RealGM

LBJ is back once again
still searching for ring 5

Year 21

+new additions added to the Lakers
is it enough?

I really like his Lakers supporting cast however I fear this will be one year too late in terms of LBJ's form.

Dr Positivity wrote:I really like his Lakers supporting cast however I fear this will be one year too late in terms of LBJ's form.

He needs to be healthy enough in the RS to position them for success. Davis, too. That's unlikely. He also needs to rediscover how to shoot the 3, or he's in trouble. His RS offense just wasn't there, and the improvement we saw in the PS wasn't enough. He's still a really effective offensive player, but they either need more from him or more from someplace else. Maybe Rui and Reaves will be enough? We shall see.

Winning a ring this year would be such a cool way to end lebron career, granted he would go another year for the bronny team up but still

Davis was utterly fantastic last year. Hoping he has at least one more level in him to go up a notch this year

falcolombardi wrote:Winning a ring this year would be such a cool way to end lebron career, granted he would go another year for the bronny team up but still

It would be fairly storybook.

xb3at band1tx wrote:Davis was utterly fantastic last year. Hoping he has at least one more level in him to go up a notch this year

Indeed. Or rather, a level to return to, yeah?

Dr Positivity wrote:I really like his Lakers supporting cast however I fear this will be one year too late in terms of LBJ's form.

I am not worried about Lebron if what we saw in the playoffs was due to the foot

If he plays like how he did in the reg season or at least in between the playoffs and the reg season from last year, we should be really damn good

We have improved imo with the depth. Vincent, Wood, Prince, and Christie>Dennis, Gabriel, Troy Brown, and Beasley

I liked Dennis and he could generate offense when we needed, but not a good enough deep threat and a bit small.

The depth is great, but I wonder if we need another star to really compete. Can we generate enough half court offense or do we need another guy on top of Bron, Reaves, and AD? Dlo was too up and down and he got targeted on defense by Denver. But who is that guy?

The issue is the Bucks are going to be tough, Boston is really tough (but lost depth), the Nuggets are still a huge issue, the Suns are right there, and I still think the Clips are super tough when healthy....but when is that?

GS is a dark horse too, but likely too small to get enough stops

I think we are in the top 4-5 though

1) Nuggets: Still the champs. Even though the lost Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, leaving them there out of respect, but I think we have a real shot at them
2) Bucks: Obviously could be #1 here. You have a for sure top 5 guy with a top 10-top 15 guy in Dame that is a perfect fit, plus Middleton, Lopez, and a couple other contributors. Their main issue will be guard and wing defense. Dame, Beasley, and Payne will get targeted. Middleton has slowed down on that end. Pat is fine on that end, but is he your #1 wing stopper?
3) Celtics: Unbelievable top 5, but have they fixed their execution in the halfcourt/crunch time? Jrue isn't really much better as a playmaker than Smart. Streaky shooter. White is also not a great shooter. But I am nitpicking. Biggest issues are 3 things. Injuries (KP, Horford with his age), depth is weaker now, and who guards Giannis? Grant was a good Giannis defender
4a) Lakers: Reasons above. Issues are potential health and do we have enough offense in crunch time in the playoffs.
4b) Suns: Big 3 with 2 top 10 guys and a lot of shooting. Their issues will be defense, health (KD, Nurkic, Beal, and even Booker now), and do they have enough playmaking for others. KD, Beal, an Booker can all create for themselves and the latter 2 can create a bit for others too, but will it be an issue without a more traditional pg

xb3at band1tx wrote:Davis was utterly fantastic last year. Hoping he has at least one more level in him to go up a notch this year

On D, yeah; on O, meh. But I like him as a 2nd-3rd option on O anyway tbh. Anchor the D, let LeBron/Reaves/DLo and the rest of the cast really carry on O, and play to your advantages on O when needed, particularly as a roll man, lob threat, etc.

tsherkin wrote:

Dr Positivity wrote:I really like his Lakers supporting cast however I fear this will be one year too late in terms of LBJ's form.

He needs to be healthy enough in the RS to position them for success. Davis, too. That's unlikely. He also needs to rediscover how to shoot the 3, or he's in trouble. His RS offense just wasn't there, and the improvement we saw in the PS wasn't enough. He's still a really effective offensive player, but they either need more from him or more from someplace else. Maybe Rui and Reaves will be enough? We shall see.

His RS offense was far better than his postseason offense aside from a bad start, he basically only had consistent scoring cutting and in transition and against strong defenders was unable to do anything even with ball screens with how limited he was playing on a torn tendon

nzahir wrote:

Dr Positivity wrote:I really like his Lakers supporting cast however I fear this will be one year too late in terms of LBJ's form.

I am not worried about Lebron if what we saw in the playoffs was due to the foot

If he plays like how he did in the reg season or at least in between the playoffs and the reg season from last year, we should be really damn good

We have improved imo with the depth. Vincent, Wood, Prince, and Christie>Dennis, Gabriel, Troy Brown, and Beasley

I liked Dennis and he could generate offense when we needed, but not a good enough deep threat and a bit small.

The depth is great, but I wonder if we need another star to really compete. Can we generate enough half court offense or do we need another guy on top of Bron, Reaves, and AD? Dlo was too up and down and he got targeted on defense by Denver. But who is that guy?

The issue is the Bucks are going to be tough, Boston is really tough (but lost depth), the Nuggets are still a huge issue, the Suns are right there, and I still think the Clips are super tough when healthy....but when is that?

