This Organization Is A Mess: A Story by Dave McMenamin

[Ballerhogger]

I mean, if Magic delivers another big time FA , none of this will matter.

Big if ... see what happens

[slifersd]

Here is the biggest problem for me with this current management. When we brought in Magic to run the show, there were certainly problems we knew we would encounter, such as him talking too much, not 100% dedicated to this job, likes to make big promises, etc. But the one thing we never thought, or at least i never thought would happen, is that he doesn't know how to build a basketball team. Magic, if nothing else, is supposed to be the person who knows exactly how to build a good basketball team, given his basketball acumen. And yet, looking at the work he has done, one has to wonder if he actually knows how to build a team at all. Outside of landing LeBron, which we have to give Magic credit for, almost every other move he has made were questionable at best, darn right disastrous at worst. Giving up D'Lo for salary dump led to the only all star we drafted in the tanking years blossoming in Brooklyn; signing Rondo, McGee and Lance to surround LBJ, who prefers shooting, was just a terrible plan from the beginning; hesitating on trading for Paul George and then go balls deep for AD were self explanatory.

At this point, I am concerned about the basketball competence of Magic more than anything else, and that was something i never thought i would say when he was hired. And if you ask any superstars around the world, why would anyone of them want to sign up for this management that seems to be on the losing end of everything? Hell, this management got so desperate, they started tanking before Memphis did this year. Whether people believe it or not, this management has not undone all the years of Jim and Mitch. To a degree, they have done even worse. How the hell do you build a team that can't contend for playoffs with LeBron? We have reasons to be concerned, man.

[Showtime:Part2]

When the knicks have a brighter future than you, it’s time to clean fo house

[gts1]

My takeaways.

Giving up on Russell -- a pace-and-space guard suited for the modern NBA -- after just two seasons was a risk, but L.A. got back a former All-Star in Lopez and a pick that turned into Kyle Kuzma. Plus, L.A. got out from under Mozgov's monstrosity of a deal.

But rather than leave well enough alone, Johnson couldn't help but take a swipe at Russell on the guard's way out the door.

"He has the talent to be an All-Star. We want to thank him for what he did for us. But what I needed was a leader," Johnson said days after the trade in June 2017. "I needed somebody also that can make the other players better and also [somebody] that players want to play with.

Magic has a big mouth. It resulted to alienating Mintz, the agent of DRuss, Randle and PG who probably influenced Julius and George to stay away from the Lakers.

The following season, Randle -- Mintz's other client on the Lakers -- saw his role fluctuate, bouncing from starter to bench player, from playing big minutes to a much more limited role

.
This is on Luke, probably one of his few mistakes, mishandling Randle.

Only after pressure from fans and media mounted did the team stabilize Randle's role.

At least that's how it was perceived, stirring questions of just how strong the organization's backbone was if it could succumb to public scrutiny.

Four months later, when the Lakers' pursuit of James to fill the same forward slot Randle occupied had become widely known, the former Kentucky product again became an afterthought.

Even though the Lakers controlled Randle's rights as a restricted free agent, L.A. never made an offer to him, sources told ESPN. This despite coach Luke Walton and his staff's preference to keep Randle, as earlier reported by The Athletic and confirmed by ESPN.

I don't believe that media and fans would have that influence on the team's decision on the players role and minutes played.
D'Russ was also yanked out of the floor by both Byron Scott and Luke bec of bad defense.
Also, Magic CHOSE to extend a Qualifying Offer on Randle so how can Dave say they NEVER MADE AN OFFER TO HIM.

This after the Lakers agreed to a one-year, $12 million deal to re-sign Caldwell-Pope. Any offer to Randle that was below what Caldwell-Pope received was untenable, considering Randle was more productive the previous season. Especially so with Randle playing in all 82 games and Caldwell-Pope available for just 74 because of legal issues.

