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Outside of lebron, davis all you have is kuz who has serious flaws in his game. Is there even another player that can give you 30 mpg as a key rotation player for a contender? 32 year old danny green who is on the decline?

If lebron leads this squad at age 35 to win it all is there anyone here that wouldn't be impressed?

They got rid of Ingram, so at least they are a bit thicker now.

This doesn't seem agenda driven

_Game7_ wrote:This doesn't seem agenda driven

Nor does your reply

They've got shooters in Green and Cook, a couple of serviceable vets in Howard and Rondo. If they can keep the knuckleheads in check, if Avery bradley can get back to form, and if the chemistry is right they'll be alright. Let's not forget they have two top 6ish guys and what that truly means in basketball...Forget the RS -- they'll be a playoff nightmare no doubt

fianchetto wrote:They've got shooters in Green and Cook, a couple of serviceable vets in Howard and Rondo. If they can keep the knuckleheads in check, if Avery bradley can get back to form, and if the chemistry is right they'll be alright. Let's not forget they have two top 6ish guys and what that truly means in basketball...Forget the RS -- they'll be a playoff nightmare no doubt

The players mentioned illustrate my point

triple_threat wrote:

fianchetto wrote:They've got shooters in Green and Cook, a couple of serviceable vets in Howard and Rondo. If they can keep the knuckleheads in check, if Avery bradley can get back to form, and if the chemistry is right they'll be alright. Let's not forget they have two top 6ish guys and what that truly means in basketball...Forget the RS -- they'll be a playoff nightmare no doubt

The players mentioned illustrate my point

Yeah, I hear ya...let’s see where it goes. The Bron circus continues...

In the playoffs, depth is overrated. Rotations are cut to about 8 guys anyway

I'll take top heavy over depth any day of the week

As thin as LBJ's hairline

I have the Lakers with only 5 guys I really see as clearly better then replacement-level guys. LeBron, Davis, Kuzma, Green and KCP (I think KCP gets underrated around here).

After that it gets really iffy. And that's a big problem because 5 guys just aren't enough even when they're all healthy - and how many games can a team expect their top-5 guys to all be healthy? So the Lakers will need a few of their other guys to be surprisingly useful.

Howard's probably the best bet, and if not there are other center options that can credibly fill 15-20 mpg easily available. I haven't really followed Caruso enough to know - he might also be a solid rotation player. Bradley or Rondo might have a bounce-back season, though neither one was decent last year.

triple_threat wrote:Outside of lebron, davis all you have is kuz who has serious flaws in his game. Is there even another player that can give you 30 mpg as a key rotation player for a contender? 32 year old danny green who is on the decline?

If lebron leads this squad at age 35 to win it all is there anyone here that wouldn't be impressed?

forget the age thing. the league is wimping out year after year and lebron is a freight train

Lebron is eating tacos every Tuesday. He can't be that thin.

Sark wrote:Lebron is eating tacos every Tuesday. He can't be that thin.

Yes he might need to change it up .... Tostada Tuesday sounds a bit thinner?

Dominater wrote:In the playoffs, depth is overrated. Rotations are cut to about 8 guys anyway

I'll take top heavy over depth any day of the week

8 guys is a BIG deal. Look at the rockets where they struggled to get 7 guys to work and how it zapped starters not having 8 guys.

SWYM wrote:As thin as LBJ's hairline

Lotta us which we had that much hair! That's plenty man!

It would be nice if he wins it but I won't be that impressed unless Golden State trades D'lo for a really good package or D'lo improves a lot this year.

People on this forum should be very impressed given that a lot of them think Lakers will be 7/8 seed or miss the playoffs entirely.

Lalouie wrote:

triple_threat wrote:Outside of lebron, davis all you have is kuz who has serious flaws in his game. Is there even another player that can give you 30 mpg as a key rotation player for a contender? 32 year old danny green who is on the decline?

If lebron leads this squad at age 35 to win it all is there anyone here that wouldn't be impressed?

forget the age thing. the league is wimping out year after year and lebron is a freight train

if the bearings break they break......

Green is a good starter
Kuzma is a 6th man type that is knocking on the door of being a good starter.
Caruso has shown flashes of being good but it’s a small sample size
Javale is a rotation type player
Dwight is a rotation type player (does he realize it though?)
KCP is a rotation level player
Bradley is not currently but at 28 he has a chance to get back to a rotation type level.
Cook is a situational player off the bench
Dudley is a vet presence
Rondo is a Chinese league level player

So outside of AD and LeBron, I have the Lakers with 5 rotation level players and two others (Caruso/Bradley) that could be at that level. So right now there rotation sits at 7 to 9 guys....ideally you’d like it closer to 9 so you need a couple of these guys to make the needed jump.

As far as Danny Green, he’s coming off a career year so “on the decline” seems a bit silly. However I will agree that I don’t think he will have as good of year as last. I think a regression to his normal level, which is still a good starter, is probably to be expected.

We have to be honest here though too, neither the Rockets nor the Warriors have any depth either. Every team has flaws and holes to overcome. Lakers are no different but I expect they also will be very active on the buyout market.

hoosierdaddy34 wrote:Green is a good starter
Kuzma is a 6th man type that is knocking on the door of being a good starter.
Caruso has shown flashes of being good but it’s a small sample size
Javale is a rotation type player
Dwight is a rotation type player (does he realize it though?)
KCP is a rotation level player
Bradley is not currently but at 28 he has a chance to get back to a rotation type level.
Cook is a situational player off the bench
Dudley is a vet presence
Rondo is a Chinese league level player

So outside of AD and LeBron, I have the Lakers with 5 rotation level players and two others (Caruso/Bradley) that could be at that level. So right now there rotation sits at 7 to 9 guys....ideally you’d like it closer to 9 so you need a couple of these guys to make the needed jump.

As far as Danny Green, he’s coming off a career year so “on the decline” seems a bit silly. However I will agree that I don’t think he will have as good of year as last. I think a regression to his normal level, which is still a good starter, is probably to be expected.

We have to be honest here though too, neither the Rockets nor the Warriors have any depth either. Every team has flaws and holes to overcome. Lakers are no different but I expect they also will be very active on the buyout market.

I think this is about right. The difficulty might actually be with how Rondo is going to take a back seat to barely playing. The players they have aren't the best by any stretch of the imagination, however a lot of people are going to be shocked when these guys turn into fantastic role players because that is how much Bron and AD are going to shoulder and then Kuz is going to be a bit better this season too (role adjusted).
As I mentioned the main thing they need to do is keep everyone in check and Bron has been good at that over the years, not counting last year due to Magic, so I don't see it changing.

Ingram thin