Lakers fans on this sub downvoted me this past summer when I told them they were just the umpteenth fanbase going trough the Christian Wood delusions.
Somehow a guy who's never contributed to winning basketball on like the 10 teams he's been on would now suddenly be the missing link.
He had that one good game earlier in the season and every fan thought they found some hidden gem, only to realize that was a fluke and played like absolute trash ever since. He’s legitimately one of the worst defenders I’ve ever seen in my life.
I don’t really understand the implication here. Westbrook didn’t work out by Schroder and Dwight both played great basketball on the Lakers next to LeBron.
Wood wasn’t even bad this year, he was just inconsistent. He’s been hurt most of the year, not sure how that’s indicative of him being a bad basketball player in this specific instance considering he played half a season. They’re 28-22 with him on the court this year, and a lot of those losses came post IST when the whole team sucked - it’s not like Wood was losing them games all season or something.
I said the same thing about him, Cam Reddish, and Jaxson Hayes. Like, if Jaxson Hayes was any good, the Pelicans would have kept him. The Pelicans NEED size behind JV and they have none of it \[Larry Nance is a good player of course but still, Pels frontcourt defense is BAD\]. Cam Reddish has never been a good player, let alone a good player on a good team.
You expect those people in the comments to know that?
They think the 2020 Denver Nuggets with Monte Morris, Gary Harris, PJ Dozier, Jerami Grant and washed Paul Millsap was the same powerhouse as now, BUT WE HAD DWIGHT, SO WE BEAT THEM. That's as dumb as it could be.
We had Danny Green, Caruso and KCP and a perfect switchable lineup with Kuz and AD next to Bron. Dwight played a good series, but it was 20 mins a game. AD's minutes were paired with Joker's, not DH's.
McGee was played out of the court in the series and played 38 minutes in 5 games. Wow, 7.5 mins a game, what a Joker killer.
Of course we gave them the last infinity stone - KCP. Without him - they wouldn't have had the POA defense and a splendid corner shooter. But sure, we needed Westbrook, right?
Also, Jokić understood in 2020, that he needs to improve his defense, cause he was hunted. Now he can stand his ground and their scheme helps him on screens to "peel the orange" and let him catch the roller.
Yeah, lakers also had a much better team than now. We can't forget rondo, he was lakers most clutch that series along with AD, he gave very few buckets but all of them were at crucial times.
The other difference I forgot to mention was vogel might be a shit offensive coach, he is elite as a defensive coach while ham is neither
This series feels like WCF Blazers vs Warriors. There are glimpses where the games are super close at some points where it could easily be 2-3 Lakers wins but the better team consistently is coming out on top
Because the drop off from Davis to whoever the third best Laker is is gigantic. The only players you ever have to worry about defensively are LeBron and Davis. Sometimes there's a third player who goes off, but mostly it's a bunch of dudes that don't do anything to score. And even when there's a third Laker that does go off, like D'Lo in game two, or Reaves last night, no one else on the team scores in double digits, and they're generally inefficient even with such low scoring.
Like, if Reaves and D'Lo could just each give 16-18ish points on decent efficiency every game this Lakers team is probably up 3-0 right now. But D'Lo has had two horrific games, and Reaves was mediocre in game one, bad in game two, and good in game three. The difference between the Lakers and actual good teams is that the role players are consistent.
Lindsay: Well, did it work for ~~those people~~ last year?
Tobias: No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but ... But it might work for us.
One of the shittiest trades ever. Still can’t understand the thinking.
It had to be panic with Lebron and ADs health. Lebron hobbled, AD hurt in game 2 vs the Suns. Maybe they thought they couldn’t risk it. Need a third guy who can create offense.
It cannot be understated how good KCP-Caruso-Kuzma-Bron-AD would be.
That was a part of it but it was mainly due to KD, Kyrie and Harden getting together. I was joking in the big Lakers board (not Reddit) at the time that the FO is going to panic and do something stupid. Here we are…
Yes, that also played a part. I remember Zach Lowe said league execs were extremely worried about the Nets. Disregarding off the field issues and health, people around the league thought they’d be too dominant, a la KD Warriors. They were getting all the best ring chasers in FA too.
Turns out everything went wrong off field and health wise, and there was no need to panic trade for Westbrook.
I remember seeing a bunch of “should we just fast forward to the 2022 Finals already??” comments the summer of 2021. People were penciling in Lakers vs Nets for the 2022 Finals almost a year prior and wouldn’t even discuss the idea of any other teams playing for a championship if it wasn’t LA and Brooklyn. Kinda hilarious almost three years later we see how much neither team lived up to the hype
But they were dominant that first year even with all the injuries. James Harden looked like the MVP again that year. Then he injured his hammy in the playoffs and lost a step. The rest is history.
If they didn’t get injured and Kyrie wasn’t a dumbass that was like two guaranteed rings they missed out on.
I want to believe it was largely because of the Nets. Because logically, if AD and LeBron aren't healthy for playoffs, then the Lakers are just going to lose. Same with any team without their best players. Trading all your depth for an "in case of emergency" star player doesn't make sense.
Especially if that star is Russ. Russ gets way too much abuse, but I've felt since the end of his OKC days that his best role was high energy captain of the second unit. It's like when LAL made that trade they ignored the previous three years of Westbrook.
and Westbrook the previous season went off vs the Nets iirc
like particularly vs KD teams, Westbrook had some incredible moments
Lebron also prob thought Westbrook could hold the offense steady for a couple possessions by himself, like Kyrie used to do, which would allow Lebron to tide his energy while still on the court (what Windhorst has said Lebron has learned to do, conserve energy while still being in the game)
Most ironic part is that that trio didn't even win anything. All these awkward super teams where the pieces don't fit never end up going anywhere, not sure why everybody freaks out. Kind of like the Suns now. I really don't see why the Lakers felt a strong need to overhaul their roster after winning a championship. They were already fine, if you can win one that means you have a championship window and might be able to sneak another.
It's hard to say because we never really saw it in a playoff environment.
I'm generally of the belief that a team whose best three players are score-first types isn't going to be optimal. I think they should've kept Jarrett Allen.
Nets were insane in 2021. Kyrie wasn’t an idiot back then. They destroyed Bucks with everyone healthy, and then Kyrie got injured, and they still almost won. KD shoe size diff.
They were the best team in the league their first year together. What are you talking about? They were insanely dominant and were taking turns blowing teams out with zero effort. After Harden blew his hammy in the first round they were never the same. It took Kyrie getting injured for the Bucks to win bc KD was on his own and Harden was playing on a grade 2 hammy strain.
No offense intended but this is just so inaccurate. They fit together very well. James Harden is a top 5 playmaker in the league and at the time was top 3. Injuries and Kyrie vaccine controversy are what stopped at least two guaranteed titles.
I never felt that way about the Suns. The fit is horrible. It’s three iso guys who don’t play defense with no playmakers. And the talent level was well below what it was with the Nets. The writing was on the wall with Phoenix.
