5 THINGS

The NBA is entering the home stretch of the 2021-22 season and Laker fans have all but tuned out the games as they had been riveted first by a coaching search (now complete and welcome to the dumpster fire Coach Ham!) and now by the ponderous and burdensome search for a palatable trade for one Russell Westbrook. What tastes good to fans seemingly isn’t acceptable to Rob Pelinka and the Laker ownership cabal. With the news coming from the internet that the Lakers are unwilling to attach future draft considerations to a Westbrook trade, Russ signaling his enthusiasm for Ham’s hiring, and the tepid market for Westbrook in general it would seem the Lakers are headed towards a second season of our version of a Big Three. So, while this writer has long been of the opinion there was a decent to good chance that Russ would continue his career in the purple and gold, I wanted to look at some things that just might change the equation for trading Russ.

1. The Lakers move off their current and alleged stance of no future draft considerations attached in a deal for Westbrook. While this may seem the obvious choice to some it’s not a reach to understand where Rob is coming from in publicly declaring such a stance. First off, the term “news flash” does not apply to anything related to the Lakers wanting to move off the Westbrook contract and improve the roster or at least make a decent lateral move. File that one under “No Doy, Man”. So Rob could be deploying an absurd stratagem of “Nuh-Uh, Dude, we WANT to keep Russ, like, fer sure, man!!!!” because like any desperate gambler you have to at least try a bluff when you’re down in chips, short on assets and daylight is creeping into the room signaling that tomorrow has arrived. I actually think Rob is serious when he says he’d rather ride it out. There are quite a few benefits the most obvious being that if the three core players can play more the team will perform better. Russell will be an unrestricted free agent next season and could either be retained on a team-friendly extension or seek employment elsewhere thus freeing up a plethora of cap space to rebuild the roster. Again. For the third time since winning a title.
2. Damien Lillard demands a trade. This is one of the things that I could see severely altering the NBA landscape. If Dame Time decides he wants no part of a Portland rebuild it’s easy to see a plethora of teams looking to get in on that action. While I don’t think the Lakers have an attractive trade package to offer Portland they could potentially get in on a multiteam deal that facilitates Russ being moved elsewhere. Trading for Dame would probably take better draft assets than we currently have. Could the Lakers up the ante and look to include THT, Nunn, Reaves, Johnson, Gabriel both draft picks and bring back Lillard and Bledsoe? Honestly…I’m not sure I would make that deal…but that is the kind of thing that could potentially alter the equation for a Westbrook trade.
3. Donovan Mitchell demands a trade. With the news that Quinn Snyder has walked away from his coaching gig in Utah came the not really surprising news that Donovan Mitchell is uneasy with the direction of the franchise and is seeking some form of re-assurement. If he doesn’t get that it’s possible he could demand a trade. Like Damien this has the potential to shift the NBA landscape. While it would make a lot more sense for the Jazz to try and move Gobert let’s assume for the sake of this article that Spida is adamant about changing teams. If so the Lakers could be in the position of trading Russ, the draft picks and Nunn (should he opt in) for Spida, Clarkson and Gay which would be the kind of cap space that would allow Utah to revamp the roster. Again, the issue with that kind of trade is that Utah isn’t really a destination franchise, especially with a star player asking out, a coach walking away, and, well, Utah. So it’s hard for one to imagine a bevy of free agents going there but you never know. Ainge could be in a place where he’s excited about a total rebuild and while this trade is short on draft assets it does get three large money players off the book and give Utah a ton of flexibility to either tear it down more by trading Rudy.
4. Utah looks to appease Spida by trading Rudy Gobert and Rudy Gay. Had Coach Snyder stayed in Utah I really wouldn’t see this happening. Donovan and Rudy have had their differences, ironed them out, and more differences came up. While adding Russell to Utah’s roster without moving Mike Conley doesn’t make a ton of sense they could pursue a separate Conley trade elsewhere. Russ for Rudy squared works in the trade machine and, in theory, Utah might not ask for a pick to get it done in order to keep Mitchell happy. There are few centers with the defensive acumen that Gobert has. While assuredly not a stretch five does it really matter? You allow AD to play the 4 for the next 4 years left on Gobert’s deal, you have the lob threat LeBron loves to work with and as elite a defender as you can find in the NBA. You can bench him in the playoffs and go small without worry because you have Davis on the roster. While not the NBA altering deal the above are this one is a little easier to imagine going through given the news out of Utah.
5. Zach LaVine pulls an AD. This one, in my opinion, is dream fodder. LaVine isn’t the talent AD was, Chicago ain’t the Pelicans in terms of calling a bluff, and LaVine will find a dry market when it comes to major franchises. Cap space is low across the league and the pool of talent is small. So, unless Zach has an itch for max money in OKC his best shot is to stay right where he is. But, again, for the sake of the article if Zach and Klutch did try and maneuver him to LA in a S&T that’s really the last option I see the Lakers having in terms of a realistic Russ trade that also opens the door back to contention.

