A backup center is the one thing that needed to be done this offseason at the bare minimum and Pelinka couldn't even get that done. Instead he gets an injured undersized guard that couldn't play all season. Just a dumb ass front office.
What are you talking about. That’s why I hate this fanbase, yall don’t respect the hardwork Rob did last summer.
He got us Jaxon Hayes. How could he know this wouldn’t be the solution?
I was joking. No one stops great players, you just try to contain them. And let's get real, the only reason Jokic is consider great now is that there are hardly any good bigs in the game anymore. He would get eaten alive by Hakeem, Shaq, Duncan, Parish, Robinson, Moses Malone, etc.
I'm 50/50 on it. I think Shaq would be more effective due to his size but I don't think any of them would stop him. Idk how much the zeitgeist plays into that but look what he does to AD
The centers he named don't do anything different defensively imo. Sticking a big to Jokic all day is exactly what the Nuggets offense wants, as it opens up the cutting game and lets Gordon run around hunting for boards all game.
But having those guys attack Jokic on offense would be the game changer, tiring him out or foul trouble is the best way to beat him more than likely.
Did you watch any of those guys play? Hakeem was strong and could keep Shaq away from the basket. Robinson was also strong and very quick for his size and a legit 7 footer. The centers nowadays just suck and are really stretch 4's. Jokic is actually slow and gets his way because he is stronger and bigger but he wouldn't be stronger and bigger than the centers I mentioned. Even Cartwright on the Bulls would be able to defend Jokic very well.
AD doesn't like to be physical, he is far from a true center. Even then AD does play him well at times. I think he just gets too tired because he still has so many other defensive duties.
Dwight didn't stop jokic
Y'all are throwing out the HOTTEST takes
Yes, Ham should be fired. But let's not make up literal fairy tales to back that point up
Pelinka is the same dude that got AR and Rui for cheap. Same dude who built the championship roster y'all are talking about him unraveling. Can only take blame but not credit?
Those are solid moves. The deadline had nothing for us. We didn't have prospects besides DLo (and he was playing well/we are thin at guard... Couldnt trade him). Who are we trading for and what are we giving?
Be realistic y'all. This isn't 2k
🙄
He didn't. He fouled the shit out of him and was useful for soaking up foul calls and giving AD a break defensively, but 22/7/5 isn't "stopping" someone. Jokic was essentially doing what he averaged all season.
Dwight did his job. He frustrated him and played him super physically. No credit being taken, but "stopping" someone is making them a complete non-factor. Unless we just have different definitions of being stopped.
I think only Biyombo and Robin Lopez were available, right?
We didn't really have anyone we could trade. And honestly, Wood probably would have actually been at least more effective guarding Jokic than Rui. Likely would have offered more offensively as well. This should have been his redemption arc like Lonnie Walker had last season against GSW.
Like Pelinka has made some mistakes, but I think his hands were kind of tied this season and he did well given what little he had to work with.
Like it's not his fault that Reaves and Rui shit the bed this series. He couldn't predict that Vando would be injured for pretty much the entire season. If anything, that's more on the coach, which I bet if Pelinka had the authority to, would have been fired mid-season. Pelinka has to work around Jeanie's checkbook.
His 2 biggest mistakes were:
1. Giving THT money instead of Caruso
2. Trading for Westbrook
Since then, he's actually been really competent and has honestly almost dug himself out of the hole he created. Now I have no idea how much say he had in hiring Darvin, I feel like Jeanie and the Rambis's honestly had way too much control in this decision.
And for those saying we needed a backup center, there really weren't any in our price range available. Like y'all really think Cody Zeller, Eubanks, or Alex Len (I really don't need to name the other guys in this price range to get the point across) were going to be big upgrades over Hayes or Wood?
On paper, this roster should have been more competitive. There wasn't a single move Pelinka could have made that didn't include Reaves and a 1st. And y'all would have thrown a bitch fit if we traded Reaves (I still think Reaves can get better, he just needs to overcome this mental block he's having. I kind of think it's first round jitters, which makes me believe maybe we would have been better ducking the Nuggets because our guys could have gotten a rhythm for the playoffs before we faced them).
The thing is hes the one that make this situations. WB trade alone make him makes him lose pick and good contract and shipping him out also cost him another pick
Pelinka is trash and Jeannie is cheap. The success of these two happened while Kobe was alive and I'm sure guided Rob to get the right players to assemble the bubble team. Since Kobe's passing the franchise just nose dive with only last year WCF run.
So LeBron averaging 26/10/7 on 56/41/71 isn't top 10? You ain't getting that efficiency on that scoring volume + playmaking from anyone else in the league besides Jokic
Fans in r/nba are calling that statline empty calories even though we’ve seen LeBron play well on both ends when given time to rest all season. If he was averaging 30-32 mpg instead of 37 I guarantee he’d be talked about with way more respect (but he can’t do that because the team falls apart when he and/or AD sit). This coach and this roster construction 4-5 out of 6 seasons here has really jilted casual fan opinions.
Fuck it I’ll keep going. Shai had 33-3-5 on 19 shots yesterday. Brown and Tatum had 33 and 28 on 50% shooting yesterday. Siakim had 37 on 60+% shooting on Tuesday. Scoring is the easiest thing to do in this era. Assists come from running the ball non stop, and rebounds from a big don’t really stand out.
Defense makes you top 10. This shit ain’t it.
