The All-Purpose LOL Lakers thread

Danny Green 15 million per yr what?? lmao
Not sure what's funny about that, I'd take Green and his defence/championship experience at 15 mil for two years over what we gave Ariza any day of the week.

I mean, LOL at the Lakers, I couldn't be more thrilled, but let's not be hypocrites. Green is a good signing for them. Don't know how they're going to fill out the rest of their roster though.
 
So let me get this straight the Thunder get 4 unprotected firsts, one protected first and TWO pick swaps. PLUS Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari. For Paul George. Holy crap. That is the highest price paid for a player who is not even a top 5 player in the game.
The Thunder didn't follow the rules of trading a top flight player. Star, youth, and picks. He might not be a true MVP type but the Thunder got a bunch of question marks for an all star. Picks swaps and all that won't matter. The Clippers just got good for the next few years. Good luck with that 20?? pick OKC!
 
So, in the midst of all this. Where does that leave us? Who can we categorically say we are better than in the west? Are we an 8-9 seed again?
If the Kings play to their full potential as a shooting squad they can close the experience and talent gap. If there is one. The problem is the middle rung teams like the Jazz not only upgraded in some ways, they got deeper. Also, some team is bound to disappoint. I just hope Vlade not hanging onto some of that cap space doesn't come back to bite him.
 
Not sure what's funny about that, I'd take Green and his defence/championship experience at 15 mil for two years over what we gave Ariza any day of the week.

I mean, LOL at the Lakers, I couldn't be more thrilled, but let's not be hypocrites. Green is a good signing for them. Don't know how they're going to fill out the rest of their roster though.
Wouldn’t a motivated Ariza provide the same thing? Defense, timely shooting and championship experience?
 
He was obviously waiting for the Thunder to bend over for him before he decided.
But clearly they were either plan B or C and I am sure they and their fan base were completely blindsided by this turn of events. I imagine if they knew the Clippers were actually in play they'd have tried to get one of the other big names to pair with the duo they traded the farm for but they convinced themselves they were the only game in town.
 
Not sure what's funny about that, I'd take Green and his defence/championship experience at 15 mil for two years over what we gave Ariza any day of the week.

I mean, LOL at the Lakers, I couldn't be more thrilled, but let's not be hypocrites. Green is a good signing for them. Don't know how they're going to fill out the rest of their roster though.
In a vacuum it's not a horrible move. For a team that traded everything away and banked everything on one guy to give themselves a big 3 it's a disaster. If they wanted to add two 15 million/per guys, arguably something that would have been the wisest choice, they could have done much better if they took that approach on day one.
 
So much relief.

The only thing I’m scared of now is Boogie going there. I won’t ever dislike him and I’ll never root against him, but I’ll take off my ultra-fan hat as long as he wears the Lakers jersey.
I thought he would be a top target but they re-signed McGee and I am pretty sure they're back to only being able to sign minimum level guys.
 
Who is disrespecting whom? Lebron’s career production is way behind Kobe and Timmy (5 to 3). This is basketball—greatest of all time is measured in rings. Lebron is #7 in my lifetime. Stop disrespecting the greats like Magic, Timmy and Kobe by putting Lebron in their stratosphere. And that’s two Lakers—has nothing to do w/ Lebron being a Laker. Moreover, he’s the only one of these guys to jump teams multiple times in order to act as his own GM AND has his own agency to force trades etc. for his stable of players to get to his team. And he still can’t put up championship seasons like Timmy, Kobe and Magic even coming from the annual bye to the Finals that was the Eastern conference. Please.
Career production doesnt mean just rings and there is much more to consider than just rings when evaluating players career. Throughout his career Lebrons quality of play and statistical output is up there at the very top, definetly much higher than players like Kobe or Duncan.

There is also these significant single things hes done that a)prove his greatness and b)can build that narrative of accomplishments that are needed in these discussions. He brought Cleveland a championship by beating the best team in the history of basketball while being clearly the best player on the court and having historically great playoffs as an individual player. He also took a historically bad 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers to the finals as a 23 year old. Team was really weak if the supporting cast is Larry Hughes, Ilgauskas, Daniel Gibson, Drew Gooden and Sasha Pavlovic. To me that is/was still one of the biggest accomplishments of Lebron or any player in this era but apparrently it doesnt count if it isnt a ring? Dragging that horrible Cavs team for the first half of his career while singlehandedly making them competitive every year doesnt count because thats not a ring? Thats just ridiculous especially when no other player at that time would've been able to produce similar value where you can singlehandedly take a bad team to contention. Complete nonsense.

But the argument for Lebron isnt these subjective narratives. Its simply the quality of play he has produced for extremely long and that puts him unquestionably in the top 3. Disregarding all of that and only using ringz as an argument is just silly especially when you alone can only impact so much on your chances to win one.
 
In a vacuum it's not a horrible move. For a team that traded everything away and banked everything on one guy to give themselves a big 3 it's a disaster. If they wanted to add two 15 million/per guys, arguably something that would have been the wisest choice, they could have done much better if they took that approach on day one.
They don't have any other choice at this point. There is no other option for a third superstar. I'm not arguing that theyre better off with Green than Kawhi obviously. But it's a bit silly to scoff at Greens signing while most people here are giddy with our signings. It's a solid signing like most of ours.
 