KCP got more money per year because he was a RENTAL= off the books this summer. Why do you think Reddick gets 24 mil/year?
You have to pay them more to sign a ONE YEAR DEAL. KCP was a disppointment this year but he did have a very solid 50 games with the Lakers 2 yrs ago, finishing with 14 pts, 5 rebs and 38% from the 3pt area.
Randle wanted MULTIPLE YEARS.

July 8, 2018: Lopez leaves the Lakers and signs a one-year, $3.3 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. He later tells The Lowe Post Podcast he was "a little surprised" the Lakers didn't work harder to keep him because he "would have wanted to play there."

this was a GLARING mistake of Magic. Brook also had a very solid 2nd half of the season and was top 5 in advanced stats in contesting shots esp when he wasted that precious $ on lance and Beasley. What made it worst was they didn't have a back up center until the old Chandler got bought out.

And after a 2-5 start, Johnson called Walton into a meeting, expressing disappointment and demanding better results from his coach.

Johnson's preseason talk preaching patience to the fan base was just that: talk. The marching orders changed before L.A. had played a tenth of the season.

The most ironic part about this is Magic was such a failure as a coach and actually got rewarded for it by getting a % of ownership.

March 28, 2019: Brook Lopez goes 2-for-5 from 3, bringing his season total to 181 made 3-pointers. Caldwell-Pope leads the Lakers with the most made 3-pointers in the 2018-19 season with 127 made.

Well, Dave, It's great to use hindsight to make his point.
Brook shot 34.5% while KCP shot 38% from the 3pt area 2 years ago.
In fairness, Josh Hart also shot a remarkable 40% Kuzma shot 36.6, Ingram albeit didn't shoot much shot 39% 2 years ago. Who would have expected that ALL of them would struggle shooting this year.

To the Bolded.... Lakers purposely did not want Randle to be a starter because it changed his contract structure going into the off season.. I forget what the exact details were but if he became a starter or played X amount of minutes it bumped his contract into a higher level... like I said I forget the exact details but there was a method to their madness. Problem was Randle was playing too good to justify it so they had to reverse course partially into the season... hopefully someone here remembers the details

[iamworthy]

Honestly we've all been talking around how badly the Lakers is ran for years. This is not surprising. Just makes me think of how great Kobe was to cover up bad management for years and how great Jerry buss really was.

[dockingsched]

My takeaways.

Giving up on Russell -- a pace-and-space guard suited for the modern NBA -- after just two seasons was a risk, but L.A. got back a former All-Star in Lopez and a pick that turned into Kyle Kuzma. Plus, L.A. got out from under Mozgov's monstrosity of a deal.

But rather than leave well enough alone, Johnson couldn't help but take a swipe at Russell on the guard's way out the door.

"He has the talent to be an All-Star. We want to thank him for what he did for us. But what I needed was a leader," Johnson said days after the trade in June 2017. "I needed somebody also that can make the other players better and also [somebody] that players want to play with.

Magic has a big mouth. It resulted to alienating Mintz, the agent of DRuss, Randle and PG who probably influenced Julius and George to stay away from the Lakers.

The following season, Randle -- Mintz's other client on the Lakers -- saw his role fluctuate, bouncing from starter to bench player, from playing big minutes to a much more limited role

.
This is on Luke, probably one of his few mistakes, mishandling Randle.

Only after pressure from fans and media mounted did the team stabilize Randle's role.

At least that's how it was perceived, stirring questions of just how strong the organization's backbone was if it could succumb to public scrutiny.

Four months later, when the Lakers' pursuit of James to fill the same forward slot Randle occupied had become widely known, the former Kentucky product again became an afterthought.

Even though the Lakers controlled Randle's rights as a restricted free agent, L.A. never made an offer to him, sources told ESPN. This despite coach Luke Walton and his staff's preference to keep Randle, as earlier reported by The Athletic and confirmed by ESPN.