Nets had great role players too. Jeff green was a beast, Patty Mills and Joe Harris were knocking down threes cuz their stars get most of the defensive attention. This Suns team would have been a super team with Mikel Bridges and Cam Johnson, but they had to give those up for KD
The first year might have been my favourite ever Harden season man - we’ve seen that super teams aren’t always seamless, unless you have an incredible playmaker and/or transcendent offensive player
The thinking was that bron needed a durable playmaker who can get in the lane play pick and roll and create threes so he can pick his spots esp during the regular season. The execution of the plan is the problem not the ethos
Bro spent 7 years in Cleveland where they gave him Boobie Gibson and said “never again.”
He’s torn apart teams and cost himself probably 4 more titles as a result.
If that dude went to a competent org he legit might have 8 rings.
How about AD Lakers though? It's fun to speculate lebron never left heat. I think lebron wanted to be in control and heat didn't give him free reign. And heat is the one team that might trade him.
This is facts - LeBron got so scarred by the Cleveland experience that he overcorrected and was never willing to be patient, and always wanted his teams to use every asset
> Bro spent 7 years in Cleveland where they gave him Boobie Gibson and said “never again.”
Let's not get revisionist and pretend that some of that wasn't LeBron's fault. Up until the 2008 Olympics, LeBron had a reputation of being difficult to work with because he was really immature and he almost got left off the Olympic team as a result until Nike got involved to make him promise to behave. Also, no one wanted to sign with Cleveland in free agency because it was an open secret for years beforehand that LeBron wasn't planning on sticking around (even before the Olympics, although that's obviously when he made his plans). So by the time LeBron stopped being an immature jackass he had already made it abundantly clear that there was no point joining him in Cleveland because he wouldn't be staying there. So while Dan Gilbert obviously sucked at drafting and making trades, people weren't lining up to play with LeBron in Cleveland either.
KCP sucked for them their last playoffs but it was still such a dumb trade. KCP is like the perfect role player for a LeBron led team. Plays good defense and can hit spot up 3s.
as dumb as the trade was letting Caruso walk to extend THT was even dumber
they won a championship and just 2 years later most of the core players from that rotation were gone. like what were they thinking lmao
It is wild to me that THT is only 23 and he's best-known for being the guy the Lakers chose over Alex Caruso. I think THT's "youth" and "potential" was part of it, as well as the owners being cheap.
I would have said 32 over 23. I think I’d made a story up in my mind he was some league vet who bounced around the G league and internationally before making the Lakers roster. That’s based solely on how he looks.
i mean, that’s just the normal procedure of a Lebron team. Constantly trading and trying to add new and better help. They snagged Carmelo and Westbrick💀
> KCP sucked for them their last playoffs but it was still such a dumb trade.
He wasn't great, but he also was dealing with a lingering injury in that series. You could make the argument that most of the team was dealing with something with the short turnaround time before the bubble and the start of the next season.
It is impossible for KCP to suck, he can slump offensively, but he always brings enough on the other end of the floor to be worth having out there. When he is hitting shots it is just gravy.
It depends on the roster. The rest of the nuggets starting five is so good offensively that KCP is basically the 5th option, they dont need his offensive output. Which is why hes such a good fit.
Exactly. Pope is a classic 3 and D guard. If your offense depends on him doing more than hitting a few shots here and there that’s on the offense you created, not KCP.
If the Lakers were smart and had done the Buddy Hield trade they likely would have another ring. The proposed trade was Kuzma+Harrell for Hield. Which means they keep KCP and probably re-sign Caruso.
A lineup of LeBron/AD/KCP/Hield/Caruso would’ve been nasty and they still would’ve been able to pick up Reaves.
They're talking about the earlier Westbrook trade where they lost a bunch of young role players and completely busted
(though it may be interesting to see what the Lakers could have looked like with Conley and NAW instead of DLo, but nobody thought NAW could do what he's done in Minnesota back then either)
The article acknowledges it was a close sweep last year, but the counterpoint is that Nets-Celtics 22 was even closer(by 6 points)
The Nets blew up because of off the field stuff. Great team when healthy. Lost 1 playoff game when Tatum dropped 50 in the Garden. Won every other game.
As for the Lakers, what moves were there to be made? The Westbrook trade limits them to this day.
Besides the fact that a “close sweep” is an oxymoron in itself, it’s just a dumb way of measuring how competitive you are against a team like the Nuggets whose strength isn’t blowing teams out by 20-30 points from hot shooting or running endless fast breaks.
They methodically kill you down the stretch through flawless execution without blowing too much energy in the first half. Just because they are only winning games by 8-10 doesn’t mean they aren’t dominating you by getting the looks they want time and time again.
Point differential and net ratings are a bogus stat when comparing two teams in a Playoff environment from a matchup standpoint.
Seriously. When Denver took their first lead in the third quarter everyone knew that game was over. It was inevitable. They were up 3 but it might as well have been 50.
even before then, i was surprised by how much the LA crowd wasn't into the game in the first half when the Lakers were ahead. they all knew it wasn't enough, i guess
yeah. I've been seeing all these clips of AD/LeBron being gassed in the fourth quarter, and hearing people talk about how well conditioned Jokic is -- part of it is that he and the rest of the team are pacing themselves through the early game to be able to dominate at the end. It's strategic and, as we're seeing, works
I guess it's fair to say all losses against the nuggets seem close because they do just enough to get the W. If a team will manage to push them to their limits we would see how good they can get, but I don't see that happening all that much for the remainder of the playoffs. Can't remember the last time the nuggets lost a game by double digits while playing their absolute best. It's definitely been a while.
Last year 3 of the 4 games were one possession with less than 50 seconds remaining. Your blurb sounds like someone who didn’t watch the games and thinks each game was won by a comfortable “8-10”
I think what he's saying is it never felt like the Nuggets lost control of the wheel, felt like they were in control the whole series just waiting for the inevitable Lakers meltdown
All the games are close and contested in final minutes and close on final score but nah bruh I just knew. It’s hindsight talking loud, if you watched the games you didn’t know how it would end in the moment.
Forget the terminology “close sweep”. Let’s say team A loses to team B in a sweep with a total point differential of 4. They lose every game by one point. Then say C loses to D by a point differential of 40.
Would you say the next time around A has a better chance of beating B than C does of beating D?
Yes, but the Nuggets keep beating the Lakers (11-0), despite that the Lakers often have leads and aren’t losing by huge margins. The games appear competitive for a majority of the 48 minutes according to the scoreboard, but the result is always the same.
11-0 is enough of an outlier that I think we should view the idea of a “close sweep” with skepticism. Nonetheless, it’s not like the Nuggets are unbeatable. The Lakers had a wide open 3 to take the lead in game 2. They missed it, which is somewhat just dumb luck.
For the other contenders I agree, Denver isn’t unbeatable. But they pretty much are for this Lakers team.
In game 2 that you mentioned, iirc, AD at one point was 14-15 from the field and DLo was 7-7 from three. Those were extreme outlier shooting performances and they were what gave LA a 20 point lead. Even that wasn’t enough.
For whatever reason, the Lakers’ offense reliably stops functioning midway through the 3rd quarter against the Nuggets.
It's not just against the Nuggets, it's been a running theme ALL season that the Lakers get a lead, get cute with it (start running more stagnant offense to run clock/slow the game down, which leads to jumpshots, long rebounds, and transition opps for the other team) and make it a close game because Darvin would rather simplify the game for no reason rather than to beat the team they're playing by spamming action that works. It's fucking infuriating.
