2014-15 Official Lakers Season Thread, Vol: We Love Each Other

[grandtheftbike]

obviously the front office is bunch of thundercats

 

[daddyrabbit251]

Linsanity 3.o

 

[mjsaver]

Wolves and kings almost guaranteed to stink, they always do no matter what.

Maybe Pheonix was a fluke they lost Frye who know wassup with Bledsoe.

Celtics don't see any reason for them to be optomistic.

Milwaukee is probly gonna suck as well although I'm a big Jabari fan.

Not gonna be easy to stink up the league, those teams are good at it and have been at it for awhile.

 

[essential1]

2005 Jim Buss

In the aftermath of last summer's Shaquille O'Neal trade, Buss said the Lakers have made a concerted effort to maintain salary-cap flexibility with an eye on signing a big-name free agent as early as summer 2007.

"If you keep mending your team every year after you make a trade like Shaq, you're going to be an average team," said Buss, who turns 46 in November. "Maybe make the playoffs, first, second round. That's not the goal. The goal is to make a big step.

"The only way you can do that is to get a free agent two years from now. You know who they are, who's available. So do we. Everybody knows. So we're positioning ourselves to be great in two years."

The Lakers could have as much as $14 million in cap space and the ability to offer a maximum contract in 2007, with the list of potential free agents including Yao Ming, Amare Stoudemire and Dirk Nowitzki.

Kept flexibility, and rather than jump before you can get your ground, when the opportunity presented itself, quick strike to get Pau.

Obviously much different now compared to then, but it's the same mindset.

 

[tay1]

i'm saying

Linsanity leads us to the chip.

Lin Laker Dynasty.


not srs

but it is gonna be a more interesting year than last year.

Pau not on the team. maybe nash can play? or if his back is really done.

was it the dwight year or the year before dwight when kobe was pulling "magic kobe" with 16 points and 14 assists?

everyone is saying kobe's done, but we still haven't seen him maybe he'll be a 20 5 assist guy still. if it goes back to kobe ball, it's gonna be a long season.

It was the Dwight year I believe

 

[mrdieselfuel09]

Can we get a new poll?

How many wins.


Thnks

 

[tay1]

I just go back to my thought that you can make a case for every other team in the West being better than the Lakers in some fashion (new acquisitions, internal growth).

In the East there's the Sixers that will be really bad. The Bucks and Magic should be better. Who else is conceivably worse than the Lakers?

Milwaukee off the top of my head. But that's all on paper. The suns were supposed to be trash, and it didn't turn out that way

 

[essential1]

Can we get a new poll?

How many wins.


Thnks

Too far away for that... Because anything could happen between now and late October.

 

[tay1]

Can we get a new poll?

How many wins.


Thnks

Update on the new avy?

 

[rell826]

This team will be lucky to win 30 games. The Smush years are going to seem great compared to this. Franchise went to hell when Jerry passed. His son and daughter have no clue what they are doing.

 

[essential1]

Jerry Buss lucked out and died at the right time. Because it has absolved him of any blame in the current predicament. When he was still making decisions up to a couple of months before he died.

We were always a card tower with a time bomb attached. It was all going to come collapsing down at some point. Had the CP3 trade went through, completely different history, but we didn't so we were a building with a scheduled date to collapse.


Because he is dead, doesn't mean he did not make bad decisions.

 

[pmatic]

I just go back to my thought that you can make a case for every other team in the West being better than the Lakers in some fashion (new acquisitions, internal growth).


In the East there's the Sixers that will be really bad. The Bucks and Magic should be better. Who else is conceivably worse than the Lakers?

Milwaukee off the top of my head. But that's all on paper. The suns were supposed to be trash, and it didn't turn out that way

A lot hinges on the development of Antjsdgefgckgjsaaklsfbo and Parker as well as Sanders being sane, but I feel like they can push for 30-35ish wins next season. Remember, they were supposed to be a decent team (in the East) this past season before the wheels fell off.

 

[daddyrabbit251]

Dudes attacking Dr. Buss now and he is "lucky" he died at the right time so they can't criticize him for how he wanted to run HIS business....

Dudes in these lakers threads have turned on Kobe, Phil, Mitch, and now stuff like this is being posted? Where's the loyalty man?





























"I'm out... Ya'll N's is trippin"

 

[tay1]

A lot hinges on the development of Antjsdgefgckgjsaaklsfbo and Parker as well as Sanders being sane, but I feel like they can push for 30-35ish wins next season. Remember, they were supposed to be a decent team (in the East) this past season before the wheels fell off.

I mean they won 15 games last season. Antesdvjvdovoudfouudsf and Parker will help, but I don't see them getting 35 wins. I'll give em 25 max. Sounds like you praying for that top 5 pick tho.

