Magic/Pelinka/F.O. Thread (merged)

[slifersd]

Without going into too much of a rant, i think the FO's biggest issue has been its complete and total inability to recognize what this team is. Year after year, we think we are one star signing away from glory. We just needed Aldridge/Melo/Durant or whoever to return to being the glory franchise again. In reality, we needed a five year development plan before we were anywhere near ready to get back to the mountain top even with a star. The dream of signing two or three or however many stars drove us to make one dumb move after another. We gave away young players to open up cap space because "this is the summer we are finally gonna sign a superstar"; we let go good players who could be part of our future core because we wanted to save the money for that next star signing; we never properly developed anyone because nobody was here long enough to get properly developed to begin with. This FO operated like the red eyed gambler in Vegas who has already lost a fortune, but will insist to you that he is going to win it all back and some on this hand. It is a shame that Brooklyn is somehow ahead of us when it comes to rebuilding despite their FO trading away their future years ago.

Going into this offseason, we need to figure out who we are as a team and where do we really want to go from here. Do we still play the superstar free agent carousel or do we actually want to build a team for next year? Without a clear direction on that front, there is no point for us to talk about anything else.

[Crooked-I]

https://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2019/3/13/18264750/lakers-rumors-brook-lopez-free-agency-julius-randle-michael-beasley-dangelo-russell-kyle-kuzma

“They let Brook Lopez go, the idea being they chose Michael Beasley over him -- which to me is fairly unforgivable -- because they had already lost Julius Randle, and they felt that Beasley had a similar skillset to be a small-ball five as Julius Randle did last year when he was a small-ball five with that second unit and sometimes with the first. So they felt like Beasley’s skillset would replace (that).”

The Lakers traded a former No. 2 overall pick and a bad contract for a starting center, and then let said starting center walk in free agency because they viewed Michael Beasley as the replacement for Julius Randle, a 23-year-old restricted free agent who was coming off a career year for the team that drafted him with the No. 7 overall pick in 2014.

Having a hard time following that logic? Don’t worry, it gets better.

Halfway through the season, the Lakers decided that they needed to trade Beasley, who was shipped out along with their starting center, Ivica Zubac, for a floor-spacing big man on an expiring contract in Mike Muscala. Do you see it? Do you see the irony?

Sounds pretty bad when summed up in a few paragraphs lol.

[Pythagoras]

https://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2019/3/13/18264750/lakers-rumors-brook-lopez-free-agency-julius-randle-michael-beasley-dangelo-russell-kyle-kuzma

“They let Brook Lopez go, the idea being they chose Michael Beasley over him -- which to me is fairly unforgivable -- because they had already lost Julius Randle, and they felt that Beasley had a similar skillset to be a small-ball five as Julius Randle did last year when he was a small-ball five with that second unit and sometimes with the first. So they felt like Beasley’s skillset would replace (that).”

The Lakers traded a former No. 2 overall pick and a bad contract for a starting center, and then let said starting center walk in free agency because they viewed Michael Beasley as the replacement for Julius Randle, a 23-year-old restricted free agent who was coming off a career year for the team that drafted him with the No. 7 overall pick in 2014.

Having a hard time following that logic? Don’t worry, it gets better.

Halfway through the season, the Lakers decided that they needed to trade Beasley, who was shipped out along with their starting center, Ivica Zubac, for a floor-spacing big man on an expiring contract in Mike Muscala. Do you see it? Do you see the irony?

Sounds pretty bad when summed up in a few paragraphs lol.

The fact that these guys thought Beasley could even hope to replicate the things Randle does on the court and made Lopez expendable is a legit fireable offense. There’s missing the mark in scouting... and then there’s... That.

That would literally be like them signing Middleton to a max and trying to argue that he was close to Kawhi in terms of impact. I don’t know how it’s possible to be that bad in terms of talent evaluation.

[wco81]

I thought most of the 1-year vet signings like Beasley was run by Lebron?

