[:: LAKERS 2014 THREAD | POLL: Who Should Coach Next Year? ::]

[darthska]

 

- There's an uncertainty in trading our pick for Love... who could walk? That's bad... because that pick is a nice, young athlete and Love could could bounce? Sooo... uncertainty = bad? Cool, cool. I get that. Makes sense. We tank and get a top pick and land Love... and that top pick becomes Sebastian Telfair/Kwame Brown, and Love demands a trade to a contender, or walks at the end of the 2-3 year deal we sign him for. That... so that would be bad, right? And it's absolutely possible, right? And it's also possible that we get a top pick and land Love and that pick goes all Kobe/Lebron on the league, and him and Love look attractive enough to lure in a Rondo or even Durant and rip the entire National Basketball Association a new one; that's also a possibility. So this 'tank and get a top pick and then land Love' could end up terrible, could end up decent, could end up awesome; lots of uncertainty, no? And 'uncertainty = bad' still? Or is is it just that uncertainty of 'trading that pick for Love when he COULD walk' is bad?

Yes, there's uncertainty in everything. But a lottery pick has the chance to bring things that no other player can - not just in terms of talent, but the money and roster building situations.

Love + pick brings a much higher chance of success, due to more opportunities on the roster building side.

The pick could burn out and those opportunities go out the window. But those things are irreplaceable, not things you can get on the FA market etc. So that's why the Lakers should be willing to play the risks of the pick panning out vs. the risks of giving it up for a star and dealing with the cap limitations etc.

Shoot, I forgot to mention the VERY REAL possibility that we get the pick... and Love goes to an actual PRESENT contender.

TELL me Love to LA is as blatanelty obvious as Dwight to LA was. Please. Tell me that.

 

[sb]

Philadelphia has been much better in their front office the last year than we have.

Philly is going to walk into July with MCW, Nerlens Noel, a top 3 pick, AND a top 10-12 pick.

4 kids, all under 22, all costing less per season than Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Love will.


They made absolute, positive, certain, that this pick would become a gold bar instead of risking it being a bronze brick.


Does it mean they are in the clear and destined for glory? Course not. Work is always to be done, same as the Heat had to keep working even after signing the Big 3. The point is, they put themselves in position to get right.

What have we done to position ourselves for strength? Sign an old broken dude. Trade away a bunch of picks. And win games for no reason to lower the value of our biggest asset.


Philly/Miami front office vision >>>>>>> Lakers front office vision.

pat gonna pat

cue joker money gif

lulz. that one applies to the lakers. i was referring to the jack joker money gif. that one applies to nash.

dont worry guys krby will take them to the promise land. its his destiny. prepare for a championship june 2015

 

[senorroboto2k5]

Shoot, I forgot to mention the VERY REAL possibility that we get the pick... and Love goes to an actual PRESENT contender.

TELL me Love to LA is as blatanelty obvious as Dwight to LA was. Please. Tell me that.

I hope no one tells you that. It's the opposite. Lakers have a lot of hurdles and threats to clear if they want to add Love.

But I should go back and edit. "Lottery pick + Star (which LA gets within the rookie contract of the lottery pick)" presents all those opportunities.

I've just gotten used to using the name Kevin Love in here, but I really mean Love or a star like him when I type it.

 

[knightngale]

- These players, and this coach; if they have a strong feeling they're gone next year, what on EARTH would motivate them to tank for the future? They're trying to audition for their next batch of suitors... or else they'll have no suitors.

That is why the front office should have gotten rid of a few of them for picks or for even more garbage players. Tell Dantoni to DNP good players. Sit out players with season ending injuries etc.

The blame is not on the players but the front office. The want to lose with class.
They must have forgotten how much *** kissing was done to Howard.

 

[darthska]

 

- These players, and this coach; if they have a strong feeling they're gone next year, what on EARTH would motivate them to tank for the future? They're trying to audition for their next batch of suitors... or else they'll have no suitors.

The blame is not on the players but the front office. The want to lose with class.

Exactly.

I'm a player, I think I'm gone at the end of the season, and you're telling me to jack up halfcourt shots and start passing w/ my off-hand more? *thumbs up* Sure thing. 

 I'm trying to stay in the league; I'm playing my tail off.

Absolutely the fault of the FO.

And Drake.

 

[senorroboto2k5]

That is why the front office should have gotten rid of a few of them for picks or for even more garbage players. Tell Dantoni to DNP good players. Sit out players with season ending injuries etc.

The blame is not on the players but the front office. The want to lose with class.
They must have forgotten how much *** kissing was done to Howard.

Yeah. We can only blame the FO.

