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Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 1:01 am
by leeprettyp
http://www.lakersnation.com/lakers-news-jerry-west-speaks-on-current-nba-2014-draft-and-kobe/2014/02/26/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitterAnd everyone is talking about an incredible draft class this year, I think it’s just the opposite, I think it’s a poor one myself. There are going to be prospects there. But these franchises have really struggled. At one time you could get a branded name, these kids are not branded today. They’re not branded.
And by that I mean kids who have played in school for three or four years and comes out and people know who he is. He’s tutored, he’s more mature, more experienced. Those kinds of players come in and make an impact right away. But if you look at some of these kids, it takes about three years for them to get going. And for a team that’s really struggling, you’re selling your fans that this player’s going to make us better. Most of the time it does not happen today.
Just look at the league, this is the weakest I’ve ever seen this league. We are depending on people who go to school for a year to come in and change the sports as a franchise, rarely does that ever happen. And everyone is talking about a great draft class this year, I think it’s just the opposite, I think it’s a poor one myself. These franchises have really struggled at one time you can get a branded name, these kids are not branded.
Who are they going to surround him(Kobe) with, you know they’ve had three first-round draft picks in 10 years, that’s not a good thing. But, I know the people up there, I know Mitch Kupchak, I know how hard he works and I know how diligent he works, I have confidence that he and his staff will be able to put a representative team out there.
Here is the interview
http://cdn16.castfire.com/audio/303/2117/7827/2095170/vanpeltaudio_2014-02-26-144110-3953-0-0-0.32.mp3?cdn_id=33&uuid=ac29f982f6f92f9bfe192487aa850a31&referer=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FmYYbfjxrjI
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 2:12 am
by Dr Aki
they ain't branded man, there's no brand there. these kids got no brand, and they're expected to help a franchise? THERE'S NO BRAND!
WUT
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 2:13 am
by DEEP3CL
Jerry saying what many want to say but are too damn scared to, and like Jerry said and he's right about it....it's going to take these guys 3-4 years to come into their own. That's why I don't get why these guys here get all ultra excited about a damn first round pick.
It's not gonna fix all our problems just because we draft one of them.
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 2:24 am
by Dr Aki
1. kids gotta start somewhere
2. they're not leaving 10s of millions of dollars on the table to do it
only way that changes is if lottery teams stop picking on perceived potential, fat chance that'll happen
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 2:26 am
by DEEP3CL
Dr Aki wrote:they ain't branded man, there's no brand there. these kids got no brand, and they're expected to help a franchise? THERE'S NO BRAND!
WUT
Let me guess....you have no damn clue what he means huh ?
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 2:27 am
by Dr Aki
DEEP3CL wrote:Dr Aki wrote:they ain't branded man, there's no brand there. these kids got no brand, and they're expected to help a franchise? THERE'S NO BRAND!
WUT
Let me guess....you have no damn clue what he means huh ?
i do. i'm just cracking a joke at his overuse of the word brand
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 2:32 am
by DEEP3CL
Dr Aki wrote:DEEP3CL wrote:Dr Aki wrote:they ain't branded man, there's no brand there. these kids got no brand, and they're expected to help a franchise? THERE'S NO BRAND!
WUT
Let me guess....you have no damn clue what he means huh ?
i do. i'm just cracking a joke at his overuse of the word brand
.....Alright my man, yeah for a minute there it seems like Jerry wants to stick a branding iron to their ass !
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 3:53 am
by myersia
Agree 100% with Jerry. This is what I have been trying to say about the upcoming draft.
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 4:09 am
by crazyeights
myersia wrote:Agree 100% with Jerry. This is what I have been trying to say about the upcoming draft.
Who expects one player to change the fortunes of a franchise overnight? Haven't heard that said at all. What people want is a future cornerstone that can be tutored by Kobe Bryant. And if we're lucky they can one day be passed the torch.
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 4:15 pm
by cashflo
IMHO much respect to him but I think Jerry West is wrong on this.
Hard to say that with his track record though. He is one of the best basketball minds out there and he really should be counseling the Lakers.
Let me change my statement and say "I hope he's wrong!"
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 4:28 pm
by TruSkool
disagree with jerry.
The last 1st round pick to single handedly change a franchise was tim duncan, and before that it was magic johnson.. ever since, it took all these players time to get into their own. Lebron, Kobe, tmac, iverson, kg, dirk, yao, even jordan etc etc etc...it took all of them more than just the first year to "get going".
As far as branding goes, I think branding has exceeded more than before, and there are 2 big reasons for this.
1. no kids straight out of high school can make the jump to the NBA anymore. These players DO become more polished, mature, and "branded" because of having to go through the NCAA.
2. International players get a lot more attention now than they ever used to before. There are fleets of great international players in the NBA now.
Branding has never been a problem. scouts have been looking at ricky rubio since he was 14 years old. Lebron and Melo had high school games on ESPN. D-League games are now on TV. Nobody has even seen Dante Exum play and yet he's suppose to be a lottery pick. why? he's branded.
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 7:46 pm
by So Gutta
Actually Lillard changed Portland overnight. Davis is fantastic also.
West may ultimately end up right, but the player he is talking about (a guy who stays 3-4 years and is branded) just doesn't exist anymore and he's smart enough to recognize that. That doesn't mean that this draft can't end up being excellent.
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 7:51 pm
by BEazy
Exum, Embiid, or Parker can change a franchise. I'll have to disagree with Jerry about this draft class.
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sat Mar 1, 2014 11:07 pm
by MAMBAEMD
DEEP3CL wrote:Jerry saying what many want to say but are too damn scared to, and like Jerry said and he's right about it....it's going to take these guys 3-4 years to come into their own. That's why I don't get why these guys here get all ultra excited about a damn first round pick.