GS is a dark horse too, but likely too small to get enough stops

I think we are in the top 4-5 though

1) Nuggets: Still the champs. Even though the lost Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, leaving them there out of respect, but I think we have a real shot at them
2) Bucks: Obviously could be #1 here. You have a for sure top 5 guy with a top 10-top 15 guy in Dame that is a perfect fit, plus Middleton, Lopez, and a couple other contributors. Their main issue will be guard and wing defense. Dame, Beasley, and Payne will get targeted. Middleton has slowed down on that end. Pat is fine on that end, but is he your #1 wing stopper?
3) Celtics: Unbelievable top 5, but have they fixed their execution in the halfcourt/crunch time? Jrue isn't really much better as a playmaker than Smart. Streaky shooter. White is also not a great shooter. But I am nitpicking. Biggest issues are 3 things. Injuries (KP, Horford with his age), depth is weaker now, and who guards Giannis? Grant was a good Giannis defender
4a) Lakers: Reasons above. Issues are potential health and do we have enough offense in crunch time in the playoffs.
4b) Suns: Big 3 with 2 top 10 guys and a lot of shooting. Their issues will be defense, health (KD, Nurkic, Beal, and even Booker now), and do they have enough playmaking for others. KD, Beal, an Booker can all create for themselves and the latter 2 can create a bit for others too, but will it be an issue without a more traditional pg

AD was injured too, people forget the ridiculous tear he went on till the foot injury, and we’ve got confirmation he was hurt in the playoffs by pelinka

I’m not worried about our offense if bron and AD are healthy, esp with Reaves development

Year 21 loaded

If Lakers can get an elite guard defender to pair with Reaves, Lebron, Davis then you can have Rui or Wood out there with these guys.

That would transform the team IMO.

zimpy27 wrote:If Lakers can get an elite guard defender to pair with Reaves, Lebron, Davis then you can have Rui or Wood out there with these guys.

That would transform the team IMO.

Hopefully Christie of Training camp MVP JHS make that jump lmfao

MyUniBroDavis wrote:

zimpy27 wrote:If Lakers can get an elite guard defender to pair with Reaves, Lebron, Davis then you can have Rui or Wood out there with these guys.

That would transform the team IMO.

Hopefully Christie of Training camp MVP JHS make that jump lmfao

Incredible if Christie or JHS does...


But I'm eyeing a DLo for Caruso+Jevon trade in December.

What draft asset would be required?

MyUniBroDavis wrote:

nzahir wrote:

Dr Positivity wrote:I really like his Lakers supporting cast however I fear this will be one year too late in terms of LBJ's form.

AD was injured too, people forget the ridiculous tear he went on till the foot injury, and we’ve got confirmation he was hurt in the playoffs by pelinka

I’m not worried about our offense if bron and AD are healthy, esp with Reaves development

Starting from 11/13/2022 vs. Brooklyn, he went on a 35/16/3 on 72% TS tear, got injured, came back for a few games and then went for 34/13 on 70% TS. He shot 133 FTs over these 12 games, was impossible to keep off the offensive boards, and was drawing fouls via dribble drives, post ups, face ups.

Davis was +11.2 on court, +17.7 on-off. He was contesting shots everywhere. His defense:



He was playing like the best player in the world

Christie looked ready to be a rotation player

Prince didn’t look great

Rui looked ok, forcing stuff up but I thought he looked good in the sense of player vs their performance (he didn’t perform super well but I thought he looked good)

AD was great in the time he got

Everything else was wtv, Christie looking good is huge if he can be a rotation guy for us

MyUniBroDavis wrote:Christie looked ready to be a rotation player

Prince didn’t look great

Rui looked ok, forcing stuff up but I thought he looked good in the sense of player vs their performance (he didn’t perform super well but I thought he looked good)

AD was great in the time he got

Everything else was wtv, Christie looking good is huge if he can be a rotation guy for us

Hard to take anything from preseason games

zimpy27 wrote:

MyUniBroDavis wrote:Christie looked ready to be a rotation player

Prince didn’t look great

Rui looked ok, forcing stuff up but I thought he looked good in the sense of player vs their performance (he didn’t perform super well but I thought he looked good)

AD was great in the time he got

Everything else was wtv, Christie looking good is huge if he can be a rotation guy for us

Hard to take anything from preseason games

Im only really looking at christie, a bit on vando to see if he gets by screens better and is shooting better, and rui to see his general improvements

With christie he genuinely looked like he belonged, the guy he was guarding wasnt great and it looked to me he was too far to the left guarding him but maybe its cuz who he was guarding, but at the end of the day idc much about his ball andling but hes continuing to shoot well, hes at like 40% since summer league 2022 right? More than anything I like him alot defensively esp as he gains more experience

MyUniBroDavis wrote:Christie looked ready to be a rotation player

Prince didn’t look great

Rui looked ok, forcing stuff up but I thought he looked good in the sense of player vs their performance (he didn’t perform super well but I thought he looked good)

AD was great in the time he got

Everything else was wtv, Christie looking good is huge if he can be a rotation guy for us

DLo looked like he was in the best shape of his life and actually played really well.

Cam Reddish might be one of the worst players in NBA history, and especially so given the physical gifts that he has.

homecourtloss wrote:

MyUniBroDavis wrote:Christie looked ready to be a rotation player

Prince didn’t look great

Rui looked ok, forcing stuff up but I thought he looked good in the sense of player vs their performance (he didn’t perform super well but I thought he looked good)

AD was great in the time he got

Everything else was wtv, Christie looking good is huge if he can be a rotation guy for us

DLo looked like he was in the best shape of his life and actually played really well.

Cam Reddish might be one of the worst players in NBA history, and especially so given the physical gifts that he has.

I just wanna see him do it in the playoffs lol this man is an incredible RS player

You see his highschool tape though?