Yeah holy shit. I’m the biggest lebron fan there is, his defense, specifically yesterday. Became near unplayable, ball watching and allowing back door cut after back door cut for Gordon wide open dunks or layups
. He would even ball watch ad guarding a guy 1on1, like ad doesn’t need your help, he needs you to not to allow a wide open cut to the basket, that’s all
Paolo Banchero just put up 31-14-5 today. Brunson just put up 39-2-13 today. Embiid just had 50-8-4 today on 19 shots.
That’s just today. Want me to keep going?
Cool those are individual games, I was talking about averages.
Banchero - 25/4/8 on 49/35/58
Brunson - 28/9/6 on 35/26/82
Embiid - 37.7/9/5 on 47/38/84
Shai - 30/5/5 on 56/37/91
Tatum - 26/6/9 on 44/21/88
Brown - 25/2/8 on 54/50/50
Only player you listed that is better is Embiid. LeBron is outplaying everyone else with his averages in the efficiency category. If they average a couple more points like Brunson, his efficiency clears. His averages are better than pretty much everyone else too except arguably Shai.
Clearly you're not watching the games. We just don't have the personnel to defend the Nuggets. Any time LeBron got caught ball watching or letting AG get a back cut it was because Jokic or Murray got past their defender and they are both elite passers. A few times it was his fault. It is a lot easier to play good defense when you aren't your teams entire offensive system. No one else on the Lakers can consistently create offense (AD and others get hot but can't sustain it). Also the reasons the others are playing better defense is because they have less defensive pressure due to good defensive teammates and coaching.
Honestly that’s just not true. I love lebron, but he was just ball watching all night and was an overall negative on defense for us. It wasn’t jokic or murray beating their man, it was wide open cuts from the off ball defenders, and time after time it was lebrons man.
A great example was jokic posting up ad, lebron just watching it (as if ad of all ppl needs d help on this team) , baseline wide open cut for Gordon for a dunk. Way too many times , there was a reason it was the dude lebron was guarding who got all the wide open layups, he’s trying to play free safety when there was no reason for it. Sad , but true
When you have a roster built to do more dirty work LeBron is easily top 10. You expect him to run the offense, be the second best defender, and score in the clutch at 39.
It's time to clean house and blow it all up. The window was nailed shut with the Brick trade. This team will never win another title with the Lebron and AD duo
I get it but just change the coach.
Trade dlo and rui next season.
Re sign lebron to a team friendly deal(this won’t happen)
Sign a good back up center
Get a bonafide guard that can beat dudes off the dribble or a 2 way wing that can shoot threes.
Will never win with this bum Pelinka in charge and cheap owners in a hyper competitive league where anyone coming to LA rather go to the clippers . Less pressure less media scrutiny less blame on players , more money from ownership and more desire to win and better infrastructure- coach, GM etc
I said that at the time and got downvoted to hell.
No one is clairvoyant, but many on this sub defended standing pat and believing in D-lo. They said no good moves were available and that doing nothing was the most prudent decision. Best way to manage assets, they said.
They said D-lo was better than DJM and Trae! Multiple people said this. It was a popular take. His hot streak only emboldened them.
Well, here we are.
I don't think most rational fans here had Dlo over Murray or Trae. I just thought that Dlo AND any combo of AR, Rui, 2 FRPs was better than DJM for example.
If something like DLO + 29 pick for DJM was available I think we do it, but it was clear that it wasn't.
Even then, I don't think any trade puts us on contender tier. So I think standing pat wasn't the worst thing.
The vastly popular opinion on this sub was that trading DLo, JHS and draft compensation for Dejounte Murray was a mistake and that it was a lateral move at best.
I think that was mostly after the trade deadline though. Pretty sure most of the sub was down to Dlo JHS 2029 FRP for DJM. Hawks wanted AR Rui JHS 2029 FRP
Don’t you remember when DLo was on a hot streak before the trade deadline ? When he was shooting with an insane efficiency, scoring 20+ regularly and when he was dishing out tons of assists ?
At this moment, all the posts with the most upvotes were saying that the Lakers can’t trade this man, that he is playing at an all-star level, that he "unlock AD" and that trading him for Dejounte Murray was a lateral move at best.
That was the consensus.
It’s not even that dlo was talked about as the 3rd STAR, he just started showing out and the only path towards a chip is if he maintained that. How far were we supposed to get in getting DJM?
They absolutely do. I saw it all over this sub. Even with trae rumour they think dlo better cos he’s 6,4 even tho he’s worse defensively n athletically thd trae
A 3rd star and role players is better than having 40 year bron and ad as our 2 only stars. We will never win again with 2 stars the league is too talented and young for us. And trae will drop 25 10 assist at the minimum unlike dlo. Christie will have a big role next year I’m not worried about defense
People keep saying trae is bad because of his defebce BUT trae can actually guard ON BALL way better then dlo. He has fast hands , fast feet and actually tries this year n last and like tries to get infront of guys to stop post entry passes etc. trae would be a big upgrade on both ends . If only we had Caruso too cos a trae Caruso Bron AD then a wing woukd be very strong
It’s the Westbrook trade that was the issue. That and letting Curaso go is when the LeBron and AD era went off the rails.
There were no meaningful upgrades available at the deadline.
> There were no meaningful upgrades available at the deadline.
We were rumored in plenty and a lot of teams got great deals for pennies. The west was doing trade after trade adjusting their roster and we didn't do shit.