 

[essential1]

Does Dr. Buss get the blame for Mike D'Antoni????? Nope. So many Lakers fans were furious about Mike D'Antoni, yet it was his decision. Funny how you rarely hear it was Dr. Buss' decision.

So we can't attack people for how they want to run "THEIR" business, welp we all should eat a big **** burger and shut the **** up about how Jim, Jeanie, or any owner wants to pick and choose how to run a basketball team. I mean because it is "THEIR" business.

View media item 1075460

 

[acbboyz84]

If everyone is healthy. I predict 40 wins. Lakers will shock the world and sneak in with the #8 spot.

 

[mjsaver]

Right or wrong essential please no Buss slander , not even disagreeing with you but don't attack Dr Buss let him R.I.P.

 

[do work son]

If everyone is healthy. I predict 40 wins. Lakers will shock the world and sneak in with the #8 spot.

40 wins was good for 10th in the west this year.

48 was 9th.

 

[tay1]

If everyone is healthy. I predict 40 wins. Lakers will shock the world and sneak in with the #8 spot.

I wanna use the melo face on you, but I've used it too many times. #InternetProblems

 

[essential1]

Right or wrong essential please no Buss slander , not even disagreeing with you but don't attack Dr Buss let him R.I.P.

This is all I'm saying.

The building was falling when he was alive. Nothing was changing that. Was either going to happen now, or happen in 2 years.

To say that it was all Jim & Jeanie why we are where we are is horse ****. Do they deserve blame? Of course.

But let's not act like it wasn't already coming before Dr. Buss died.

 

[sohi 23]

Every team on the West is better than LA... Philly is the only team in the East that sucks more than us.

MIA, CLE, IND, TOR, WAS, CHI, BRK, ATL, CHA,

Detroit will compete with SVG.
NY will probably suck, very comparable to the Lakers current situation
Boston will definitely tank again
Orlando is better but idk how much better... still a tank possibility
Philly is tanking
Milwaukee... I see them being the 2nd most improved team in the East (behind Cleveland)... I think Kidd is a good coach who will get the most out of this roster...
Knight/Mayo/Giannis/Paker/Ilyasova/Henson/Sanders is a solid core... I'm thinking 35 wins for them.


I think this Lakers team is winning 22 games.
So, we're competing Boston/New York/Philly/ maybe Orlando

I like our chances.

 

[jab step]

2005 Jim Buss
Kept flexibility, and rather than jump before you can get your ground, when the opportunity presented itself, quick strike to get Pau.

Obviously much different now compared to then, but it's the same mindset.

And this is how a team should always be run during rebuilding years. You don't throw cash at players like Thomas, Stephenson, Parsons, Hayward, etc. You do this and you end up like the Knicks who were stuck with Amare. Plus those second tier players people want to pick up have glaring, not small, but glaring holes in either their game, health, or mentality. 

Jerry Buss lucked out and died at the right time. Because it has absolved him of any blame in the current predicament. When he was still making decisions up to a couple of months before he died.

We were always a card tower with a time bomb attached. It was all going to come collapsing down at some point. Had the CP3 trade went through, completely different history, but we didn't so we were a building with a scheduled date to collapse.


Because he is dead, doesn't mean he did not make bad decisions.

And nope, he would still be absolved of any criticism. Even when he was alive in 2011 and 2012 the blame was all on Jim Buss for any problem Laker related. People blame him for hiring Rudy after Phil was let go (what other coaches did people want?), but don't credit him for the hiring of Phil and the two championships that followed. Everyone needs at least one scapegoat and it's Jim in this case and it doesn't seem like he cares. He stays low key. 

Even the doc made mistakes. He's hired a fair share of bad coaches, etc. No one can be 100%. 

The only move that has irked me from the FO was not trading Pau for the reported Dragic, Scola, Martin and possibly a pick? Not sure if Houston was offering all this (I think Broussard reported it and honestly you cannot trust these ESPN reports). But if they did actually offer that in hindsigh I wish we took it. The FO didn't because they felt they could win with Pau and held on too long to him. I'll admit I was happy they didn't do that reported deal, but now I wish it happened. 

 

[essential1]

Jerry Buss lucked out and died at the right time. Because it has absolved him of any blame in the current predicament. When he was still making decisions up to a couple of months before he died.


We were always a card tower with a time bomb attached. It was all going to come collapsing down at some point. Had the CP3 trade went through, completely different history, but we didn't so we were a building with a scheduled date to collapse.



Because he is dead, doesn't mean he did not make bad decisions.

