Tuesday 10/21 Opening Night NBA Game Thread!

[Dr Aki]

Just gonna be another year of wondering what if the Lakers could just hit wide open threes and FTs

[DusterBuster]

You know how some players start out their career really strong then kinda fart out fast from the league... it feels like Ayton is on the beginning his 7-layer burrito fart... If he doesn't make this work, he's probably on vet min deals the rest of the way before hopping a plane to China.

[hyper316]

Draymond wanted 3 seconds in the key lol

[koolfashion]

Luka is going to have to do a carry job once again. It's kind of embarrassing that the Los Angeles Lakers of all franchises can't put together a complete roster.

Pelinka is king of making mid rosters year after year. Enough to get extension.

[RunOKC]

Luka/Ayton on defense is going to be a problem against teams with good ball movement/cutting

Warriors look like legit contenders

[ImmortalD24]

LeBron classy per usual with no hand shakes.

[Capn'O]

warriors were just toying, they could have won this game by 25 if they wanted to

It felt like they barely worked up a sweat and Luka gave everything. Y'all could have a fun year.

[ball_takes23]

If Luka gets this bum ass team to the playoffs MVP his ass.

We'd be down by 20 without him.

in what world are they a bum team? They may not be world beaters but come on now

Marcus Smart
Ayton

they are playing players that no other team wants

[TheGOATRises007]

Luka/Ayton on defense is going to be a problem against teams with good ball movement/cutting

Luka looked pretty decent defensively this game tbf

He was moving well out there

You can't ask him to do everything on offense and play all world defense.

[VanWest82]

Lakers are going to lose a lot this year...again.

[Capn'O]

You know how some players start out their career really strong then kinda fart out fast from the league... it feels like Ayton is on the beginning his 7-layer burrito fart... If he doesn't make this work, he's probably on vet min deals the rest of the way before hopping a plane to China.

His conditioning doesn't look great.

[Chuck Everett]

Luka is going to have to do a carry job once again. It's kind of embarrassing that the Los Angeles Lakers of all franchises can't put together a complete roster.

Pelinka is king of making mid rosters year after year. Enough to get extension.

There's a 50+ million dollar Klutch albatross still around their necks. Need to wait 'til the summer.

[Mk0]

You know how some players start out their career really strong then kinda fart out fast from the league... it feels like Ayton is on the beginning his 7-layer burrito fart... If he doesn't make this work, he's probably on vet min deals the rest of the way before hopping a plane to China.

I mean, yeah.. if he doesn't look good next to Luka that is it. He enters competition with Andre Drummond. And FOs have to ask themselves if they prefer the guy with the mid range J or the guy who can rebound?

[Jeremy Lin 7]

Gabe Vincent is still living off the 2023 playoff run, I see

Why is he even in the league at this point

[Invictus88]

You know how some players start out really strong then kinda fart out fast from the league... it feels like Ayton is on the beginning his 7-layer burrito fart... If he doesn't make this work, he's probably on vet min deals the rest of the way before hopping a plane to China.

What did you mean? He worked really hard for that 1 block and 6 rebounds. It takes a lot of effort to blend into the hardwood like he did despite towering over everyone else on the court. Nobody guards empty space as well as Deandre!

[Crazy-Canuck]

Luka/Ayton on defense is going to be a problem against teams with good ball movement/cutting

Luka looked pretty decent defensively this game tbf

He was moving well out there

You can't ask him to do everything on offense and play all world defense.

Yeah, i didn't think luka was bad defensively. He's just not cut out to be a perimeter defender. When he was defending the post, he looked solid. The absolutely need some wing defenders. Not 1, but multiple. It's a glaring hole.

The lakers simply did not invest in defense, it looks like a throw away year. AD masked alot of their deficiencies.

[TheGOATRises007]

NBC not doing a post-game show is interesting

[Crazy-Canuck]

You know how some players start out their career really strong then kinda fart out fast from the league... it feels like Ayton is on the beginning his 7-layer burrito fart... If he doesn't make this work, he's probably on vet min deals the rest of the way before hopping a plane to China.

His conditioning doesn't look great.

His dreads just might be on too tight. So moving might be painful.

[doogie_hauser]

Not going to lie, always enjoyable to see The Lakers loose their opening game of the season.

I think we have enough of a sample size to agree that The Lakers cannot seriously compete for a Chip again whilst Pelinka is still GM.

Yes the Luxury Tax and Apron strings make it harder, but the Lakers currently do not probably have enough quality assets to bring in an another elite/all star player in

Filling up a roster full of journeymen and maybe washed vets like Marcus Smart is not sensible if you want to compete with rhe likes of OKC and Denver in the West.

[ROballer]

Not going to lie, always enjoyable to see The Lakers loose their opening game of the season.

I think we have enough of a sample size to agree that The Lakers cannot seriously compete for a Chip again whilst Pelinka is still GM.

Yes the Luxury Tax and Apron strings make it harder, but the Lakers currently do not probably have enough quality assets to bring in an another elite/all star player in

Filling up a roster full of journeymen and maybe washed vets like Marcus Smart is not sensible if you want to compete with rhe likes of OKC and Denver in the West.

Plan has always been 2026. This is Lebron's fairwell year and the team will look completely different next summer.

They're not jeopardizing the cap space they have for unicorns in the sea.