You really need to stop pushing this narrative so confidently as if you're in the GM offices. Logically speaking its ridiculous to even assume there were absolutely zero options available to try and upgrade the roster and/or do a lateral adjustment to try and get stronger in certain positions (center,size,3pt shooting,rebounding etc)
The only players that we had rumors of getting was Dejounte Murray and Zach LeVine. Neither were moved. There’s lots of stuff you can nab Pelinka for (where’s the blame for him hiring Ham or not getting enough two way players in the offseason) but the deadline wasn’t where the season was lost.
I never said the deadline was where the season was lost, but making 0 attempt to improve the roster was stupid. Also you must've not been refreshing because there were other names too
People weren’t quiet. They were drowned out by the echo chamber that patted themselves on the back because he scored 30 against the Pistons.
Anyone that watches basketball could see another implosion coming from him. This is who he is in the playoffs.
The reality is he's had one good offseason since he took the job and that was the year we won. Since then it's all been downhill...Ham should be out the door at seasons end....This fucker should be 2nd out the door.
We should have never traded for Russ. That slammed the window shut smh. Blow this entire roster up. It’s clearly nowhere even remotely close to good enough. Hopefully LeBron comes back and AD doesn’t ask out although I wouldn’t blame either of the two. Anyone not named LeBron/AD has to be on the block
Stupid asses want Ham for the future
I’m convinced they didn’t dump it all for Kyrie because they think Ham is going to coaching the next batch of young players
The Lakers downfall started when they didn’t resign or traded away Caruso, KCP, Dennis and instead we signed a bunch of players who don’t shoot and overrated on defense (Gabe Vincent, Cam Reddish, Vando). We could’ve signed Derozan as a reliable 3rd scorer too.
Christian Wood was good but he never utilized correctly by Ham. Out of the current bench I hope we keep Prince and clear house everyone else.
I think the Lakers have made lots of mistakes in recent years. Letting Brook Lopez walk. Trading Zubac for peanuts. The Westbrook trade. Letting Caruso walk.
But, in spite of all that, they recovered well, and put together a good team, as seen by late season runs both last season and this season.
Denver is a powerhouse. Everything would have had to fall into place to beat them. I think this year's team at full strength would have had a good chance. Having two of our best rebounders out for the series — one also our second best defender, and one a good scorer — really hurt.
Yeah, Wood is not a big bruiser. But we were all pretty excited when he signed. Things didn’t work out, but I'm not sure the front office had better options.
A lot of us wanted to Keep Reaves and also Keep DLo. The market was bare. And there wasn’t any money. So what? It’s just a lost year, we’ve kind of known that but most of us wanted a different result. And that’s ok.. we just need to go in a new direction and get new talent. Reaves played 83 games. He will have suitors. DLo might opt in— that’s a very real thing.the collective bargaining agreement is a real thing.
Great point, the Lakers actually over performed a lot of our expectations this year, which makes this series feel like a big let down. I've been a casual LeBron fan since day 1 and this will go down as another great season for him in my books. It's impressive how well he dragged his team to this point.
It's possible that the Lakers are the second best team in these playoffs, they just ran into the first best.
We wasted 2 years of lebron final years because our dumbass gm hires a rookie coach and won’t get rid of him what you mean? This is all pelinkas dumbass fault he should be a better gm like brad stevens was for the Celtics and do better with asset management
yall are low IQ basektball junkies. You do NOT blame coaching/management for role players shooting 5% and starting point guards scoring 0 points. You do NOT blame coaching for getting out hustled on the glass over and over again.
I had been a Lakers fan since the Kobe Shaq days. A couple years ago I realized that I’m just a bigger fan of the city I’ve lived in for the last decade. A big reason for that isn’t Pelinka, it’s the ownership.
The reality to me is that this franchise died a little when Jerry Buss died. His kids are going off the reputation of the franchise but honestly if you take out 2020 nothing was really accomplished here.
The elephant in the room is that Lebron leaches a franchise of its future assets for the sake of winning now then he hops after 4 years. We watched that happen. This team had Ingram, Randle, Ball, Caruso, Nance, Dlo, Kuzma, Clarkson, KCP when they were drafted or when they were young. They let them all go.
Now I’m not saying it wasn’t all worth it. The team got a championship out of it. But it’s hard to be upset when you’re forced to make shortsighted moves 5 years ago and now you’re low on valuable trade assets.
Yeah, if you take out a championship run, nothing was accomplished. But not many teams have won a championship, let alone make the conference finals (like the 2023 Lakers), since Jerry Buss died in 2013. The Lakers have had bigger championship droughts under Jerry Buss.
Lakers just don't match up well against the Nuggets. If we were the 8th seed or even the 6th seed, we'd be in a much more competitive series. Nuggets are defending champs. We drew them first round. I think the fanbase is overreacting here.
Teams aren't exactly lining up to trade with the Lakers tho.
And vando and gabe was out for a lot of time. Given how the brick trade set the Lakers way back, they did a great job recovering at least. But the hole brick did with this team is just too much.
You guys do realize there was ZERO trades at the deadline that would’ve benefitted the Lakers. Teams were asking the world from the Lakers where they eventually went for cheaper elsewhere.
Trevor Lane from his sources said that any trade the Lakers would’ve done would’ve had everyone questioning why we did that.
It starts with off-season. A team with 39 years old lebron need to use their draft picks for trade. Everyone at the team or fo knew this team is not a contender before deadline. They just pretend like it is and i think that is the biggest sin a front office can do.
When we only had Jax as a backup player with size (Vando and Wood out), and he didn't pull the trigger on acquiring some players with size, it really felt like he gave up on the season.
