RealGM

Relax. D'Angelo Russell was the right choice. Mitch knows what he's doing. There's a lot of great free agent big men this year. The Lakers will sign one of them to fill the center position. When Kobe's contract is up then they will use that cap space to go after Durant after next season.

2015
PG - Russell
SG - Clarkson
SF - Kobe
PF - Randle
C - Marc Gasol/DeAndre Jordan/Brook Lopez/Greg Monroe/LaMarcus Aldridge/Kevin Love

2016
PG - Russell
SG - Clarkson
SF - Durant
PF - Randle
C - Marc Gasol/DeAndre Jordan/Brook Lopez/Greg Monroe/LaMarcus Aldridge/Kevin Love

They got clarkson right....not worried but disappointed, but i wasnt in love with either ok4 or russell

Imagine a front court of Bryant/Randle/Lopez. Who's gonna play defense?

I preferred Okafor, but as always i trust mitch

I trust Mitch that's why I'm okay with it.

I never lost faith in Mitch!

Let's just say that's not how I would have used our draft picks tonight, though.

If he gets Kevin Durant I will personally build him a statue outside of the Staples Center.

Indy2LA wrote:I never lost faith in Mitch!

Let's just say that's not how I would have used our draft picks tonight, though.

If he gets Kevin Durant I will personally build him a statue outside of the Staples Center.

I'll do the same if Nance becomes a member of the all rookie team.

How do you pass up RJ hunter tho...

Always have trusted mitch and I'm not gonna stop now.

What if Okafor blossoms into new Duncan and spurns LA in free agency? You can see it in his face the horror on being drafted by the bottomless pit that we call the sixers.

Lakernut4ever wrote:What if Okafor blossoms into new Duncan and spurns LA in free agency? You can see it in his face the horror on being drafted by the bottomless pit that we call the sixers.

Maybe the horror of playing for phi will overweigh his hatred for us passing him? Especially if dlo turns out to be a true star

I was emotionally invested in okafor so this pick irked me

Mitch better get Marc Gasol or a big name, or Kobe's final season ain't going to be filled with playoffs

It's way harder to fill the big men slots

Dr Aki wrote:I was emotionally invested in okafor so this pick irked me

Mitch better get Marc Gasol or a big name, or Kobe's final season ain't going to be filled with playoffs

It's way harder to fill the big men slots

My thoughts exactly! Which is unfair to Russell because I think he's going to be awesome.

Just feels like we passed on a franchise QB for a franchise wide receiver.

You can count the number of good centers in the NBA on one hand.

Dr Aki wrote:I was emotionally invested in okafor so this pick irked me

Mitch better get Marc Gasol or a big name, or Kobe's final season ain't going to be filled with playoffs

It's way harder to fill the big men slots

meh couldn't give a stuff about Kobe's last season, lets face it we know we aren't going to win this season, if he wanted us to win he wouldn't have taken half our salary cap so thats his loss really

Luckily for us though there is several big men that are free agents and we have been linked with, worst comes to worst we get a guy like Koufos (meaning we missed out on Gasol,LMA, Love, Jordan, Monroe etc), thats still a pretty good pickup

Unless they had a verbal agreement with Gasol, LMA or Jordan, this will set us back really good. I first thought it was a bargaining chip to Philly to cough up more assets for a trade but I guess its for keeps....Another few lackluster years before we can entice a dominant center to play for us...Hopefully Anthony Davis....

Lakers had the steal of the draft last year. Lakers scouts spent way more time scouting Okafor vs Russell. With advance stats and all. All I did was watch youtube videos. I wanted Okafor bad but in Mitch we trust..

Dr Aki wrote:I was emotionally invested in okafor so this pick irked me

Mitch better get Marc Gasol or a big name, or Kobe's final season ain't going to be filled with playoffs

It's way harder to fill the big men slots

Ditto. I was pissed when they announced Russell's name instead of Okafor's. I was on team Okafor for the entire process, since I still don't think that LA is getting any of the big names C's or PF's in FA. So the team is probably going to have only Randle as the lone interior scorer.

In three years, if Russell turns into a top 3 PG and Okafor is nothing more than Brook Lopez or Al Jefferson, then I'll be on board with the pick. But if Okafor really is the generational big-man who averages 25-12, while Russell is nothing more than a mediocre combo-guard, then this will go down as one of the stupidest picks ever.

With that said, go Russell .

Kobe System wrote:Imagine a front court of Bryant/Randle/Lopez. Who's gonna play defense?

Brook plays defense when healthy (which is hardly ever sadly), and Robin is a good defender

Lakernut4ever wrote::roll: Unless they had a verbal agreement with Gasol, LMA or Jordan, this will set us back really good. I first thought it was a bargaining chip to Philly to cough up more assets for a trade but I guess its for keeps....Another few lackluster years before we can entice a dominant center to play for us...Hopefully Anthony Davis....

there are a lot of centers

Marc Gasol, DeAndre Jordan, Brook Lopez, Greg Monroe, Tyson Chandler, Robin Lopez, Koustas Koufos

then you have LMA who you could hypothetically play at C, but i highly doubt he would choose us over the Spurs (he'd be stupid to, if LMA lands up at the spurs and duncan comes back on the cheap, they are title contenders and favorites)

now, how many of those players are going to decline the lakers, Chandler might want to go to a more win now situation, if Jordan likes L.A but doesn't like his current situation, hey we're ideal, he'd be a main guy

For Gasol, he'd be the man

then you are looking at other things like trades, like for DMC.

and if we somehow landed Anthony Davis one day, 1. that kid would be a billionaire because we'll make sure we market that monobrow for him for all its worth, and he'd be a great