Not much to say. Hard to blame this on Russ. Kings just beat us in all facets.
1) Only LeBron scored double-digit points. Some of these guys are fighting just to stick in the league. Be hungrier.
2) Kings got what they want. Coach Ham wants to be a defensive coach. Frank Vogel was a defensive coach. Rob builds defenseless rosters. Something gotta give.
3) Kings kills is in the paint. Since we missed just under 60% of our shots it let Sacramento get out on the break. A lot. So that’s a fun issue that hopefully doesn’t define us already.
4) Bad offense. I saw all those nice looking plays in the playbook the other day. Didn’t really see them executed on the floor last night. Sweet.
4) AD out with whatever, who cares. Dude is fragile. Physically, mentally, who knows maybe spiritually, too. He’ll never “take the mantle” or “grab the reigns” or whatever colloquialism you choose to insert. When your hopes rest on the fine China making it through the 82 game grind you might be pinning the tail wrong.
5) Russ out. Hopefully he’s Ok but it’s hard not seeing this as just being disgruntled at the idea of coming off the bench. Since we’re a tax payer team Russ really costs us $94 mil. He’s not going to be paid to stay home. They’re not going to rush a trade. Buddy and Myles don’t fix this roster, they just add two more guys who won’t play in the last 5 minutes. This season was lost last summer.
I’m already seeing the cracks that will become unfillable fissures. We have 3 or 4 glue guys, a couple motor guys and nobody good. When you can only use minimum contracts to fill out 10+ roster spots this is what you get. Want to hope Rob is at least learning something from all this but, honestly, I doubt it.
Go Lakers.
Last night was an incredibly disappointing game. Losing by 45 points to the Kings, AD not playing due to sore back, Russ pulling a hamstring after just 5 minutes off the bench, poor defense, poor shooting, way too many turnovers. All five starters had -17 to -26 +/-. Not one player had a positive +/- for the night. Not one!
Outscored by 36 points on threes, outrebounded 55 to 37, outscored in the paint 44-32. Lakers posted worst record in preseason at 1-5. If that doesn’t light a fire under Pelinka, nothing will.
The truth is the Lakers desperately need to trade Russ and the picks for Turner and Hield. Turner and Hield will provide the Lakers with the size and shooting they need to be a legitimate contender. Beverley, Hield, James, Davis, and Turner.
Lakers should make trade ASAP. Turner and Hield would become the team’s third and fourth best players immediately, would fix the starting lineup’s size and shooting, and move two starters to the bench, where they really belong.
It’s obvious there is no other deal out there that is better than Turner and Hield. Lakers need to pull the trigger and get their roster fixed before the start of the season. Waiting until 20 games will put us in a hole we will never recover. Dec 15 equals 1/3 of season gone. Feb 9 equas 2/3 of the season gone. Lakers need to move with urgency right now.
It’s not that you’re wrong; it’s that they won’t and are content not to that’s the issue.
There’s a point where even the blind man sees and the deaf man hears the writing on the wall. Trade will happen next week, maybe even before start of season.
You must love eating crow and being wrong dude. December, at the earliest, hopefully January but honestly won’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen.
The Lakers HAVE to trade Russ because if they don’t, they would not have any tradeable contracts other than LeBron and AD.
Ideally, Lakers want to trade Russ for players with tradeable two-year deals.
I think Rob ends up trading Russ for inferior package from Utah or SA to keep one pick, which will not be enough to help the Lakers win this year.
They don’t. They can just sign free agents, sign and trade guys on the roster now for raises, or absorb guys under contract now into cap space. You are focused on basically two trades as the only way forward, you are wrong. There are many ways this could go, now and on down the line.
A trade might happen and it might not. Whether any of us like it or not it appears the Lakers are perfectly willing to burn this season in the name of the brand. This writing is and has been on the wall since we won in the Bubble. It’s plain to see and it’s consistent with their behavior.
Lebron’s untradeable, don’t kid yourself. There’s no team out there as desperate to stay barely relevant. Much like pretty much every declining, former superstar, that top-7 ESPN ranking will look extremely generous come season’s end.
Sadly Rob (and Jeanie) (and Lebron/RichieP/AD/Other random unKlutch users and sycophants) didn’t have the vision nor bball IQ to completely discount the Bubble and know what they were dealing with. Blowing it up and ditching fan un-favorites like Danny Green and some bumbling bigs, was a fool-hardy move but not one they couldn’t recover from. Lebron feeling his own mortality finally led to the Russ move, and that was the nail in the coffin.
There’s no sense in trading for anything the drags this out any further. The Lebron/AD combination is too old and fragile at this point to make any serious noise short of landing a true top-5 talent which is simply not possible. Sure, Jeanie’s always lived under the sad guises of “Any publicity is good publicity,” which unfortunately just isn’t true any more. She’d rather they keep talking about the failure that is the Lebron James Lakers era, than not say anything at all. Well good for her. So far I haven’t made any effort to get any way to watch the local games, and I certainly am not going to waste any time going to crappy DTLA to watch this sorry bunch play. All this useless wheel spinning to remain unable to improve for another 3 seasons, for what? To suck in the name of being “player friendly?”
The friendliest thing they could’ve done was blow this dumpster fire up.
They don’t have the stone and are more worried about the brand than W’s and Ls.