NYRaider Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 1 minute ago, TheRealMcCoy said: Also, I'm ngl it feels good to be the heels of the league again. The Warriors are now the good guys. I was never a fan of Rob P as a GM but man he did an excellent job for you guys this offseason. Crazy that you guys got way better after pretty much running through everyone in the playoffs. Matthews - KCP - LeBron - Davis - Gasol w/ Schroder - Harrell - Kuzma - Morris as your first 4 off the bench is a crazy rotation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRaider Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 1 hour ago, TheRealMcCoy said: One concern I have though is we are so deep that there are a lot of players on this Lakers team that would get a lot more playing time if they were on pretty much any other team and guys are gonna need to have their egos checked at the door, because some nights based on match-ups they might not play very much or at all depending on the player. Vogel did an excellent job of getting guys to buy in to their roles last season and everyone understood they had to play off of LeBron/AD. I think that'll be the case again this year and you guys will have plenty of minutes to go around for everyone, plus you're going to be way more versatile with the lineups you can play with all of the guys you added. That Schroder/Harrell pick-n-roll with the second unit is going to be deadly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mox Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 (edited) 4 minutes ago, NYRaider said: Vogel did an excellent job of getting guys to buy in to their roles last season and everyone understood they had to play off of LeBron/AD. I think that'll be the case again this year and you guys will have plenty of minutes to go around for everyone, plus you're going to be way more versatile with the lineups you can play with all of the guys you added. That Schroder/Harrell pick-n-roll with the second unit is going to be deadly. Yeah Vogel & LeBron are great at keeping guys in check. That shouldn't be an issue. Dwight was a cancer for years, comes to LA and is a model teammate, then it took all of 5 seconds for him to have a controversy in his post Laker career. Edited November 23, 2020 by Bullet Club 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRaider Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 1 hour ago, TheRealMcCoy said: "Worse defensively for sure" and "a good bit more (offensive) firepower" is wrong. Vogel is an excellent defensive coach but I think it's fair to assume the Lakers will take a minor step back defensively, nothing drastic though and you guys will still be one of the best defensive teams in the league. You definitely got way better offensively though adding Schroder, Harrell, and Gasol. Schroder and Harrell were both almost 20 point scorers last season and adding those two to your second unit will do wonders for your offense. I think it'll play a big role in keeping LeBron fresh for the postseason as well since he won't have to carry as big of a load offensively. And Gasol replaces what Howard brought defensively while also being able to stretch the floor on offense to give Bron/AD more space by pulling opposing 5's away from the paint. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRaider Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Also saw a report that Rondo turned down $9.3M/year from the Clippers to take $7.5M/year with the Hawks. He probably would've started with the Clippers or at least would've had a bigger role for sure on a team with a legitimate chance to win a championship. That Clippers culture must be toxic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealMcCoy Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 (edited) 15 minutes ago, NYRaider said: I agree. Although O'Neale is pretty athletic and one of the better wing defenders in the league, Conley is still a pretty good defender, and having Rudy at the 5 helps clean up a lot of our other guys defensive mistakes. One of our biggest issues last season was that we lacked size/rim protection whenever Rudy was on the bench but bringing back Favors solves that problem for us. When we're going up against bigger teams like the Lakers we can also play Favors at the 4 for stretches to match up size wise. And to be honest we probably would've beaten Denver in the playoffs last year if Bogdanovic played, we lost to them in 7 on a buzzer beater without our second best scorer in Bogdanovic who averaged like 20 ppg. Georges Niang is also a solid bench player as a guy that can shoot and I don't think he'll play a lot early but Azubuike is a nice insurance policy as another huge body we can play at the 5 when Rudy isn't on the floor. Plus our management apparently really likes Miye Oni who's another young athletic wing and think that he'll be ready for some minutes this year. Elijah Hughes was also a sneaky good pick for us in the 2nd round. He's athletic and can score, but I don't think he'll play much this season. As of right now I think the Lakers are in a tier of their own but we definitely got better and are right there in the mix with the second tier of teams out West alongside Denver, Dallas, Golden State, etc. We'll go as far as Mitchell will take us and based on his playoff performance I think he takes a leap forward this year. Word. That was a really fun series between you guys and Denver. I didn't know who I wanted to win. And, yeah I know O'Neale is fairly athletic, but I wouldn't call him a great athlete... not that you have to be to play really good defense. There are athletes all over the league that are awful on defense, but I digress. It's really impressive to me what you guys do with what you have. I pretty much agree with that last part I bolded. In addition to you guys. I really like what the Suns and Mavs have done. Not sure if its crazy to say, but I think you guys should be ahead of the Warriors and they should be the first team in that 3rd tier just above the Suns and Blazers.on the outside looking in as To me that second tier consists of the Mavs, Clippers, Jazz, Rockets (assuming Harden stays put), and Nuggets in that tier. Edited November 23, 2020 by TheRealMcCoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealMcCoy Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Just now, NYRaider said: Also saw a report that Rondo turned down $9.3M/year from the Clippers to take $7.5M/year with the Hawks. He probably would've started with the Clippers or at least would've had a bigger role for sure on a team with a legitimate chance to win a championship. That Clippers culture must be toxic. Would you want Rondo and whatever big man they could have got with the BAE or Ibaka with whatever point guard they could get with the BAE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRaider Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Just