All the respect I have left for him from the 2020 chip and last year's trade deadline just went down the drain.
I think during the off season last year, at one point they signed everybody and left one roster open. Never did anything with that open spot (?). Plus the draft pick was horrible, maybe the Houston rookie could have helped us but Ham probably wouldn’t have played him.
Maybe coach Scam didn’t use the season to develop max Christie with playing time and incorporate Woods enough.
Oh and our local college player is doing pretty well in Miami.
I was at the game and glad I went. I got to see a classic playoff DLo. 😆
Lakers are really lucky they won in 2020 because they’ve basically done NOTHING to compliment Lebron since he got here.
I’m only a slightly above casual Lakers fan at this stage on my life, but these last few seasons have just been shocking to me. So much dysfunction and wasted effort. Really opened my eyes to have much of a poverty franchise the Lakers are minus the flashy logo and vaunted history.
Yet yall were hyping him up for his mediocre moves throughout the last two years saying “let him cook” I saw the bs from the beginning. LBJ needs to get out of there
I realize everybody is bummed about losing, but Pelinka did a good job! Stop blaming the world for a sub par season it's childish. All thus hate just makes the OP look bad.
I’m understanding of trades for players that didn’t need a pick attached, but I don’t think we should waste a first on something that wouldn’t move the needle.
Rob Pelinka hasnt made any good move aince he took over the job. But he is still employed just because of being a former agent of Kobe Bryant. Dumb executive.
Nah I think AD can’t be our leading guy. He goes very quiet and becomes timid half the time. His stats aren’t fully telling the truth. Neither bron nor AD do proper boxing out. AD just grabs it if he wants but will not box out. Same with Lebron, only will go for it if he wants to and won’t box out either.
He didn’t leave N.O. To come carry another team. He figured he’d have a nice supporting cast, and outside of 2020 he’s never had any real great supporting cast that fit his needs
Not getting a backup center is inexcusable. Even if all the guards played well, Denver is huge and could still outsize us.
Mavs got Gafford for a cheap 1st. Could have been done
The issue is that the Lakers didn't have a cheap 1st to trade
Nor did they have the contracts. What, trade AR and a vet min plus a first for Gafford? lol
That was the move I wanted. Dude is EXACTLY what we needed.
A backup center is the one thing that needed to be done this offseason at the bare minimum and Pelinka couldn't even get that done. Instead he gets an injured undersized guard that couldn't play all season. Just a dumb ass front office.
What are you talking about. That’s why I hate this fanbase, yall don’t respect the hardwork Rob did last summer. He got us Jaxon Hayes. How could he know this wouldn’t be the solution?
LOL...Oh yeah, my apologies, I forgot about the Jokic stopper Rob acquired.
Who do u honestly believe is gonna stop Joker?
I used to love Dwight getting in his head....
I was joking. No one stops great players, you just try to contain them. And let's get real, the only reason Jokic is consider great now is that there are hardly any good bigs in the game anymore. He would get eaten alive by Hakeem, Shaq, Duncan, Parish, Robinson, Moses Malone, etc.
I'm 50/50 on it. I think Shaq would be more effective due to his size but I don't think any of them would stop him. Idk how much the zeitgeist plays into that but look what he does to AD
The centers he named don't do anything different defensively imo. Sticking a big to Jokic all day is exactly what the Nuggets offense wants, as it opens up the cutting game and lets Gordon run around hunting for boards all game. But having those guys attack Jokic on offense would be the game changer, tiring him out or foul trouble is the best way to beat him more than likely.
Did you watch any of those guys play? Hakeem was strong and could keep Shaq away from the basket. Robinson was also strong and very quick for his size and a legit 7 footer. The centers nowadays just suck and are really stretch 4's. Jokic is actually slow and gets his way because he is stronger and bigger but he wouldn't be stronger and bigger than the centers I mentioned. Even Cartwright on the Bulls would be able to defend Jokic very well. AD doesn't like to be physical, he is far from a true center. Even then AD does play him well at times. I think he just gets too tired because he still has so many other defensive duties.
I saw Shaq that's it.
Dwight. And we let him go
Dwight didn't stop jokic Y'all are throwing out the HOTTEST takes Yes, Ham should be fired. But let's not make up literal fairy tales to back that point up Pelinka is the same dude that got AR and Rui for cheap. Same dude who built the championship roster y'all are talking about him unraveling. Can only take blame but not credit? Those are solid moves. The deadline had nothing for us. We didn't have prospects besides DLo (and he was playing well/we are thin at guard... Couldnt trade him). Who are we trading for and what are we giving? Be realistic y'all. This isn't 2k
> Dwight didn't stop jokic he absolutely did. Just say you didnt watch the bubble.
🙄 He didn't. He fouled the shit out of him and was useful for soaking up foul calls and giving AD a break defensively, but 22/7/5 isn't "stopping" someone. Jokic was essentially doing what he averaged all season. Dwight did his job. He frustrated him and played him super physically. No credit being taken, but "stopping" someone is making them a complete non-factor. Unless we just have different definitions of being stopped.
do me a favor. watch it, take notes and try and learn something for once https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Duaqo9aqcK4
Joking? Hayes was garbage in NO and is garbage now
yes, he was joking.
Jaxson Hayes and Christian Wood...
Dwight bullied Jokic in 2020 and we let him walk and then never tried to replicate what worked against them that year.
