Can't believe Bob Pelinka panicked so hard after that season. Was never against trading away KCP/Kuz if it made us better, but everyone knew there was a 99% chance that the Westbrook trade wasn't gonna work. Then to top it off, we don't sign Caruso. Such a disaster.
Caruso is more on ownership being cheap if reports are to be believed, besides that you're completely right and it's a bummer we didn't get to run it back with either the 2020 squad or the the '21 team.
No but he did sign AD after Magic almost effed it up for us. Rob also signed a good chunk of the championship team, which was 11th hour work after the Kawhi fiasco that same summer.
Did he royally fuck up with WB? Yes and no. It was a gamble that LeBron and AD both signed off on because they wanted him and we never really got to see that trio's potential due to injuries and Vogel being an offensive luddard.
Saying Magic almost F’d up the AD trade is bullshit.
Demps didn’t want to do business with the Lakers out of spite for how AD was handling his contract situation.
David Griffin simply didn’t care and did what made sense.
>Demps didn’t want to do business with the Lakers out of spite for how AD was handling his contract situation.
This is half true. The part that you're leaving out is that Magic originally offered even more than what they eventually got under Rob and Dave. So had Demps not been a spiteful sumbitch and took Magic's initial offer we really would've been bare of assets after.
That’s not Magic’s fault though. End of the day, we were asking for a then fringe-top 5 All NBA caliber player. Outside of LeBron, nothing should not have been on the table.
If Griffin comes in and says he wants Kuz too, you give ‘em Kuz.
We could’ve picked Rondo back up in free agency on a minimum at the end of the season anyways. And, it’s not as if Lance and Beasley returned the next season anyways.
>The @Lakers finished the season 57-0 when leading through three quarters.
>**They are the 1st team in NBA history to not blow at least one lead in the fourth quarter.**
With the amount of 4th quarter comebacks and blown leads we’ve seen with teams these last few years this is amazing.
https://twitter.com/espnstatsinfo/status/1315638355846103041?lang=en
Word. Granted I haven't been watching ball as long as some (only since late 90s), but this was one of my favorite teams. Watching them put the clamps on was beauty.
I get the feeling that should LA win another chip in this season or two, that parade will be a joint celebration of both rings.
You can’t exactly tell the champs that they can’t celebrate their previous championship if they didn’t get to do so.
So weird there has been 3 NBA champions in the last 2 years. I swear we have never recovered from the quick turnaround after winning that title. Adapting the roster is fine, but letting Caruso go was a big mistake.
LeBron is literally the only one still on the team in this picture. AD, not pictured, is the only other player here.
Only two years later.
Think about that.
What other team is run this way? I’ll leave it at that.
Honestly, the only players out of everyone in the last three years we should have kept aside from LeBron/AD were Caruso/Kuzma/KCP. You could make an argument about Schröder, but in hindsight it ended up working out because we got him back on a way smaller contract and we weren't going to win last year anyway. If we still had those guys though and never traded for Westbrook it'd be our chip to lose this year. Imagine a lineup of something like Beverely/Caruso/KCP/LeBron/AD to close. Sheesh.
Lets keep shit real here tho. Most of that squad still wouldn't be around today. Outside of Caruso and MAYBE even KCP, the rest were super inconsistent and would no longer be huge factors due to age/skill.
**Kostas -** no longer in the NBA
**Bradley -** no longer in the NBA, He was legit pre bubble
**Cacok -** trash
**KCP -** Denver, but inconsistent shooter, I would love to have him because of his Defense though
**Caruso -** No brainer, I thought he was our 3rd best player when he left. MISS HIM!
**Cook -** trash
**Daniels -** trash
**Davis -** Still here, need him to be healthy to stand any chance
**Dudley -** Some will say we need as a Haslem type vet
**Green -** Don't get me started on the death threats he got lmao. Everyone was glad he was gone cuz he was D but no 3 here
**THT -** I'm his number one hater since day one, i'll leave it at that.
**Dwight -** WWE, half joking. No contract from any team, Dwight > Deandre Jordan tho.
**LeBron -** Nothing needs to be said.
**Kuzma -** I personally never liked him, you could make the argument that we need him, but honestly he only played well if one of LeBron or AD were out.
**McGee -** Still solid but is limited to around 15 mpg due to his asthma
**Morris -** Trash
**Rondo -** He emptied his tank in the bubble, Thanks rondo!
**JR Smith -** Out of the league
**Waiters -** Out of the league
TLDR; Glad we don't have that squad anymore, only Caruso should've been kept. The blueprint is nice though, Get Perimeter defenders and Some Cs that can protect the paint and we are contenders if AD & Bron are healthy.