[Ballerhogger]

Starting from last off season I’m giving the FO a D- for handling this whole season . You get Lebron great , you don’t bring back Lopez or Randle ?? Fine. You get to the deadline and waste zubac for no reason. , Lonzo gets hurt in January and you bring up nobody . Alex Curso anyone ? Heck Johnthan willams after the zubac trade . You try
Push AD trade when the original plan was to attract a star in 2019 , you then alienate the team who is fourth in the west at the time. ...You let luke run a muck of rotations with no end sight . I mean really feels like you got got up with making a deadline big splash trade for no reason .

[Ballerhogger]

I thought most of the 1-year vet signings like Beasley was run by Lebron?

Having Beasley might of been but no that was the plan to have as much cap for this summer. Magic ultimate plan is getting Star this FA and next . That’s his pitch

[Ballerhogger]

I understand from cap point view Randle had to go. No quite sure why brook had leave .

[TylersLakers]

Randle didn't have to go at all. It doesn't make sense on any level. These are the facts:

- Randle was a RFA. The Lakers didn't have to renounce him. They did. They could have played the same game that a lot of teams have done in the past when it comes to RFA's which is force them to find an offer sheet from some other team. Usually, when those offer sheets don't happen, the free agent elects to sign a qualifying offer. For Julius, that would have been around $5-6M but it would have made him an unrestricted free agent this summer & the Lakers would still have his "Bird" rights.

- The Lakers, from all reports, offered him a 1 year deal. Julius didn't want that because he wanted the "security" of a two-year deal, even though his contract basically acts as a one-year deal because it's quite clear he's going to opt out. They asked the Lakers to renounce him and the Lakers obliged, because they didn't want to take any gamble that Julius would decide to opt-in the second season of the deal and "hurt" future cap space.

What the Lakers should have done was offer him a fair market value deal. The market was so awful last season due to the lack of cap space around the league, they could have signed him to a two or three year deal starting around $8-9M. Even if you just decide to match the offer that New Orleans gave him, he's [b]going[b] to opt out and we're still in the same space as we are now. And even if he decided to opt in, you could see more clearly where among the pecking order he is with our core players after a year with LeBron.

It all boils down to this: if the Lakers sign a max free agent like Kawhi, KD, Klay, or Kyrie, all will be forgiven with how they handled the Russell & Randle situations. If they miss or have to trade for a superstar, they look completely stupid because they could have signed LeBron and had Ball, Ingram, Randle, Russell, and Kuzma. And yeah, maybe collectively all those players don't "fit" together. But, that's a way better collection of assets than what we have now.

What happened after LeBron agreeing was a complete joke and everyone knew it. The Beasley over Lopez move because of the idea that Beasley could be a small ball five, the renouncing of Thomas Bryant, the Zubac deal, etc. I absolutely believe the Lakers could have hired any one of us and we would have done a better job putting the roster together.

[Ballerhogger]

Pretty sure Kumza is gone in the off season no and or buts about it . What’s his value

[JohnVancouver]

Since the AD fiasco, then the trades at teh deadline, I have no faith that Majinka knows what they're doing. And worswe, I feel like they're hostage to LBJ's whim. That's no way to run a railroad.


It all goes back to not hiring Jerry W when we had the chance. That's brought the curse down on us, just like the Sox and the babe. Exorcism, baby. Burn some sage

[Landsberger]

Since the AD fiasco, then the trades at teh deadline, I have no faith that Majinka knows what they're doing. And worswe, I feel like they're hostage to LBJ's whim. That's no way to run a railroad.


It all goes back to not hiring Jerry W when we had the chance. That's brought the curse down on us, just like the Sox and the babe. Exorcism, baby. Burn some sage

The trades were horrible and were done to keep the fans from lighting the torches.

