Very Curious About Your Thoughts on Recent Players

[Shem]

Blazers fan here and I come in peace!!!

But I'm very curious to what you guys think of the players the Lakers management recently gave up on:

D'Angelo Russell
Julius Randle
Thomas Bryant
Ivica Zubac
Lou Williams

[TKainZero]

Blazers fan here and I come in peace!!!

But I'm very curious to what you guys think of the players the Lakers management recently gave up on:

D'Angelo Russell
Julius Randle
Thomas Bryant
Ivica Zubac
Lou Williams

Russell basically sacrificed to dump mozgov. There was a contingent of lakers fans that thought he would be awsome next to lonzo. But Kuzma being a hit really helped lakers fans forget about the immature , but full of talent, d-lo.

Randle was just mind blowing. I guess there was issues in the background. But I don’t see why the lakers didn’t do everything in their power to keep him. He has flaws. But...

Thomas bryant was a real head scratcher. They had zubac still. So having 2 center prospects was kinda a over allocation of resources. Most fans were still furious about the team taking Wagner over Mitchel Robinson. Then the lakers decided to stick with zubac over bryant.

Which transitions to zubac. Who looked good his rookie year. Then disappointed for a couple years. And right when the zubac is starting to play good, gets dumped to the clippers for a total washed up scrub. The single most indefensible transactions since the signing of deng/mozgov in the summer of shame.

Lou Williams is a legendary 6th man. But wasn’t a good fit with the lakers, too good for that roster and taking too many shot from the players they were trying to develop. This is in different catagory than the other ones

Overall the transactions have been brutal. Even dumping svi for Bullock makes me cringe.

[snaquille oatmeal]

Each of those players need context. You can’t just say “management gave up on them” except maybe Zu. The rest had other reasons and circumstances for being let go. Some good some bad in hindsight, but at the time it made sense to make those moves.

[TylersLakers]

Blazers fan here and I come in peace!!!

But I'm very curious to what you guys think of the players the Lakers management recently gave up on:

D'Angelo Russell
Julius Randle
Thomas Bryant
Ivica Zubac
Lou Williams

The only move that made sense among all those guys was Lou Williams. They acquired the pick that became Kuzma, and we weren't going anywhere with him, so it made more sense to move him for a 1st rounder.

The Russell trade basically landed them Hart & Thomas Bryant (not Kuzma). HORRIFIC MOVE. I like Josh Hart, but having Russell is better. They could have stretched Mozgov like they did Deng. They also didn't need the cap space to sign LeBron for at least another year. And for the people that say, "Oh, they needed to trade him to get Mozgov off the books!" Totally false. Moz has been traded twice since then and a #2 overall pick wasn't attached in either deal.

Thomas Bryant: Annoying. But they had Zubac/Bryant at the time and most people thought they would choose 1 out of the 2. But the frustrating thing is this: Empty roster spots count as around $900K. To keep Thomas Bryant on the roster basically costs them an additional $300K. Bad move.

Zubac: It was a move that really made it evident to the rest of the league that Earvin Johnson & Rob Pelinka had no idea what they were doing.

Randle: The Randle move was the worst out of all them, in my opinion. It's complete blasphemy that they let him go. He was a RFA and they renounced him to be "nice" basically. There were so many different avenues to keep Randle and the Lakers decided to take the most clear way to cap space this summer. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

[LakerClipperFan]

+1 on Tyler's post ^^^

Russell had recently snitched on a teammate (Clarkson?), so people felt like he had to go. I think the LouWill trade made sense at the time as well, basically a move towards tanking the season. DLO and LouWill are better shooters than anyone on Lakers roster. This team has no shooting.

Most people are pissed off about the Zubac deal.

Lakers would be negligent if they failed to shake things up (BIG TIME) in the front office. They need to hire people who are capable of scouting, recognizing talent.

[Landsberger]

To me I think the franchise is looking for another top 10 all time player to center the next "era" on. Thus is the bar to cross for this franchise. In that context those guys will have decent NBA careers but none of them will reach that level.

I'm not sure there ever was any desire to draft our way back to relevance. That works so rarely (if ever). For example, OKC drafted 3 MVP's and Ibaka who isn't terrible and still couldn't get deep. You have to trade and sign the right guys to get there. We came from a massive hole created with the panic moves of Howard and Nash and the retirement of Kobe that we had no choice but to go the youth route.