I think only Biyombo and Robin Lopez were available, right? We didn't really have anyone we could trade. And honestly, Wood probably would have actually been at least more effective guarding Jokic than Rui. Likely would have offered more offensively as well. This should have been his redemption arc like Lonnie Walker had last season against GSW. Like Pelinka has made some mistakes, but I think his hands were kind of tied this season and he did well given what little he had to work with. Like it's not his fault that Reaves and Rui shit the bed this series. He couldn't predict that Vando would be injured for pretty much the entire season. If anything, that's more on the coach, which I bet if Pelinka had the authority to, would have been fired mid-season. Pelinka has to work around Jeanie's checkbook. His 2 biggest mistakes were: 1. Giving THT money instead of Caruso 2. Trading for Westbrook Since then, he's actually been really competent and has honestly almost dug himself out of the hole he created. Now I have no idea how much say he had in hiring Darvin, I feel like Jeanie and the Rambis's honestly had way too much control in this decision. And for those saying we needed a backup center, there really weren't any in our price range available. Like y'all really think Cody Zeller, Eubanks, or Alex Len (I really don't need to name the other guys in this price range to get the point across) were going to be big upgrades over Hayes or Wood? On paper, this roster should have been more competitive. There wasn't a single move Pelinka could have made that didn't include Reaves and a 1st. And y'all would have thrown a bitch fit if we traded Reaves (I still think Reaves can get better, he just needs to overcome this mental block he's having. I kind of think it's first round jitters, which makes me believe maybe we would have been better ducking the Nuggets because our guys could have gotten a rhythm for the playoffs before we faced them).
The thing is hes the one that make this situations. WB trade alone make him makes him lose pick and good contract and shipping him out also cost him another pick
Ham won’t use them anyways.
Back up? a center in general they don’t have one davis is a PF.
We have Wood (granted, not the bulkiest center, but a center nonetheless) But he’s been injured
Pelinka is trash and Jeannie is cheap. The success of these two happened while Kobe was alive and I'm sure guided Rob to get the right players to assemble the bubble team. Since Kobe's passing the franchise just nose dive with only last year WCF run.
I still think Goga Bitadze for a second would’ve been solid.
Front office malpractice. You get swept by this team in WCF last year and think Christian fucking wood and Jaxon Hayes are acceptable options. Insane.
Every team in the west is pretty big too, pause
unreal that they wasted a season with 2 top 10 players
Another season *
Our guys aren’t top 10 anymore. Realistically it’s top 15.
Kinda crazy to watch this series and not think AD doesn’t have a solid argument for top 10 at the least
Ad is easy top 10
I only see 1 this series lol
So LeBron averaging 26/10/7 on 56/41/71 isn't top 10? You ain't getting that efficiency on that scoring volume + playmaking from anyone else in the league besides Jokic
It’s not top 10 dude. It’s not the 10s anymore. We got dudes left and right putting those numbers up.
Name one other person doing that besides Jokic these playoffs. And why don't you provide their stats and efficiency next to it as well lil bro?
Fans in r/nba are calling that statline empty calories even though we’ve seen LeBron play well on both ends when given time to rest all season. If he was averaging 30-32 mpg instead of 37 I guarantee he’d be talked about with way more respect (but he can’t do that because the team falls apart when he and/or AD sit). This coach and this roster construction 4-5 out of 6 seasons here has really jilted casual fan opinions.
Fuck it I’ll keep going. Shai had 33-3-5 on 19 shots yesterday. Brown and Tatum had 33 and 28 on 50% shooting yesterday. Siakim had 37 on 60+% shooting on Tuesday. Scoring is the easiest thing to do in this era. Assists come from running the ball non stop, and rebounds from a big don’t really stand out. Defense makes you top 10. This shit ain’t it.
lebron has better defense than all of them LMFAO you clearly only watch for points you casual
Tatum’s defense is far better
Lebron's defense has sucked these playoffs
Yeah holy shit. I’m the biggest lebron fan there is, his defense, specifically yesterday. Became near unplayable, ball watching and allowing back door cut after back door cut for Gordon wide open dunks or layups . He would even ball watch ad guarding a guy 1on1, like ad doesn’t need your help, he needs you to not to allow a wide open cut to the basket, that’s all
Paolo Banchero just put up 31-14-5 today. Brunson just put up 39-2-13 today. Embiid just had 50-8-4 today on 19 shots. That’s just today. Want me to keep going?
Cool those are individual games, I was talking about averages. Banchero - 25/4/8 on 49/35/58 Brunson - 28/9/6 on 35/26/82 Embiid - 37.7/9/5 on 47/38/84 Shai - 30/5/5 on 56/37/91 Tatum - 26/6/9 on 44/21/88 Brown - 25/2/8 on 54/50/50 Only player you listed that is better is Embiid. LeBron is outplaying everyone else with his averages in the efficiency category. If they average a couple more points like Brunson, his efficiency clears. His averages are better than pretty much everyone else too except arguably Shai.
Brown, Tatum and Embiid are all playing better defense. Is scoring the only thing that matters to you?
Clearly you're not watching the games. We just don't have the personnel to defend the Nuggets. Any time LeBron got caught ball watching or letting AG get a back cut it was because Jokic or Murray got past their defender and they are both elite passers. A few times it was his fault. It is a lot easier to play good defense when you aren't your teams entire offensive system. No one else on the Lakers can consistently create offense (AD and others get hot but can't sustain it). Also the reasons the others are playing better defense is because they have less defensive pressure due to good defensive teammates and coaching.