In my opinion it will take a superstar demanding to move that represents a clear improvement to the team for Rob to move off his draft pick stance. I can still see them trading for John Wall straight up or even maybe Gordon Hayward and some junk but neither of those gets the team to the NBA Finals again. Who knows what Wall has left and Hayward is the small forward version of Davis: solid when healthy but can’t be counted on to be available when they’re needed most, or at all. For my part I’d rather keep Russ than trade for a broken player or one like Wall who’s skillset largely mirrors Westbrook’s but hasn’t played in what will be just under two years when next season rolls around. You don’t get better that way, you just get older. After that I doubt there’s much interest from team’s that made the playoffs this season or had down years like Atlanta and New York. A Russ trade is one that signals a full rebuild, or as close as you get to one, and neither of those teams are i that position. They’re looking for improvements on the margin, little tweaks to the roster not wholesale tear-downs. That is the issue with the size of Russ’s deal: there just aren’t many teams looking for that level of restructuring this summer. The playin and lottery tweaks have made the league tilt towards wanting to be competitive all season long since your draft odds don’t dramatically shift with losing. We’ve already seen how teams in the playin one season can ascend to really competitive the following one in Memphis, how chemistry builds a winner in Milwaukee, and the fact is Russ isn’t the kind of player that alters your trajectory at this point. So my advice to you is invest in trade hopes and dreams but you should also buckle up and prepare yourself to ride this out with Russ on the roster.

I am remembering the entertaining and informative ESPN docuseries, The Last Dance. A poignant reminder to Laker fans as to how quickly and utterly things can deteriorate internally when the blame game starts, or front office executives think they know what a coach needs or which players are worth more than others. As far as the game today is concerned, for me it’s a non-event as I’ll be going to a friends wedding so enjoy. There wasn’t anything left worth paying attention to in this season a couple games after the All Star Break. This team does not, and never did, have the goods.