I don't believe that media and fans would have that influence on the team's decision on the players role and minutes played.
D'Russ was also yanked out of the floor by both Byron Scott and Luke bec of bad defense.
Also, Magic CHOSE to extend a Qualifying Offer on Randle so how can Dave say they NEVER MADE AN OFFER TO HIM.

This after the Lakers agreed to a one-year, $12 million deal to re-sign Caldwell-Pope. Any offer to Randle that was below what Caldwell-Pope received was untenable, considering Randle was more productive the previous season. Especially so with Randle playing in all 82 games and Caldwell-Pope available for just 74 because of legal issues.

KCP got more money per year because he was a RENTAL= off the books this summer. Why do you think Reddick gets 24 mil/year?
You have to pay them more to sign a ONE YEAR DEAL. KCP was a disppointment this year but he did have a very solid 50 games with the Lakers 2 yrs ago, finishing with 14 pts, 5 rebs and 38% from the 3pt area.
Randle wanted MULTIPLE YEARS.

July 8, 2018: Lopez leaves the Lakers and signs a one-year, $3.3 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. He later tells The Lowe Post Podcast he was "a little surprised" the Lakers didn't work harder to keep him because he "would have wanted to play there."

this was a GLARING mistake of Magic. Brook also had a very solid 2nd half of the season and was top 5 in advanced stats in contesting shots esp when he wasted that precious $ on lance and Beasley. What made it worst was they didn't have a back up center until the old Chandler got bought out.

And after a 2-5 start, Johnson called Walton into a meeting, expressing disappointment and demanding better results from his coach.

Johnson's preseason talk preaching patience to the fan base was just that: talk. The marching orders changed before L.A. had played a tenth of the season.

The most ironic part about this is Magic was such a failure as a coach and actually got rewarded for it by getting a % of ownership.

March 28, 2019: Brook Lopez goes 2-for-5 from 3, bringing his season total to 181 made 3-pointers. Caldwell-Pope leads the Lakers with the most made 3-pointers in the 2018-19 season with 127 made.

Well, Dave, It's great to use hindsight to make his point.
Brook shot 34.5% while KCP shot 38% from the 3pt area 2 years ago.
In fairness, Josh Hart also shot a remarkable 40% Kuzma shot 36.6, Ingram albeit didn't shoot much shot 39% 2 years ago. Who would have expected that ALL of them would struggle shooting this year.

To the Bolded.... Lakers purposely did not want Randle to be a starter because it changed his contract structure going into the off season.. I forget what the exact details were but if he became a starter or played X amount of minutes it bumped his contract into a higher level... like I said I forget the exact details but there was a method to their madness. Problem was Randle was playing too good to justify it so they had to reverse course partially into the season... hopefully someone here remembers the details

This was a justification made up by fans who wanted to try to explain why Randle was coming off the bench. By not starting 41 games, Randle’s qualifying offer would’ve been less than if he did start. The thing is that the amount of his qualifying offer was irrelevant to the Lakers cap plans, so it wouldn’t have been a legitimate reason to limit Randle’s starts. Fans were just desperately looking for something to explain why Julius wasn’t starting and many fans incorrectly cited this as a possible reason.

[Ball so hard]

The sad state of journalism. It's pretty obvious the Lakers is ran very poorly... This article is terrible for many reasons... almost 100% speculation. I could easily find something similar on a "gossip" website. This is going to be a long offseason.

[myersia]

The sad state of journalism. It's pretty obvious the Lakers is ran very poorly... This article is terrible for many reasons... almost 100% speculation. I could easily find something similar on a "gossip" website. This is going to be a long offseason.

I think this will be a good offseason. I truly believe other teams are scared. We will add another free agent and I’m sure acquire someone via trade. This is all speculation on my part. But I believe in our team and I believe we will be back in the playoffs next year with a healthy and motivated Lebron, a second star, and possibly another good role player or star via trade.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[tamaraw08]

My takeaways.