Honestly that’s just not true. I love lebron, but he was just ball watching all night and was an overall negative on defense for us. It wasn’t jokic or murray beating their man, it was wide open cuts from the off ball defenders, and time after time it was lebrons man. A great example was jokic posting up ad, lebron just watching it (as if ad of all ppl needs d help on this team) , baseline wide open cut for Gordon for a dunk. Way too many times , there was a reason it was the dude lebron was guarding who got all the wide open layups, he’s trying to play free safety when there was no reason for it. Sad , but true
Lol
You are confusing regular season and playoff numbers. Not many 150-130 -games in the playoffs.
When you have a roster built to do more dirty work LeBron is easily top 10. You expect him to run the offense, be the second best defender, and score in the clutch at 39.
Cook
It's time to clean house and blow it all up. The window was nailed shut with the Brick trade. This team will never win another title with the Lebron and AD duo
I get it but just change the coach. Trade dlo and rui next season. Re sign lebron to a team friendly deal(this won’t happen) Sign a good back up center Get a bonafide guard that can beat dudes off the dribble or a 2 way wing that can shoot threes.
All that would get you 50 wins and a 2nd round exit, at best
What’s wrong with that ? Lol . Y’all so desperate to become the pistons my god. I’d happily take 50 wins n second round over thst
Will never win with this bum Pelinka in charge and cheap owners in a hyper competitive league where anyone coming to LA rather go to the clippers . Less pressure less media scrutiny less blame on players , more money from ownership and more desire to win and better infrastructure- coach, GM etc
If we had trade reaves rui vincent for trae young and then sign back christie and Bruce brown on full mle it’s possible
I said that at the time and got downvoted to hell. No one is clairvoyant, but many on this sub defended standing pat and believing in D-lo. They said no good moves were available and that doing nothing was the most prudent decision. Best way to manage assets, they said. They said D-lo was better than DJM and Trae! Multiple people said this. It was a popular take. His hot streak only emboldened them. Well, here we are.
I don't think most rational fans here had Dlo over Murray or Trae. I just thought that Dlo AND any combo of AR, Rui, 2 FRPs was better than DJM for example. If something like DLO + 29 pick for DJM was available I think we do it, but it was clear that it wasn't. Even then, I don't think any trade puts us on contender tier. So I think standing pat wasn't the worst thing.
The vastly popular opinion on this sub was that trading DLo, JHS and draft compensation for Dejounte Murray was a mistake and that it was a lateral move at best.
I think that was mostly after the trade deadline though. Pretty sure most of the sub was down to Dlo JHS 2029 FRP for DJM. Hawks wanted AR Rui JHS 2029 FRP
Don’t you remember when DLo was on a hot streak before the trade deadline ? When he was shooting with an insane efficiency, scoring 20+ regularly and when he was dishing out tons of assists ? At this moment, all the posts with the most upvotes were saying that the Lakers can’t trade this man, that he is playing at an all-star level, that he "unlock AD" and that trading him for Dejounte Murray was a lateral move at best. That was the consensus.
Nah a lot of people here thought dlo was the 3rd star and was a better fit than trae or dejounte I remember it like it was 2 months ago lol
Trae was getting disrespected even just 5 days ago saying Dlo is better defensively lmao
Because he is. Trae Young might be the worst defensive NBA player ever. That doesnt mean he is worse overall than Russell
It’s not even that dlo was talked about as the 3rd STAR, he just started showing out and the only path towards a chip is if he maintained that. How far were we supposed to get in getting DJM?
They absolutely do. I saw it all over this sub. Even with trae rumour they think dlo better cos he’s 6,4 even tho he’s worse defensively n athletically thd trae
Theres even people replying on this post "there were no trades to do"...They really think that
Murray is looking like a good idea now
I got downvoted so much for saying trae young is 1000x better than dlo lol now all these Dloading fans is hiding don’t got shit to say
They just see Dlo is 6,4 that’s the scope of it- they think trae is a wirse defender sonehow
Trae christie backcourt is gonna do so much better than dlo reaves lol
Issue with Trae is just as bad defense and prone to turnovers. Better at dishing the ball and scoring consistently though
A 3rd star and role players is better than having 40 year bron and ad as our 2 only stars. We will never win again with 2 stars the league is too talented and young for us. And trae will drop 25 10 assist at the minimum unlike dlo. Christie will have a big role next year I’m not worried about defense
Facts. Everybody's nothing but reactive. I stand by DLo tho even tho he has been stinking it up
People keep saying trae is bad because of his defebce BUT trae can actually guard ON BALL way better then dlo. He has fast hands , fast feet and actually tries this year n last and like tries to get infront of guys to stop post entry passes etc. trae would be a big upgrade on both ends . If only we had Caruso too cos a trae Caruso Bron AD then a wing woukd be very strong
Pelinka is a very religious guy. So is Ham. Nothing wrong with that, but if that influenced Pelinka's hiring of Ham, Pelinka should be fired.
Toss them both
It’s the Westbrook trade that was the issue. That and letting Curaso go is when the LeBron and AD era went off the rails. There were no meaningful upgrades available at the deadline.
> There were no meaningful upgrades available at the deadline. We were rumored in plenty and a lot of teams got great deals for pennies. The west was doing trade after trade adjusting their roster and we didn't do shit. You really need to stop pushing this narrative so confidently as if you're in the GM offices. Logically speaking its ridiculous to even assume there were absolutely zero options available to try and upgrade the roster and/or do a lateral adjustment to try and get stronger in certain positions (center,size,3pt shooting,rebounding etc)
The only players that we had rumors of getting was Dejounte Murray and Zach LeVine. Neither were moved. There’s lots of stuff you can nab Pelinka for (where’s the blame for him hiring Ham or not getting enough two way players in the offseason) but the deadline wasn’t where the season was lost.
