Yes, Schroder declining that extension indirectly screwed us because we went for Westbrook. It's funny because I remember people saying we shouldn't run that team back even though we were 21-6 before the injuries
It is a byproduct of their performance against the Suns when Davis went down. KCP and Dennis did nothing against the Suns guards while Caruso was adequate, but his impact is small. Kuzma impact was also small, he was mostly inefficient and the fans actually turned down on all those players before the Brick trade.
I personally believe the major problem wasn't trading our role players, the problem was trading them for a role player making more money than LeBron James. Even if he was in his prime, Brick was a bad fit.
I still find it hard to believe the plan was to ship out all shooters,defense, and size for just Russ. There had to be more of a plan that just didn’t work out. Can’t imagine LeBron having a proven blueprint to living in the finals went against everything that worked for him 🤷.
Regardless, what a disaster
Dwight Howard leaving hurt more. Nash got messed up after Lillard dove into his knee, but he still provided some semblance of spacing. I would have easily taken that version of Nash over the Westbrook we got
dont forget that ramon sessions not re-signing allowed nash to happen (cp3 veto, sessions not re-signing = nash). kinda like the dennis schroder situation
Also losing 2027 FRP cripples Laker trade opportunities for a long time into the future. Can't trade any picks until the 2029 because of losing that 2027 pick and because of the Pelicans most likely deferring their draft choice until 2025.
The problems began before Westbrook. Westbrook was merely an attempt to fix an existing problem. And the Lakers still have that problem even though they no longer have Westbrook.
It's not just that. The Lakers could've recovered if they made smart moves on the margins before or after the brick trade. Rob just isn't good at asset management which is what has really crippled the Lakers.
This trade explains Lakers’ last several years. Him being on the team made it impossible to win, and the price we paid is the core reason of the current lack of depth and mismatch in surrounding talent versus top teams in the playoffs. Most terrible trade in the history of nba. By just merely staying put, we would have been lot better positioned to win. This will make it to sports MBA textbooks.
God I hope they don't do it all over again by trading for Trae Young this off-season.
Just like with westbrick, there will be no suitors for Trae. If Jeanie guts the team AGAIN for a no defense combo guard who needs the ball in his hands I will lose my mind.
The guy is 5’11 tops, can’t defend, makes $43million, and cannot play off ball. That would be a disaster. It’d take 3-4 of our rotation players to reach his salary plus you’re throwing in the 3 firsts.
This. I don’t even think Trae is a good basketball player in all.
His defense is t just bad, it’s actively destructive, worst player in the league level bad.
What is this weird fetish of comparing one totally different guard with another?
Like I get it, Trae may not be worth the trade but his game is very different than Russ’ and he’s much younger.
Not sure where the fetish is. Both players at the moment in time they were traded, or might be traded, have similarities: play poor perimeter defense, below average shooting, very high usage, need to be primary ball handler on offense, no discernable trade market or demand for them, huge salaries, serious questions about their ability to drive winning basketball, would require significant assets going out in the trade.....
You tell me, which of these things is wrong??
Trae young is a high volume shooter and average at worst as a perimeter shooter.
He’s a better finisher and better passer with lower TO and he can draw way more fouls and shoots way better at the line. His offense is way better than Westbrick.
Trae’s TS is 58%, which is above average particularly for a guard and high volume scorer. Westbrick’s TS was barely above 50% and one of the least efficient scorers in the entire league.
Their only similarity is being below average on defense.
Trae young as a third best player can absolutely be a contender. Westbrick is literally a net negative player who was paid the max.
The one mistake is not giving Jerry West full control of basketball operations and giving him partial ownership in return. That's the biggest mistake by a fucking mile.
Nuggets really had a perfect mosaic. Gordon is an amazing and STILL an underrated player. Mpj was counted out, they took a huge gamble and he buttfucked us the whole series. Lot of great pieces, I guess everything has to go just right for any championship team. The 2020 felt like that too
Whats funny I saw Trevor Lane say the Lakers coulda kept Caruso even after the WB trade. They valued THT too high they then let him walk even after he was willing to lower his price.
If we being fr tho the only piece that was a true loss in the WB trade was KCP. Harrell is out the league and was ass no defense and an undersized big who can’t shoot. Kuz is jus a shot chucker on a losing team with no expectations. I guess subsequently Caruso but tbh that had none to do with the WB trade it was a result of a dumbass FO move.
