Lakers OFF-SEASON IS A WRAP

[ValarMorghulis]

D'Angelo like....

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[kal-el-8]

I need you to stop posting.

 

[619destroyer858]

D'Angelo like....

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nah,,we dont need another garbage

 

[BIG LEEMELONE]

Draft seriously needs to hurry the **** up. can't take much more of this amateur gm audition 

 

[kookcle]

But to be honest no matter how many 3s KAT hits In a video. I don't want him or Okafor pull up off the dribble and shooting.

This.

Good thing Okafor has a good post game already.

He'll improve his jumpshot eventually.



Okafor to Randle

 

[619destroyer858]

I need you to stop posting.

u mad brah???

 

[kal-el-8]

Not really, just think the community would be better if you didn't post homer statements that offer nothing.

 

[mr j 858]

Okafur is a project in the NBA

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[mr j 858]

 

[mr j 858]

 

[Lizakers]

I'm so glad we're in this position

Number freakin TWO pick, all this cap space
Future is so bright

I can honestly say I trust lakers management will make the right decision, after all they put us in this position of flexibility even while securing their worldwide business interest by giving bean that huge contract

 

[kingjaffejo]

Wait a minute who the asterisk is Khalil?

 

[mr j 858]

Jahlil Okafor wants to be a Laker

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The dreaming can start now.

On the first day of the next chapter, the giant kid with the huge hands and deep voice showed up loaded for Laker.

So, Jahlil Okafor, what do you think about the pressure of being the Lakers' probable No. 2 overall draft pick?

"Being here in Lakerland, walking around, a lot of Lakers fans say they want me here, telling me they want to win," he said. "I love it."

So, what do you think about the pressure of following in the historic footsteps of past Lakers big men?

"They were all about winning, and when they came here, they won," he said. "I'll have some big shoes to step into, but I'm ready."

OK, so can you turn this dreadful team into a winner?

"Not by myself, not on this level, not coming right in," he said. "That's why we have Kobe Bryant here."

Smart answer. Sharp kid. He loves the pressure, embraces the expectations, and is savvy enough to pay homage to the one guy who can make his life miserable. Jahlil Okafor is not here yet, but he will probably soon be, and as consolation prizes go, this could feel a whole lot like first place.

The 19-year-old center on Duke's national title team showed up at El Segundo for a workout Tuesday in advance of the June 25 NBA draft in which he is expected to fall to the Lakers, who would be out of their minds not to snap him up.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are expected to select Kentucky center Karl-Anthony Towns with the first overall pick because he's considered better defensively with deeper potential. That would leave the draft's other big headliner for the Lakers, which would be an absolute gift for a team that was supposed to pick fourth and a reviving jolt for a franchise that has spent two years dead asleep.

Okafor is 6 feet 11, 270 pounds and, while he doesn't play defense like Towns, he is a big-city scorer with big-time cool. With his giant hands, deft touch and nimble footwork, he could probably knock down 18 in an NBA game right now. He has been compared to a young Tim Duncan, which means nothing before he's banked in his first pro shot, except that he does have that Duncan thing for winning.

Okafor won a high school state championship, a national college championship, and a bunch of international USA basketball championships. He is now seemingly intent on winning the draft, which, to him, means coming to the Lakers, and he's not shy about saying it.

So, what do you think about the prestige of being the first overall pick?

"I've already said, being the No. 1 pick is not that important for me, it's more so for the fan base," Okafor said. " I just want to be in right position with a team that wants me."

When have you ever heard a potential No. 1 disown the idea of being No. 1? When he wants the No. 2 team to take him, that's when. Okafor appears to want to play for the Lakers so badly, it's as if he's ready to cede the draft title to Towns right now.

"He's obviously a great player, he's definitely deserving of being the No. 1 pick," Okafor said of Towns.

So far, it appears Towns is ready to accept that crown and go to Minnesota. He is the only potential top-four pick who has not yet worked out for the Lakers, and they have had difficulty in pinning him down for a visit, which could mean that he already knows he's going to join the Timberwolves, so what's the use?

Okafor suffers from no such uncertainty, saying, "I'm coming from Duke University … where the entire atmosphere is about winning. … That's what the Laker organization is about, that's what I want to be part of."

