Why the Lakers are WINNING the race...
Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 11:46 pm
... and by that I don't mean a championship.
I have no guarantee that will happen, no matter how good they look on paper with whomever.., and as an individual I'm not delusional. It will be very interesting to watch a team with Lebron, AD and Kuzma, plus other players, maybe another MAX guy...
To me this is about much more than building a contender. And eventually winning.
It's about the players. Their networking. Their objectives. Their personalities.
The League is so full of information, about players, about teams, about management, everything...
That when players think about where they want to go, who they want to play with, how they want to play (think about Kawhi Leonard sitting out games this year, about LeBron coasting through the season on defense, about playoff Rondo etc...).
What all these things are about is players realizing that doing your job 100 % every day, playing through injuries, following the staff's "decision" (think KD's injury, Leonards' issues with SAS management and doctors, Iguodala revealing that he had a fracture...).
So essentially players' networking gets a lot of things done. Guys playing while conserving energy, resting, recruiting other players in the offseason, team culture, being a good team-mate, and whole bunch of other things that are now judged not just by employers (and we see that in FA each summer), but other employees as well.
I think this is great. It's evolution. Essentially, what it does is, it gets the message across: "come join us, we have it good here". Teams who are willing to "invest" in this are winning.
In recent history it was the case with:
- Miami - who aligned all the FA to suit the players pre-established plans
- GSW - drafting and developping and empowering almost all their main contributors on their championship teams
- Cleveland - letting L. James recruit FA's
- and now the Lakers... they let Lebron's agency play their buttons, and traded all their young chips because they realized they can take a chance on players' networking. And I believe this leads to players (FA's, in general) realizing themselves that they can actualy achieve something playing with LBJ, AD, Kuzma and whomever.
If I had to take a guess as to what the roster will look like, it might be something like:
- Derrick Rose / Kawhi Leonard / LBJ / Anthony Davis / Nerlens Noel as starters
- Ricky Rubio / Bullock / Matthews / Kuzma / Faried (backups)
- Caruso / Horton-Tucker / Stephenson / D. Carroll / McGee
There's a bit of wishful thinking involved, but all of the "new" additions have already gotten paid in their careers.
And with this current situation, where neither Leonard / LBJ / AD are really able to play a full season / log heavy minutes, all involved know they'd be put in position to compete.
The * asterisk is about Derrick Rose. He's been through so much. Professionally, personally, medically. He will realise he needs to go win something.
I have no guarantee that will happen, no matter how good they look on paper with whomever.., and as an individual I'm not delusional. It will be very interesting to watch a team with Lebron, AD and Kuzma, plus other players, maybe another MAX guy...
To me this is about much more than building a contender. And eventually winning.
It's about the players. Their networking. Their objectives. Their personalities.
The League is so full of information, about players, about teams, about management, everything...
That when players think about where they want to go, who they want to play with, how they want to play (think about Kawhi Leonard sitting out games this year, about LeBron coasting through the season on defense, about playoff Rondo etc...).
What all these things are about is players realizing that doing your job 100 % every day, playing through injuries, following the staff's "decision" (think KD's injury, Leonards' issues with SAS management and doctors, Iguodala revealing that he had a fracture...).
So essentially players' networking gets a lot of things done. Guys playing while conserving energy, resting, recruiting other players in the offseason, team culture, being a good team-mate, and whole bunch of other things that are now judged not just by employers (and we see that in FA each summer), but other employees as well.
I think this is great. It's evolution. Essentially, what it does is, it gets the message across: "come join us, we have it good here". Teams who are willing to "invest" in this are winning.
In recent history it was the case with:
- Miami - who aligned all the FA to suit the players pre-established plans
- GSW - drafting and developping and empowering almost all their main contributors on their championship teams
- Cleveland - letting L. James recruit FA's
- and now the Lakers... they let Lebron's agency play their buttons, and traded all their young chips because they realized they can take a chance on players' networking. And I believe this leads to players (FA's, in general) realizing themselves that they can actualy achieve something playing with LBJ, AD, Kuzma and whomever.
If I had to take a guess as to what the roster will look like, it might be something like:
- Derrick Rose / Kawhi Leonard / LBJ / Anthony Davis / Nerlens Noel as starters
- Ricky Rubio / Bullock / Matthews / Kuzma / Faried (backups)
- Caruso / Horton-Tucker / Stephenson / D. Carroll / McGee
There's a bit of wishful thinking involved, but all of the "new" additions have already gotten paid in their careers.
And with this current situation, where neither Leonard / LBJ / AD are really able to play a full season / log heavy minutes, all involved know they'd be put in position to compete.
The * asterisk is about Derrick Rose. He's been through so much. Professionally, personally, medically. He will realise he needs to go win something.
This is a $250M roster in this environment.