now, TheRealMcCoy said: Would you want Rondo and whatever big man they could have got with the BAE or Ibaka with whatever point guard they could get with the BAE? Was it one or the other between Ibaka and Rondo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealMcCoy Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 15 minutes ago, NYRaider said: I was never a fan of Rob P as a GM but man he did an excellent job for you guys this offseason. Crazy that you guys got way better after pretty much running through everyone in the playoffs. Matthews - KCP - LeBron - Davis - Gasol w/ Schroder - Harrell - Kuzma - Morris as your first 4 off the bench is a crazy rotation. Where is Caruso?? But, yeah... Pelinka exceeded my expectations this offseason. I didn't think we would do this well. Part of the problem with us trying to add players last offseason was we were waiting on Kawhi's decision and let a lot of the good players get snatched up before he chose the Clippers, but it still ended up working out for us, so I can't complain lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealMcCoy Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 4 minutes ago, NYRaider said: Was it one or the other between Ibaka and Rondo? I mean yeah they can't both accept the full MLE. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealMcCoy Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 13 minutes ago, Bullet Club said: Yeah Vogel & LeBron are great at keeping guys in check. That shouldn't be an issue. Dwight was a cancer for years, comes to LA and is a model teammate, then it took all of 5 seconds for him to have a controversy in his post Laker career. Controversy? You mean the tweet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mox Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 2 minutes ago, TheRealMcCoy said: Controversy? You mean the tweet? Yep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealMcCoy Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 13 minutes ago, NYRaider said: Vogel is an excellent defensive coach but I think it's fair to assume the Lakers will take a minor step back defensively, nothing drastic though and you guys will still be one of the best defensive teams in the league. You definitely got way better offensively though adding Schroder, Harrell, and Gasol. Schroder and Harrell were both almost 20 point scorers last season and adding those two to your second unit will do wonders for your offense. I think it'll play a big role in keeping LeBron fresh for the postseason as well since he won't have to carry as big of a load offensively. And Gasol replaces what Howard brought defensively while also being able to stretch the floor on offense to give Bron/AD more space by pulling opposing 5's away from the paint. Maybe a minor step back on defense, but I'll take the trade off for the leap we took on offense, because with LeBron being 36 years old and only having a 71 days from the last Finals game to the start of this season. I want to keep him fresh. He had to do too much work this past season. Defense and the transition game was more of our calling card last year than offense and that's a tough way to win games. We struggled in the half court quite a bit at times and when LeBron left the floor our offense could go to **** unless AD was firing on all cylinders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRaider Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 3 minutes ago, TheRealMcCoy said: And, yeah I know O'Neale is fairly athletic, but I wouldn't call him a great athlete... not that you have to be to play really good defense. There are athletes all over the league that are awful on defense, but I digress. It's really impressive to me what you guys do with what you have. Yeah, Snyder is one of the best and most underrated coaches in the league. Health will be huge for us this season as will Mitchell's development. Another one of our issues last season was that we were never really at full strength and that hurt our team chemistry a ton. Conley struggled to start the year and once he started playing better he got hurt. Then we got him back and Bogdanovic got hurt so our rotation was never really intact at any point. I like our team though I think bringing Favors back will be huge for us and gives us way more versatility plus he's already familiar with our system and we should have way better team chemistry now that guys like Conley/Bogdanovic have had a year in our system. Resigning Clarkson was huge too, he became one of the best bench scorers in the league with us last year. 4 minutes ago, TheRealMcCoy said: Not sure if its crazy to say, but I think you guys should be ahead of the Warriors and they should be the first team in that 3rd tier just above the Suns and Blazers.on the outside looking in as I think that people are sleeping on the Warriors this year to be honest. Losing Klay definitely hurts but Oubre is coming off of a really strong year and should be even better this season. Plus Wiggins quietly had the best and most efficient year of his career last season. So they have two wing scorers that should be able to get them 17-21 ppg and take some of the pressure off of Curry so he won't have to carry their offense. If Wiseman lives up to the hype he also gives them another dynamic piece at the 5, which is something they've never really had during the Kerr era. They don't have a ton of depth but Brad Wannamaker was a sneaky good pickup as was Kent Bazemore. If Curry is back at 100% he's a top 5, MVP level player with some nice pieces around him, I'm definitely interested to see how they look this year. 5 minutes ago, TheRealMcCoy said: In addition to you guys. I really like what the Suns and Mavs have done. I absolutely love what the Mavericks have done this offseason. If Luka/KP take the next step and stay healthy I honestly think they could be the biggest threat to the Lakers in the Western Conference this year in a 7 game series. They added a ton of defensive versatility around Luka/KP with Richardson, Green, and Bey. Plus Carlisle is one of the best coaches in the league. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRaider Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 8 minutes ago, TheRealMcCoy said: Where is Caruso?? But, yeah... Pelinka exceeded my expectations this offseason. I didn't think we would do this well. Caruso will definitely be in the rotation, probably the 2nd guard off the bench after Schroder. He definitely did an excellent job, I still can't believe you guys were able to add both Harrell/Schroder. If I were him I'd look to go after another shooter like Korver and maybe one more veteran big with some size as an insurance policy. But your roster/rotation looks great as of now with all of the moves that you've made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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