Giving up on Russell -- a pace-and-space guard suited for the modern NBA -- after just two seasons was a risk, but L.A. got back a former All-Star in Lopez and a pick that turned into Kyle Kuzma. Plus, L.A. got out from under Mozgov's monstrosity of a deal.

But rather than leave well enough alone, Johnson couldn't help but take a swipe at Russell on the guard's way out the door.

"He has the talent to be an All-Star. We want to thank him for what he did for us. But what I needed was a leader," Johnson said days after the trade in June 2017. "I needed somebody also that can make the other players better and also [somebody] that players want to play with.

Magic has a big mouth. It resulted to alienating Mintz, the agent of DRuss, Randle and PG who probably influenced Julius and George to stay away from the Lakers.

The following season, Randle -- Mintz's other client on the Lakers -- saw his role fluctuate, bouncing from starter to bench player, from playing big minutes to a much more limited role

.
This is on Luke, probably one of his few mistakes, mishandling Randle.

Only after pressure from fans and media mounted did the team stabilize Randle's role.

At least that's how it was perceived, stirring questions of just how strong the organization's backbone was if it could succumb to public scrutiny.

Four months later, when the Lakers' pursuit of James to fill the same forward slot Randle occupied had become widely known, the former Kentucky product again became an afterthought.

Even though the Lakers controlled Randle's rights as a restricted free agent, L.A. never made an offer to him, sources told ESPN. This despite coach Luke Walton and his staff's preference to keep Randle, as earlier reported by The Athletic and confirmed by ESPN.

I don't believe that media and fans would have that influence on the team's decision on the players role and minutes played.
D'Russ was also yanked out of the floor by both Byron Scott and Luke bec of bad defense.
Also, Magic CHOSE to extend a Qualifying Offer on Randle so how can Dave say they NEVER MADE AN OFFER TO HIM.

This after the Lakers agreed to a one-year, $12 million deal to re-sign Caldwell-Pope. Any offer to Randle that was below what Caldwell-Pope received was untenable, considering Randle was more productive the previous season. Especially so with Randle playing in all 82 games and Caldwell-Pope available for just 74 because of legal issues.

KCP got more money per year because he was a RENTAL= off the books this summer. Why do you think Reddick gets 24 mil/year?
You have to pay them more to sign a ONE YEAR DEAL. KCP was a disppointment this year but he did have a very solid 50 games with the Lakers 2 yrs ago, finishing with 14 pts, 5 rebs and 38% from the 3pt area.
Randle wanted MULTIPLE YEARS.

July 8, 2018: Lopez leaves the Lakers and signs a one-year, $3.3 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. He later tells The Lowe Post Podcast he was "a little surprised" the Lakers didn't work harder to keep him because he "would have wanted to play there."

this was a GLARING mistake of Magic. Brook also had a very solid 2nd half of the season and was top 5 in advanced stats in contesting shots esp when he wasted that precious $ on lance and Beasley. What made it worst was they didn't have a back up center until the old Chandler got bought out.

And after a 2-5 start, Johnson called Walton into a meeting, expressing disappointment and demanding better results from his coach.

Johnson's preseason talk preaching patience to the fan base was just that: talk. The marching orders changed before L.A. had played a tenth of the season.

The most ironic part about this is Magic was such a failure as a coach and actually got rewarded for it by getting a % of ownership.

March 28, 2019: Brook Lopez goes 2-for-5 from 3, bringing his season total to 181 made 3-pointers. Caldwell-Pope leads the Lakers with the most made 3-pointers in the 2018-19 season with 127 made.

Well, Dave, It's great to use hindsight to make his point.
Brook shot 34.5% while KCP shot 38% from the 3pt area 2 years ago.
In fairness, Josh Hart also shot a remarkable 40% Kuzma shot 36.6, Ingram albeit didn't shoot much shot 39% 2 years ago. Who would have expected that ALL of them would struggle shooting this year.