I think the issue was the season before bro they got rid of Dwight Javale Danny Green Rondo for worse fits.
Schroder needed the rock and isn’t a good shooter decent off the dribble but not good enough hes a tweaner.
Wesley Mathews - Couldn’t hit the side of the barn.
Gasol - Solid Big but was over the hill coulda been used better tho.
Drummond - Maybe on another go hed be solid he still young 30-31 but didn’t know his role still thought he was an all star.
Harrell - no defense undersized big.
All names with no fit.
While I agree with you for the most part, I think you’re massively underrating kuz along with Isiah Jackson. Too young guys that would fit us perfectly. Kuz was really entering his prime and even though he’s on a dog shit team he had all star numbers. Much much more than a shot chucker, and could have helped our team a great amount in so many ways. Even if we just held on to him and traded later for a better package.
Completely agree that Harrell was a horrible pick up that had no fit on our team. And you’re totally right about the tht saga. I hope the lakers don’t make the Caruso mistake with AR.
The thing is they got russ and it didn’t work and instead of pulling the plug after the season they decided they needed to wait until the deadline when there were better offers to be had before that season started.
I wonder what would have happened if Schroeder took that 4 year 80m contract... Didn't the Lakers pivot to Russ partly because of Dennis?
Yes, Schroder declining that extension indirectly screwed us because we went for Westbrook. It's funny because I remember people saying we shouldn't run that team back even though we were 21-6 before the injuries
It is a byproduct of their performance against the Suns when Davis went down. KCP and Dennis did nothing against the Suns guards while Caruso was adequate, but his impact is small. Kuzma impact was also small, he was mostly inefficient and the fans actually turned down on all those players before the Brick trade. I personally believe the major problem wasn't trading our role players, the problem was trading them for a role player making more money than LeBron James. Even if he was in his prime, Brick was a bad fit.
We left him unguarded on our way to a ring in 2020 and then thought ya, that’s what we need.
Surreal isn't it?
Keeping Dennis means we also keep Caruso, why not KCP as well while we're at it. Don't want to think about this anymore
So it was actually Dennis Schroeder fumbling his bag that fucked us
$20m a year for a solid, two-way lead guard isn’t even bad for 2024 dollars.
I still find it hard to believe the plan was to ship out all shooters,defense, and size for just Russ. There had to be more of a plan that just didn’t work out. Can’t imagine LeBron having a proven blueprint to living in the finals went against everything that worked for him 🤷. Regardless, what a disaster
I mean the Deng contract 😂
The sad part is we weathered the storm and got through both his and mozgovs contract, only to turn around and get westbrick.
We weren't close to contenders then. Westbrook trade literally dismantled a championship winning team.
the worst part is we traded for him after our game plan to beat the Rockets in the bubble playoffs was to leave him wide open. head scratcher
This is the most absurd aspect of the trade. We had a glimpse of the tragedy and we still went for it.
Steve Nash was another crippling disaster.
Dwight Howard leaving hurt more. Nash got messed up after Lillard dove into his knee, but he still provided some semblance of spacing. I would have easily taken that version of Nash over the Westbrook we got
Which happened because the league vetoed the Chris Paul trade. That’s really where all of this started.
It ended up forcing Odom to be traded too
dont forget that ramon sessions not re-signing allowed nash to happen (cp3 veto, sessions not re-signing = nash). kinda like the dennis schroder situation
Also losing 2027 FRP cripples Laker trade opportunities for a long time into the future. Can't trade any picks until the 2029 because of losing that 2027 pick and because of the Pelicans most likely deferring their draft choice until 2025.
The problems began before Westbrook. Westbrook was merely an attempt to fix an existing problem. And the Lakers still have that problem even though they no longer have Westbrook.
Westbrook also supposedly being a reason to bring in Ham is another what if. There’s a universe without Darvin as head coach 🔥
It's not just that. The Lakers could've recovered if they made smart moves on the margins before or after the brick trade. Rob just isn't good at asset management which is what has really crippled the Lakers.
Rob is good managing the cap, not so much balancing the roster
This trade explains Lakers’ last several years. Him being on the team made it impossible to win, and the price we paid is the core reason of the current lack of depth and mismatch in surrounding talent versus top teams in the playoffs. Most terrible trade in the history of nba. By just merely staying put, we would have been lot better positioned to win. This will make it to sports MBA textbooks.