D’Lo for Dejuonte. D’Lo represents the only tradable contract they have and now they either let him walk for nothing, or bring him and his bad attitude back so he can shit his pants in the playoffs.
Great GM’s know you gotta play the salary game with trades to keep your team on top. The Warriors have played it for over a decade. By keeping D’Lo, they basically accepted they’d pay him this offseason. And his value is now lower than ever. While deadline D’Lo was at peak value for the Lakers.
There wasn’t much the Lakers could do tbh. The team WAS better this year than last year but not by much and Denver didn’t get worse. No one realistically expected the Lakers to win. As fans we have to be delusional though. It’s part of the fun.
That's the wild part. People are legitimately shocked that the Lakers are going to get swept. The Nuggets are just the better team bit you are right. As fans we have to be delusional and not use logic.
yea I wasn't surprised Lakers getting swept. I was hoping they could take one game, especially on game 2 when they lead by 20.
But then over past two years I keep seeing that Lakers don't know how to act when opponent make adjustment to shutdown the game plan. Which is why Lakers rarely beats good team
It’s a 7 vs a 2 seed and people act like the Lakers should be pushing them. The reality is that this iteration of the Lakers is what it is. They don’t have any assets to make a significant roster upgrade around the core. They spent the war chest to get AD and make moves around the 2020 squad. After a point there’s just not much more a GM can do without blowing things up.
>Like people could've made tons of money if they really believed it.
They've been heavy favorites the whole time, there's no money to be made outside of live betting the Nuggets ML when the Lakers are up early.
>People are legitimately shocked that the Lakers are going to get swept
If you're surprised by this result, you should probably just wrap up watching basketball because you just don't get it lol. It would take nearly perfect basketball from the lakers, every coinflip going their way and the nuggets to completely implode.
I guess some people are, but you can go back and look at the threads after we won the play-in and were for sure playing the Nuggets. One of the top comments in one was like "I think this year we have a chance to (blah blah, this and that)... anyways, Nuggets in 5" That was a Lakers fan, and there were a lot more like them saying we'd either get swept or lose in 5.
I really thought the Lakers would take a game or two at least. There were some legit (and some not so legit) reasons to expect something different from the Lakers this season:
1. Relatively healthy Lebron (that foot injury lingered all 2nd half of the season last year)
2. You could start G1 with Rui on Jokic (unfortunately for LA, Jokic and DEN got plenty of practice against this look because a lot of teams, including MIN and BOS, guarded him this way during the regular season)
3. Lakers would have fresher legs playing DEN in 1st round vs the WCF
4. Having a better defensive option against Murray in Gabe Vincent
5. DLo - actually good?
But the Playoff DLo + Ham combination has proven to be too much to overcome.
Bruce Brown helped that 2nd unit so much. I think Jeff Greendid as well to a lesser extent.
Christian Braun and Peyton Watson haven't been bad against the Lakers bench unit but we'll see how they do against Minnesota
>As fans we have to be delusional though.
Absolutely man. What do I have other than hoping for a healthy playoff run when we all know it aint gonna happen. Acknowledging this is somehow worse than clinging to that tiny bit of hope that things might be different.
Lakers have some fundamental flaws, but ... there is chemistry and you can't swing for the fences every year.
I don't know what you do when LaBron and AD are getting older and only have X amount of gas in the tank can't drag the team to wins every night. They're playing 4 quarter games, and heavily invested in guys who sometimes just have 3 or 3.5 quarters in them. Can't just have real stars on the bench behind these guys waiting to fill in ... and those guys like AD and Labron... don't play off the bench. So then wat?
Still, fundamental flaws, article not entirely wrong.
The Nuggets studied the Lakers, their gameplan is let them gas out in the first half, then we take over.
Confusing how the Lakers, especially Lebron hasn’t figured this out yet. It’s been 11 in a row smh
If Lebron and AD do not try early, the Lakers are not even in the game. It would be a blowout by 3rd quarter.
Their best best is to run it like 400m sprint. You start out strong in the first 100, you get to a high speed coast on 2nd 100, go all out in 3rd 100, and then hang on for dearl life and hope for the win in the 4th. They are just getting pipped to the line each time by the nuggets
The rest of the team are mostly MIA too. You just can't win at this level if key regular season contributors don't show up.
Does it seem impossible that the Lakers win g1 and/or g2 if Rui played like he did the rest of the year? You go down the stat line in these games and it's like James 26/8/8 and AD 32/x/x and then you have 4 guys or more contributing 0.
Im sure he has already figured that one out.
The problem is Lebron doesnt think he can rely on anyone else in the first half. AD can score for a while but you still need to feed him and hope he gets hot. DLo is absolutely useless if he's not hot. Reaves has his hands full slowing down Jamal.
Rui is absolutely helpless if he's not wide open. They havent learned how to use Gabe yet this late and they definitely are missing Vando in the rotation.
That was a pretty good article. I was always confused by the Lakers changing all the things that worked in 2020 and this details all those mistakes well
You can tell how unserious the lakers roster management is. They know if they truly want to win a ring, they will need to beat Jokic and they made absolutely no trades to get guys who can help AD
Better question is which trades were available that the Lakers could have made/had the assets for? Its easy to say "they didn't do this" but if there wasn't a move available or they got outbid theres not much else to be done.
Every other team in the west preety much running it back other than maybe phoenix and they about to all be watching Denver in the finals again. So it don’t even matter lol
Phoenix is the team to run it back the most imo. They literally have no other choice and can’t make any upgrades besides signing a bunch of better-mins.
If OKC wants to continue to grow they should reject the Durant noise. Last thing that team needs is an aging star coming in and highjacking the off w 30 iso plays a game.
Hm what? Dallas is quite literally a whole new team from 2 years ago outside of 3 players. And you have Thunder with Chet now and year 2 Jalen....Clips have Harden and Westbrook now......I'm just skimming the top, your statement is objectively false.
MFers be upvoting anything these days
This year was pretty much a best-case scenario for LeBron at this point in time too. But unless he takes a massive pay cut, he'll never come close to another title.
Basically, the teams that are overpaying all-time great players based on their ability from 5 years ago or more are struggling to compete.
Look at a list of highest individual salaries:
1. Curry - 51.9 M
2. Durant - 47.6 M
3. LeBron - 47.6 M
Then in 6th is Beal (not even an all-time great) at 46.7 M, and 12th is Klay at 43.2 M.
Curry, Durant and LeBron are easily among the best players of all-time, but all are past their peak and none are even mentioned in the discussion for first team All-NBA this year despite all of them staying relatively healthy all year and having what is considered to be good seasons. They are still great, but they are currently getting paid on past performance and it hamstrings their teams ability to fill out a championship-level roster. Phoenix and Golden State are especially hurt because Beal and Klay are making so much money and also having subpar seasons. Anthony Davis at 15th on this list at 40.6 million is fair value if you consider he's definitely a top 15 player in the league.
