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ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization

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ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#1 » by Slava » Mon Oct 12, 2015 5:45 pm

Part 1 | The Kobe Issue posted here

An "ANALYTICS OFFICIAL" feels the Lakers are "WAFFLING"

"If I'm a Lakers fan, that's the most concerning thing -- at no point in the past two or three years is there clear evidence on an organizational level that they've had some 'Come to Jesus' moment like, 'Wait a minute. Something is not structurally working the way it used to,'" an NBA analytics official said.

"In the last two or three years, they've been so far from their expectations every year, whether it's trades or wins or free agency, all these things are not happening the way they've been hoping. It sounds like they're just waffling after the fact, which is kind of the opposite of doing some soul-searching and figuring out a better way forward."


An "EXECUTIVE" think Lakers are "THE TITANIC"

"It's like [they think], 'We're not on the Titanic.' Yeah, you are," an executive said. "'No, we're not. It's all right. No, we're good.' No, you're not good. You're not good. It's sinking. People are in lifeboats. They're jumping off. You're not good." "That's only in Hollywood," one executive said.


"EXECUTIVE" thinks Lakers are one good deal away from being "BACK"

"They're one big deal from being in good position again," one executive said. "That's what it takes. And that's what they've been able to do in their history and I wouldn't count them out from being able to pull it off again."


SHAQ thinks Lakers have no assets and should "DO WHAT SACRAMENTO DID"

"When you mean 'turn it around,' do you mean a championship? Because that's done. That's not happening unless they make a miraculous trade and get four new people. Who do they have on the Lakers? I'm not sure. I'm not joking. Do they even have anyone to trade that somebody would want?"

"They need to do the same thing Sacramento did -- get new players," said O'Neal, now a minority Kings owner.


AN "HONEST EXECUTIVE" thinks Lakers are "HOPELESS" and "WEST COAST KNICKS"

"The Lakers are still the Lakers no matter what," one executive said, "but the Knicks have been saying that forever, too."

Said one agent: "Championship organizations start from the very top. I think the Lakers are hopeless, to be honest. I think they're the West Coast Knicks."


An "AGENT" thinks Lakers credited themselves too much for their success but they really are in "MAJOR TROUBLE"

"I think the Lakers tricked themselves into thinking that what they did before was smart and they gave themselves credit for it and, to be honest, it's probably not fair to give themselves credit for a lot of that success," one agent said. "That's probably the No. 1 thing working against them right now -- they feel like they created the success once so whatever they're doing, they'll just do it again."

Said another agent, "They're in major trouble -- and the Lakers name isn't going to save them."


ONE AGENT thinks Lakers should "CLEAN HOUSE"

One agent said if he were in charge, "I would clean house."


AGENT also thinks "KUPCHAK & BUSS are INEPT"

"The reality to me is that the Lakers aren't going to be better and are going to have a difficult time rebuilding with Jim Buss running the organization, and, to be quite frank, with Mitch Kupchak being in the front office," the agent said. "That's not because Mitch isn't intelligent or doesn't have experience or doesn't have rings; Mitch is still acting like they're winning championships every year or that players care about the Lakers [like they did] in years past."


AGENT and ANALYTICS OFFICIAL think its time to FIRE COACH

An agent went so far as to say that "the biggest thing they can do to help" is to throw money at a big-name coach.

Said one analytics official, "Frankly, if they're smart, what they do is they bring in the best freaking coach out there. You pay a coach -- that doesn't count against your salary cap -- [and] you get the best coach you possibly can."


Baxter Holmes | ESPN
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Re: ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#2 » by iamworthy » Mon Oct 12, 2015 6:56 pm

Sounds like a bunch of overreaction. As one executive said, one marquee free agent signing and we're back in the game.
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Re: ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#3 » by dockingsched » Mon Oct 12, 2015 7:54 pm

I laughed at the blow it up and be like Sacramento part. Sacramento is everything the lakers shouldn't do, build around a questionable leader, remain in the lottery for a decade, have an incredibly unstable front office, and give away assets and long term cap to sign players that might get you in the playoffs but never more than that.

I actually think the lakers are further along their rebuild which is astonishing consider the lakers are rebuilding off a title winning team and the kings have been accumalating lottery picks for a decade.
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Re: ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#4 » by Kilroy » Mon Oct 12, 2015 8:15 pm

Again... This guy keeps publishing stuff about 2 years too late...
We now have a young core and guys like Hibbert, Bass, and Lou surrounding them... We're some player development or a big trade away from the post season IMO, and the only team that has a championship window open long enough for us to have to worry about really is GSW.
How anyone can look at Sac as a blueprint for success is just way beyond me... Like looking as something and trying to sell it as the polar opposite of what it is...
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Re: ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#5 » by John Long » Mon Oct 12, 2015 9:42 pm

We are far from being a West Coast Knicks, we have been bad for just 2 years!!! good grief! how come I don't see articles like this about the Celtics. We probably are even a better team than them if we played in the East. No we are not sinking, we sunk and we are now getting the ship back afloat. I think the Lakers will surprise a lot of people this year. I'm not predicting the playoffs but we will be good and all we need to do during the next off season is be realistic in our free agent targets.