And nope, he would still be absolved of any criticism. Even when he was alive in 2011 and 2012 the blame was all on Jim Buss for any problem Laker related. People blame him for hiring Rudy after Phil was let go (what other coaches did people want?), but don't credit him for the hiring of Phil and the two championships that followed. Everyone needs at least one scapegoat and it's Jim in this case and it doesn't seem like he cares. He stays low key. 

Even the doc made mistakes. He's hired a fair share of bad coaches, etc. No one can be 100%. 


The only move that has irked me from the FO was not trading Pau for the reported Dragic, Scola, Martin and possibly a pick? Not sure if Houston was offering all this (I think Broussard reported it and honestly you cannot trust these ESPN reports). But if they did actually offer that in hindsigh I wish we took it. The FO didn't because they felt they could win with Pau and held on too long to him. I'll admit I was happy they didn't do that reported deal, but now I wish it happened. 

That was what Houston was giving up in the CP3 trade to the Hornets.

Don't remember that being re-offered to the Lakers. In hindsight, probably.

But we still wanted Dwight, and didn't know what it was going to take. Maybe Pau. So had to keep him. Also Bynum was good, but was still not a sure shot, it was only that season where he became the 2nd best Center. So if we got rid of Pau, and Bynum goes down again, we were screwed.

Then we probably should have traded Pau when we got Dwight, but man Nash-Kobe-Pau-Dwight sounded so good.

By the time that rolled around, he was worthless to other teams because he was $19mil and couldn't carry a team.

 

[jab step]

That was what Houston was giving up in the CP3 trade to the Hornets.

Don't remember that being re-offered to the Lakers. In hindsight, probably.

But we still wanted Dwight, and didn't know what it was going to take. Maybe Pau. So had to keep him. Also Bynum was good, but was still not a sure shot, it was only that season where he became the 2nd best Center. So if we got rid of Pau, and Bynum goes down again, we were screwed.

Then we probably should have traded Pau when we got Dwight, but man Nash-Kobe-Pau-Dwight sounded so good.

By the time that rolled around, he was worthless to other teams because he was $19mil and couldn't carry a team.

I'm pretty sure reports were that Houston directly offered that to the Lakers after the whole veto. And in hindsight that deal would've been great for the Lakers and I'm willing to admit I didn't have that hindsight. I was glad we didn't do it for the specific reasons you stated. 

I also think it's clear we didn't trade Pau during the trade deadline for those reported second round picks because we wanted to keep him here. Those two offers show the Lakers wanted him to stay. That's another move I can't support, but I'm glad Pau rejected them. It was time to move on. 

Why didn't we resign Bazemore. I'm going to assume we could only offer him the minimum after all the moves yesterday? Probably my favorite young player we had last year. 

 

[hybridsoldier23]

They didn't pursue Bledsoe.
They didn't pursue Monroe.
They didn't pursue Parsons.
They didn't pursue Ariza.
They didn't pursue Stephenson.

They pursued Melo. Only Melo.

You can blame Kobe's contract all you want, but the truth is our front office didn't even ATTEMPT to go after solid free agents with 30+ million in cap space.

Restricted or not, they could of at least tried. Everyone was saying Houston was guaranteed to match anything for Parsons... Well look how the cookie crumbled. Dallas is this close to landing him (expensive or not) because THEY TRIED.

Who knows if the suns would of matched Bledsoe if we have him a huge offer sheet, when they just got Isaiah.

Who knows if Detroit would of matched Monroe.

Most likely? Yes, sure.
Automatically? No...

Worth a damn shot man.

Instead we lost Pau for NOTHING (when we could of gotten draft picks during all these trade deadlines), and put all our marbles into Melo when Melo was never going to leave.

We literally made 0 effort into any of those young free agents with plenty of cap space.

Blame it on Kobe all you want, obviously his contract doesn't help the team.

But there was plenty of funds left to at least TRY to land one or more of these young pieces.

Yes, we may of disagreed on which one of them was worth what. Yes not all of them would be useful for long term plans. I get it.

But you can at least sit down and try to negotiate something before you panic and resign Jordan Hill and Nick.

I'm not mad that they're staying, I'm just mad we didn't try anything else besides Melo before just giving up and resigning the usual guys that would of been there for us next week.

Blame Kobes contract, it sucks.
But don't use it as an excuse for the lack of use of 30+ mil cap space.

That's just bad management.
That's just not a very smart week for our front office.

I will give them the Lin trade. That helps. So I will be fair and give them that. Not a total failure of a week. We got a pick for renting out Lin this year, that's good. But they shouldn't have been so content with that.

Can't believe they just didn't try. It wouldn't have hurt to try and sign a damn offer sheet for someone as talented as Bledsoe. It wouldn't have hurt damnit