Can't even blame MDA because they decided to have those meetings and put his job security up in the air. Of course he's gonna try harder now

At this point I'm just gonna believe in karma. Injuries, DH's lame ***, CP3 veto... there's got to be some good karma coming. They win a few more games, I'm still cool because of the karma. Might be stupid but it's better than worrying at this point.

 

[CP1708]

My only hope is Silver called LA and said "play hard, it will pay off" and then Silver will Top 3 us.


Because if we did this for pride, or arrogance, then we're just a poorly run franchise about to have a real dark time.

 

[freeze]

real talk when they showed the race to the bottom chart last night i screamed at the tv, because if we had just lost the 3 big games we were supposed to lose, stuff like the pacers, portland, hell last night, etc, we'd be in 4th place. these guys are idiots. i know they dont care about helping the team get better though since they wont be returning, but sheesh, mike will probably return, i'd sit those overachievers on the bench.



edit:

i have not read a single post on this page or the last until i posted mine, hilarious we all are talking about the exact same thing lmao

 

[darthska]

My only hope is Silver called LA and said "play hard, it will pay off" and then Silver will Top 3 us.


Because if we did this for pride, or arrogance, then we're just a poorly run franchise about to have a real dark time.

BEEN saying, brethren.

We're a poorly run franchise. 

About to have a real dark time. 

This has a different feel than the 90s, man; MUCH different. Doesn't it?

 

[licensed to ball]

Let's all become Clipper fans before it's too late

Spoiler

nah. I'd rather watch the Swaggy P tank era for the next 10 years

 

[CP1708]

MUCH different. Yes.

What pisses me off is in those times, West KNEW how he needed the draft. (that's why I was bent about him sayin this year's draft "wasn't all that") He's full of **** right now.

He made it EASY for us back in the day to land quality talent in the latter part of the first round. And after Magic was taken from us, he never quite fell to the bottom of the league, sure, but he used every draft pick to it's value and got a core built up. Peeler, Lynch, Van Exel, Campbell, and then of course the big haul, Eddie Jones. He had that squad growin, and then went all in with Shaq/Kobe. But he KNEW he needed to have Kobe. A 17 year old prodigy, that as soon as he matured enough, the team suddenly was in range to get it done.

Kevin Love by hisself ain't doin a damn thing. But get him paired with a kid with a high ceiling, and suddenly the potential rises.


So what's Mitch doing? Pissing on our pick, threatening to trade it (praying to God that's just talk to throw teams off our true scent) and not only that, for everyone that wants to TRADE the pick, the value of the trade goes down the more games we win. Yet here we all are, cheering.

If we want to trade the pick for something better, something more of a "sure" thing, then we should still be wanting to lose to max that damn pick out. Otherwise we could go from trading for Kevin Love, to trading for David West. |I


One thing Jerry West did not do was throw out atrocious contracts, or trade away a decade worth of draft picks, something Mitch has absolutely loved doing. And while I ignored it for a while, I'm not anymore. Mitch better get right, or get gone. I don't have time for his bull **** anymore. This is 4th year since a Finals run, and we're further away then ever now. And he's done NOTHING to protect our one, lone, asset. Which is simply unacceptable.

 

[had pants]

 

[kingjaffejo]

The only problem with this CP is I think you are ASSUMING way too much about what Mitch & Jim are going to do.

This is all useless banter until one of them actually speaks up or something happens. Unless you have a hidden mic in his office I think we all need to slow down on assuming on what these guys are thinking or doing.

Unfortunately we aren't in these meetings or offices so all we are doing is creating stories and assuming a lot.

Your are seriously gonna give yourself a heart attack my dude
And I don't wanna see that happen lol

 

[yeezusdisciple]

Yall think we can get dirk

 

[licensed to ball]

Dirk for the #6 pick?

Do it Mitch

Spoiler

only so that we could see CP write the most epic rant in NT history

 

[CP1708]

There wouldn't be a rant.

There would be a white bronco 2.0

 

[kingjaffejo]

CP's rant will probably be his suicide letter

All they would find at the scene of the crime would be a bottle of laced Mountain Dew

 

[CP1708]

The only problem with this CP is I think you are ASSUMING way too much about what Mitch & Jim are going to do.

This is all useless banter until one of them actually speaks up or something happens. Unless you have a hidden mic in his office I think we all need to slow down on assuming on what these guys are thinking or doing.

Unfortunately we aren't in these meetings or offices so all we are doing is creating stories and assuming a lot.

Your are seriously gonna give yourself a heart attack my dude
And I don't wanna see that happen lol

It's not hard to figure these days tho man.