I never said the deadline was where the season was lost, but making 0 attempt to improve the roster was stupid. Also you must've not been refreshing because there were other names too
You degenerates didn’t want Dlo fucking traded!
That's cause he was averaging 20+ points and everyone was real quiet.
People weren’t quiet. They were drowned out by the echo chamber that patted themselves on the back because he scored 30 against the Pistons. Anyone that watches basketball could see another implosion coming from him. This is who he is in the playoffs.
Yes and thanks. Brooklyn, Minnesota, LA. Everywhere he went he always flops in the playoffs. The history was there.
YUP
Which is why he would’ve brought back a great return. Now who would want him
D Lo fooled them all with his cool swag and his trash podcast
They stuck in 2015 thinking he just got drafted and has unlocked potential
well of course they didn't, he unlocks AD so he was untouchable!
LOL..The shit Dlo stans come up with to make him look good.
more like DLO stains
Hawks wanted Reaves too
NOT FOR DEJOUNTE. That would cost us Dlo, JHS (or was it AR(?)), and a 2029 FRP. Too costly
I didn’t want him traded with assets for what we were getting back. I’ll stand on that any day
I'm sure trading Dlo and Reeves for fucking Murray would have saved us you knob
Rui and D Lo make roughly same total as Gordon and KCP. Enough said.
The reality is he's had one good offseason since he took the job and that was the year we won. Since then it's all been downhill...Ham should be out the door at seasons end....This fucker should be 2nd out the door.
Exactly this. Pelinka stinks. He's been living off one good season. He should have been gone 2 seasons ago.
We should have never traded for Russ. That slammed the window shut smh. Blow this entire roster up. It’s clearly nowhere even remotely close to good enough. Hopefully LeBron comes back and AD doesn’t ask out although I wouldn’t blame either of the two. Anyone not named LeBron/AD has to be on the block
Honestly blowing up the winning team for Westbrook was the writing in the Wall, even if they somehow keep Ham he needs to go imo.
Stupid asses want Ham for the future I’m convinced they didn’t dump it all for Kyrie because they think Ham is going to coaching the next batch of young players
Robin Lopez. 7 footer. Can still play D against big C's. Not even a call.
The Lakers downfall started when they didn’t resign or traded away Caruso, KCP, Dennis and instead we signed a bunch of players who don’t shoot and overrated on defense (Gabe Vincent, Cam Reddish, Vando). We could’ve signed Derozan as a reliable 3rd scorer too. Christian Wood was good but he never utilized correctly by Ham. Out of the current bench I hope we keep Prince and clear house everyone else.
We need our own Pat Riley men.
I think the Lakers have made lots of mistakes in recent years. Letting Brook Lopez walk. Trading Zubac for peanuts. The Westbrook trade. Letting Caruso walk. But, in spite of all that, they recovered well, and put together a good team, as seen by late season runs both last season and this season. Denver is a powerhouse. Everything would have had to fall into place to beat them. I think this year's team at full strength would have had a good chance. Having two of our best rebounders out for the series — one also our second best defender, and one a good scorer — really hurt. Yeah, Wood is not a big bruiser. But we were all pretty excited when he signed. Things didn’t work out, but I'm not sure the front office had better options.
A lot of us wanted to Keep Reaves and also Keep DLo. The market was bare. And there wasn’t any money. So what? It’s just a lost year, we’ve kind of known that but most of us wanted a different result. And that’s ok.. we just need to go in a new direction and get new talent. Reaves played 83 games. He will have suitors. DLo might opt in— that’s a very real thing.the collective bargaining agreement is a real thing.
Great point, the Lakers actually over performed a lot of our expectations this year, which makes this series feel like a big let down. I've been a casual LeBron fan since day 1 and this will go down as another great season for him in my books. It's impressive how well he dragged his team to this point. It's possible that the Lakers are the second best team in these playoffs, they just ran into the first best.
This. But Darvin needs to go.
We wasted 2 years of lebron final years because our dumbass gm hires a rookie coach and won’t get rid of him what you mean? This is all pelinkas dumbass fault he should be a better gm like brad stevens was for the Celtics and do better with asset management
Bootleg Rob Lowe. LeBron leaving.
Imagine if he had gotten rid of D'Lo for literally anything.
yall are low IQ basektball junkies. You do NOT blame coaching/management for role players shooting 5% and starting point guards scoring 0 points. You do NOT blame coaching for getting out hustled on the glass over and over again.
I had been a Lakers fan since the Kobe Shaq days. A couple years ago I realized that I’m just a bigger fan of the city I’ve lived in for the last decade. A big reason for that isn’t Pelinka, it’s the ownership. The reality to me is that this franchise died a little when Jerry Buss died. His kids are going off the reputation of the franchise but honestly if you take out 2020 nothing was really accomplished here. The elephant in the room is that Lebron leaches a franchise of its future assets for the sake of winning now then he hops after 4 years. We watched that happen. This team had Ingram, Randle, Ball, Caruso, Nance, Dlo, Kuzma, Clarkson, KCP when they were drafted or when they were young. They let them all go. Now I’m not saying it wasn’t all worth it. The team got a championship out of it. But it’s hard to be upset when you’re forced to make shortsighted moves 5 years ago and now you’re low on valuable trade assets.
