cap on coaching staff hires, analytics, cap specialists, the front office, and we are either penny pinching or just hiring based on social nepotism or ties to the Lakers. That is unacceptable.
Lakers are not 4 seed with healthy AD/LBJ. Not if Westbrook is on the team.
Joined: 09 Apr 2012 Posts: 1959 Location: Southern California
Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 2:34 pm Post subject:
Horrifically constructed roster. 3 max guys and basically league min and undrafted scrubs. One star is always hurt. The other only plays offense and the third guy is only a star in name.
Rest of these guys are scrubs. Give me a break. Plus they play no defense because of horrific roster construction. _________________ 17 time World Champions
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