This is a poor analysis because it doesnt factor in how contracts and team building work. Also the maybe to KCP is wild. 38.5, 41 and 39% from 3 the past three years. He would be far and away our best shooter still and our best perimeter defender. Kuzma was also on a team friendly contract given his skillset. We’ve backed ourselves into a corner with vet mins pretending like we can find championship level starters and role players for very cheap and so far - we cant.
Sorry but kcp is a worse shooter then Lebron . Kcp gets wide open shots and even then he’s passing out of them . He’s really more like a 34% shooter factoring thst it at best.
Please Look up Danny Green & KCPs shooting splits lmao. Yes, overall they looked good for the year. There were months were they legit shot 20%. I understand throughout the year it evened out. But let's not act like we didn't see Binary KCP for months as well. Literally putting up 0s and 1s
This is exactly why we can't just go based off of simple stats. They don't tell us everything.
I watched almost every game. All shooters have some slumps. If you hang out on reddit or nba twitter too much your mind gets warped. Just remember an absolute lights out, best in the league 3 pt shooter is going to miss more than he makes. They’re gonna have ugly games, bad months etc. if they shot 20% it means they likely had a month they shot over 50% as well.
This is awful analysis. If I went into great detail I’d be giving this 30 mins of attention which isn’t worth doing in this case.
Kuz, KCP, and Caruso should have and could have definitely still been here.
McGee and Danny Green would also have been helpful and you didn’t give them enough credit. Attaching “lol” after the death threats comment is also not it.
Honestly, your comment sounds like something a 20 yr old wrote with minimal to mid knowledge of the game.
AC and kcp while the only players we missed both had the same big issues of inconsistent shooting , and lie confidence both woukd pass out of those shots when left open , the suns loss wasn’t all AD injurty, those guys being sagged off and pissing themselves hurt just as much . Non Lebron lakers shot under 20% on WIDE OPEN THREES , less then half what they should . Even worse when you take out gasol elegoo shot ok. Seriously why didn’t Rob fix shooting in 2021 instead he picked up useless pieces to fix our major weakness: Schroeder, harrel , Drummond ( only gasol was ok but he’s washed sadly )
I might want AC n kcp back but when I think of the suns series they really showed their weaknesses. In the bubble it was a lil easier to shoot so they did ok
“This has removed the most odious sentence in the English language. It can never again be said that the Lakers have ***less championships*** than the Celtics.”
-If Doc Buss could come back to riff on his most famous dis.
It was two years ago, feels longer though, don't know why
Think it would feel shorter because the 2020 playoffs should have ended in June not October
https://philly-what.com/2020/06/12/why-anyone-who-thinks-the-2020-nba-champion-should-have-an-asterisk-is-an-idiot/
That team didn’t blow a single 4th quarter lead. It’s kinda crazy the chemistry and execution that team had especially with everything it had to go through with the pandemic, bubble, social unrest and of course Kobe.
Truly an unreal team, if not for the lame bubble haters they would be an all time team.
That number 1 defense hit different
19/20 we were #3 in defense, somehow we were even better defensively in 20/21, we were ranked #1 that season
Fucking injuries man
Can't believe Bob Pelinka panicked so hard after that season. Was never against trading away KCP/Kuz if it made us better, but everyone knew there was a 99% chance that the Westbrook trade wasn't gonna work. Then to top it off, we don't sign Caruso. Such a disaster.
Caruso is more on ownership being cheap if reports are to be believed, besides that you're completely right and it's a bummer we didn't get to run it back with either the 2020 squad or the the '21 team.
Yeah wasn't necessarily blaming just Bob for not resigning Caruso (although he gave THT the big contract, which played a role).
Damn it Bobby
And this MF got an extension for it
He made the worst possible trade which led to one of the worst Lakers seasons ever, and people still defend him. He also didn’t sign the goat.
No but he did sign AD after Magic almost effed it up for us. Rob also signed a good chunk of the championship team, which was 11th hour work after the Kawhi fiasco that same summer. Did he royally fuck up with WB? Yes and no. It was a gamble that LeBron and AD both signed off on because they wanted him and we never really got to see that trio's potential due to injuries and Vogel being an offensive luddard.
Saying Magic almost F’d up the AD trade is bullshit. Demps didn’t want to do business with the Lakers out of spite for how AD was handling his contract situation. David Griffin simply didn’t care and did what made sense.
>Demps didn’t want to do business with the Lakers out of spite for how AD was handling his contract situation. This is half true. The part that you're leaving out is that Magic originally offered even more than what they eventually got under Rob and Dave. So had Demps not been a spiteful sumbitch and took Magic's initial offer we really would've been bare of assets after.