Kevin Durant is unrealistic. Mitch can make a courtesy phone call to see if Kevin is interested but he shouldn't go all out to woo him like they did LMA. Mitch should go after Batum, Demar, or try to trade for Covington, then go after lesser names and boom, the Lakers would be back in the playoff hunt. We are not as far off as they claim we are.
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Re: ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#6 » by DEEP3CL » Tue Oct 13, 2015 12:34 am

Didn't bother reading part 1....but took the time to read part 2, and what I read was utter garbage. Nothing but regurgitated nonsense that media sources have been writing the last 3 seasons.

I hope people here don't fall for the garbage they're putting out there, you young guys have to remember....and it's easy for me to do the adding on this but a lot of these writers are younger guys who came up seeing their teams being murdered by the Lakers seasons after season after season. So this in a way is retribution to kick the Lakers when we're facing lean times.

For so called agents, and front office executives to say stuff and not put their names it is petty and cheap. I can see why the agents won't...because if the Lakers and Mitch knew who they were, their clients wouldn't even get a sniff from them. Unless they were a elite talent, but elite talent usually control where they go and the agent is just there to do the normal stuff. Now if it's a 2nd -3rd tier player, they can forget it....why even deal with this guy.

Bottom line the article is so far off base it's funny. Of the rebuilding teams and the chronically rebuilding teams, none are no further ahead of the Lakers in terms of being ready to win, make the playoffs and win championships.

Straight up I don't read much of what these young writers put out today, they have a hidden agenda and that's to create a narrative that the Lakers are never going to recover. I mean if you read it that's exactly what they hope for without really saying it. Funny thing is I bet these same executives who put comments to this story are from teams that haven't came close to scratching the surface of a title.

You can bet on that. Because the executives that are from championship winning teams wouldn't say this crap to a writer even if they did feel that way. Only the dumb one are the ones who would do it because they've been envious for a long time anyway.
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Re: ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#7 » by TheHartBreakKid » Tue Oct 13, 2015 12:58 am

Just skimmed it through it but :lol: . Apparently if the Lakers miss the playoffs for a couple of seasons(while stacking up on some good young talent as a result) that means that the organization is dysfunctional and the ship is sinking or whatever bs these guys are saying to get article views. With Kobe aging..this was inevitable. The CP3 trade attempts and the Dwight trade were extremely incredible extraordinary attempts at avoiding the inevitable. They didn't work out, and the thing that should have happened, actually happened.

It also could have gone way way worse, and I'm confident that Mitch actually made the best moves he could given the situations. It's a joke when they say "The Knicks of the West", when the Isiah Knicks traded away picks for mediocre talented, traded shorter contracts for longer one just to get some pieces, and basically made the wrong decisions time and time again. Not getting elite free agents isn't a "wrong doing" by the FO. Signing mediocre free agents, trading away picks/treadmilling, and trading for large mediocre contracts is a wrong doing. Now, we even had a disadvantage, which was the picks we lost for Nash and Dwight. To blame the FO for losing those picks are silly.....and it's just an effect of hindsight. Literally 95% of posters, analysts, executives, etc thought the Lakers made amazing deals when they happened. So actually, despite having an aging star on the team dominating capspace, potential scaring away free agents, and arguably hurting the tank effort with his demands, the Lakers still got 2 top 10 picks, not to mention gained assets with later picks.


The Laker FO should be praised for their rebuilding effort. You could blame them for the Dwight/Nash stuff, and the not hiring of Phil or whatever...but after that part is done, they have done incredibly well in my opinion.
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Re: ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#8 » by ArC_man » Tue Oct 13, 2015 5:51 pm

I'm guessing Part 3 is going to be on how Russell is a terrible athlete, Randle has short arms, and JC only played well on a bad team.
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Re: ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#9 » by ak7 » Tue Oct 13, 2015 6:22 pm

If we need to do what Sacramento does, we'd never be Champions.
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Re: ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#10 » by Edrees » Tue Oct 13, 2015 9:09 pm

Yeah this article is 2 years late. We have a lot of young talent and the future is exciting.
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Re: ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#11 » by So Gutta » Thu Oct 15, 2015 8:04 am

Won't even waste my time reading it. Mitch's resume speaks for itself. Some people always love to kick you when you're down. May as well get it in now, because if history is any indication, it shouldn't be for very much longer.
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Re: ESPN Lakers Series Part 2: The Organization 

Post#12 » by Kings2013 » Thu Oct 15, 2015 4:01 pm

dockingsched wrote:I laughed at the blow it up and be like Sacramento part. Sacramento is everything the lakers shouldn't do, build around a questionable leader, remain in the lottery for a decade, have an incredibly unstable front office, and give away assets and long term cap to sign players that might get you in the playoffs but never more than that.

I actually think the lakers are further along their rebuild which is astonishing consider the lakers are rebuilding off a title winning team and the kings have been accumalating lottery picks for a decade.


He's a Kings owner and he says homer, sometimes tongue-in-cheek stuff about the franchise.

Not being in the lottery for close to a decade is right. But it hardens you to losing and makes you appreciate the game. I think Laker fans are now going through acclimatizing themselves to it, and it's rough at first. Hopefully it doesn't last that long in LA

There is optimism that Vlade knows what he's doing and has formed a competitive roster. When you have a potential top 5 player you build around that in a small market, and when you have two top 12 scorers who formed a damn good statistical starting unit for much of last year in their primes you clear out the clutter around them before they leave

We don't consider Stauskas, the swaps with Philly or the future first assets if you believe in the direction, we will see

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