Re: Avery Bradley Agrees To Two-Year, $9.7M Deal With Lakers

[Rollie]

People believing that the Lakers will underachieve isn't a sign of disrespect towards Lebron or AD. That's more about roster construction than anything else. Lebron and AD could play fantastic... and... the Lakers might not make the conference finals. Both could be true. The Lakers clearly have no margin for error with this roster. If AD and Lebron have overlapping injuries they're screwed.

Can’t the same be said about LAC? Only scoring option they have left is Lou Williams. Let’s see how that plays out. You really think LAC will be able to win 50 games with Kawhi taking off 20+ games in the Western Conference. Love your salty opinion but give the team a chance. If Cousins bounces back that could be a major wild card imo. LeBron has a lot to prove and has the most down time in his career so to act like he won’t be playing harder this year to prove all the doubters wrong is crazy. They were the #4 seed this year prior to injury which is what makes me laugh. Y’all dogged him but the team was about to be a playoff team

Clippers won 48 games with Lou as their leading scorer off the bench. Now you think they can't win 50 games when he's their 3rd leading scorer behind Kawhi and PG13? GTFO.

And they will be better defensively.

[tsirigoj]

Very easy to count the ways that LBJ isn’t top 5: GA, KL, JE, JH, KD.

James 'what is defense' Harden?
Joel 'couldn't beat the Raptors with 2 allstar calibur players next to me' Embiid?
Kevin 'where's my ACL' Durant?

Please.

Lebron is at least Kawhi calibur, as Kawhi isn't as good at creating his own shot and shots for others as LeBron is. So Lebron is, at worst, top 3.

Wrong. Kevin 'where is my Achilles' Durant. Achilles tear worse than ACL...

You're right, but either way, it's gonna cost him the entire season.

In the question of 'top 5 RIGHT NOW,' I like LeBron over an injured Durant (and, possibly, even over a healthy Durant).

[cavs4872]

Lakers are so ****' stacked

[Pickled Prunes]

Can’t the same be said about LAC? Only scoring option they have left is Lou Williams. Let’s see how that plays out. You really think LAC will be able to win 50 games with Kawhi taking off 20+ games in the Western Conference. Love your salty opinion but give the team a chance. If Cousins bounces back that could be a major wild card imo. LeBron has a lot to prove and has the most down time in his career so to act like he won’t be playing harder this year to prove all the doubters wrong is crazy. They were the #4 seed this year prior to injury which is what makes me laugh. Y’all dogged him but the team was about to be a playoff team

Clippers won 48 games with Lou as their leading scorer off the bench. Now you think they can't win 50 games when he's their 3rd leading scorer behind Kawhi and PG13? GTFO.

And they will be better defensively.

The Clips lost an important piece in Gallo... that's right, I said Gallo... but they are still miles deeper than LAL.

And I may be salty, but that's because I'm bacon. Everybody loves bacon!

But seriously, you can't accuse everyone that isn't blinded by the purple and gold glitter salty. A few of us are salty, but many of us are wise! Just keeping it real.

[Pickled Prunes]

I've seen on this forum many people say "LeBron isn't top 5, maybe top 10," and I'm pretty sure there is a thread somewhere titled, "How is Anthony Davis Considered a Superstar?"

I would call that disrespect.

Very easy to count the ways that LBJ isn’t top 5: GA, KL, JE, JH, KD.

LeBron was the best player in the playoffs the last year he made it. James Harden has the biggest drop in production of any player in the playoffs.. seemingly every year. And JE obviously does not belong in that group yet, he was both inconsistent and injured in the only despite playoff run of his career.

I admit with LeBron it's hard to judge were he's at given his age and the fact that he's the only guy in the league that improves on his efficiency in the playoffs which makes his regular season stats less meaningful than anyone else's, but I'd still put him around 3-5 until we actually see him struggle in the playoffs.

Lebron has had a rough time of getting his teammates to perform up to their potential. Players typically have their career years before joining Lebron or after leaving Lebron. Note how Hood, Hill, Green, Rose, Wade and even Shump were useful players after leaving CLE. Well, now Lebron has to find a way to give AD his touches while elevating the likes of Dudley, Bradley, Daniels, etc. The LAL certainly can't afford for AD to drop off the way Bosh and Love did when teaming up with Lebron.