It's not gonna fix all our problems just because we draft one of them.
DEEP is spot on. I agree with what the logo is saying.
Other than Lebron and KD, in the last 10-15 years, there is no one that has changed a franchise that much.
Look at Cleveland, they've had so may first round picks and they still are not very good, even in the East which is a weaker cnference.
Same with the Paper Clipps, they were going no whee wit Griffin until the Stern handed CP3 to them on a platter.
You cannot rebuild only through the draft in his league.
This is a good crop of kids coming out but I don't think the Lakers (or us fans) should be thinking this draft is going to get us back to contention.
I really do trut that Mitch will get a good pick for us, but even more importantly, in the next 2-3 years, there wll be some very significant free agent additions that will start our journey back to contention.
Let's go Laker.
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sun Mar 2, 2014 8:47 pm
by The Skyhook
DEEP3CL wrote:Jerry saying what many want to say but are too damn scared to, and like Jerry said and he's right about it....it's going to take these guys 3-4 years to come into their own. That's why I don't get why these guys here get all ultra excited about a damn first round pick.
It's not gonna fix all our problems just because we draft one of them.
We're getting excited about a first round pick because its the only thing we can do while we prepare to move on to life after Kobe. Its insane to think that the Lakers are going to win anything other than the lottery with a 35 year old Kobe Bryant and that contract of his. Look what happened the last time we tried to we tried to surround Kobe with a bunch of all stars so that we could attempt to win it all.
We have to be patient for at least the next two seasons so I don't see how it is wrong to get excited about developing a rookie while we wait out the inevitable. A young guy on a rookie contract is easily better than anyone we could acquire via free agency or trade for the same money.
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sun Mar 2, 2014 10:10 pm
by The Skyhook
lakerRD wrote:DEEP3CL wrote:Jerry saying what many want to say but are too damn scared to, and like Jerry said and he's right about it....it's going to take these guys 3-4 years to come into their own. That's why I don't get why these guys here get all ultra excited about a damn first round pick.
It's not gonna fix all our problems just because we draft one of them.
DEEP is spot on. I agree with what the logo is saying.
Other than Lebron and KD, in the last 10-15 years, there is no one that has changed a franchise that much.
Look at Cleveland, they've had so may first round picks and they still are not very good, even in the East which is a weaker cnference.
Same with the Paper Clipps, they were going no whee wit Griffin until the Stern handed CP3 to them on a platter.
You cannot rebuild only through the draft in his league.
This is a good crop of kids coming out but I don't think the Lakers (or us fans) should be thinking this draft is going to get us back to contention.
I really do trut that Mitch will get a good pick for us, but even more importantly, in the next 2-3 years, there wll be some very significant free agent additions that will start our journey back to contention.
Let's go Laker.
I don't think anyone thinks that this draft is going to save this franchise. If you go back to threads about what people expect Mitch to do in the upcoming seasons, its the same story every time. People expect us to draft a player in this draft and wait things out until the summer of 2015 where Kevin Love is the guy we will most likely go after. Then people expect us to try to make some noise in 2016 with another deep free agency class. A majority of the Lakers fan base seems to understand that rebuilding will most likely be done through free agency and upcoming drafts.
Its been a down year hampered by injuries so there is literally nothing to look forward to other than the draft. We also haven't drafted in the lottery in 9 years and people are excited about this upcoming draft. Just because people are excited about the draft doesn't mean they think one draft will turn around this entire season.
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Sun Mar 2, 2014 11:03 pm
by DEEP3CL
The Skyhook wrote:DEEP3CL wrote:Jerry saying what many want to say but are too damn scared to, and like Jerry said and he's right about it....it's going to take these guys 3-4 years to come into their own. That's why I don't get why these guys here get all ultra excited about a damn first round pick.
It's not gonna fix all our problems just because we draft one of them.
We're getting excited about a first round pick because its the only thing we can do while we prepare to move on to life after Kobe. Its insane to think that the Lakers are going to win anything other than the lottery with a 35 year old Kobe Bryant and that contract of his. Look what happened the last time we tried to we tried to surround Kobe with a bunch of all stars so that we could attempt to win it all.
We have to be patient for at least the next two seasons so I don't see how it is wrong to get excited about developing a rookie while we wait out the inevitable. A young guy on a rookie contract is easily better than anyone we could acquire via free agency or trade for the same money.
Don't get me wrong Sky, I'm glad we're in position to finally snatch a young gun that's gotta chance to be in that next elite top 5 players for the next 15 years. My gripe is the generalize perception that it's going to instantly fix us.
It's gonna take time for them to build their games to elite status, it took Kobe,Lebron, Wade,KG and all them dudes time to become elite. I'm not saying we shouldn't be excited at all but sometimes when I read quotes here guys seem to think....." yeah let's get this pick and we're back !" It don't work like that.
It's just like how guys think that in 2015 or 2016 were just a shoe in for a free agent, yet when you listen to these guys talk and how restrictive they've made this current CBA.....I gotta feeling you won't see a whole lot of player movement.
And let's be real and face it, our situation isn't the best out there. Other teams look much more attractive, I can be real about it and call it as I see it.
We're in a gigantic ass hole, and nobody is handing us any rope.
Re: Jerry West sounds off on NBA, Lakers, 2014Draft and Kobe
Posted: Tue Mar 4, 2014 5:13 pm
by Run-MKE 311
I think there is more talent in the draft than JW is giving credit too, but his overall comments on the leagure are spot on.
With the exception of a few teams and certain players, the product is garbage.