The Bron holding us hostage stuff could be nothing more than Bron wanting follow through on what Majinka promised him to get him to sign here. I think the PG thing was much bigger than anyone is letting on. That took the FO and Bron by surprise I think. They've been in damage control mode since.

[Danny Darko]

Russell, Randle, Zubac yikes... if we don't hit gold in this offseason they sacrificed tons of young cheap or affordable talent for the wow factor of FA's that never came.

A bird in hand...

[kobe_vs_jordan]

Russell, Randle, Zubac yikes... if we don't hit gold in this offseason they sacrificed tons of young cheap or affordable talent for the wow factor of FA's that never came.

A bird in hand...

Russel and Randle need new contracts. They not exactly cheap .

I am perfectly fine with the potential of whiffing in FA instead of being locked into Russel / Randle being the Lakers first option. It will still stings a bit but realistically if Lakers want to build a contender it was the right choice. Russel and Randle might combine for 40 million of salary after this offseason. Hard for Lakers to put a winning product out paying them plus what Ingram gets next offseason.

[Ballerhogger]

Russell, Randle, Zubac yikes... if we don't hit gold in this offseason they sacrificed tons of young cheap or affordable talent for the wow factor of FA's that never came.

A bird in hand...

Russel and Randle need new contracts. They not exactly cheap .

I am perfectly fine with the potential of whiffing in FA instead of being locked into Russel / Randle being the Lakers first option. It will still stings a bit but realistically if Lakers want to build a contender it was the right choice. Russel and Randle might combine for 40 million of salary after this offseason. Hard for Lakers to put a winning product out paying them plus what Ingram gets next offseason.

Not sure what Ingram gets depends how he comes back

[kobe_vs_jordan]

Russell, Randle, Zubac yikes... if we don't hit gold in this offseason they sacrificed tons of young cheap or affordable talent for the wow factor of FA's that never came.

A bird in hand...

Russel and Randle need new contracts. They not exactly cheap .

I am perfectly fine with the potential of whiffing in FA instead of being locked into Russel / Randle being the Lakers first option. It will still stings a bit but realistically if Lakers want to build a contender it was the right choice. Russel and Randle might combine for 40 million of salary after this offseason. Hard for Lakers to put a winning product out paying them plus what Ingram gets next offseason.

Not sure what Ingram gets depends how he comes back

His injury isn't physically limiting, He's another leap away from a max deal.

[Ballerhogger]

Russel and Randle need new contracts. They not exactly cheap .

I am perfectly fine with the potential of whiffing in FA instead of being locked into Russel / Randle being the Lakers first option. It will still stings a bit but realistically if Lakers want to build a contender it was the right choice. Russel and Randle might combine for 40 million of salary after this offseason. Hard for Lakers to put a winning product out paying them plus what Ingram gets next offseason.

Not sure what Ingram gets depends how he comes back

His injury isn't physically limiting, He's another leap away from a max deal.

Blood clots are serious deal though so I think if he recovers he’s close to max type of deal

[kobe_vs_jordan]

Not sure what Ingram gets depends how he comes back

His injury isn't physically limiting, He's another leap away from a max deal.

Blood clots are serious deal though so I think if he recovers he’s close to max type of deal

The problem with blood clots is when can we say he actually recovered? Won't know if its a recurring issue or not till it happens again. He's expected to return to basketball but It's kind of a hope for the best situation.

[wco81]

Zubac would have been RFA after this season, no?

If Russell had stayed, he probably doesn't get as many FGAs as he does now on the Nets, so he wouldn't have put up the same kind of numbers.

Still would have faced giving him at least $15 million a year?

[Ballerhogger]

Zubac would have been RFA after this season, no?

If Russell had stayed, he probably doesn't get as many FGAs as he does now on the Nets, so he wouldn't have put up the same kind of numbers.

Still would have faced giving him at least $15 million a year?

Even so you trade him for a hobo and to team your trying take thier playoff spot

[Danny Darko]

Really helping the mood Kobe...

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