**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins

[moonman818]

I pretty much have got under everyone's skin in this thread at some point but it's all love


Dude just takes his hate too far... most of the **** he posts isn't constructive, funny, or anything other than spam-like hate.

 

[essential1]

 

This team is what it is on defense.

It's like MDA is out there coaching them on that end. This has been an issue all season long.

Which is why it's imperative we trade DLo and Moz for Boogie ASAP. 

Boogie, Randle, Nance, Black in the interior changes things drastically on the defensive end

Just an observation, there's really nobody on this team outside of Ingram that really has the tools to be a good to great defender. That'll be an issue that has to be addressed going forward but we're kinda limited in our options.

You don't think Randle, Zubac, and Clarkson have the "tools" to be great defenders? I'd like to know why you think they wouldn't

There is a reason why the Lakers kept Metta on the team. Think Julius Randle, who is our ONLY enforcer. Think of the intangibles and locker room presence, from one of only 2 players on the team that has a championship ring.

Those of you who wish we had kept Anthony Brown are flat out clueless. Dude can't even get off the bench with the Pelicans smh.

 

Nine more days and Laker trade rumors will ramp up. Mozzie, Deng, Huertas, Black, among others, will all be on the block. Stay tuned...

Doubt it. Almost everything the Lakers do comes out of nowhere.

Yes, for sure. 99.9% of the time, players who are in the rumor mill are the trades that don't happen. I'm just saying once December 15 hits, hoopshype.com, lakersnation.com, etc will be full of articles about several Lakers players who can potentially be moved. Doesn't mean it will happen though.

At the end of the day, I remain a proponent of the Lakers moving either Randle or DLo as part of a package that gets us Cousins.

They're in their second years (technically third for Randle). Not everyone is going to set the world on fire immediately like LeBron or Durant out of the gate.

Precisely. The Lakers are about bringing in ELITE LEVEL franchise players. And Russell and Randle aren't that. 

If you want to settle for mediocrity, go ahead and keep Randle and Russell.

As long as I've been a Lakers fan, you look at all of our championships and there is one single common denominator in all of those teams - ELITE SUPERSTARS lead them.

The Lakers have to get the type of talent that are on that Durant/Lebron/Shaq/Kobe/KG/Duncan level. Cousins and maybe even Paul George are very close to that.

Do you have a crystal ball wheee you can claim they won't ever be elite? What are you basing this off of? The first 2 years the league?


Go look at Stephs, Klays, Dray, harden, Westbrook first 2 years in the league.


And wash ya face b

I knew Westbrook would be a star in the NBA watching him at Pauley Pavilion. You can't teach killer instinct, not to mention the ball of energy Westbrook has displayed from high school all the way to the pros. Now having said this, there's a much better chance Randle gets closer to "elite" than Russell does. I think Randle has plenty of upside, but I just don't believe he will be a perennial All-Star like an Anthony Davis or a KAT.

Funny how just ONE of you has answered these two questions. I wonder why.

So you all think DLo and Randle will be superstars in this league?

You think DLo and Randle are the type of franchise players that can put a team on their back and lead them to championship glory?

Superstars are like top 5ish players in the league, which are really long odds. So no.


But that doesn't mean they can't be productive NBA players on a winning team.

I'm not saying they can't be productive NBA Players.

You guys continue to miss my point. 

It's all about WINNING CHAMPIONSHIPS. And I'm sure that's the goal for Mitch, Jim, and Jeannie as well.

There is no time to settle for mediocrity or first/second round playoff exits in LakerLand. Which means ultimately, the Lakers HAVE TO acquire a franchise player (aka top 5ish) or two in order to realize their main goal.

But for some of the Lakers fans in here, they seem very content in watching these young kids grow over the next 4-5 years while hoping one of them pans out to be a top 5ish player. Good fk'n luck with that.

Randle has NOT shown "Drastic" improvement. And neither has DLo. 

There's like 4 different opinions on Randle in here, in 3 weeks

Is he what a team needs for a championship or not?

Does he help the team look better or has he shown no improvement?

Etc. etc.