When this columnist had the nerve to ask about his defensive deficiencies, Okafor had the wit to fire back.

"I hear the criticism, but we won a national championship at Duke, so it wasn't that bad," he said, grinning. "Coach K was fine with the way we played defense."

He later acknowledged that he needs to work on all aspects of his game, and that he would love to learn about the mental edge from Bryant, and that maybe some of those famous big guys would show up with pointers.

"Shaq was my favorite, then there's Kareem, I would love to be here, to have an opportunity to learn from all those guys," he said.

Here's guessing that despite all of his calculated public waffling, Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak has also learned from those big guys and won't even be tempted to use the second pick on trendy cool Ohio State guard D'Angelo Russell. Kupchak was quick to mention how today's NBA now seems to be dominated by the smaller guys who control the ball. But he was also quickly reminded that when the Lakers have won championships, it's always been on the backs of a big man, a fact that surrounds Kupchak every day.

"That's an argument, and that's a good argument, we'll have to see how that plays out," Kupchak said Tuesday. "We have a lot of photos in this building, a lot of those jerseys of big men that we retired."

Kupchak paused. "But … it's debatable."

Is it? If there's one commodity that is impossible to find in today's NBA, it's big men. If there's one draft where two big men need to be taken immediately, it's this one. True, point guards run the game, and the two teams in the NBA Finals have centers who have been mostly afterthoughts, but remember how the Lakers found potential star guard Jordan Clarkson in the second round last year? Great guards can be found anywhere. Great centers can be found almost nowhere.

"No, you can not get a big man like him [Clarkson] in the second round," said Kupchak, referring to Clarkson's impact.

Watching Jimmy Buss tug on his baseball cap and confer with Kupchak during the end of Okafor's workout Tuesday, it was comforting to realize that no matter what happens, it will be nearly impossible for the Lakers to mess this up.

As Okafor's sweaty presence in a Lakers practice jersey confirmed Tuesday, go ahead, it's all good, the dreaming can start now.

Source:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/la-sp-lakers-jahlil-okafor-plaschke-20150610-column.html

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

Just can't get excited for Okafor. A center that doesn't excel defensively?

 

[jab step]

Just can't get excited for Okafor. A center that doesn't excel defensively?

He has the tools to be good defensively. If you read Bogut's scouting report when he was getting drafted the same concerns coming up with Okafor came up with Bogut. Bogut turned into a great defensive center (exclude these finals for my point to make sense). 

Not saying Okafor will become good/great defensively, but he has the tools to become that. He just needs to watch how MGasol, Bogut, and latter day Duncan play D. 

Keep in mind at Duke he played through an injury, gained some weight because of the injury, and played softer D due to conserving himself and not letting himself get into foul trouble due to Duke's lack of depth. 

We also forget he's only 19. 

 

[moonman818]

Just can't get excited for Okafor. A center that doesn't excel defensively?

He has the tools to be good defensively. If you read Bogut's scouting report when he was getting drafted the same concerns coming up with Okafor came up with Bogut. Bogut turned into a great defensive center (exclude these finals for my point to make sense). 

Not saying Okafor will become good/great defensively, but he has the tools to become that. He just needs to watch how MGasol, Bogut, and latter day Duncan play D. 

Keep in mind at Duke he played through an injury, gained some weight because of the injury, and played softer D due to conserving himself and not letting himself get into foul trouble due to Duke's lack of depth. 

We also forget he's only 19. 

This.


I'd like to see how good many of the Big men today were defensively when they were 19 years old.

 

[mr j 858]

Just can't get excited for Okafor. A center that doesn't excel defensively?

C'mon on man.

You make it sound like Towns is destined to be a great defensive center like Mutombo, Dream, Dwight, or Joakim Noah to a lesser extent.

I look at it this way. Okafor will learn & improve on his defense throughout his NBA career. The fact the he's a more polished & has a better offensive game then Towns is HUGE +

Towns is looking like more of a project coming out of college right now. All the scouting reports have said he has the most "potential".

 

[jab step]

Also, I'd add I don't see why he can't develop his defensive game when some of the top defensive bigs in this league are guys like RLopez (Portland plays a smart scheme), MGasol, older Duncan, etc. These aren't the most athletic guys out there, but they play great defense using their length (which Jahlil has), and basketball IQ (which I hope he can develop, with the proper coaching). Scott 

??

