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zimpy27 wrote:

cupcakesnake wrote:Can't wait for the final 15 games of the season (with the Lakers 30-37) for someone to make another "here come the Lakers" thread after they win 2 in a row and aren't mathematically eliminated from the play-in.

I mean... I'm curious to see how AD looks when he comes back, but some of you have been waiting for the Lakers to put it together for 3 years now. Give it up.

Lakers could go on a 13 game win streak to finish the season.. their schedule is soft as butter.

If healthy they will be a top 4 seed in the West.

If the Lakers stay healthy, win their final 13 games, and none of LAC, Phoenix, Minny, or Golden State also figure their stuff out and get healthy... the Lakers will be atop 4 seed in the West.

cupcakesnake wrote:

zimpy27 wrote:

cupcakesnake wrote:Can't wait for the final 15 games of the season (with the Lakers 30-37) for someone to make another "here come the Lakers" thread after they win 2 in a row and aren't mathematically eliminated from the play-in.

I mean... I'm curious to see how AD looks when he comes back, but some of you have been waiting for the Lakers to put it together for 3 years now. Give it up.

Lakers could go on a 13 game win streak to finish the season.. their schedule is soft as butter.

If healthy they will be a top 4 seed in the West.

If the Lakers stay healthy, win their final 13 games, and none of LAC, Phoenix, Minny, or Golden State also figure their stuff out and get healthy... the Lakers will be atop 4 seed in the West.

10% chance of staying healthy though

This team was always going to be as good as Lebron and AD are. Lebron has been great. AD has been great. But they haven't been on the court enough together. Combined they have missed 32 (Davis 22, James 10) out of a possible 94 games. So the fact that they are 2 games out of the 6th seed - with a real chance of getting there if they can stay healthy - is I guess a good thing. But when you have Lebron and AD, you expect to be competing for home court advantage.

But look at the positives on the roster - they have an NBA level backcourt that can support their front court. The combination of Schroeder as a starter and Westbrook as 6th man has worked well. Walker has been an average starting level SG and Reaves has played himself into rotation caliber as a backup SG. Could you upgrade, of course, but there is more than enough in the backcourt to complement a James/Davis frontcourt. For context, the backcourt of the bubble team was Green, KCP, Carusso, Rondo. I will make the argument that the difference between this years group and that group isn't overly significant, although that group was better defensively and better shooting, but lacked playmaking/ballhandling.

And Thomas Bryant and Troy Brown have provided capable reserve minutes brining some size.

Now, the challenge has been that Pat Bev has essentially been the starting SF, and the roster lacks size on the wing. In some ways, Rui should help. But the issue remains that they still have too many undersized guards in the lineup, need more size on the wing, could use another situational rim protector and a little more shooting.

In a perfect world, you would move Schroeder out of the rotation when everyone is healthy and roll with this lineup:

Bev/Walker/Brown/James/Davis
Westbrook/Reaves/Rui/Bryant

But you might be better off looking to turn bigger wing like a Josh Richardson and keeping Schroeder as the starting PG

Schroeder/Walker/Richardson/James/Davis
Westbrook/Reaves/Brown/Rui/Bryant

If James and Davis can stay healthy and be dominant for an extended playoff run, this team could be interesting. Long shots to go super deep, but interesting non the less.

Under the circumstances, the Lakers are in a solid place. Why they are under these circumstances is a different conversation.

zimpy27 wrote:

cupcakesnake wrote:Can't wait for the final 15 games of the season (with the Lakers 30-37) for someone to make another "here come the Lakers" thread after they win 2 in a row and aren't mathematically eliminated from the play-in.

I mean... I'm curious to see how AD looks when he comes back, but some of you have been waiting for the Lakers to put it together for 3 years now. Give it up.

Lakers could go on a 13 game win streak to finish the season.. their schedule is soft as butter.

If healthy they will be a top 4 seed in the West.

There's a no percent chance

They got Rui for nothing - Westbrook is Rui's mentor and got a lot of good play for him. I’m happy for my bro Rui and sad the wiz got a second round pick back for the 9th pick the draft

I think people seeing the Lakers 2 games out of the 6 seed, need to remember the Lakers aren't the only team underachieving/injured and looking to turn it around. There's a lot of teams who are trying to get healthy and/or put it together and play better in the second half of the season. The Clippers, Warriors, and Suns are all teams with title hopes. The Wolves and Blazers are teams that are trying to put it together and are desperate to make the playoffs. The Lakers would have to overachieve over all these teams just to grab the 6th seed.

It's not just the Lakers getting healthy and playing better, they have to do that and hope not too many of these teams also do that!

I'm not saying the Lakers winning out is impossible, but it's not a reasonable thing to expect.