 

[essential1]

Anywho... For anybody who wants to actually legitimately discuss Lakers basketball


D'Angelo Russell is on pace to be one of 26 players since 1989-90 (An average of 1 a year) to average 15/3/4.5 from ages 18-21..

And of those lists D'Angelo by far plays the least amount of minutes at 25.5 (The second most is Kyrie at 30.5, and the third is Russell Westbrook at 32.5)


In there, Russell has the 4th highest 3P% for a season behind 2 Kyrie seasons and 1 Steph Curry season.

 

[essential1]

Another piece of analysis.... We can all agree that some players are more ready for the NBA than others.. Some guys come in ready, some guys need time..

Take a look at Jimmy Butler, he had 3 years of Marquette, and wasn't really ready for the NBA in any sense. He then developed into an all star caliber player.

So let's go with the assumption that D'Angelo was not ready for the NBA, and could have used one more season in college. While he was smart to leave after a year because his stock was never going to get higher he was the 2nd or 3rd best prospect in every mock and ranking, I agree he could have used another year to put it all together.

In the same way Jimmy Butler was a bench warmer to a mediocre bench player to a mediocre starter in his first 3 years, then became this great starter and All Star in Year 4.

Someone like Kyrie was ready after a few games in Duke. So Kyrie started out at a higher plane than Russell, that happens. Stephon Marbury was light years ahead of Kobe in day 1 readiness for the NBA.


So let's compare this year's D'Angelo to the last 3 BIG TIME PGs. Year 1 Russell Westbrook (age 20), Year 1 Kyrie Irving (age 19), Year 1 Stephen Curry (age 21).

We're comparing a Year 2 guy with 3 year 1 guys.. It's conceding that those 3 may have been more ready for the NBA than Russell.. Completely ignoring the situations they came into, and who some had as teammates.

But it's not like we're comparing a 8th year guy who is 27-28 to 19-20-21 year olds. We're comparing a 20 year old to a 19, 20 & 21 year old.

Let's take a look....

View media item 2263914

Looks like he's still far behind, but look at the minutes, Kyrie had 30.5mpg (That's 20% time more than DAR), Russell 32.5 (Almost 30% more than DAR), Steph had 36.5mpg (About 45% more than DAR)

That's not necessarily Russell's fault.. Everybody on the Lakers has been around 25 or so minutes, Clarkson has only shot up to 28 because of necessity with Russell & Nick out.

But even if his efficiency would drop in those 5-10 minutes, there would be more in terms of PPG, RPG & APG

So let's make that even at 36 minutes

View media item 2263925
Just look at Kyrie versus Russell based on 36 minutes Kyrie +0.6 on PPG, Russell +0.1 on APG, Kyrie +0.1 on RPG
Russell +0.6 in SPG, Russell +0.7 in TOPG
And for someone who doesn't get to the line often, he's pretty close to Kyrie, the advanced stat of Free Throw Rate is in Kyrie's favor 26% to 23%, and far ahead of Steph's 17% Free Throw Rate


Now if you don't like the PER 36 comparison because you don't think the 10.5mpg would translate for Russell, nor would the 5.5mpg would translate for Kyrie because there would be some fall off.

Let's look at PER 100 Possessions, which takes into account all of the possessions that the player is involved in, and figures out what that produces every 100 possessions.

View media item 2263931


He compares well to similarly aged elite PGs. He just happens to be 1 NBA season behind developmentally.

 

[lovehateself]

Ppl in barbershops don't care about will hunting findings tho

 

[sb]

 

[Peep Game]

View media item 2263848
Swaggy Boost around the corner... at Swaggy getting a PE release before Ingram.

The better player should obviously get shoe releases

 

[Los Angeles]

Ppl in barbershops don't care about will hunting findings tho

somewhat agree

 

[Lizakers]

Any chance we go after Montejunas? Maybe release Metta/TRob

 

[noblekane]

View media item 2263848
Swaggy Boost around the corner... at Swaggy getting a PE release before Ingram.

yo those are ******* dope. rather they be ingram pe's tho

 

[moonman818]

Any chance we go after Montejunas? Maybe release Metta/TRob

We don't really need him but I'd give him a deal similar to Yi's and cut Metta if he'd come to LA

 

[tupac003]

FACTS ...lakers threads have always been a cesspool ..... you're not allowed to have a opinion unless E or CP ..... the way some of the dudes in here meat ride those two is disgusting

View media item 2264153
Been here since 06, seen many come and go. Hell I myself have been in and out. To say only E and CP are the only ones who can have an opinion is laughable. When I came back in 14 me and CP went at it for a while.