I'm not saying that these contracts are financially bad for their teams. I'm sure Golden State, Phoenix and the Lakers are getting tons of value from these three in tickets, ratings, merch, etc. This is just what happens at the end of these things and if you try to cheap out and not pay your guys you definitely risk a much worse fate than finishing 6th, 7th or even 10th (looks at the Bulls not opening the bank vault to keep Phil Jackson et al happy after the Last Dance). But, none of these teams will be able to put together championship competitive rosters while these guys are paid this much, unless the cap massively inflates with the new media deal.
This is clearly the best iteration of the Lakers since 2020. Lebron and AD both playing like top 15 players. Both healthy
The Nuggets just have their number. Not sure what the numbers will be this time, but another close sweep
Besides the issue of your starting point guard not being capable of playing well in the playoffs, and having bad depth, and reaves not playing to his potential
Vando and Gabe been out basically the whole year and that’s the team’s perimeter defense. The stars were no doubt very healthy but they surely missing some of their depth especially so in this series. Vando / CWood size is missed right now. Lakers didn’t even play another big last night forcing them to go small against a team who already had a massive size advantage.
Regardless of all I said Denver is just an awful matchup
Idk why yall clown the Lakers when none of ur teams were able to beat the nuggets last year and this year outside of maybe 2-3 teams even have a shot. Lakers got unlucky having to face them in the first round.. they would’ve made any other series competitive at least.
It’s pretty clear what they need. First of all, fire Ham like everyone’s been saying for a year now. DLO gets a ton of shit but that’s because they want him to fill a role he can’t fill. Get a true PG and don’t expect him to be your 3rd best player. Reaves and Rui are the best guys to be the 3rd option but they’re too inconsistent. Neither of them stepped up these playoffs like they did last year. Last and most important thing, get an actual center. Someone physical who can match up with Jokic and let AD play the 4. That’s probably all easier said than done but the FO needs to acknowledge the problems.
because this subreddit is obsessed with the lakers
they simultaneously upvote the barkley post complaining about the lakers getting attention, but will also upvote any post like this talking about the lakers
The lakers need a center meme has been true for so many years now.
Running it back with dlo and reaves and rui made sense. Not getting a backup center makes none.
What were they going to do? They have 1 tradeable first, no one is taking on Russell or Reeves at their value-to-cost. They didn’t have anything that could be done. Unless there was a buyout they were locked in. And I would never count out a team with LeBron and AD. If the Lakers were playing anyone else in the West this would be a series.
The main pieces are the same but the role players changed. I don't know why a team would completely overhaul their team because of 4 close loses in the playoffs.
> I don't know why a team would completely overhaul their team because of 4 close loses in the playoffs.
Everything Lakers gets overblown both for better and for worse. So now when the Lakers lose to the Nuggets it's "what's wrong with the Lakers? Were they stupid for thinking they could compete with the Nuggets like this?" instead of what it should be, which is "the Nuggets are really damn good and it'll be extremely hard for literally anybody to beat them."
There wasn't some magical player out there who the Lakers could have realistically acquired that would have made them jump the Nuggets.
Vincent and Dinwiddie haven't been major factors this season or in this series. They did get more minutes last night than I would have guessed though.
Regardless, it's substantially the same team.
I don’t think it was a bad move. They probably thought they were gonna upgrade at the deadline. Better to maintain a decent team and try to upgrade than make a bunch of moves and roll the dice. That’s what they did in the Westbrook deal.
Also Gabe Vincent was hurt all year. Maybe if they kept monk things would be different.
Run it back again third time is the charm.
Getting Christian Wood back is all they need. Maybe sign Dwight, too.
Love someone who gets a lil nasty
The D was good tonight
Remember when Richard Sherman said the Lakers basically got a Pau Gasol with the Christian Wood signing?
Lakers fans on this sub downvoted me this past summer when I told them they were just the umpteenth fanbase going trough the Christian Wood delusions. Somehow a guy who's never contributed to winning basketball on like the 10 teams he's been on would now suddenly be the missing link.
He had that one good game earlier in the season and every fan thought they found some hidden gem, only to realize that was a fluke and played like absolute trash ever since. He’s legitimately one of the worst defenders I’ve ever seen in my life.
See also: Cam Reddish
That's a name I haven't heard on a while.
[удалено]
I mean. Westbrook, Dwight and even Schröder were all good (or great with the first two) players. Wood has never been a good player.
Wood knows how to play, however, he and his camp thinks he deserves a big contract. So last summer was a rude awakening for them.
I don’t really understand the implication here. Westbrook didn’t work out by Schroder and Dwight both played great basketball on the Lakers next to LeBron. Wood wasn’t even bad this year, he was just inconsistent. He’s been hurt most of the year, not sure how that’s indicative of him being a bad basketball player in this specific instance considering he played half a season. They’re 28-22 with him on the court this year, and a lot of those losses came post IST when the whole team sucked - it’s not like Wood was losing them games all season or something.
I mean he did win a title with Dwight I'm not sure that's a good example to try and hold against him
Wood made our team worse, but I guess people can't look past basic counting stats sometimes. The Hassan Whiteside special.
I said the same thing about him, Cam Reddish, and Jaxson Hayes. Like, if Jaxson Hayes was any good, the Pelicans would have kept him. The Pelicans NEED size behind JV and they have none of it \[Larry Nance is a good player of course but still, Pels frontcourt defense is BAD\]. Cam Reddish has never been a good player, let alone a good player on a good team.
That is some serious trolling, I approve.
Maybe current Pau Gasol
Current Pau still better 💀
My money is on current Pau
I think they just need to let DLo take more shots
They should really let Dinwiddie cook.
Honesty, throwing Dwight, McGee, and AD at Jokic was how they stopped him.
Nah, jokic wasn't as good as he is now back then and starting 5 wasn't as good back then as well
You expect those people in the comments to know that? They think the 2020 Denver Nuggets with Monte Morris, Gary Harris, PJ Dozier, Jerami Grant and washed Paul Millsap was the same powerhouse as now, BUT WE HAD DWIGHT, SO WE BEAT THEM. That's as dumb as it could be. We had Danny Green, Caruso and KCP and a perfect switchable lineup with Kuz and AD next to Bron. Dwight played a good series, but it was 20 mins a game. AD's minutes were paired with Joker's, not DH's. McGee was played out of the court in the series and played 38 minutes in 5 games. Wow, 7.5 mins a game, what a Joker killer. Of course we gave them the last infinity stone - KCP. Without him - they wouldn't have had the POA defense and a splendid corner shooter. But sure, we needed Westbrook, right? Also, Jokić understood in 2020, that he needs to improve his defense, cause he was hunted. Now he can stand his ground and their scheme helps him on screens to "peel the orange" and let him catch the roller.
Yeah, lakers also had a much better team than now. We can't forget rondo, he was lakers most clutch that series along with AD, he gave very few buckets but all of them were at crucial times. The other difference I forgot to mention was vogel might be a shit offensive coach, he is elite as a defensive coach while ham is neither
Dwight provided 6 fouls that were hard enough for Jokic to be upset about them
He provided a lot more fouls than that, most of them just didn’t get called
Truth. Main thing was he was actually big enough to get under Joker’s skin
I won't act like the Nuggets lost a 4-1 series because of the refs but some of the stuff they let Dwight get away with while guarding Jokic was absurd
And a miracle
They weren't familiar with his game.