To the Bolded.... Lakers purposely did not want Randle to be a starter because it changed his contract structure going into the off season.. I forget what the exact details were but if he became a starter or played X amount of minutes it bumped his contract into a higher level... like I said I forget the exact details but there was a method to their madness. Problem was Randle was playing too good to justify it so they had to reverse course partially into the season... hopefully someone here remembers the details

It just doesn't make sense to me if this is true, save what, 200-800k of salary to Randle? They wasted more money on Lance Stephenson, Beasley etc.
I don't care much if Randle started or not, it's ironic for me bec I felt he was so good subbing for Brook after the 6-8 minute mark.
But yes, I was frustrated with Luke for putting Brook Lopez in the doghouse Dec and first part of January, but I just can't see MGT giving specific orders like that.

[Ballerhogger]

Plainly put if magic can’t put out playoff team next year he should be canned with Pelinka . Don’t care about injury’s he’s had time adjust this year and failed miserably

[No name]

I dont buy the info on the PG part. I actually know westbrook. It was his Very strong connection with PG, convincing him to stay. PGs relationship with westbrook, not a relationship or info given to him by corey brewer

If the bolded is true then you would also know that he’s a completely arrogant piece of work that cares about nobody but himself. Stats are more important to him than team success and he’s proven that at every level of basketball whether it’s high school, college or the pros.

PG stayed in OKC more so because of the $$$ than Westbrook (Thunder offered him more $$ than any team in the league could) but obviously he’s not gonna admit that publicly since that won’t help his image as much as his “loyalty” to Westbrook and the Thunder.

On the court Westbrook seems to only care about himself. Off the court he is known as a different guy. It's important not to demonize a man's off the court values based off an on court dislike.

[Jedi32]

Plainly put if magic can’t put out playoff team next year he should be canned with Pelinka . Don’t care about injury’s he’s had time adjust this year and failed miserably

You can't discount injuries like that. Magic and rob have done fine imo.

[Revived]

I dont buy the info on the PG part. I actually know westbrook. It was his Very strong connection with PG, convincing him to stay. PGs relationship with westbrook, not a relationship or info given to him by corey brewer

If the bolded is true then you would also know that he’s a completely arrogant piece of work that cares about nobody but himself. Stats are more important to him than team success and he’s proven that at every level of basketball whether it’s high school, college or the pros.

PG stayed in OKC more so because of the $$$ than Westbrook (Thunder offered him more $$ than any team in the league could) but obviously he’s not gonna admit that publicly since that won’t help his image as much as his “loyalty” to Westbrook and the Thunder.

On the court Westbrook seems to only care about himself. Off the court he is known as a different guy. It's important not to demonize a man's off the court values based off an on court dislike.

I’ve seen how he treats media, both the older generation of guys who have been doing it for 30+ years and recent graduates to know that isn’t true.

[No name]

If the bolded is true then you would also know that he’s a completely arrogant piece of work that cares about nobody but himself. Stats are more important to him than team success and he’s proven that at every level of basketball whether it’s high school, college or the pros.

PG stayed in OKC more so because of the $$$ than Westbrook (Thunder offered him more $$ than any team in the league could) but obviously he’s not gonna admit that publicly since that won’t help his image as much as his “loyalty” to Westbrook and the Thunder.

On the court Westbrook seems to only care about himself. Off the court he is known as a different guy. It's important not to demonize a man's off the court values based off an on court dislike.

I’ve seen how he treats media, both the older generation of guys who have been doing it for 30+ years and recent graduates to know that isn’t true.

The above post has you telling the member who claims to know Russell that "the bolded is true then you would also know that he’s a completely arrogant piece of work that cares about nobody but himself".

You are using your view of him and claiming it to be fact. You may not like the way he is on the court and in the heat of the moment but you cannot use your opinion of such and spit in him as a man off the court. Facts about Russ the man say otherwise.

Here is a snip of the first Google search about Russ off the court. It mirrors what I said. Feel free to search the things he does to give back and the things said about him the family man.