1. The Blame Game. This is where all parties involved need to tread more carefully than any of them seem to acknowledge. LeBron James is not a robot and if you actually want him to play here beyond next season then they should start acting like that. Great NBA players are people, too. They have wrinkles, bad days, and personality issues of their own. In LeBron’s case it’s that he demands the front office surround him with star power enough to compete for championships and is willing to say or do just about anything to make sure that happens. The fallout from Scottie Pippin not checking back into a game has lasted decades. The fallout from the front office throwing LeBron under the bus while seemingly taking almost zero onus on themselves for the Westbrook trade can do as much damage over the course of this summer. There is never, ever a winner in the Blame Game. So stop playing it.
2. The Health Issue. It’s no secret our two best players have missed a grip of games over the last two seasons, benefitted from a three month break in the season when they did win a banner, and are, indeed, aging as we speak. Barring an unlikely as hell trade for either AD or LeBron they are who we will be building around this summer and so keeping them on the floor for 3/4’s of the season moves to the second highest priority after fixing the team. We said it last season, this summer, during the season and still today: we are going as far as James and Davis take us. It will be true until they depart. THT is not taking us to the highest level. Matt McClung, Wenyan and Stanley are window dressing at the mall, they will not alter the direction of the franchise in a meaningful way. We NEED James and Davis to play and they need to play at a fairly high level. Putting the injuries aside, LeBron turned in a historic campaign and played his rear end off all season long. Davis…well, he was pretty good on D but otherwise continued his regression from three and his jumper continues to become a secondary weapon. This won’t help our spacing issues. We need Davis to be the perimeter threat he once was.
3. The Westbrook Dilemma. The fit of Russel is poor, that is no longer debatable. The ability to move Westbrook for players of true impact is also poor and, frankly, unlikely. When the best you can do is John Wall, Gordon Hayward or a player exception for your $47 million dollar PG you’re backed into a corner. That’s putting it nicely. Russ’s best ability is his availability, he’s not an elite scorer and his elite passing comes with equally elite turnover capacity. His price tag, while expiring, is enormous and will make smaller market teams who are constantly wary of going into the luxury tax zone more wary to deal for him. Large market franchises have signaled through the same channels the Lakers use to troll their superstars that they aren’t all that interested in bailing us out. That leaves us with some fairly unpalatable choices. At least that’s how it looks now. You never know what can change over the course of a playoff series or what other costly player will demand this summer (I’m looking at you Dame…). But, regardless of what LeBron says in his interviews about Steph Curry or other elite shooters, the return for Russ will likely be, at best, a break even affair. At worst we’ll trade our two draft picks for John Wall or Gordon Hayward who play for less than half of a season and don’t impact our winning chances all that much.
4. The Young Dudes. Look…it’s really great that Stanley has a team option and got back into the NBA, that Wenyan found a team that could use his athletic ability and Matt McClung will get some run today. These are not needle moving players. They are roster spots 12, 13, and 14 on a championship team. They are DNP-CD during the playoffs, maybe Johnson sees some consistent minutes of the three in a specific match up. There’s a reason why these guys were in the G-League, 6th team in 3 seasons and waiver wire fodder. It’s because they’re just not that good but play really hard. Now I will be the first one to embrace a player or two on a roster like that, they are a necessary component to the recipe that constitutes a successful NBA team and we don’t need three of them. But they do not make us contenders in any way. Depending on the coach we bring in they might not even play just because they lack touch from the outside.
5. Farewell Frank…? The funny thing about all the blame game chatter is how it predicts Frank as being the fall guy while being short on reasons why. The scuttlebutt is more focused on the front office, James, Davis and Westbrook. While whomever is leaking this BS (Kurt) out of the Lakers (Rambis) is likely congratulating themselves on shielding themselves (Kurt and Linda) from Jeannie’s wrath it also has the duplicate effect of shielding Frank from some of the blame. For every “Westbrook didn’t respect Frank guys!!!” article someone leaks to Silver Screen and Roll or to the Kamentzky Bros. there is also a ready-made excuse for Jeannie to ultimately retain the coach they are certainly going to be paying for next season. Given the ownership groups issues with spending, Frank’s recent banner he helped hang, and the fact he’s under contract next season it’s not outside the realm of reality that Frank mans the sidelines once again next season. I won’t go so far as to predict that will happen, feels like somebody other than Russ needs to take the fall, but it could happen.

Anyhow, that’s the last Fiver for this season. There’s nothing else to say that I haven’t said since training camp and the horse is well-flogged. If you were to put a gun to my head I would predict Frank gets fired, we trade Russ and our picks for Wall and we have a season a lot like this one next year. I don’t have any faith left in Rob or ownership to make smart decisions and our assets aren’t going to bring back great talent. Wall and Hayward are awful options, our coaching search last time didn’t inspire any confidence, and LeBron can’t keep this up forever. At some point he will begin to age and it could simply take the form of impressive stats in losing efforts and games missed. One way or another Rob has to thread quite the needle this summer and he doesn’t have any more mulligans to spare. The Lakers have their proverbial back against the proverbial wall.