Doesn't hurt those guys are also  surrounded by great wing defenders, which the Lakers obviously will have to acquire. 

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Who's watching Lisa Leslie right now.. she just went in on Okafor for being lazy and out of shape 

she has no chill

 

[laker4lifeman]

I'm just happy we have the 2nd pick

 

[mr j 858]

Lakers potential starting 5 on opening night for 2015-2016 season:

C: Okafor
PF: Randle
SF: Tobias Harris
SG: Mamba
PG: Clarkson


Man that would have me

And would definitely have this franchise future bright post Kobe era and headed back into the right direction.

Not saying that would get the Lakers back in the playoffs next year.

But I can't see how we couldn't make it in as the 6, 7, or 8th seed next season.Make some noise and then be attractive to KD next summer and Westbrook in summer 2017 to come here.

 

[jab step]

Lakers potential starting 5 on opening night for 2015-2016 season:

C: Okafor
PF: Randle
SF: Tobias Harris
SG: Mamba
PG: Clarkson


Man that would have me

And would definitely have this franchise future bright post Kobe era and headed back into the right direction.

Not saying that would get the Lakers back in the playoffs next year.

But I can't see how we couldn't make it in as the 6, 7, or 8th seed next season.Make some noise and then be attractive to KD next summer and Westbrook in summer 2017 to come here.

They probably wouldn't make the playoffs because they'd have a 19 year old a 20 year old and a 23 year old in the starting line up. Two of those guys will have no NBA experience, and one of those guys will have one year of NBA experience. I also am not sold on Tobias as a player as well as the Lakers ability to get him. 

The thing that worries me about Okafor is his jump shot/ft shooting. He's somewhat acknowledged his free throw troubles were mental and he's also acknowledged he sometimes gets down on himself. He can practice his jumper/ft all he wants, but they won't improve if he doesn't get rid of that mental block. 

 

[mr j 858]

They probably wouldn't make the playoffs because they'd have a 19 year old a 20 year old and a 23 year old in the starting line up. Two of those guys will have no NBA experience, and one of those guys will have one year of NBA experience. I also am not sold on Tobias as a player as well as the Lakers ability to get him. 

The thing that worries me about Okafor is his jump shot/ft shooting. He's somewhat acknowledged his free throw troubles were mental and he's also acknowledged he sometimes gets down on himself. He can practice his jumper/ft all he wants, but they won't improve if he doesn't get rid of that mental block. 

Good points made.

But I mean the way the NBA setup now is us Laker fans got to accept we are in rebuilding mode now and for at least the next 2 or 3 years until we land a superstar like KD or Westbrook.

After the last league lock out which was mainly about preventing the Lakers from being the old Lakers of 10 years ago when we could out spend every team in the league and pull off crazy lop sided trades and go over the cap and pay the heavy luxury tax. And especially the CP3 vetoed trade.

For better or worse we just got to accept this is how the NBA is now where any team no matter how great & rich the history is like the Lakers or Knicks where teams will have to tank and build through the nba lottery & draft.

Like I said in my first post that team may or may not make the playoffs but hey it will be an exciting team to watch and the right steps for this Franchise to get better and back to the championship contender level again.

Right now the way things are going it kind of reminds me of the early 90's & mid 90's Laker teams.

Magic at the end of his career chasing one last ring and then having to retire due to HIV.Now we got Kobe presently at the end of his career.

Young exciting talent in guys like: Nick Van Excel, Eddie Jones, Anthony Peeler, veteran jouney men guys like Cedric Ceballos, Elden Campbell, Divac.

Then bam summer of 1996 came and the chips fell in the right places where we were able to lure away and get Shaq and got lucky because of Jerry West knowing what he saw in the young high school phenom in Kobe Bryant.

Summer 2016 might very well be a magical year where we're able to land Kevin Durant in free agency. The lakers have the young assets and cap space to do it.

And those are the same exact reasons why Shaq came here in the summer of 1996.

 

[mj 23]

Who's watching Lisa Leslie right now.. she just went in on Okafor for being lazy and out of shape  she has no chill

Lisa leslie is a man

 

[kal-el-8]

That's mean