As for the individual players. Each is flawed in ways that will preclude them from being the best player on a really good team IMHO. The move with Russell brought Kuzma and freed up $ for this offseason so this isn't done yet. Kuzma, in many ways, brings the value of Russell then add getting out of cap jail to it. I'd do this again in a second. Letting Randle go for nothing was a misjudgment of his value at the deadline and a combination of circumstances. He's put up decent numbers but he's not a guy you build around either. Lou Williams has a ton of value to a playoff caliber team. We were/are not that so losing him is meaningless. Bryant is a decent role player but I don't think he's a big loss either. The part I don't get is that we chose to keep Zubac over him last summer and then made another panic move at the deadline to basically give him away just when he was starting to "get it". While I don't see him as a huge difference maker he will be worth a lot more than Muscala and probably already is.

[dockingsched]

Zubac trade: whether the Lakers kept him or not, wouldn’t have made a difference to how the season turned out. He’d be heading into free agency low on the priority list.

Outcome: Irrelevant

Thomas Bryant cut: the guy barely looked like an nba player every opportunity he got. Good on him that he’s been able to show he can at least be a rotation level player.

Outcome: tough luck

Randle release: Lakers couldn’t get anyone to offer a first for him, reports show Pelicans couldn’t get anyone to offer a first for him. He expected a long term deal that no one around the league was willing to give him, and all evidence shows he’s not the type of player Magic or Luke wants to build with (hard to argue given Randle’s lack of team success). The guy asked to leave, didn’t want to be here. There were three options, commit long term to him with a large contract, force him back on his QO with him completely disgruntled, or part ways amicably.

Outcome: Smart

Lou Will trade: great player who was on the roster at the wrong time, they needed to tank and cash in their chips.

Outcome: inevitable

Russell trade: trade that suffers the most from revisionist history. Fan base had soured on Russell, including almost everyone on here, team was about to drastically limit his role by drafting Zo, and the team had a desperate need to dump salary while there still teams out there with cap. With the way teams have shown that they won’t help the lakers, expecting to be able to dump a contract at a moments notice was unrealistic. Look how they couldn’t dump Deng a year later.

Outcome: necessary evil


Bonus- Clarkson/Nance trade: best trade of the deadline across the nba last season.

[dockingsched]

I just don’t feel like the trades and any of the prospects that have been let go are all that impactful on the future outlook of the team. I don’t think being in a position to commit all your cap to Russell and Randle is an avenue to title contention.

Free agency is where this front office said they’d focus and this upcoming summer is when they said they’d complete their plan. We’ll see.

[Landsberger]

I just don’t feel like the trades and any of the prospects that have been let go are all that impactful on the future outlook of the team. I don’t think being in a position to commit all your cap to Russell and Randle is an avenue to title contention.

Free agency is where this front office said they’d focus and this upcoming summer is when they said they’d complete their plan. We’ll see.

I agree 100%. The perspective of the Lakers franchise is not like others in that putting a 50 win team on the court that has no real shot at a title is success elsewhere but not here. The FO wanted to have the face of the NBA playing here. The Buss family has had 4 of those players in 40 years so it's what they are accustomed to.

The recent draft picks were the best players available (arguable with Ball) and all of them seem to be on track to be solid NBA players but there isn't an Alpha on a true contender in the group and if we had kept them all the success you've seen in Randle and Russell's scoring wouldn't have happened here. Paying Russell, Randle and Ingram all of our cap to build around would have hamstrung us for another 5-7 years. Few teams have been in a hole as deep as we were in. No proven talent, no picks and at the cap. That was 24 months ago. Now we still have some developing talent and one of the very best who's every played. Sure we have disappointment in this season and worries about the FO direction but there is no doubt we're in a better position and have flexibility now we didn't then.

[Spens1]

Blazers fan here and I come in peace!!!

But I'm very curious to what you guys think of the players the Lakers management recently gave up on:

D'Angelo Russell
Julius Randle
Thomas Bryant
Ivica Zubac
Lou Williams

Russell - maintain he would have been awesome next to Lonzo, if we kept him i somehow doubt he'd have improved as much as he has, ultimately i still get frustrated with him watching Nets games and he's not even on our team anymore

Randle - Huge mistake to let him go, could have done a lot of us especially given the trash we have on this roster now but he also is limited and wouldn't have fixed certain problems

Bryant - Possibly out of the league in a few seasons, not that good

Zubac - He looked to get cut, then he came good and we traded him for trash, fireable offence by Magic

Williams - We easily could have gotten more, the 'building goodwill' excuse was a whole lot of nonsense, should have gotten a high 20's, high teens pick. Either way, he was destined to be traded away.

[Mauro Pedrosa]

You didn't mention Brook Lopez, who's arguably the best fit with LeBron

[tamaraw08]

Zubac trade: whether the Lakers kept him or not, wouldn’t have made a difference to how the season turned out. He’d be heading into free agency low on the priority list.