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Career production doesnt mean just rings and there is much more to consider than just rings when evaluating players career.
I know you and I have disagreed a lot lately, but not this time! IMO you are spot on here.

I believe most fans are far too focused on titles. While having a star player(s) certainly helps, winning championships is a TEAM accomplishment.

Kobe Bryant knows this because he couldn’t win anything w/o Shaq or Pau Gasol and the right cast of role players.

Michael Jordan knows this because he wasn’t part of a title team for the first 6 years of his career — until Scottie Pippen really came into his own and role players such as John Paxson and Steve Kerr made key plays.

There have been lots of really good players that never had the benefit of playing with the right mix of players and/or played during an era where they had to go up against tougher competition than other title teams.

There’s a lot that goes into it.
 
Kawhi AND Paul George to the Lakers! LOL! Watch the Lakers scramble for garbage players to fill their roster now! This is going to be hilarious!
I’m so glad Kawhi didn’t completely sell out. I mean, he’s bailing on Toronto and joining another star, but not joining a historically good franchise.

Paul George finally made his way back to LA too, but thankfully not to that purple and gold team.
 
I can live with this.

I wish he stayed in Toronto because it's out East, but having one more team to fight for playoff position over the next few years is better than the Lakers owning the league for several years, and with OKC bowing out we're essentially in the same spot we were before.

The fact that Kawhi essentially sabotaged the Lakers is the icing.
 
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I think the teams you can pencil in for the playoffs in the west are:

  1. Houston
  2. LAC
  3. Denver
  4. Utah
  5. LAL
  6. Golden State
  7. Portland

One of those is likely going to fall out due to injuries. And while Golden State still has Steph and Draymond I'm not sure they are a certain playoff team if Klay is out for a big chunk of the season. D'Angelo Russell and Curry should provide a ton of offense but the defense is going to take a significant hit.

so that leaves the Kings fighting with San Antonio, Minnesota, Dallas, OKC and maybe a surprise team like the revamped Suns for one of the last two or three slots. I think playoffs are a reasonable goal for next season.

EDIT: As White Chocolate pointed out, I forgot Denver initially. I also added Dallas as possible competition for the final playoff spot(s).
 
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I think the teams you can pencil in for the playoffs in the west are:

1. Houston
2. LAC
3. Utah
4. LAL
5. Golden State
6. Portland

One of those is likely going to fall out due to injuries
so that leaves the Kings fighting with San Antonio, Minnesota, OKC and maybe a surprise team like the revamped Suns for one of the last two or three slots. I think that playoffs are a reasonable goal for next season.
Only thing I disagree with is the Lakers. They are one injury away from being a lotto team. Lebron and AD have to play 70 plus games together to have a chance. Anything less and it ain’t happening.

I also think the Suns will still be terrible. If anything, Mavs or Wolves might be up there with us. Remember the Wolves were on our heels for most of this last season and they really don’t have that bad of a starting lineup. Mavs will have Luka and Porzingis together so they will be improved.
 
I think the teams you can pencil in for the playoffs in the west are:

1. Houston
2. LAC
3. Utah
4. LAL
5. Golden State
6. Portland

One of those is likely going to fall out due to injuries
so that leaves the Kings fighting with San Antonio, Minnesota, OKC and maybe a surprise team like the revamped Suns for one of the last two or three slots. I think that playoffs are a reasonable goal for next season.

Well Denver is definitely in as well ...
 
Only thing I disagree with is the Lakers. They are one injury away from being a lotto team. Lebron and AD have to play 70 plus games together to have a chance. Anything less and it ain’t happening.

I also think the Suns will still be terrible. If anything, Mavs or Wolves might be up there with us. Remember the Wolves were on our heels for most of this last season and they really don’t have that bad of a starting lineup. Mavs will have Luka and Porzingis together so they will be improved.
I did have the Timberwolves listed as competition for the playoff spot. And the Lakers definitely need LeBron and Davis to stay healthy. I would agree they are the team I listed that has the greatest chance to be derailed by injury. If James goes down for an extended time I'm not sure the Lakers are even as talented as last year's Pelicans squad. I'd argue that they aren't. And if Davis goes down James may not be able to do what he did years ago and drag a lottery level team to the playoffs, let alone the finals.

I'm not as high on the Mavericks as other people. Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but Porzingis was an all-star player two seasons ago in New York but wasn't consistently great. And now he's coming off a significant injury. He and Luka may gel well offensively but I think Dallas is going to really struggle on the defensive end. I'm not even sure who starts along with KP, Doncic and Powell. Tim Hardaway Jr? Jalen Brunson? Finney-Smith? Justin Jackson? Danny Green would have been a great pickup for them. Patrick Beverly too. They need 3&D guys around Luka and Kristaps and so far they haven't added any of them this offseason. We'll see.

Well Denver is definitely in as well ...
Yep. I definitely forgot Denver. So pencil them in and now there's one last theoretical playoff spot up for grabs and likely two as one (or maybe more) of those teams will be hit with significant injuries.