[tsirigoj]

Very easy to count the ways that LBJ isn’t top 5: GA, KL, JE, JH, KD.

LeBron was the best player in the playoffs the last year he made it. James Harden has the biggest drop in production of any player in the playoffs.. seemingly every year. And JE obviously does not belong in that group yet, he was both inconsistent and injured in the only despite playoff run of his career.

I admit with LeBron it's hard to judge were he's at given his age and the fact that he's the only guy in the league that improves on his efficiency in the playoffs which makes his regular season stats less meaningful than anyone else's, but I'd still put him around 3-5 until we actually see him struggle in the playoffs.

Lebron has had a rough time of getting his teammates to perform up to their potential. Players typically have their career years before joining Lebron or after leaving Lebron. Note how Hood, Hill, Green, Rose, Wade and even Shump were useful players after leaving CLE. Well, now Lebron has to find a way to give AD his touches while elevating the likes of Dudley, Bradley, Daniels, etc. The LAL certainly can't afford for AD to drop off the way Bosh and Love did when teaming up with Lebron.

You do realize that the Cavs went from a championship team to a bunch of bumbling players when LeBron left, right?

[Pickled Prunes]

LeBron was the best player in the playoffs the last year he made it. James Harden has the biggest drop in production of any player in the playoffs.. seemingly every year. And JE obviously does not belong in that group yet, he was both inconsistent and injured in the only despite playoff run of his career.

I admit with LeBron it's hard to judge were he's at given his age and the fact that he's the only guy in the league that improves on his efficiency in the playoffs which makes his regular season stats less meaningful than anyone else's, but I'd still put him around 3-5 until we actually see him struggle in the playoffs.

Lebron has had a rough time of getting his teammates to perform up to their potential. Players typically have their career years before joining Lebron or after leaving Lebron. Note how Hood, Hill, Green, Rose, Wade and even Shump were useful players after leaving CLE. Well, now Lebron has to find a way to give AD his touches while elevating the likes of Dudley, Bradley, Daniels, etc. The LAL certainly can't afford for AD to drop off the way Bosh and Love did when teaming up with Lebron.

You do realize that the Cavs went from a championship team to a bunch of bumbling players when LeBron left, right?

They hadn't been a championship team in three years. And while most of their players left via trade or as free agents, Love was injured and they were locked into the insane contracts of Thompson and JR that were leveraged through the media by Lebron. Yeah, he left that place a tire fire to be sure!

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

Lebron has had a rough time of getting his teammates to perform up to their potential. Players typically have their career years before joining Lebron or after leaving Lebron. Note how Hood, Hill, Green, Rose, Wade and even Shump were useful players after leaving CLE. Well, now Lebron has to find a way to give AD his touches while elevating the likes of Dudley, Bradley, Daniels, etc. The LAL certainly can't afford for AD to drop off the way Bosh and Love did when teaming up with Lebron.

You do realize that the Cavs went from a championship team to a bunch of bumbling players when LeBron left, right?

They hadn't been a championship team in three years. And while most of their players left via trade or as free agents, Love was injured and they were locked into the insane contracts of Thompson and JR that were leveraged through the media by Lebron. Yeah, he left that place a tire fire to be sure!

And yet, the year before he left they made the Finals, despite Love missing a number of games due to injury and Thompson and JR having insane contracts.

Cavs management left the Cavs roster a dumpster fire. No one forced them to trade 2 1sts for Timofey Mozgov instead of just drafting Pascal Siakam and Jarrett Allen for example. Or overpaying Varejao then using a pick to shed his contract because they overpaid JR and Thompson. Or getting crap return for Irving instead of keeping him or moving him for Paul George or Jimmy Butler or someone else not injured. Or keeping Love too long despite the fact that he couldn't play extended minutes against the Warriors. Ect, ect.

[Pickled Prunes]

You do realize that the Cavs went from a championship team to a bunch of bumbling players when LeBron left, right?

They hadn't been a championship team in three years. And while most of their players left via trade or as free agents, Love was injured and they were locked into the insane contracts of Thompson and JR that were leveraged through the media by Lebron. Yeah, he left that place a tire fire to be sure!

And yet, the year before he left they made the Finals, despite Love missing a number of games due to injury and Thompson and JR having insane contracts.