Here’s hoping he can. Go Lakers.

Might not see another win the rest of the way at this rate. It’s gotta be hardest for the guys in the locker room that seem like they’re trying. They just lack overall roster talent. Frank threw the entire team at the Mavs except Wayne Ellington. Didn’t matter, game was over from the jump.

1. No defense. The Lakers have been scoring enough to win basketball games. We just defend like crap. Could we use a better three point shooter? I don’t have that anywhere near the top of my list. It’s like 5th or so after paint defense, rim protection, perimeter defense, better on-ball defense and leadership. Only Houston, Portland and Sacramento give up more Opp. PPG than we do but we’re the 12th best offensive team. If we were even in the middle of the pack on defense we would be a very different team. For those who believe the solution lies in improving the offense we would have to be a top 3 offense in the NBA to overcome the differential our awful defense allows. Not happening now or this summer. Focus on the end with the most problems, AD and LBJ can score the basketball and if they’re not healthy it’s all moot.
2. Luka looking really good. Dallas is my sleeper/dark horse pick to win it all based on how Luka is playing right now and that all the pieces around him fit well. They’ve improved on defense without giving up much on offense. Kristaps, who was never an intimidating defender despite his size, had too many holes in his game and moving on from him allowed the Mavs to make the game simpler. It’s worked and they look great.
3. Monk was great. The kid is playing with passion and can do it all. Scores inside and out, makes plays for his teammates and takes care of the basketball. He’s making himself money and there are few scenarios remaining that allow me to see him staying unless he truly over-values the opportunity we’ve given him. More likely is we offer him whatever we can, someone offers more and he walks. Malik helped keep it as close as it was, which was not close at all.
4. I’d keep DJ as a backup PG next season. Better than whatever option exists now. Could even start since he doesn’t need the ball, in many ways reminds me of D-Fish who would have been as perfect a compliment to LeBron as he was to Kobe. Ball-dominant players don’t need another ball dominant player. Why people keep trying to force that is beyond me. Get a solid backup and call it a day. DJ fits that mold and could maybe even be gotten for cheap.
5. Hey look, Trevor Ariza. Remember when people were predicting he would be an X-factor? I had hoped he could fill a Rondo-esque role in the playoffs while working his way into shape during the regular season. Turns out all those calls were wrong as we won’t need a Rondo-esque player once the post-season starts without us.

If it sounds like I’ve given up on this version of the Lakers you would be correct. I don’t see a path forward that reality allows for. AD coming back and fixing everything? Don’t see it. LeBron getting like super-dooper healthy with a couple of days off? Physically impossible. Some combination of trash heap players and the AARP equivalent of pro NBA players getting it done? The current results speak for themselves. Best to, essentially, tank. Reward the teams we bullied into trading with us, pay homage to the basketball Gods in a proper way by not treating preseason like an extended vacation, and show up next season with some fawking pride.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Without LeBron I had this stamped, signed sealed and delivered as a loss. Then the game started and I thought we were at least playing the way you want to see a team without it’s best player rally. Then the 76ers shot 371 free throws. Then we came back. Then we lost. Still, it was a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be. Getting late for the Lakers.