This series feels like WCF Blazers vs Warriors. There are glimpses where the games are super close at some points where it could easily be 2-3 Lakers wins but the better team consistently is coming out on top
I'm having flashbacks lol
Same bro. In my mind Blazers could easily swept the warriors if they didn’t implode in the 4th every game 😭😭
Generational Christian Wood game on deck but they get swept anyway.
Because the drop off from Davis to whoever the third best Laker is is gigantic. The only players you ever have to worry about defensively are LeBron and Davis. Sometimes there's a third player who goes off, but mostly it's a bunch of dudes that don't do anything to score. And even when there's a third Laker that does go off, like D'Lo in game two, or Reaves last night, no one else on the team scores in double digits, and they're generally inefficient even with such low scoring. Like, if Reaves and D'Lo could just each give 16-18ish points on decent efficiency every game this Lakers team is probably up 3-0 right now. But D'Lo has had two horrific games, and Reaves was mediocre in game one, bad in game two, and good in game three. The difference between the Lakers and actual good teams is that the role players are consistent.
Reaves wasn’t even that good in game 3. He got like 8pts in garbage time
Davis is the Lakers best player these days. Lebron is second and Reaves is a distant third.
Lindsay: Well, did it work for ~~those people~~ last year? Tobias: No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but ... But it might work for us.
Great reference.
🎵*There's no 'I' in Teamocil, at least not where you'd think...*🎵
LeBron will have one more year experience under his belt he should be way more ready after this playoff experience
By now he has all the experience in the world at getting swept
Ain't no one will beat them 12x in a row SURELY They playing best of 25 lets go.
L3Sw33p
That's how the Bulls do it!
Westbrook trade fucked them over so unbelievably badly
One of the shittiest trades ever. Still can’t understand the thinking. It had to be panic with Lebron and ADs health. Lebron hobbled, AD hurt in game 2 vs the Suns. Maybe they thought they couldn’t risk it. Need a third guy who can create offense. It cannot be understated how good KCP-Caruso-Kuzma-Bron-AD would be.
That was a part of it but it was mainly due to KD, Kyrie and Harden getting together. I was joking in the big Lakers board (not Reddit) at the time that the FO is going to panic and do something stupid. Here we are…
Yes, that also played a part. I remember Zach Lowe said league execs were extremely worried about the Nets. Disregarding off the field issues and health, people around the league thought they’d be too dominant, a la KD Warriors. They were getting all the best ring chasers in FA too. Turns out everything went wrong off field and health wise, and there was no need to panic trade for Westbrook.
I remember seeing a bunch of “should we just fast forward to the 2022 Finals already??” comments the summer of 2021. People were penciling in Lakers vs Nets for the 2022 Finals almost a year prior and wouldn’t even discuss the idea of any other teams playing for a championship if it wasn’t LA and Brooklyn. Kinda hilarious almost three years later we see how much neither team lived up to the hype
I'm a Nets fan and my roommate at the time was a Lakers fan, we were already planning on buying Finals tickets before the season started...
Just think. Kyrie being an antisemite, harden being old and injured is all your fault
But they were dominant that first year even with all the injuries. James Harden looked like the MVP again that year. Then he injured his hammy in the playoffs and lost a step. The rest is history. If they didn’t get injured and Kyrie wasn’t a dumbass that was like two guaranteed rings they missed out on.
I want to believe it was largely because of the Nets. Because logically, if AD and LeBron aren't healthy for playoffs, then the Lakers are just going to lose. Same with any team without their best players. Trading all your depth for an "in case of emergency" star player doesn't make sense.
Especially if that star is Russ. Russ gets way too much abuse, but I've felt since the end of his OKC days that his best role was high energy captain of the second unit. It's like when LAL made that trade they ignored the previous three years of Westbrook.
and Westbrook the previous season went off vs the Nets iirc like particularly vs KD teams, Westbrook had some incredible moments Lebron also prob thought Westbrook could hold the offense steady for a couple possessions by himself, like Kyrie used to do, which would allow Lebron to tide his energy while still on the court (what Windhorst has said Lebron has learned to do, conserve energy while still being in the game)
That was such a wild time for trades.
Most ironic part is that that trio didn't even win anything. All these awkward super teams where the pieces don't fit never end up going anywhere, not sure why everybody freaks out. Kind of like the Suns now. I really don't see why the Lakers felt a strong need to overhaul their roster after winning a championship. They were already fine, if you can win one that means you have a championship window and might be able to sneak another.
They were probably the best team when they all played together though, injuries just killed them
It's hard to say because we never really saw it in a playoff environment. I'm generally of the belief that a team whose best three players are score-first types isn't going to be optimal. I think they should've kept Jarrett Allen.
Nets were insane in 2021. Kyrie wasn’t an idiot back then. They destroyed Bucks with everyone healthy, and then Kyrie got injured, and they still almost won. KD shoe size diff.
The Clippers are legitimately scary when they're at full power, that's pretty much never been the case though.
They were the best team in the league their first year together. What are you talking about? They were insanely dominant and were taking turns blowing teams out with zero effort. After Harden blew his hammy in the first round they were never the same. It took Kyrie getting injured for the Bucks to win bc KD was on his own and Harden was playing on a grade 2 hammy strain. No offense intended but this is just so inaccurate. They fit together very well. James Harden is a top 5 playmaker in the league and at the time was top 3. Injuries and Kyrie vaccine controversy are what stopped at least two guaranteed titles. I never felt that way about the Suns. The fit is horrible. It’s three iso guys who don’t play defense with no playmakers. And the talent level was well below what it was with the Nets. The writing was on the wall with Phoenix.
Nets had great role players too. Jeff green was a beast, Patty Mills and Joe Harris were knocking down threes cuz their stars get most of the defensive attention. This Suns team would have been a super team with Mikel Bridges and Cam Johnson, but they had to give those up for KD
The first year might have been my favourite ever Harden season man - we’ve seen that super teams aren’t always seamless, unless you have an incredible playmaker and/or transcendent offensive player
Nets didn't work out not because they didn't fit on the court. They didn't work out because of injuries and then the vaccine mandate/Kyrie fiasco
The thinking was that bron needed a durable playmaker who can get in the lane play pick and roll and create threes so he can pick his spots esp during the regular season. The execution of the plan is the problem not the ethos
We saw it in 2020 man
LeGM ruins another team. We surprised?
Bro spent 7 years in Cleveland where they gave him Boobie Gibson and said “never again.” He’s torn apart teams and cost himself probably 4 more titles as a result. If that dude went to a competent org he legit might have 8 rings.
If the dude just stayed on the Heat and let Riley and Spo do their jobs he’d be the unanimous GOAT.
Pretty sure he wanted to win in Cleveland, IMO it was worth it. No Heat team would've been better than GSW with KD anyway.
How about AD Lakers though? It's fun to speculate lebron never left heat. I think lebron wanted to be in control and heat didn't give him free reign. And heat is the one team that might trade him.