Cavs management left the Cavs roster a dumpster fire. No one forced them to trade 2 1sts for Timofey Mozgov instead of just drafting Pascal Siakam and Jarrett Allen for example. Or overpaying Varejao then using a pick to shed his contract because they overpaid JR and Thompson. Or getting crap return for Irving instead of keeping him or moving him for Paul George or Jimmy Butler or someone else not injured. Or keeping Love too long despite the fact that he couldn't play extended minutes against the Warriors. Ect, ect.

In the East... while Giannis was younger, PHI was wrapping up the process, Kyrie was hurt and Kawhi was still a Spur. And actually, someone did force them to do many of the things you just mentioned. His name was Lebron.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

They hadn't been a championship team in three years. And while most of their players left via trade or as free agents, Love was injured and they were locked into the insane contracts of Thompson and JR that were leveraged through the media by Lebron. Yeah, he left that place a tire fire to be sure!

And yet, the year before he left they made the Finals, despite Love missing a number of games due to injury and Thompson and JR having insane contracts.

Cavs management left the Cavs roster a dumpster fire. No one forced them to trade 2 1sts for Timofey Mozgov instead of just drafting Pascal Siakam and Jarrett Allen for example. Or overpaying Varejao then using a pick to shed his contract because they overpaid JR and Thompson. Or getting crap return for Irving instead of keeping him or moving him for Paul George or Jimmy Butler or someone else not injured. Or keeping Love too long despite the fact that he couldn't play extended minutes against the Warriors. Ect, ect.

In the East... while Giannis was younger, PHI was wrapping up the process, Kyrie was hurt and Kawhi was still a Spur. And actually, someone did force them to do many of the things you just mentioned. His name was Lebron.

Giannis? PHI? Kyie? Kawhi? What are you talking about? The Cavs won 19 games last year. We're not talking about Giannis here. We're talking about the Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards and Miami Heat all fielding better teams than the Cavs a year after they won the East.

[Pickled Prunes]

And yet, the year before he left they made the Finals, despite Love missing a number of games due to injury and Thompson and JR having insane contracts.

Cavs management left the Cavs roster a dumpster fire. No one forced them to trade 2 1sts for Timofey Mozgov instead of just drafting Pascal Siakam and Jarrett Allen for example. Or overpaying Varejao then using a pick to shed his contract because they overpaid JR and Thompson. Or getting crap return for Irving instead of keeping him or moving him for Paul George or Jimmy Butler or someone else not injured. Or keeping Love too long despite the fact that he couldn't play extended minutes against the Warriors. Ect, ect.

In the East... while Giannis was younger, PHI was wrapping up the process, Kyrie was hurt and Kawhi was still a Spur. And actually, someone did force them to do many of the things you just mentioned. His name was Lebron.

Giannis? PHI? Kyie? Kawhi? What are you talking about? The Cavs won 19 games last year. We're not talking about Giannis here. We're talking about the Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards and Miami Heat all fielding better teams than the Cavs a year after they won the East.

I'm talking about Lebron's last year in the East... which is the same thing you were talking about.

[Buckeye-NBAFan]

In the East... while Giannis was younger, PHI was wrapping up the process, Kyrie was hurt and Kawhi was still a Spur. And actually, someone did force them to do many of the things you just mentioned. His name was Lebron.

Giannis? PHI? Kyie? Kawhi? What are you talking about? The Cavs won 19 games last year. We're not talking about Giannis here. We're talking about the Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards and Miami Heat all fielding better teams than the Cavs a year after they won the East.

I'm talking about Lebron's last year in the East... which is the same thing you were talking about.

The Cavs lost 31 more games last year after LeBron left. You can talk Kawhi moving East and PHI improving all you want, that doesn't explain a 31 game difference. What's your argument here? That LeBron doesn't make his teammates better because he does it all on his own and doesn't need teammates? Or that the Cavs really did lose 31 more games all (or mostly) for reasons unrelated to LeBron?

[cheese318]

People believing that the Lakers will underachieve isn't a sign of disrespect towards Lebron or AD. That's more about roster construction than anything else. Lebron and AD could play fantastic... and... the Lakers might not make the conference finals. Both could be true. The Lakers clearly have no margin for error with this roster. If AD and Lebron have overlapping injuries they're screwed.