Outcome: Irrelevant

Thomas Bryant cut: the guy barely looked like an nba player every opportunity he got. Good on him that he’s been able to show he can at least be a rotation level player.

Outcome: tough luck

Randle release: Lakers couldn’t get anyone to offer a first for him, reports show Pelicans couldn’t get anyone to offer a first for him. He expected a long term deal that no one around the league was willing to give him, and all evidence shows he’s not the type of player Magic or Luke wants to build with (hard to argue given Randle’s lack of team success). The guy asked to leave, didn’t want to be here. There were three options, commit long term to him with a large contract, force him back on his QO with him completely disgruntled, or part ways amicably.

Outcome: Smart

Lou Will trade: great player who was on the roster at the wrong time, they needed to tank and cash in their chips.

Outcome: inevitable

Russell trade: trade that suffers the most from revisionist history. Fan base had soured on Russell, including almost everyone on here, team was about to drastically limit his role by drafting Zo, and the team had a desperate need to dump salary while there still teams out there with cap. With the way teams have shown that they won’t help the lakers, expecting to be able to dump a contract at a moments notice was unrealistic. Look how they couldn’t dump Deng a year later.

Outcome: necessary evil


Bonus- Clarkson/Nance trade: best trade of the deadline across the nba last season.

Great post, I agree with most of them.
Everybody is upset losing Zubac and I think he is a good piece but it's not like he is tearing it up with his current team, playing more than 20 mins once in 6 games only.
I had an intense debate on what the Lakers could have done with Randle in another forum site. They said they could have simply "forced" Randle to stay here by matching the NO offer. Doing that will make their salary cap 9 Mil short of offering the max in the summer. The counter argument was RAndle would be EASY to move for the coming summer bec his contract is "friendly/cheap".
For me the risk of upsetting Randle and him becoming a distraction was signficant esp with what happened to Jimmy Butler.
Cavs chose to give in to Kyries request and absorbing an injured Thomas bec they didn't want to deal with a disgruntled employee.
Lastly, Russell was very immature and lazy on defense. Yes, he is working hard now because.... IT'S A FREAKING CONTRACT YEAR.!
The one player they could have kept easily was Brook Lopez, great locker room guy who hustles on defense and and hit perimeter shots but I guess he is not fast enough to create the New Lakers "showtime" oh well.

[Landsberger]

Some revisionist history going on in this thread about Brook Lopez and hustling/defense/fit. He basically took the entire season off rebounding and on defense. A guy his size is a huge liability as the starting center if he's not going to rebound or play defense.

[MelosSoreWrist]

The Lakers can sign most of those players back if they want this off season. But they wont. And its for the same reason they traded them in the first place. They arent franchise players and the Lakers dont want to be locked into big contracts that prevent them from signing franchise free agents.

[Kilroy]

DLo... He's putting up impressive stats right now, but he still ultimately doesn't impress me... If he leads that team to victories in the post season, I'll change my mind but I still see him as the kind of player that looks for the flashy stat but lacks substance.

Randle... Dude's not the kind of player people are told they should like right now, but he puts on a show and is a matchup problem for other teams. he works hard and has improved significantly every season so far. We would have been a lot better with him than we have been without him.

Bryant... He was kind of a poor man's Randle... I don't really care about that one... He's going to have some impressive nights but I don't see him as a substance player for a winning team.

Zubac... He was our best big and this one was probably the biggest black stain on Magic's tenure so far... We needed him and gave him away for nothing... Now the jury's still out on Zu with regard to can he keep this impact up season after season and continue to grow, but he's got all the pieces you want in a modern NBA big... He's going to be a star in the league.

Lou Will... He's a journeyman... His shooting is amazing, but he's still a rather limited player who's going to keep moving around the league because as great a shooter as he is, teams are not going to want to spend a lot for what he brings to the table... He was always destined to move on, so whatever on that one...

[Ballerhogger]

Blazers fan here and I come in peace!!!

But I'm very curious to what you guys think of the players the Lakers management recently gave up on:

D'Angelo Russell
Julius Randle
Thomas Bryant
Ivica Zubac
Lou Williams

Dlo as said was used dump mosgov , he was immature and needed a new start anyhow .
Julius Randle should have kept him not quite sure why they let him go .
Thomas Bryant this one hurts because we gave him up for zubac who we gave up for a hobo . Yea worst chain of reactions .
Lou Williams while scorer and love to have him , he wanted a deal that we weren’t going cut .. Magic basically tried give him away for 2nd rounder. Nobody wanted him until Jerry West got hold of him .


