Done. If you saw what I saw I thought we were done the first game back from the ASB but kept coming back out of a stubborn belief in the purple and gold. Not so much the players currently wearing it but the spirit of what the Lakers are, to me anyway. In the end, like many things in life, faith wasn’t enough for this team to actually accomplish great things on the court. You need luck and, more than that, young players with skills and talent. We ain’t gone none of that. We got problems. Epic problems.
- LeBron should shut it down right now. There really is no conceivable reason that he should push it. San Antonio is just as likely to overtake us with or without him playing on one leg and a bad ankle. But if he blows out a knee or an Achilles compensating for his injuries we’re in trouble next season and that’s an avoidable situation now.
- No need to activate AD. Same as the above. Why risk anything now that will have an impact on next season? Makes no sense. Take the hit on the chin, realize whatever you did wasn’t enough, stop with the excuses and show up ready to ball in October when camp breaks.
- What to do with Russ. Frankly, at this point, I think that all depends on Monk. If we can keep Malik without having to move Russ I think the Lakers run this back again. They’ll have ample excuses as to why it will work now. They’ll have fired Frank, Russ and LeBron have already figured out how to co-exist on a basketball court together, and injuries/bad luck/COVID/blah blah blah/ hampered us this season and lightning can’t strike the same team/players three times…can it? The options seem few and far between. W&Sing him sounds like it’s pretty much off the table based on reports coming out of Laker Land. Trading with the Knicks seems off the table at this point as well which is a bummer as that was a team I thought just might want to actually add Russell. That basically leaves two options:
-trade Russ and either Reaves or a pick or two for Houston to turn around and buy him out for John Wall (I don’t see them sending us players who can actually contribute)
-Dame asks to be moved specifically to the Lakers and reminds ownership how much he’s given to the franchise.
The Wall option to me is a no-go. Watching Klay Thompson play like a shell of himself save for a game or two here and there is all I need but I could easily cobble together a length list of speedy guards who never came close to re-capturing the impact they had prior to an injury like John Wall suffered. We don’t need more old, hobbled or slow. Toss in that we’d be starting all over, again, trying to incorporate three ball-dominant players after the ones we have basically just figured out how to kind of play together and I just don’t see the logic. I can even see letting Monk walk rather than go down the Wall path, honestly. I’d have to give that some serious thought as to which side of the fence I’d want land, though. - Fire Frank? Again, there are a plethora of excuses why they might keep him on. Injuries, bad luck, he started playing the way the analytics told him, he listened to Kurt and also played Dwight more, he won us a banner, and so on. I think his time here has come to an end…but I also didn’t expect the Lakers to cheap out on this season like they have. So now another factor gets introduced: is there such a liquidity problem amongst the Buss kids/Laker ownership that they don’t want to pay 2 coaches? Remember they low-balled 4 other candidates prior to landing on Frank. My gut tells me they’ll still let him go…but I’m far from 100% certain of it at this point. Too many odd, terrible choices have been made in the name of saving some money to be ignored.
- The rest of the team. Maybe keep Carmelo? Maybe, maybe keep Dwight? After that burn it down. Trade Nunn, if you can, maybe package him with THT for a player’s exception we can turn around and sign Monk and a real center with. No offense to the player who has the Bone Bruise That Will Not Heal but you need to go. I don’t honestly care what a 2 year old highlight reel shows you used to be able to do, I don’t believe you have heart anymore, that you’re willing to do the work needed to be a winner. So see the door Kendrick, if he opts in. I think he will based on how terribly this has all gone and how little money will be out there. Wenyan…not gonna lie, he shouldn’t be playing on a championship team. Has it been a fuzzy and warm story for this dismal campaign? Sure, and I always root for the under dogs. But we’re not trying to film the NBA version of The Mighty Ducks we’re trying to win. Does anyone really believe that WG is a rotational player on a winning team? I don’t see it. Since we’re likely keeping Stanley Johnson we have already checked the “plays with a high motor but can’t shoot well” box. We should learn from our mistakes of this season, that you need players who can do something other than take up space in order to compete in the NBA. All the aged vet minimums after anyone listed above should not be re-signed, I don’t care how chipper they are in the locker room.
Bonus point, for me, would be to fire Rob Pelinka who basically orchestrated this poorly run garage sale of an NBA team. I hold him to the fire more than anyone because it’s his job to evaluate and sign the best talent available and we didn’t do that. It’s his job to let the superstars know whey we’re not just going to do whatever they want and we didn’t do that. It’s his job to convince ownership that spending a little more on a player like Alex Caruso, who to be sure would not have been enough to make this season drastically different but when it comes down to a game or two he does swing that needle your way, is totally worth it. Rob failed every test presented to a GM of an elite sport franchise this season and should pay the exact same price Frank Vogel will. He won’t, and he should go to every mural of Kobe and Gigi in Los Angeles and the world beyond and thank them personally. I’m not sure anything other than his relationship with Kobe is saving him, to be honest.