 

[essential1]

Any chance we go after Montejunas? Maybe release Metta/TRob

Not really much upside over TRob. He can play a little bit of Center, but not enough that makes you want to put him there.

I think we'd be smart to run a Nance / Randle PF / C combo more often and give that a lot of time to develop, as a change of pace kind of lineup.

But Montejunas over TRob makes very little difference for us


Over MWP? Sure.

But not sure we need to shuffle TRob for Montejunas because neither are long term fits.

 

[sfsjjang98]

Interesting post regarding the data. I haven't read the last whatever pages of what I gather was a lot of arguing about trolling or not.

Since metrics can be used and viewed in a lot of different ways, I wonder (from an admittedly limited and simplistic "barbershop" view) if this doesn't support the idea of trading him while the value and projected value is at a high? Does it clearly suggest he's the franchise player we need to build around?

Even if he ends up maintaining or exceeding any of those players in terms of these metrics in the coming years, does he have the same level of impact on our franchise as the others have on theirs? Although not considered in this individual comparison, I'm curious still, does this data suggest we follow the developmental blueprint the GS and Chi had in building their teams? (Disregarding Cleveland due to Lebron's return, which is impossible to duplicate)

 

[CP1708]

FACTS ...lakers threads have always been a cesspool ..... you're not allowed to have a opinion unless E or CP ..... the way some of the dudes in here meat ride those two is disgusting

View media item 2264153
Been here since 06, seen many come and go. Hell I myself have been in and out. To say only E and CP are the only ones who can have an opinion is laughable. When I came back in 14 me and CP went at it for a while.

Yessir.

 

[pmatic]

 

[sohi 23]

I never get mad over ppl suggesting trades. I would trade Randle & Clarkson but I'm not on here dedicating all my posts begging for these guys to get traded. I can't get mad at ppl that think Dlo won't be a star because I don't think BI will be a star but I'm not on here in every post talking about BI isn't destined for greatness. It's just differing opinions and life would be boring if everyone thought the same thing, but y'all don't have to be so annoying about it, moving the goal posts for your arguments, making ridiculous claims, etc

Lets just be realistic and not act like some scorned fan base that deserves a winner. This is professional sports and management get paid a lot of money to do their job. I trust what they're doing & I'm not putting all my energy suggesting what they should do and that they should be fired. Ill just sit back and watch and say I told u so when Dlo becomes a perennial all star and leads us to the playoffs every year
That's all any of us can really do. In conclusion, I appreciate all different viewpoints but constantly spamming with trades that'll never happen are annoying. That's all I'll say about that.

 

[lovehateself]

if the team isnt gonna give burn to Zubac, then id rather see Dmo and his height out ( even though hes not strong defensively) over trobb
especially with boom boom out

once boom boom comes back trobb really is expendable 

realistically youd want to cut metta, but the team wont do that


Look at this ****

View media item 2264651

 

[Lizakers]

Holy **** what an amazing shot

 

[CP1708]

That just don't make any sense. :x

 

[essential1]

Who is ready for another fun stat..

Since 1946-47, here's the list of guys who have scored 15PPG, averaged 4.5APG with less than 28 MPG... More than 10 game sample size

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

View media item 2264909

http://www.basketball-reference.com...c4comp=gt&c4val=10&c6mult=1.0&order_by=season

 

[Lizakers]

A lot of that was before 3 pt line though
A good chunk of his shots/points come from 3s

 

[tupac003]

Stats don't matter in some folks minds. Eye test and a crazy bias is all some folks need.

I'm no expert. None of us in here are. But I'm not giving up on a kid after 110 NBA games.

 

[MVP]

When D'Lo actually comes to have half an impact as those guys I'll be a believer.

 

[sohi 23]

When D'Lo actually comes to have half an impact as those guys I'll be a believer.

This is funny cuz there's literally no body else on the list.