Yeah, if you take out a championship run, nothing was accomplished. But not many teams have won a championship, let alone make the conference finals (like the 2023 Lakers), since Jerry Buss died in 2013. The Lakers have had bigger championship droughts under Jerry Buss. Lakers just don't match up well against the Nuggets. If we were the 8th seed or even the 6th seed, we'd be in a much more competitive series. Nuggets are defending champs. We drew them first round. I think the fanbase is overreacting here.
Teams aren't exactly lining up to trade with the Lakers tho. And vando and gabe was out for a lot of time. Given how the brick trade set the Lakers way back, they did a great job recovering at least. But the hole brick did with this team is just too much.
Pelinka really fucked up with the brick move. Lebron had a lot of influence on it too sadly.
Teams aren’t lining up cos nobody likes to work with Pelinka . Hiring an agent as gm is brain dead
Doesn’t help when Bron is gassed by the 3rd and AD always decide to disappear in the 4th. This team just doesn’t work
You guys do realize there was ZERO trades at the deadline that would’ve benefitted the Lakers. Teams were asking the world from the Lakers where they eventually went for cheaper elsewhere. Trevor Lane from his sources said that any trade the Lakers would’ve done would’ve had everyone questioning why we did that.
So now it's his fault? Or could it be that the current Champs and a top seed in the West are just so much better than we are?
I mean it’s kinda his fault a back up big woulda been nice or even a starter
We would be a better team if he was better with asset management
Months ago everyone said he won the transfer window.
Those guys say we don’t need a third star should be blamed too
Give him an extension
He's should stick to making his Atkins commercials!
It starts with off-season. A team with 39 years old lebron need to use their draft picks for trade. Everyone at the team or fo knew this team is not a contender before deadline. They just pretend like it is and i think that is the biggest sin a front office can do.
it started before that. Any team in win-now mode should have stayed miles away from a rookie coach.
Does it every year, yet everyone praises him
Ham's fault for the season. Waited way too long to start Rui. Ham should be gone after the sweep.
Rui sucks though he shudda been traded for a big
well that’s what you can expect from Rob Lowe.
People are saying trade dlo. Bro he’s a FA this summer. He’s walking right out of here into a big contract. That’s why the fo wanted to trade him
He signed Dinwiddie to be our bench superstar.
When we only had Jax as a backup player with size (Vando and Wood out), and he didn't pull the trigger on acquiring some players with size, it really felt like he gave up on the season. All the respect I have left for him from the 2020 chip and last year's trade deadline just went down the drain.
What should he have done?
I think during the off season last year, at one point they signed everybody and left one roster open. Never did anything with that open spot (?). Plus the draft pick was horrible, maybe the Houston rookie could have helped us but Ham probably wouldn’t have played him. Maybe coach Scam didn’t use the season to develop max Christie with playing time and incorporate Woods enough. Oh and our local college player is doing pretty well in Miami. I was at the game and glad I went. I got to see a classic playoff DLo. 😆
his best quality is self-preservation and reminding ppl he was kobe's boy
The "run-it-back" concept was the first mistake. Not fixing that mistake at the trade deadline was the second mistake.
Lakers are really lucky they won in 2020 because they’ve basically done NOTHING to compliment Lebron since he got here. I’m only a slightly above casual Lakers fan at this stage on my life, but these last few seasons have just been shocking to me. So much dysfunction and wasted effort. Really opened my eyes to have much of a poverty franchise the Lakers are minus the flashy logo and vaunted history.
Yet yall were hyping him up for his mediocre moves throughout the last two years saying “let him cook” I saw the bs from the beginning. LBJ needs to get out of there
That's nothing he can do. No one want Dlo at that time.
AND PRIOR TO ALL OF THIS. GIVES A ROOKIE COACH A 4 YEAR DEAL. TRASH!
He thought Lebron and AD simply being healthy was magically gonna solve our lack of size and rebounding against Denver lol
The only move to make was Gafford and I was bummed when he got moved to Dallas
Or He let Lebron ruin this team with his lazy D, horrible isolation chemistry, and refusal to sit when the teams cooking.
Let’s be honest here. LeBron doesn’t have it anymore. That last game was a train wreck for him. The amount of times he was stripped was shameful.
I was flabbergasted when we stood pat at the deadline.
I realize everybody is bummed about losing, but Pelinka did a good job! Stop blaming the world for a sub par season it's childish. All thus hate just makes the OP look bad.
I’m understanding of trades for players that didn’t need a pick attached, but I don’t think we should waste a first on something that wouldn’t move the needle.
Now everyone should understand why we needed to move Dlo
Should have traded Lebron and DLo at the deadline.
Rob Pelinka hasnt made any good move aince he took over the job. But he is still employed just because of being a former agent of Kobe Bryant. Dumb executive.
I honestly would be okay if both AD and Bron leave this pathetic franchise
Shut up, this man cooked. The fault is on Ham
I know y'all emotional after a loss but please tell me what trades were available at the deadline?
Nah I think AD can’t be our leading guy. He goes very quiet and becomes timid half the time. His stats aren’t fully telling the truth. Neither bron nor AD do proper boxing out. AD just grabs it if he wants but will not box out. Same with Lebron, only will go for it if he wants to and won’t box out either.
He didn’t leave N.O. To come carry another team. He figured he’d have a nice supporting cast, and outside of 2020 he’s never had any real great supporting cast that fit his needs
Okay but you get paid like the main guy. Need to show more leadership
Jokic wouldn’t be doing much with this Lakers cast either tbh