Aloha,
Of course Franks is on the hot seat, even though the there was continuity issues coupled with a revolving door of players, the lack of energy this team has played with for much of the season is unforgivable. I can get past his love of the twin towers concept and I can even look past his inability to create looks for 3 point shooters but the lack of energy is something that as a coach he can not allow to happen.
But that seat is actually a long bench with room for many. You can start with Magic. Yes the same Magic that tweeted his disappointment with the team. Many of his blunders still haunt this franchise today. Everything from using DLO at the height of his trade value to dump salary, which of course he admitted was a mistake , to drafting Lonzo instead of Tatum, the staff favorite, to letting Randle walk for nothing, to dumping promising young players like Thomas Bryan’s and Zubac for cap space that was never used. Imagine if we would have had Tatum, Dlo, Randle, BI, Kuzma, Bryant and Zubac available when we traded for AD, we certainly would have a few valuable pieces left to develop or trade.
And then there is Jeanie pinching penny’s like a small market team. It is supposed to be all about championships. Hopefully she won’t let Stanley walk to save a few bucks.
This brings us too our current roster construction. A 3 star model is very difficult. You almost always have had to draft at least one star. The Nets are the exception not the rule. And they had to get lucky because the Rockets turned down Simmons for Harden just to spite Morey and Harden.
Since Dr Buss the Lakers have always been a star driven franchise but what our championship teams had in common was star role players. Rob forgot that part . The 3 stars also have to fit together, Rob forgot that part as well.
Russ was supposed to take the playmaking burden off of LeBron but they forgot one thing. LeBron is going to be LeBron. We would have been better off with a secondary ball handler like Caruso who played well with LeBron then a true point guard. I know we panicked last year because of injuries but we haven’t been any better with Russ and if LeBron or AD were to go down in the playoffs like last year, it wouldn’t matter if we had a 3rd star or not.
We have had a massive turnover in personnel since LeBron arrived. There has been little continuity that has made all the injuries even more glaring since this team has never played together.
LeBron maybe the GOAT but GM LeBron isn’t very skilled. Perhaps he feels he is so good that he can make any player fit. That’s not the case. He is also more concerned with resume than fit. And this lack of player evaluation has hurt every franchise he’s played for.
AD and until this year has refused to play the 5. Even though he is one of the best centers in the game. We won a ring with him at center. I don’t buy the argument that he gets too beat up inside. 80% of the centers in the league would have been fours back in the day. AD is as big or bigger then most centers. This team might have a different look if AD had agreed to play center last year.
This team would be a true contender if we had added Guys like Malik, Melo and eventually Nunn to the players we shipped out or let walk. Even Wes is thriving with the Bucks. A deep team with star role players would have been the much better option to our failed 3 star model.
You don’t get do overs in the NBA but going forward my only hope is we don’t compound our problems with more stupid moves.
Thank you, Michael. My main thing with Vogel is his inability to create shots for our three-point shooters. That is one area he has lagged badly.
The lack of energy was also a glaring problem but one he seems to have heeded, as demonstrated by the whole team’s energy
right from the opening bell last night. Great points on how Magic squandered our chances to retain our talents. That still hurts me the more I think about it.
Great stuff, I like how you connect the dots back to some of the missteps of the previous GM. I’ve been on a similar bent these days. It’s easy to see the Lakers as being spendy: they went out and offered LBJ a max contract from minute one of free agency, we have a “big three” trio of high money (also cap destroying) contracts and even hard-capped ourselves a season ago. The Lakers have, for most of their time under a Buss or another, functioned as the most popular small market team of all time.
Frank has his drawbacks, I have been a 50/50 Vogel supporter from day one when he was the 4th choice. I love how he approaches the defensive aspect of NBA basketball. I do not in any way like how he caters to superstars on offense. But it’s hard to pin what all of what ails us on Frank simply because of the moves Rob has made over the last couple seasons. Granted, those have had at least a cursory (at best) nod of approval from the coach and likely LBJ and AD, but ultimately these are the teams Rob has built. These are my 3 worst Rob moves:
-Trading Green for Schroeder at the cost of a valuable first round draft pick only to let Schroeder walk? That’s draft insanity and wasteful on every front. Penny pinching doesn’t begin to make it sound good. That’s juts bad GMing. Green was either a perfect fit for us (my still to this day opinion) or a player we needed to do a lot better job or recouping the investment we made in. Ultimately that money became absolutely nothing. No pick, no trade exception, nothing.
-Letting Caruso walk for nothing. Again, you can argue that Caruso may not have helped this team much given our lack of a center for him to help funnel his man into. that’s what AC (and guys like Green and Rondo) do best. They don’t “stop the ball” they gum it up and help to force bad shots. Caruso was always good for picking up a charge and a steal or two, as well. Same as Green, ultimately: no exception, no draft compensation, no capable replacement…just nada.
-The penultimate one though has just gotta be letting Julius Randle walk for nothing. I just…it doesn’t make sense from any standpoint except for keeping the team cost down. So, as a result, we as lifelong fans begin to discover that indeed it is not all about winning banners but also about not breaking the piggy bank. So the mega TV deal, all the sponsorships, all the outreach…can’t take a year or two every 5-7 seasons of paying the luxury tax? Nope, do not get that one at all.
So, for all our late-round draft success and scouting acumen (which has been great, don’t get me wrong) we’ve basically let a lot of those dues walk for nothing. So, while the Luol Deng/Timofey Mosgov kind of deals were ludicrous and awful in and of themselves, Jimbo and Mitch did a better job of getting value back.
Thanks guys. Magic’s tweet really got to me. The failure that this team is so far this season has been a long time in the making. Robs stab at damage control with proclaiming that it was either THT or Alex was total bunk. We could have kept both. Jeanie just cheaped out. Frank is a defensive guru but Rob totally over estimated what Frank could do with the pieces he gave him. Perhaps the defense can become functional but this team won a ring with defense and probably could have won last year without the injuries as well. Considering we could have added the same offensive pieces we did this year to last years defenders I think Rob is more to blame then Frank. But Robs not going to fire himself.
Man, both you and Michael brought in some very painful reminders of the inept leadership of our front office. Their ineptitude is beyond me and will continue to haunt us for a long time. All these blunders? From Dann Green, Caruso, Randle, Jordan Clarkson and beyond? That really hurts, man. Makes me want to scream at somebody right now.