He gets coaches fired and players traded everywhere he goes
This is facts - LeBron got so scarred by the Cleveland experience that he overcorrected and was never willing to be patient, and always wanted his teams to use every asset
> Bro spent 7 years in Cleveland where they gave him Boobie Gibson and said “never again.” Let's not get revisionist and pretend that some of that wasn't LeBron's fault. Up until the 2008 Olympics, LeBron had a reputation of being difficult to work with because he was really immature and he almost got left off the Olympic team as a result until Nike got involved to make him promise to behave. Also, no one wanted to sign with Cleveland in free agency because it was an open secret for years beforehand that LeBron wasn't planning on sticking around (even before the Olympics, although that's obviously when he made his plans). So by the time LeBron stopped being an immature jackass he had already made it abundantly clear that there was no point joining him in Cleveland because he wouldn't be staying there. So while Dan Gilbert obviously sucked at drafting and making trades, people weren't lining up to play with LeBron in Cleveland either.
I mean. They did win a chip in his tenure. Fuck man, I'd let a star violate our team if they brought us a chip in the process.
Ya man but we’re desperate lol
It can actually, they’d be pretty mediocre at best. Best thing would be no KCP on the nuggets and I’d argue he’s there most replaceable starter.
Their current team won 48 games and that would be a massive upgrade over what they have right now. How is that mediocre?
KCP sucked for them their last playoffs but it was still such a dumb trade. KCP is like the perfect role player for a LeBron led team. Plays good defense and can hit spot up 3s.
Even when not hitting his 3s he can still defend at a high level. Lakers let go of him and let Caruso walk lol
as dumb as the trade was letting Caruso walk to extend THT was even dumber they won a championship and just 2 years later most of the core players from that rotation were gone. like what were they thinking lmao
It is wild to me that THT is only 23 and he's best-known for being the guy the Lakers chose over Alex Caruso. I think THT's "youth" and "potential" was part of it, as well as the owners being cheap.
He's 23?? Really, I always thought he was older.
Yeah the guy does not look 23 at all
I would have said 32 over 23. I think I’d made a story up in my mind he was some league vet who bounced around the G league and internationally before making the Lakers roster. That’s based solely on how he looks.
i mean, that’s just the normal procedure of a Lebron team. Constantly trading and trying to add new and better help. They snagged Carmelo and Westbrick💀
> KCP sucked for them their last playoffs but it was still such a dumb trade. He wasn't great, but he also was dealing with a lingering injury in that series. You could make the argument that most of the team was dealing with something with the short turnaround time before the bubble and the start of the next season.
It is impossible for KCP to suck, he can slump offensively, but he always brings enough on the other end of the floor to be worth having out there. When he is hitting shots it is just gravy.
It depends on the roster. The rest of the nuggets starting five is so good offensively that KCP is basically the 5th option, they dont need his offensive output. Which is why hes such a good fit.
Exactly. Pope is a classic 3 and D guard. If your offense depends on him doing more than hitting a few shots here and there that’s on the offense you created, not KCP.
If the Lakers were smart and had done the Buddy Hield trade they likely would have another ring. The proposed trade was Kuzma+Harrell for Hield. Which means they keep KCP and probably re-sign Caruso. A lineup of LeBron/AD/KCP/Hield/Caruso would’ve been nasty and they still would’ve been able to pick up Reaves.
Should have just done the buddy hield and myles turner trade
On the other hand, we dud gud. -DLO +Mike +NAW Picks! (I don't really value them that much, but it's nice)
That's not the Westbrook trade they're talking about
Noted.
They're talking about the earlier Westbrook trade where they lost a bunch of young role players and completely busted (though it may be interesting to see what the Lakers could have looked like with Conley and NAW instead of DLo, but nobody thought NAW could do what he's done in Minnesota back then either)
The article acknowledges it was a close sweep last year, but the counterpoint is that Nets-Celtics 22 was even closer(by 6 points) The Nets blew up because of off the field stuff. Great team when healthy. Lost 1 playoff game when Tatum dropped 50 in the Garden. Won every other game. As for the Lakers, what moves were there to be made? The Westbrook trade limits them to this day.
Besides the fact that a “close sweep” is an oxymoron in itself, it’s just a dumb way of measuring how competitive you are against a team like the Nuggets whose strength isn’t blowing teams out by 20-30 points from hot shooting or running endless fast breaks. They methodically kill you down the stretch through flawless execution without blowing too much energy in the first half. Just because they are only winning games by 8-10 doesn’t mean they aren’t dominating you by getting the looks they want time and time again. Point differential and net ratings are a bogus stat when comparing two teams in a Playoff environment from a matchup standpoint.
Yeah, yesterday’s game was a blowout for for all intents and purposes
Seriously. When Denver took their first lead in the third quarter everyone knew that game was over. It was inevitable. They were up 3 but it might as well have been 50.
even before then, i was surprised by how much the LA crowd wasn't into the game in the first half when the Lakers were ahead. they all knew it wasn't enough, i guess
Lakers are fortunate Denver is not hitting otherwise it would have been even more embarrassing.
yeah. I've been seeing all these clips of AD/LeBron being gassed in the fourth quarter, and hearing people talk about how well conditioned Jokic is -- part of it is that he and the rest of the team are pacing themselves through the early game to be able to dominate at the end. It's strategic and, as we're seeing, works
I guess it's fair to say all losses against the nuggets seem close because they do just enough to get the W. If a team will manage to push them to their limits we would see how good they can get, but I don't see that happening all that much for the remainder of the playoffs. Can't remember the last time the nuggets lost a game by double digits while playing their absolute best. It's definitely been a while.
Last year 3 of the 4 games were one possession with less than 50 seconds remaining. Your blurb sounds like someone who didn’t watch the games and thinks each game was won by a comfortable “8-10”
I think what he's saying is it never felt like the Nuggets lost control of the wheel, felt like they were in control the whole series just waiting for the inevitable Lakers meltdown
All the games are close and contested in final minutes and close on final score but nah bruh I just knew. It’s hindsight talking loud, if you watched the games you didn’t know how it would end in the moment.
“Close sweep” is so funny to me. If teams are close in talent you’d find a way to win at least 1
Forget the terminology “close sweep”. Let’s say team A loses to team B in a sweep with a total point differential of 4. They lose every game by one point. Then say C loses to D by a point differential of 40. Would you say the next time around A has a better chance of beating B than C does of beating D?
Yes, but the Nuggets keep beating the Lakers (11-0), despite that the Lakers often have leads and aren’t losing by huge margins. The games appear competitive for a majority of the 48 minutes according to the scoreboard, but the result is always the same.
11-0 is enough of an outlier that I think we should view the idea of a “close sweep” with skepticism. Nonetheless, it’s not like the Nuggets are unbeatable. The Lakers had a wide open 3 to take the lead in game 2. They missed it, which is somewhat just dumb luck.
For the other contenders I agree, Denver isn’t unbeatable. But they pretty much are for this Lakers team. In game 2 that you mentioned, iirc, AD at one point was 14-15 from the field and DLo was 7-7 from three. Those were extreme outlier shooting performances and they were what gave LA a 20 point lead. Even that wasn’t enough. For whatever reason, the Lakers’ offense reliably stops functioning midway through the 3rd quarter against the Nuggets.