“On the court, he’s one way. Off the court, one of the most humble guys I’ve been around in my life,” Morrow said. “You wouldn’t even know he’s a superstar. My girl and his wife are very close. He’s always with family, his wife, his brother, or his dad and mom. Always around his family. I think that says a lot about him as a person.

“On the court, he just takes stuff really hard. If he doesn’t play to his standards, it’s almost like he let the team down.”

[Revived]

On the court Westbrook seems to only care about himself. Off the court he is known as a different guy. It's important not to demonize a man's off the court values based off an on court dislike.

I’ve seen how he treats media, both the older generation of guys who have been doing it for 30+ years and recent graduates to know that isn’t true.

The above post has you telling the member who claims to know Russell that "the bolded is true then you would also know that he’s a completely arrogant piece of work that cares about nobody but himself".

You are using your view of him and claiming it to be fact. You may not like the way he is on the court and in the heat of the moment but you cannot use your opinion of such and spit in him as a man off the court. Facts about Russ the man say otherwise.

Here is a snip of the first Google search about Russ off the court. It mirrors what I said. Feel free to search the things he does to give back and the things said about him the family man.

“On the court, he’s one way. Off the court, one of the most humble guys I’ve been around in my life,” Morrow said. “You wouldn’t even know he’s a superstar. My girl and his wife are very close. He’s always with family, his wife, his brother, or his dad and mom. Always around his family. I think that says a lot about him as a person.

“On the court, he just takes stuff really hard. If he doesn’t play to his standards, it’s almost like he let the team down.”

His former (or current) teammates talking nicely about him holds zero water considering they will be biased for obvious reasons.

Dude, watch any media presser with him and you will see him treating adults who are old enough to be his grandfather like complete dirt. For no reason other than them doing their job.

[No name]

I’ve seen how he treats media, both the older generation of guys who have been doing it for 30+ years and recent graduates to know that isn’t true.

The above post has you telling the member who claims to know Russell that "the bolded is true then you would also know that he’s a completely arrogant piece of work that cares about nobody but himself".

You are using your view of him and claiming it to be fact. You may not like the way he is on the court and in the heat of the moment but you cannot use your opinion of such and spit in him as a man off the court. Facts about Russ the man say otherwise.

Here is a snip of the first Google search about Russ off the court. It mirrors what I said. Feel free to search the things he does to give back and the things said about him the family man.

“On the court, he’s one way. Off the court, one of the most humble guys I’ve been around in my life,” Morrow said. “You wouldn’t even know he’s a superstar. My girl and his wife are very close. He’s always with family, his wife, his brother, or his dad and mom. Always around his family. I think that says a lot about him as a person.

“On the court, he just takes stuff really hard. If he doesn’t play to his standards, it’s almost like he let the team down.”

His former (or current) teammates talking nicely about him holds zero water considering they will be biased for obvious reasons.

Dude, watch any media presser with him and you will see him treating adults who are old enough to be his grandfather like complete dirt. For no reason other than them doing their job.

So in your mind we should throw out the actual facts about Russell Westbrook being a family first guy. Throw out the facts that he donates copious amounts of cash and TIME to causes. In your words throw out what his teammates and friends say about him being a humble, caring and giving guy. Instead you tell us that despite all of that Russell Westbrook is "an arrogant piece of work that cares about nothing but himself" based on his ON COURT play and his demeanor with the media ( which is only sometimes ).

That's not ok. To my original point, you can't demonize a guy as a man based on your opinion of his on court and in the moment demeanor . Especially to the poster that claims he knows Russ. That's cold man.

I don't like Russell as a player but I'm a reasonable man.

[JohnVancouver]

Watch on YouTube

[milesfides]

Of course it's a mess. It's been a mess. This was painfully obvious from the outside. Thanks for inside scoop, D-Mac! Realgm should pay for users for content. Can't believe I do this for free.

[RoyceDa59]

The Lakers have gone from the best run organization in the league to the worst in less than a decade.