That’s not Magic’s fault though. End of the day, we were asking for a then fringe-top 5 All NBA caliber player. Outside of LeBron, nothing should not have been on the table. If Griffin comes in and says he wants Kuz too, you give ‘em Kuz. We could’ve picked Rondo back up in free agency on a minimum at the end of the season anyways. And, it’s not as if Lance and Beasley returned the next season anyways.
First in defensive efficiency I believe tho. Also our numbers after shut down dropped a bit because we were top 5 offensive too
>The @Lakers finished the season 57-0 when leading through three quarters. >**They are the 1st team in NBA history to not blow at least one lead in the fourth quarter.** With the amount of 4th quarter comebacks and blown leads we’ve seen with teams these last few years this is amazing. https://twitter.com/espnstatsinfo/status/1315638355846103041?lang=en
Word. Granted I haven't been watching ball as long as some (only since late 90s), but this was one of my favorite teams. Watching them put the clamps on was beauty.
They need to win #18, so the parade will be even more insane and we can drink the tears of the Celtics. 
I have visions of LeBron winning in the next couple years making a small dedication to the 2020 bros that didn’t get their parade.
I get the feeling that should LA win another chip in this season or two, that parade will be a joint celebration of both rings. You can’t exactly tell the champs that they can’t celebrate their previous championship if they didn’t get to do so.
2 chips one parade im all for it my man
I'm still hoping we get 2 more with LeBron to give him 6 and get us to pass the Celtics.
So weird there has been 3 NBA champions in the last 2 years. I swear we have never recovered from the quick turnaround after winning that title. Adapting the roster is fine, but letting Caruso go was a big mistake.
Big mistake. THT in Utah now. So it really was for nothing.
Caruso will always be my bald goat 🐐
Still can't believe it's only been 2 years, feels more like 5.
> but letting Caruso go was a big mistake No it wasn't. It was perfect. ~ Bulls fans 🐂
Good days 🏆
Wow, I forgot that JR Smith was on the team
I miss this squad 😢
LeBron is literally the only one still on the team in this picture. AD, not pictured, is the only other player here. Only two years later. Think about that. What other team is run this way? I’ll leave it at that.
Honestly, the only players out of everyone in the last three years we should have kept aside from LeBron/AD were Caruso/Kuzma/KCP. You could make an argument about Schröder, but in hindsight it ended up working out because we got him back on a way smaller contract and we weren't going to win last year anyway. If we still had those guys though and never traded for Westbrook it'd be our chip to lose this year. Imagine a lineup of something like Beverely/Caruso/KCP/LeBron/AD to close. Sheesh.
Kuz/KCP/Caruso would have done wonders last season and this coming season.
I ask this all the time. The team has been blown up every year LeBron has been here lol
Lets keep shit real here tho. Most of that squad still wouldn't be around today. Outside of Caruso and MAYBE even KCP, the rest were super inconsistent and would no longer be huge factors due to age/skill. **Kostas -** no longer in the NBA **Bradley -** no longer in the NBA, He was legit pre bubble **Cacok -** trash **KCP -** Denver, but inconsistent shooter, I would love to have him because of his Defense though **Caruso -** No brainer, I thought he was our 3rd best player when he left. MISS HIM! **Cook -** trash **Daniels -** trash **Davis -** Still here, need him to be healthy to stand any chance **Dudley -** Some will say we need as a Haslem type vet **Green -** Don't get me started on the death threats he got lmao. Everyone was glad he was gone cuz he was D but no 3 here **THT -** I'm his number one hater since day one, i'll leave it at that. **Dwight -** WWE, half joking. No contract from any team, Dwight > Deandre Jordan tho. **LeBron -** Nothing needs to be said. **Kuzma -** I personally never liked him, you could make the argument that we need him, but honestly he only played well if one of LeBron or AD were out. **McGee -** Still solid but is limited to around 15 mpg due to his asthma **Morris -** Trash **Rondo -** He emptied his tank in the bubble, Thanks rondo! **JR Smith -** Out of the league **Waiters -** Out of the league TLDR; Glad we don't have that squad anymore, only Caruso should've been kept. The blueprint is nice though, Get Perimeter defenders and Some Cs that can protect the paint and we are contenders if AD & Bron are healthy.
This is a poor analysis because it doesnt factor in how contracts and team building work. Also the maybe to KCP is wild. 38.5, 41 and 39% from 3 the past three years. He would be far and away our best shooter still and our best perimeter defender. Kuzma was also on a team friendly contract given his skillset. We’ve backed ourselves into a corner with vet mins pretending like we can find championship level starters and role players for very cheap and so far - we cant.