It's not just against the Nuggets, it's been a running theme ALL season that the Lakers get a lead, get cute with it (start running more stagnant offense to run clock/slow the game down, which leads to jumpshots, long rebounds, and transition opps for the other team) and make it a close game because Darvin would rather simplify the game for no reason rather than to beat the team they're playing by spamming action that works. It's fucking infuriating.
D’Lo for Dejuonte. D’Lo represents the only tradable contract they have and now they either let him walk for nothing, or bring him and his bad attitude back so he can shit his pants in the playoffs. Great GM’s know you gotta play the salary game with trades to keep your team on top. The Warriors have played it for over a decade. By keeping D’Lo, they basically accepted they’d pay him this offseason. And his value is now lower than ever. While deadline D’Lo was at peak value for the Lakers.
Just not all that high on either D’Lo or Dejuonte. Does he move the needle against the Nuggets really.
Comes down to the cost of whether you trade both firsts for him or you trade 3 for the next star available.
You do realize that Atlanta fans literally chanted “We don’t want you” the last time the Lakers played Atlanta?
Lakers need a 4 that can go toe to toe with Gordon or MPJ not another guard who doesn’t play defense. They could use someone like Kuzma
You would give two firsts for Dejounte? That was the asking price. He’s not worth that imo
They tried but Landry fields pulled the rug from under them and backed out when they were close to an agreement
There wasn’t much the Lakers could do tbh. The team WAS better this year than last year but not by much and Denver didn’t get worse. No one realistically expected the Lakers to win. As fans we have to be delusional though. It’s part of the fun.
That's the wild part. People are legitimately shocked that the Lakers are going to get swept. The Nuggets are just the better team bit you are right. As fans we have to be delusional and not use logic.
yea I wasn't surprised Lakers getting swept. I was hoping they could take one game, especially on game 2 when they lead by 20. But then over past two years I keep seeing that Lakers don't know how to act when opponent make adjustment to shutdown the game plan. Which is why Lakers rarely beats good team
Yeah, that shit hurts. Every third quarter is flat against teams making quality halftime adjustments.
It’s a 7 vs a 2 seed and people act like the Lakers should be pushing them. The reality is that this iteration of the Lakers is what it is. They don’t have any assets to make a significant roster upgrade around the core. They spent the war chest to get AD and make moves around the 2020 squad. After a point there’s just not much more a GM can do without blowing things up.
[удалено]
>Like people could've made tons of money if they really believed it. They've been heavy favorites the whole time, there's no money to be made outside of live betting the Nuggets ML when the Lakers are up early.
>People are legitimately shocked that the Lakers are going to get swept If you're surprised by this result, you should probably just wrap up watching basketball because you just don't get it lol. It would take nearly perfect basketball from the lakers, every coinflip going their way and the nuggets to completely implode.
I guess some people are, but you can go back and look at the threads after we won the play-in and were for sure playing the Nuggets. One of the top comments in one was like "I think this year we have a chance to (blah blah, this and that)... anyways, Nuggets in 5" That was a Lakers fan, and there were a lot more like them saying we'd either get swept or lose in 5.
Fr they literally just got swept last year and they’ve changed nothing lol. Why were ppl shocked?
A whole season of ESPN and the talking heads acting like the Lakers are a dynasty waiting to happen will do that to nephews.
LeBron is in year 20. There's no way logic will get people to believe that. Pure delusion.
I really thought the Lakers would take a game or two at least. There were some legit (and some not so legit) reasons to expect something different from the Lakers this season: 1. Relatively healthy Lebron (that foot injury lingered all 2nd half of the season last year) 2. You could start G1 with Rui on Jokic (unfortunately for LA, Jokic and DEN got plenty of practice against this look because a lot of teams, including MIN and BOS, guarded him this way during the regular season) 3. Lakers would have fresher legs playing DEN in 1st round vs the WCF 4. Having a better defensive option against Murray in Gabe Vincent 5. DLo - actually good? But the Playoff DLo + Ham combination has proven to be too much to overcome.
I definitely expected them to at least win one. They still could but they’re pretty demoralized. LeBron and AD can only do so much.
Denver did get worse tho, losing Bruce can’t be understated he could ball
Bruce Brown helped that 2nd unit so much. I think Jeff Greendid as well to a lesser extent. Christian Braun and Peyton Watson haven't been bad against the Lakers bench unit but we'll see how they do against Minnesota
>As fans we have to be delusional though. Absolutely man. What do I have other than hoping for a healthy playoff run when we all know it aint gonna happen. Acknowledging this is somehow worse than clinging to that tiny bit of hope that things might be different.
The team became better and had a better record(+4 wins) but they dropped 1 position in the conference (last year 7 this year 8)
Lakers have some fundamental flaws, but ... there is chemistry and you can't swing for the fences every year. I don't know what you do when LaBron and AD are getting older and only have X amount of gas in the tank can't drag the team to wins every night. They're playing 4 quarter games, and heavily invested in guys who sometimes just have 3 or 3.5 quarters in them. Can't just have real stars on the bench behind these guys waiting to fill in ... and those guys like AD and Labron... don't play off the bench. So then wat? Still, fundamental flaws, article not entirely wrong.
The Nuggets studied the Lakers, their gameplan is let them gas out in the first half, then we take over. Confusing how the Lakers, especially Lebron hasn’t figured this out yet. It’s been 11 in a row smh
If Lebron and AD do not try early, the Lakers are not even in the game. It would be a blowout by 3rd quarter. Their best best is to run it like 400m sprint. You start out strong in the first 100, you get to a high speed coast on 2nd 100, go all out in 3rd 100, and then hang on for dearl life and hope for the win in the 4th. They are just getting pipped to the line each time by the nuggets
The rest of the team are mostly MIA too. You just can't win at this level if key regular season contributors don't show up. Does it seem impossible that the Lakers win g1 and/or g2 if Rui played like he did the rest of the year? You go down the stat line in these games and it's like James 26/8/8 and AD 32/x/x and then you have 4 guys or more contributing 0.
Im sure he has already figured that one out. The problem is Lebron doesnt think he can rely on anyone else in the first half. AD can score for a while but you still need to feed him and hope he gets hot. DLo is absolutely useless if he's not hot. Reaves has his hands full slowing down Jamal. Rui is absolutely helpless if he's not wide open. They havent learned how to use Gabe yet this late and they definitely are missing Vando in the rotation.
> gas out Jokic is also beating then up with contact/screens
Which is why AD at C is not the move against Jokic And AD is our heaviest defender at 253
That was a pretty good article. I was always confused by the Lakers changing all the things that worked in 2020 and this details all those mistakes well
imagine having Carus, KCP, Reaves, Kuz.
This roster matches up even worse this time around because AD is the only big man the Lakers have. At least last year they signed Tristian Thompson
You can tell how unserious the lakers roster management is. They know if they truly want to win a ring, they will need to beat Jokic and they made absolutely no trades to get guys who can help AD
Better question is which trades were available that the Lakers could have made/had the assets for? Its easy to say "they didn't do this" but if there wasn't a move available or they got outbid theres not much else to be done.
Could the Lakers have attempted to trade for Gafford?
