Aloha,
Tonight was another example of why our path to the playoffs is so precarious. The TWolves beat the Knicks without Anthony Edwards on a night Randle went off for 57. Utah beat the Kings without their best 3 players, while the Kings were at full strength. This ain’t going to be easy.
We’re likely to regret many of those games we could and should have won. Still in our power to win but time is running out.
Yep! Odds are we lose tonite, eh?
5 games, minimum, that will (or should) leave a Jerry West-sized bad taste in their mouths.
We can’t keep treading water hoping that everyone else will drown; eventually we have to do some swimming. The calendar is the only one who’s winning every night.
What’s becoming obvious as I watch the nightly battles in the West is that the parity we’ve seen all season is real and is not going away. There really is no dominant team in the West anymore.
The combination of injuries, the play-in tourney, changes in lottery rule for top pick, and young stars emerging has opened the door and we’re likely to see more MLB-like surprise championships.
The only good news for the Lakers is LeBron returning and elevating them above the widespread parity. Kind of like the Suns are hoping with Durant and the Grizzlies with Ja…. The other good news is we should find out pretty soon whether we’re cooked or not.
Not so sure that’s good news… I’m personally not seeing the point of the spin regarding how the trades automatically made the season some kind of success. I just see real hurdles for the team once the season concludes.
This.
Same thing happened last season, it’s as if there was an inherent flaw at the organizational level that leads them to believe they can just turn it in when it really matters. Same goes for fans who say inane things like “the season doesn’t start until December” or “training camp doesn’t matter!” Because all those games count exactly the same as ones now, just the perception because of time left is different doesn’t mean the early part of the season doesn’t matter. Heck, Utah has been coasting on its early success for months now. It’s kinda like BA in MLB: hot .400 for the first month and you can hit .250 the rest of the way and look like a solid hitter.
Great point, Jamie. We’ve seen these hopes disappear in disappointment the last two seasons. Not hard to imagine it happening again. Very possible.
The big difference is that neither of the rosters we had the past two years could have made a difference if they got into the playoffs. I feel completely differently about this enhanced roster.
It’s not a top five roster in the league but maybe a top five roster in the West with lots of tradeable contracts and far more depth and versatility. Like you have pointed out, it will cost more taxes to keep this roster together and tweak it this summer and next midseason, but it has potential to be turned into a legitimate championship contender.
I think we may end up not guaranteeing Bamba and getting a less expensive backup center to reduce some of the tax increase but I am confident the Lakers did not make these trades without the intent they were going to keep or worst case flip the players they traded for.
I’m betting on Jeanie to protect Reaves and pay $100M in luxury taxes.
I would say whether that happens could depend on next 10 games.