Can’t the same be said about LAC? Only scoring option they have left is Lou Williams. Let’s see how that plays out. You really think LAC will be able to win 50 games with Kawhi taking off 20+ games in the Western Conference. Love your salty opinion but give the team a chance. If Cousins bounces back that could be a major wild card imo. LeBron has a lot to prove and has the most down time in his career so to act like he won’t be playing harder this year to prove all the doubters wrong is crazy. They were the #4 seed this year prior to injury which is what makes me laugh. Y’all dogged him but the team was about to be a playoff team

Clippers won 48 games with Lou as their leading scorer off the bench. Now you think they can't win 50 games when he's their 3rd leading scorer behind Kawhi and PG13? GTFO.

Didn’t Danilo avg close to 20 ppg? And I think you seem to forget Tobias Harris was on that team up until February so it wasn’t just Lou Williams. And they are losing SGA who was a steady ball handler and became a lot more confident in the second half. All I stated was Kawhi sitting 20+ games will not help this roster like it did in TOR where they went 17-5 when he sat

[Pickled Prunes]

Giannis? PHI? Kyie? Kawhi? What are you talking about? The Cavs won 19 games last year. We're not talking about Giannis here. We're talking about the Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards and Miami Heat all fielding better teams than the Cavs a year after they won the East.

I'm talking about Lebron's last year in the East... which is the same thing you were talking about.

The Cavs lost 31 more games last year after LeBron left. You can talk Kawhi moving East and PHI improving all you want, that doesn't explain a 31 game difference. What's your argument here? That LeBron doesn't make his teammates better because he does it all on his own and doesn't need teammates? Or that the Cavs really did lose 31 more games all (or mostly) for reasons unrelated to LeBron?

My argument is that you can count on the roll players like Dudley, Bradley, Green, Daniels, etc. to drop off statistically rather than step up like the Lakers need them to do... and that is a direct result of playing with Lebron. I also wouldn't pencil AD in for 28/12. That could certainly happen, but Bosh and Love took major statistical hits when teaming up with Lebron. It was also typical to see Love on the floor with four bench players while Lebron generally had at least two starters on the floor with him which seriously boosted his on/off stats. Lue put Love in some seriously BS lineups, clearly to accommodate more favorable lineups for Lebron. We will see how this coaching staff caters to Lebron.

And yes, Lebron leaving was the main factor in CLE losing 31 more games... but they also only had 4 players that played more than 60 games. They were beat up pretty good and had no real incentive to win. My point on that was to say that Lebron spent his prime in the East and had a much easier walk to the Finals than he would have had in the West, as can be seen simply by how many times he lost in the finals. He would not have been to the Finals nearly as often if he was in the West.

[Pickled Prunes]

Can’t the same be said about LAC? Only scoring option they have left is Lou Williams. Let’s see how that plays out. You really think LAC will be able to win 50 games with Kawhi taking off 20+ games in the Western Conference. Love your salty opinion but give the team a chance. If Cousins bounces back that could be a major wild card imo. LeBron has a lot to prove and has the most down time in his career so to act like he won’t be playing harder this year to prove all the doubters wrong is crazy. They were the #4 seed this year prior to injury which is what makes me laugh. Y’all dogged him but the team was about to be a playoff team

Clippers won 48 games with Lou as their leading scorer off the bench. Now you think they can't win 50 games when he's their 3rd leading scorer behind Kawhi and PG13? GTFO.

Didn’t Danilo avg close to 20 ppg? And I think you seem to forget Tobias Harris was on that team up until February so it wasn’t just Lou Williams. And they are losing SGA who was a steady ball handler and became a lot more confident in the second half. All I stated was Kawhi sitting 20+ games will not help this roster like it did in TOR where they went 17-5 when he sat

All of that is true... and they are still much deeper than the LAL.

[cheese318]

Clippers won 48 games with Lou as their leading scorer off the bench. Now you think they can't win 50 games when he's their 3rd leading scorer behind Kawhi and PG13? GTFO.

Didn’t Danilo avg close to 20 ppg? And I think you seem to forget Tobias Harris was on that team up until February so it wasn’t just Lou Williams. And they are losing SGA who was a steady ball handler and became a lot more confident in the second half. All I stated was Kawhi sitting 20+ games will not help this roster like it did in TOR where they went 17-5 when he sat

All of that is true... and they are still much deeper than the LAL.

We will have to see what happens when they play the games. AD is not chop liver. Kawhi/PG13 come in healthy with no issues or long term absences they are definitely in a great position not arguing the facts