Mavericks want Lin (S&T)

[Marionettetc]

Spoiler:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmb_uLIYBP8[/youtube]

Sums up my thoughts on Lin

The audio levels were too high on the music but Swan lake was a great choice lol

[Star-Lord]

Not because they cut you down, belittle you, throw you under the bus. And that's where the Lakers' leadership is at right now. That's their culture.

Um, what? Even if that's true for the Lakers (and I don't know how anyone can say it is outside of those attending practices and/or sitting in on timeouts during games), ask David Blatt about the empowering qualities of LeBron's personality, and how helpful it was to their season.

Yeah, lots of kids in the game these days seem to want to foster a buddy-buddy, Kumbaya sort of culture, but at the end of the day there's just one sirloin on the table, and they're all going after it. I still want the guy who's going to stab dudes in the hand with his steak knife to get to his meal, like a Russell Westbrook, on my team.

If the Mavs really want Lin, they can send picks. One first rounder, or a couple of seconds at the very least. If that price is too high, then by all means find another team to dump on.

[milesfides]

There's an important distinction that you're not getting. Lebron, from free agency to on the court, has changed the game in the way players are organizing and working together for success. That's all on him. Not on an agent, coach, or traditional power structures. It's him. The fact that he has zero respect for Blatt could be a detriment to his character or a testament to Blatt's inadequacies. But it doesn't matter, because the only reason why the Cavs made it so far? Lebron's play and style of empowering community on the player level. Could he be more respectful to his coach? Sure, but that's beside the point, because that's what he's proving.

The fact that Golden State's success could be attributed mostly to Steve Kerr, the coaching staff, the unconventional methods and consultants, rather than the personality of leaders on the team is a different way of achieving the same thing. Which is to get the players to play together, to align goals, make sacrifices, etc.

The problem is that the Lakers don't have that kind of personality in their leadership (Shaq, Ron Harper, Brian Shaw, Lamar Odom, Derek Fisher, Pau Gasol) or the coach (this was really Phil's talent) to foster the aforementioned kind of dynamic necessary to win a championship.

The contenders out there are showing this: Killer instinct and brotherhood are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they're necessary.

The problem is that Kobe is no longer surrounded by veterans who were doing the sacrificing. He's no longer playingunder a coach whose quintessential talent was negotiating the destructive ego with the constructive superego.

We can talk about this all day, and I love to, because what we're talking about is culture, and the culture on the Lakers team has been disheartening. The soul-crushing aspect of this team is that we have all the elements that do the opposite. It's not surprising that our team has become full of hired guns, and the only things we can sell have nothing to do with basketball or winning.