Why Rob Needs To Go:
2018: Waived Thomas Bryant, who became a productive starter after the Wizards claimed him off waivers. If a young, talented big who can shoot the ball doesn’t fit your plans, why not trade him?
2018: Revoked future All-Star Julius Randle’s qualifying offer to let him walk as an unrestricted free agent. Randle was the No. 7 pick in 2014.
2019: Traded Svi Mykhailiuk and a second-round pick to the Pistons for Reggie Bullock, who left as a free agent after the season. Two smaller assets gone to rent the services of a veteran shooter. L.A. didn’t even make a playoff run.
2019: Traded Ivica Zubac (and Michael Beasley) to the Clippers for Mike Muscala, who left as a free agent after the season. The Lakers wasted another quality draft pick (No. 32 in 2016), gave the Clippers a starter and haven’t had anyone as good at center.
2020: Traded Danny Green and a first-round pick to get Dennis Schroder, who left as a free agent after the season. It was a significant step as L.A. broke apart its championship defensive identity, and it also threw away a first-rounder.
2020: Traded JaVale McGee and a second-rounder to the Cavaliers for Alfonzo McKinnie and Jordan Bell (waived immediately) to make salary-cap room for Marc Gasol. After the season, McKinnie was waived, and Gasol was traded with a second-round pick and $250,000 to the Grizzlies. McGee is playing a valuable supporting role for the first-place Suns. Neither Gasol nor McKinnie is in the NBA. That journey cost two second-round picks.
2021: Traded Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell and a first-round pick for Russell Westbrook, which has been covered ad nauseam.
The above is copied and pasted from a much longer and in-depth article about why we are where we are on the Bleacher Report website. Some of that happened while Magic was GM and Rob was his #2 but the pattern continued regardless.
LT posted the BR article down yonder.
I’m with you 100% that Frank Vogel and Rob Pelinka need to be fired. Problem is who replaces them? Lakers will likely fire Vogel and let Pelinka decide on new coach and offseason moves.
That in a nutshell is the problem with the Lakers. They have an owner who won’t make the critical basketball decisions that good owners have to make, like what kind of a team do we want to build, what is our vision? Who do we hire to build a team that meets that vision?
Some things that seem obvious to me at this point:
1. GO BIG. Lakers need a modern stretch center like Myles Turner or Christian Wood that will allow them to play big or small. We need to be bigger, which means leaving AD at the 4 and LeBron at the 3. Top priority should be to trade for Turner or Wood. Trading chips are THT, KN, and 2027 and 2029 first round draft picks.
2. STARTING POWER. Lakers need three starters that complement LeBron and AD rather than a third superstar, who makes it difficult to fill out the rest of the starting lineup with enough shooting and defense. Right now, Monk and Reaves would be better fits coming off the bench. Lakers also need two new starters to go with Turner or Wood. Players like Wall and Gordon to go with Wood or Brogdon and Hield to go with Turner.
3. CONTINUITY. Lakers need continuity and stability, which means we consider bringing back LeBron, AD, Reaves, Monk, Johnson, Gabriel, Melo, DJ, and Dwight. That’s 9 players, giving the Lakers more returning players than any of the last three years. That also leaves 6 roster spots open for new players for whom THT, Nunn, and the picks provide us.
All those options went out the window when they made the Russ move, and everyone involved should be shown the door. Rob for not having the backbone to say no. LeKlutch because they lobbied for it. The assets on hand are not enough to get this bunch effectively out of this conundrum. Any efforts to unravel this only hurl them further into purgatory.
Tuner is not an option, get his name out of your mouth. Wood, only if you make the Russ deal, parting with assets this team likely desperately needs when they really stink and still being saddled with equal garbage in Wall. May as well bite the bullet, tear it down, send Lebron somewhere he doesn’t have to suffer his decline on losing teams, get what you can for AD before street clothes become all he wears, and find some leadership that makes things happen in a few years.
There are no viable options to fix the course with the current cast of characters and lack of assets. Stop trying to convince yourself otherwise.
I feel your pain Jamie, the thing about that list is, it didn’t even include all of the bone head moves that’s been made. Trading Dlo at the height of his trade value as a salary dump ranks up there as well. And to add insult to injury they didn’t retain Lopez who was willing to stay for 5mil. Then there is the matter of drafting Lonzo over Tatum, the league and Lakers scouting department favorite as best in the draft, only because Magic thought it would be a “great Hollywood story “ one can only imagine what we would have had left if we had Dlo, Randle, Tatum, BI and Kuzma when we traded for AD. We definitely would have had more left and we would be in better shape now. I’m pretty sure Rob is safe which is the same as saying we’re screwed. While I’m sure they will try hard to move Russ, there isn’t many realistic deals out there. I definitely wouldn’t trade for Wall. LeBron will play like LeBron until he hangs it up. You need a PG that can play off the ball and shoot. Dennis couldn’t adjust his game and Russ couldn’t either. Wall would be the same deal. A ball dominate PG that can’t shoot. It’s not a stretch to believe that keeping Russ would be better then trading for Wall. He is more than likely better than Wall is now.