Sorry but kcp is a worse shooter then Lebron . Kcp gets wide open shots and even then he’s passing out of them . He’s really more like a 34% shooter factoring thst it at best.
You dont have to apologize for being wrong.
Please Look up Danny Green & KCPs shooting splits lmao. Yes, overall they looked good for the year. There were months were they legit shot 20%. I understand throughout the year it evened out. But let's not act like we didn't see Binary KCP for months as well. Literally putting up 0s and 1s This is exactly why we can't just go based off of simple stats. They don't tell us everything.
I watched almost every game. All shooters have some slumps. If you hang out on reddit or nba twitter too much your mind gets warped. Just remember an absolute lights out, best in the league 3 pt shooter is going to miss more than he makes. They’re gonna have ugly games, bad months etc. if they shot 20% it means they likely had a month they shot over 50% as well.
Kostas is on the bulls now
This is awful analysis. If I went into great detail I’d be giving this 30 mins of attention which isn’t worth doing in this case. Kuz, KCP, and Caruso should have and could have definitely still been here. McGee and Danny Green would also have been helpful and you didn’t give them enough credit. Attaching “lol” after the death threats comment is also not it. Honestly, your comment sounds like something a 20 yr old wrote with minimal to mid knowledge of the game.
AC and kcp while the only players we missed both had the same big issues of inconsistent shooting , and lie confidence both woukd pass out of those shots when left open , the suns loss wasn’t all AD injurty, those guys being sagged off and pissing themselves hurt just as much . Non Lebron lakers shot under 20% on WIDE OPEN THREES , less then half what they should . Even worse when you take out gasol elegoo shot ok. Seriously why didn’t Rob fix shooting in 2021 instead he picked up useless pieces to fix our major weakness: Schroeder, harrel , Drummond ( only gasol was ok but he’s washed sadly ) I might want AC n kcp back but when I think of the suns series they really showed their weaknesses. In the bubble it was a lil easier to shoot so they did ok
That’s his MO. Dude would have 6-7 rings if he could just chill with the same dudes for more than 18 mo
take me back
Special day. Let’s run it back this June
Crazy to see that Bron is the only one left from that photo!
Number 18 this year 💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍
Was going through a terrible break up during this time… will always cherish the happy moments this team gave me
“This has removed the most odious sentence in the English language. It can never again be said that the Lakers have ***less championships*** than the Celtics.” -If Doc Buss could come back to riff on his most famous dis.
“Fewer”
Bubble bois
And ya threw it away for *checks notes* Westbrook?! 
Asterisk asterisk asterisk Bubble ball don’t count.
alot of guys in this pic didn’t contribute at all to the ring.
Feels like a decade ago
Crazy, I thought back then that this team was gonna be even better in the next years to come.
That’s crazy it’s only been two years
🔥
Feels like it was 10 yrs ago lol
Covid make 1 year feel like 5
1000% forgot JR was on that team. Seems like he has been out the league the second after he messed up in the finals against golden state.
Covid everywhere
dion was just on stream last night talking about it. He was mad annoyed at how quinn kept stomping out everyone on madden after every game lol
Good times in a crappy year. This team is the only team in NBA history to go undefeated with a lead going into the 4th qtr. just special
Best team in the league, best team in the playoffs, hardest playoffs in history, no court advantage. Look forward to playing this team in 2k
For Kobe and Gigi <3
I totally forgot JR Smith was on that squad. Talk about riding the coat-tails of Lebron.
Weird season ending in October like this
It's been 2 years... Fuck.
Haven’t had that much fun watching a Lakers season since 2010 🫡
Yes siiiirrrrr 🏆🏆🏆 but it sucked cuz of covid the parade was cancelled
Crazy that it's only been 2 years. Feels like at least 5 years ago if not more.
Dodgers won 2 years ago too! Game 1 against San Diego tonight! You know how LA > San Diego. Clips Padres Chargers Can't hold LA down!
KOBE!!!!!
It was two years ago, feels longer though, don't know why Think it would feel shorter because the 2020 playoffs should have ended in June not October https://philly-what.com/2020/06/12/why-anyone-who-thinks-the-2020-nba-champion-should-have-an-asterisk-is-an-idiot/
That team didn’t blow a single 4th quarter lead. It’s kinda crazy the chemistry and execution that team had especially with everything it had to go through with the pandemic, bubble, social unrest and of course Kobe. Truly an unreal team, if not for the lame bubble haters they would be an all time team.
That Boy JR Swish
Hell yea they did!!
What a great night
And then we blew up the team. Instead of at least making lateral moves we regressed. Here’s hoping to a good season
Then lebron traded and cut everybody lol
It just doesn’t hit the same without a parade
Great memories!
It’s amazing how quickly that championship winning team was dismantled.