This isn't 1993 where you have to read the paper and even then have no idea what a team is up to, til it happens.

I can look right now and get a list of the free agents for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, etc. We can see the draft prospects for this year, and next year, and probably the year after if I look hard enough.

I can see who has what picks the next 3-4-5 years.

The only thing I can't see is trades. But you see 1-2 real, big, earth moving moves in a year, 18 months if you're lucky.


I'm not *****ing about little things, I think they have done alright there. Finding Marshall, Wes, Xavier, Farmar, all on the cheap, I like that. That's great.

Giving Kobe 48 mil, not a ******* reason on the planet that's wise.
Trashing this pick, for no good reason, not wise.
Not trading Pau, Hill, Kaman, etc etc, no wise reason.


You can't fix that ****. We're stuck with a mess, THEY created.


When Dwight left, it sucked, but at the very, very, very brightest of sides, at least we could sit back and say hey, in 1 year, we will have a FULL cap space. We could have forced/begged/threatened Steve Nash to retire. Buy him out. Whatever. We could have the ENTIRE cap opened, cleaned, cleared.

Think about that. 2014, the LA Lakers have ZERO cap spendings. The whole joint, scrubbed clean.

Complete, brand new start. Starting with 1 Top 3 draft pick. (likely)

Kobe wants to stay and retire a Laker? Great, come talk contract with us, we'll get it done, properly tho. AFTER, we see your leg is healed.

Kelly's good? Great, let us talk about extending you.

All these other cheap young players, fine, let us talk.


That's what was within our grasp. Right there. Just had to wait til June 2014. Easy. Simple. Not a problem.


What did we do? Let Nash run around tellin the world he thinks he can still play, wants to still play, gonna try and still play.
Give Kobe his deal 7 months early.

Waste the value of the pick, then leak rumors about trading it.

Stay above the cap and luxury/repeater tax, etc, with a bunch of pending free agents that we most likely won't be keeping.

Acquired no new assets going forward outside of Kent Bazemore, if you consider him an asset. (I don't)

I have no prob bringing Bazemore back next year, but I don't consider him an asset. A bench/role guy, sure, like Luke Walton, I didn't consider Luke an asset either, and neither should anybody else.


So I retyped all this like the 20 billionth time, but that's the point. We can all look ahead in the internet age at the landscape of the NBA, and see what is coming, and going. Everyone knows Love, Rondo, Marc, LMA, Melo, etc are upcoming FA's, that their teams face the idea of trading them a year early, or letting them walk, etc, same as we just watched with Dwight. That's today's sports landscape.

We all saw the Dwight trade coming.
We all saw Ron getting amnestied.

What we did not see was Trading for a 38 year old PG.

The first two moves were good ones, we saw those coming. The last one, not a good move, which is why we didn't see it coming. Nor would we want to see it.


*when I say we, I don't just mean me, or anybody in here, I mean NBA writers, bloggers, twitter folk, people that follow the NBA daily, saw those moves coming, including some of us in here. We ALL saw Dwight trading to LA at some point, NO ONE saw Nash to LA. The Dwight deal made sense, and just didn't work out. The Nash deal, did not ever make much sense, outside of going all in for a single year. Which is what?

Poor planning.


Build long term > Build short term. Always.

 

[kingjaffejo]

C'mon CP!! I can't read all that!
Give me the cliff notes version bruh

 

[darthska]

That was the cliff notes, I'm afraid.

 

[CP1708]

Twas. Ran out of time to finish.

 

[had pants]

That was the cliff notes, I'm afraid.

 

[senorroboto2k5]

Eric Pincus ‏@EricPincus 39m

Meanwhile Pau Gasol calls Kaman "a valuable piece, one of our best pieces" http://www.latimes.com/sports/laker...rn-likes-chris-kaman-20140331,0,7864059.story …

 

[CP1708]

Eric Pincus ‏@EricPincus 39m

Meanwhile Pau Gasol calls Kaman "a valuable piece, one of our best pieces" http://www.latimes.com/sports/laker...rn-likes-chris-kaman-20140331,0,7864059.story …

Yeah. See, we need to just shut all these dudes up.

Kobe been talkin all year
Pau
Swaggy gone in a year
Kaman


All the dudes I want kept, Marshall, X, Farmar, Wes, all kept quiet all year and played hard. (even when I didn't want them to play hard ) Throw in Meeks if we decide he needs to stay.

 

[CP1708]

D'Antoni acknowledged that once the Lakers fell out of the playoffs, the team's priority shifted away from playing established veterans to developing the squad's younger players.

Yet, we kept the older vets at the deadline. :\