Ultimately we need new mangment . This was throw away year that could of been playoff run had we not made terrible choices at deadline . Magic .........:. We have also been hurt all year. josh hart is hurt now . Literally can’t name player on our team who hasn’t been hurt

[Shem]

You didn't mention Brook Lopez, who's arguably the best fit with LeBron

I was thinking of Lopez when I was getting ready to set up this thread. Then that thing of oversight happened when I started typing out the list based on purely memory.

But Lopez hitting all those 3's and some of them Curry/Lillard range has been a sight when watching Bucks games this year.

But overall, it was interesting to hear all of your perspectives of the situation. Though there are differences of opinions at times, I do have a good idea what you guys think overall with a lot of consistent opinions.

[Themaster007_v2]

You didn't mention Brook Lopez, who's arguably the best fit with LeBron

I was thinking of Lopez when I was getting ready to set up this thread. Then that thing of oversight happened when I started typing out the list based on purely memory.

But Lopez hitting all those 3's and some of them Curry/Lillard range has been a sight when watching Bucks games this year.

But overall, it was interesting to hear all of your perspectives of the situation. Though there are differences of opinions at times, I do have a good idea what you guys think overall with a lot of consistent opinions.

The part that kills me is, both Randle and Lopez wanted to stay. Can't get over the fact that Lopez and Beasley signed the same type of contract but we settled for Beasley when it's proven that Lebron needs shooters. smh.

[TylersLakers]

Zubac trade: whether the Lakers kept him or not, wouldn’t have made a difference to how the season turned out. He’d be heading into free agency low on the priority list.

Outcome: Irrelevant

Thomas Bryant cut: the guy barely looked like an nba player every opportunity he got. Good on him that he’s been able to show he can at least be a rotation level player.

Outcome: tough luck

Randle release: Lakers couldn’t get anyone to offer a first for him, reports show Pelicans couldn’t get anyone to offer a first for him. He expected a long term deal that no one around the league was willing to give him, and all evidence shows he’s not the type of player Magic or Luke wants to build with (hard to argue given Randle’s lack of team success). The guy asked to leave, didn’t want to be here. There were three options, commit long term to him with a large contract, force him back on his QO with him completely disgruntled, or part ways amicably.

Outcome: Smart

Lou Will trade: great player who was on the roster at the wrong time, they needed to tank and cash in their chips.

Outcome: inevitable

Russell trade: trade that suffers the most from revisionist history. Fan base had soured on Russell, including almost everyone on here, team was about to drastically limit his role by drafting Zo, and the team had a desperate need to dump salary while there still teams out there with cap. With the way teams have shown that they won’t help the lakers, expecting to be able to dump a contract at a moments notice was unrealistic. Look how they couldn’t dump Deng a year later.

Outcome: necessary evil


Bonus- Clarkson/Nance trade: best trade of the deadline across the nba last season.

You're better than this, man.

[Landsberger]

Blazers fan here and I come in peace!!!

But I'm very curious to what you guys think of the players the Lakers management recently gave up on:

D'Angelo Russell
Julius Randle
Thomas Bryant
Ivica Zubac
Lou Williams

The only move that made sense among all those guys was Lou Williams. They acquired the pick that became Kuzma, and we weren't going anywhere with him, so it made more sense to move him for a 1st rounder.

The Russell trade basically landed them Hart & Thomas Bryant (not Kuzma). HORRIFIC MOVE. I like Josh Hart, but having Russell is better. They could have stretched Mozgov like they did Deng. They also didn't need the cap space to sign LeBron for at least another year. And for the people that say, "Oh, they needed to trade him to get Mozgov off the books!" Totally false. Moz has been traded twice since then and a #2 overall pick wasn't attached in either deal.

Thomas Bryant: Annoying. But they had Zubac/Bryant at the time and most people thought they would choose 1 out of the 2. But the frustrating thing is this: Empty roster spots count as around $900K. To keep Thomas Bryant on the roster basically costs them an additional $300K. Bad move.

Zubac: It was a move that really made it evident to the rest of the league that Earvin Johnson & Rob Pelinka had no idea what they were doing.

Randle: The Randle move was the worst out of all them, in my opinion. It's complete blasphemy that they let him go. He was a RFA and they renounced him to be "nice" basically. There were so many different avenues to keep Randle and the Lakers decided to take the most clear way to cap space this summer. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Kyle Kuzma was officially drafted by the Nets on draft night and then traded to the Lakers as part of the Mozgov deal.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/k/kuzmaky01.html
I'd trade Russell straight up for Kuzma. Getting rid of Mozgov and setting up multiple FA signings added in there makes it a seriously good trade. Best since Pau probably in terms of what it could mean for the franchise.