1. Russell’s solid outing. Other than the 7 turnovers and nascent trips to the free throw line (not by his design, mind you) I though Russell had a pretty good game. If he got the Harden treatment he would have gone to the line a few more times. Russ scored when we needed, tried to make the right play and generally played like the player I thought we traded for. It’s been a slog for Russ and he’s endured quite a lot of flack for a season for whom he is not entirely at fault for. But he, too, has his own responsibilities to shoulder for this dumpster fire of a season. It’s games like last night, and his play over the last couple of weeks, that makes me think the Lakers might run the trio back.
2. Stanley’s stellar start. He faded in the scoring department after the first quarter but SJ came out with a head of steam and got us off the mark in the first quarter. He scored 13 points (which was what he ended with) and took only 2 more shots after the 1st frame but he also had the tough assignment of guarding James Harden, which I thought he did effectively. He also didn’t force his own offense after his hot start with 8 assists to lead the team along with Russ’s ocho. Johnson’s passing and handle have been a revelation to me as he has shown an above-average ability to make productive reads, can get to where he wants to on the floor (although some of that is out of sheer disrespect from the opposition who are playing him to get into the paint and try to score, that will eventually be scouted better).
3. Dwight can still bring it. This is one of the more personally infuriating plot lines of the season. Dwight gets a start, plays well, sits for 3 games we usually lose. I just don’t get it. If Frank is doing this because the internal analytics team is telling him our offense is SOOOOO much better with Dwight off the floor they don’t understand basketball at a basic level. Is the spacing better? Yeah, I guess, but that’s not the be-all-end-all of a basketball team. Great spacing helps, yes, but so do these funny things called defense, rebounding, setting solid screens and size. So it will, to me at least, be quite ironic if Frank has foregone minutes for Dwight in the name of the over-used, over-referred to, and often flat wrong, theory of how the game should be played based on analytics. Let the big man loose while you still have a prayer Frank, offense isn’t as important enough to sacrifice all of your defense for. That’s the deal with the Devil the Lakers have made with LeBron at the center. Yes, the offense looks wonderful, but the defense sucks and we keep losing. So, while outscoring the opposition is the way to win, you don’t get there focusing on one end and entirely ditching the other.
4. Free throws. Can’t be ignored. At one point the 76ers were approaching 20 and we were stuck on three. This after Russ got thrown to floor on a driving layup (no call), and Embiid landed on Stanley’s left shoulder which was deemed a rather excellent blocked shot by the official standing roughly 9 feet away. Johnson’s yapping after that one earned him a tech, the other one was gifted to Dwight who complained that he wasn’t afforded the same luxuries on defense (grabbing, pushing, etc.) that Joel was getting. This is a league of reputations, for better or worse, it’s why you need to work extremely hard not to get pigeon-holed in the NBA. Give up big leads, it’ll happen because the other team will smell blood if they can just make a couple of late buckets, breathe on James Harden wrong=foul, create space through bodying up means it’s a really tough call to make. The Lakers are on the wrong end of a lotta reputation issues and it’s not fun to watch. What also can’t be ignored is that they put themselves in those holes by blowing big leads to inferior teams all season long, not playing hard consistently for 48 minutes, and generally acting like an entitled team of destiny and not a team that has to earn it’s way for the first 2/3’s of the season.
5. Here come the Spurs. I’m not sweating the 9th spot at this point, I’m expecting us to finish 10th…at best…and can easily envision a scenario where we play ourselves right out of the play-in rounds, as well. Don’t believe me? Cool, that’s what I call cognitive dissonance and willfully ignoring reality. Because with a scant 2 games separating us and 9 games to go for both teams we need to win more than we’ve shown ourselves capable of doing. 3 games is our longest winning streak of the season. T-h-r-e-e. The Spurs schedule looks like this:
   

So feel free to dismiss the reality that we are facing being eliminated from the playin round. The tie-breaker will be decided by the team with the better in-division record, I believe, since we split the games between our two teams this season. We’re behind on that score, as well, and we’re facing pretty tough in-division opponents from here on out.

Anyhow, they’re all “must-win” from here on out and frankly that was the case after the All Star break. But, in a fashion typical for this team, we’ve continually squandered each and every possibility to make this season easier and so here we are: just likely to be the 10th seed as the 9th and facing a complete and utter collapse. Miss the playoffs with LeBron, AD, and Russ? To me that signals a total tear down, re-evaluation of our talent assessment (like who decided THT over Caruso) and so on. What it’ll signal to Jeannie is anyone’s guess.