KingFox wrote:Idk anyone that would wanna play them in round 1, that's for sure. Kings Lakers would be soooo freaking fun though

I would bet on the Lakers if it’s round 1 Kings or Pelicans. Both would be really fun to watch

They've had a really solid month, punctuated by win over Memphis and big comeback against Portland. I guess my question is whether this improvement is fundamental and sustainable, or just part of normal hot and streaks over the course of a season?

Of course they're still waiting to get AD back, and Rui will be a positive trade this year. 3 of their last 4 losses have been close, if having AD wins those games then they hypothetically go 11-1 over their last 12 games. Completely what-if scenario of course, but they do seem to be playing a lot better now. The other stuff (standings, how other teams are doing) you can't control.

They still won't have AD back but tomorrow against the Clippers should be a pretty big game for regular season, Clippers are healthier but I feel like it could be a 50/50 game.

They've managed to somehow tread water without AD (20 games, 11-9 inc. the Denver game he went down).

AD can only help the defense because the Lakers' defense have really been quite poor since AD's gone down. They've basically been big beneficiaries of Bryant and Schroder's metamorphoses into streaky productive starters, but it can't last forever (2 streaks of 4L and 3L in this 11-9 run with a 5W streak inbetween).

The additional separation AD gives, especially on the defensive side, would make a lot of these 50-50 games with all the other 5-13th seeds in the West go a lot smoother like he did when he went on a tear and the Lakers went 8-2 in the run.

The non-Lebron minutes in particular have always been a massive issue, with Ham rolling out the 3, sometimes 4-guard lineups and losing all momentum during games.

CobraCommander wrote:They got Rui for nothing - Westbrook is Rui's mentor and got a lot of good play for him. I’m happy for my bro Rui and sad the wiz got a second round pick back for the 9th pick the draft

Rui sounded like he was unhappy there. There was his long inexplicable layoff too. I just don't know that the Wizards are big on developing players who really need it. I always had the impression players like Wall and Beal were ready to go. When you get players like Rui and Bryant, they may be better off elsewhere.

But then again the Lakers are quick to dump younger players too, a la Zubac.

jehosafats wrote:

CobraCommander wrote:They got Rui for nothing - Westbrook is Rui's mentor and got a lot of good play for him. I’m happy for my bro Rui and sad the wiz got a second round pick back for the 9th pick the draft

Rui sounded like he was unhappy there. There was his long inexplicable layoff too. I just don't know that the Wizards are big on developing players who really need it. I always had the impression players like Wall and Beal were ready to go. When you get players like Rui and Bryant, they may be better off elsewhere.

But then again the Lakers are quick to dump younger players too, a la Zubac.

Or Thomas Bryant, we let him go because Lakers had Zubac iirc

We finna head to the top now. RealGM scared.

Dr Aki wrote:

jehosafats wrote:

CobraCommander wrote:They got Rui for nothing - Westbrook is Rui's mentor and got a lot of good play for him. I’m happy for my bro Rui and sad the wiz got a second round pick back for the 9th pick the draft

Rui sounded like he was unhappy there. There was his long inexplicable layoff too. I just don't know that the Wizards are big on developing players who really need it. I always had the impression players like Wall and Beal were ready to go. When you get players like Rui and Bryant, they may be better off elsewhere.

But then again the Lakers are quick to dump younger players too, a la Zubac.

Or Thomas Bryant, we let him go because Lakers had Zubac iirc

Lakers waved Bryant for what they said was to clear salary cap at the time

heezyo2o wrote:

Dr Aki wrote:

jehosafats wrote:Rui sounded like he was unhappy there. There was his long inexplicable layoff too. I just don't know that the Wizards are big on developing players who really need it. I always had the impression players like Wall and Beal were ready to go. When you get players like Rui and Bryant, they may be better off elsewhere.

But then again the Lakers are quick to dump younger players too, a la Zubac.

Or Thomas Bryant, we let him go because Lakers had Zubac iirc

Lakers waved Bryant for what they said was to clear salary cap at the time

Was it for the Lebron/Paul George sweepstakes?

If so, understandable

Well injuries been their main issues last several years. You can't trust day to Davis and LeBron is injury prone as well.

Pelly24 wrote:Thomas Bryant is knocking down shots and not being a huge defensive liability.

That is definitely not true.

Laker's solid place...

Define solid place? If the brown comes back and plays well they'll make the playoffs. They have shown they can win here and there without him unlike last year. Don't know if being the 7 seed or whatever they'd be is solid though. They aren't close to contending

Play in contender is now a solid place? i guess Lakers' fans standards are too low these days so i guess yes

Dr Aki wrote:They've managed to somehow tread water without AD (20 games, 11-9 inc. the Denver game he went down).

They've also been without Reaves and Walker for a long time now. Reaves is maybe our 3rd to 4th best player.