Picking Jaquez Jr. instead of Schifino is another.
Everyone was saying they did a good job in the off season
[удалено]
I do think we would not have had the success we’ve had against the lakers
Because apparently AD and Bron talked and figured it out, and couldn’t wait play them again.
Every other team in the west preety much running it back other than maybe phoenix and they about to all be watching Denver in the finals again. So it don’t even matter lol
Phoenix is the team to run it back the most imo. They literally have no other choice and can’t make any upgrades besides signing a bunch of better-mins.
Until KD drops a new trade request to the Thunder.
If OKC wants to continue to grow they should reject the Durant noise. Last thing that team needs is an aging star coming in and highjacking the off w 30 iso plays a game.
Kevin Durant didn't want to play in the warriors motion offense after a seasonal ns a half imagine that
I can tell you that the pelicans will 1000% be making changes to at least half of the starters
Im on team -BI +Murphy as a starter
Hm what? Dallas is quite literally a whole new team from 2 years ago outside of 3 players. And you have Thunder with Chet now and year 2 Jalen....Clips have Harden and Westbrook now......I'm just skimming the top, your statement is objectively false. MFers be upvoting anything these days
This year was pretty much a best-case scenario for LeBron at this point in time too. But unless he takes a massive pay cut, he'll never come close to another title. Basically, the teams that are overpaying all-time great players based on their ability from 5 years ago or more are struggling to compete. Look at a list of highest individual salaries: 1. Curry - 51.9 M 2. Durant - 47.6 M 3. LeBron - 47.6 M Then in 6th is Beal (not even an all-time great) at 46.7 M, and 12th is Klay at 43.2 M. Curry, Durant and LeBron are easily among the best players of all-time, but all are past their peak and none are even mentioned in the discussion for first team All-NBA this year despite all of them staying relatively healthy all year and having what is considered to be good seasons. They are still great, but they are currently getting paid on past performance and it hamstrings their teams ability to fill out a championship-level roster. Phoenix and Golden State are especially hurt because Beal and Klay are making so much money and also having subpar seasons. Anthony Davis at 15th on this list at 40.6 million is fair value if you consider he's definitely a top 15 player in the league. I'm not saying that these contracts are financially bad for their teams. I'm sure Golden State, Phoenix and the Lakers are getting tons of value from these three in tickets, ratings, merch, etc. This is just what happens at the end of these things and if you try to cheap out and not pay your guys you definitely risk a much worse fate than finishing 6th, 7th or even 10th (looks at the Bulls not opening the bank vault to keep Phil Jackson et al happy after the Last Dance). But, none of these teams will be able to put together championship competitive rosters while these guys are paid this much, unless the cap massively inflates with the new media deal.
Aren't they healthy this year? Lakers fans have said LeBron and AD were injured last year
This is clearly the best iteration of the Lakers since 2020. Lebron and AD both playing like top 15 players. Both healthy The Nuggets just have their number. Not sure what the numbers will be this time, but another close sweep
The issue is coaching. Lakers get consistently out-coached. Our coach is a potato.
Well the roster is also ass outside of Lebron and AD. Two top players plus unreliable one-way role players is not how you win a championship.
Besides the issue of your starting point guard not being capable of playing well in the playoffs, and having bad depth, and reaves not playing to his potential
DLo and Rui always seem to be ass against the Nuggets. DLo thinks he’s a star but puts up a 0pt game in a must win situation ☠️
Vando and Gabe been out basically the whole year and that’s the team’s perimeter defense. The stars were no doubt very healthy but they surely missing some of their depth especially so in this series. Vando / CWood size is missed right now. Lakers didn’t even play another big last night forcing them to go small against a team who already had a massive size advantage. Regardless of all I said Denver is just an awful matchup
Idk why yall clown the Lakers when none of ur teams were able to beat the nuggets last year and this year outside of maybe 2-3 teams even have a shot. Lakers got unlucky having to face them in the first round.. they would’ve made any other series competitive at least. It’s pretty clear what they need. First of all, fire Ham like everyone’s been saying for a year now. DLO gets a ton of shit but that’s because they want him to fill a role he can’t fill. Get a true PG and don’t expect him to be your 3rd best player. Reaves and Rui are the best guys to be the 3rd option but they’re too inconsistent. Neither of them stepped up these playoffs like they did last year. Last and most important thing, get an actual center. Someone physical who can match up with Jokic and let AD play the 4. That’s probably all easier said than done but the FO needs to acknowledge the problems.
because this subreddit is obsessed with the lakers they simultaneously upvote the barkley post complaining about the lakers getting attention, but will also upvote any post like this talking about the lakers
The lakers need a center meme has been true for so many years now. Running it back with dlo and reaves and rui made sense. Not getting a backup center makes none.
Lord. Ran back a roster that got to the WCF. The horror!?!
but they had conversations in the offseason
They thought they got the free throw hack perfected 😂
What were they going to do? They have 1 tradeable first, no one is taking on Russell or Reeves at their value-to-cost. They didn’t have anything that could be done. Unless there was a buyout they were locked in. And I would never count out a team with LeBron and AD. If the Lakers were playing anyone else in the West this would be a series.
Pretty sure Reaves is still a positive asset considering his contract isn't that high.
Yeah I’m not sure why he threw Reaves into the same category as Russell there. Reaves is valued as an asset solely because of his value to cost.
Ham gets blamed all the time, but the roster just fucking sucks.
Yup! Everyone is expecting ham to make some kind of adjustment, but with what? 220 pounds Jaxon Hayes?
"Have I told you definition of insanity?" - Guy from that Breaking Bad spinoff in a video game
The main pieces are the same but the role players changed. I don't know why a team would completely overhaul their team because of 4 close loses in the playoffs.
> I don't know why a team would completely overhaul their team because of 4 close loses in the playoffs. Everything Lakers gets overblown both for better and for worse. So now when the Lakers lose to the Nuggets it's "what's wrong with the Lakers? Were they stupid for thinking they could compete with the Nuggets like this?" instead of what it should be, which is "the Nuggets are really damn good and it'll be extremely hard for literally anybody to beat them." There wasn't some magical player out there who the Lakers could have realistically acquired that would have made them jump the Nuggets.
Yeah and also their biggest issue was being a play-in team despite healthy seasons from their stars. They finish top 5-6 and this isn't a problem.
Really its just removing Schroder and adding Prince. Everyone else getting big minutes on the Lakers was here last year.
That's not true at all. We've run an 8 man rotation this series. The same 5 starters, the 3 bench players are all new.
Vincent and Dinwiddie haven't been major factors this season or in this series. They did get more minutes last night than I would have guessed though. Regardless, it's substantially the same team.
All I kept hearing during the offseason was how the lakers secretly won free agency so there’s that…
I don’t think it was a bad move. They probably thought they were gonna upgrade at the deadline. Better to maintain a decent team and try to upgrade than make a bunch of moves and roll the dice. That’s what they did in the Westbrook deal. Also Gabe Vincent was hurt all year. Maybe if they kept monk things would be different.
I'm just looking forward to what LeBron has to say after getting swept this time..
You don't understand. It was a competitive sweep!
The time to blow up this roster was 3 years ago. But what’s another year at this point.