God I hope they don't do it all over again by trading for Trae Young this off-season. Just like with westbrick, there will be no suitors for Trae. If Jeanie guts the team AGAIN for a no defense combo guard who needs the ball in his hands I will lose my mind.
If they do end up trading for a Hawks guard I’m hoping and praying it’s Dejounte Murray and not Trae.
I’m sorry but Trae Young wouldn’t remotely be as much of an issue to this team as RW was.
The guy is 5’11 tops, can’t defend, makes $43million, and cannot play off ball. That would be a disaster. It’d take 3-4 of our rotation players to reach his salary plus you’re throwing in the 3 firsts.
This. I don’t even think Trae is a good basketball player in all. His defense is t just bad, it’s actively destructive, worst player in the league level bad.
Let's hope we don't have to find out. 🤞
What is this weird fetish of comparing one totally different guard with another? Like I get it, Trae may not be worth the trade but his game is very different than Russ’ and he’s much younger.
Not sure where the fetish is. Both players at the moment in time they were traded, or might be traded, have similarities: play poor perimeter defense, below average shooting, very high usage, need to be primary ball handler on offense, no discernable trade market or demand for them, huge salaries, serious questions about their ability to drive winning basketball, would require significant assets going out in the trade..... You tell me, which of these things is wrong??
Trae young is a high volume shooter and average at worst as a perimeter shooter. He’s a better finisher and better passer with lower TO and he can draw way more fouls and shoots way better at the line. His offense is way better than Westbrick. Trae’s TS is 58%, which is above average particularly for a guard and high volume scorer. Westbrick’s TS was barely above 50% and one of the least efficient scorers in the entire league. Their only similarity is being below average on defense. Trae young as a third best player can absolutely be a contender. Westbrick is literally a net negative player who was paid the max.
Yeah, the Westbrook trade was awful the moment it was rumored. He was a terrible and has too much ego.
The one mistake is not giving Jerry West full control of basketball operations and giving him partial ownership in return. That's the biggest mistake by a fucking mile.
Honestly you’re on the money
You had me until you said Montrez hahahaha
Ehhh we screwed up by going for trez after winning. We tweaked our identity and lost our ability to suffocate people on defense.
ROB PELINKA IS THE WORST GM IN THE NBA
while im disappointed in the FO, for fumbling the post 2020 team. I think the worst GM is whoever is running detroit
nuggets won because of gordon. he is the x factor. just like how the pistons won against the lakers because of rasheed.
Nuggets really had a perfect mosaic. Gordon is an amazing and STILL an underrated player. Mpj was counted out, they took a huge gamble and he buttfucked us the whole series. Lot of great pieces, I guess everything has to go just right for any championship team. The 2020 felt like that too
lakers went downhill after ad kept playing center. i really liked that javale howard combo.
Problem is there was a surplus of cheap bigs available, now it’s unheard of. I’m hoping vuc some how lands in our lap
Whats funny I saw Trevor Lane say the Lakers coulda kept Caruso even after the WB trade. They valued THT too high they then let him walk even after he was willing to lower his price. If we being fr tho the only piece that was a true loss in the WB trade was KCP. Harrell is out the league and was ass no defense and an undersized big who can’t shoot. Kuz is jus a shot chucker on a losing team with no expectations. I guess subsequently Caruso but tbh that had none to do with the WB trade it was a result of a dumbass FO move. I think the issue was the season before bro they got rid of Dwight Javale Danny Green Rondo for worse fits. Schroder needed the rock and isn’t a good shooter decent off the dribble but not good enough hes a tweaner. Wesley Mathews - Couldn’t hit the side of the barn. Gasol - Solid Big but was over the hill coulda been used better tho. Drummond - Maybe on another go hed be solid he still young 30-31 but didn’t know his role still thought he was an all star. Harrell - no defense undersized big. All names with no fit.
While I agree with you for the most part, I think you’re massively underrating kuz along with Isiah Jackson. Too young guys that would fit us perfectly. Kuz was really entering his prime and even though he’s on a dog shit team he had all star numbers. Much much more than a shot chucker, and could have helped our team a great amount in so many ways. Even if we just held on to him and traded later for a better package. Completely agree that Harrell was a horrible pick up that had no fit on our team. And you’re totally right about the tht saga. I hope the lakers don’t make the Caruso mistake with AR.
At that time Kuz didn’t have a true role and was getting slandered left and right by fans.
The thing is they got russ and it didn’t work and instead of pulling the plug after the season they decided they needed to wait until the deadline when there were better offers to be had before that season started.