The LeBron James All-NBA (2nd) and Luka Doncic - 24-25 Thread

[nzahir]

Lebron and Luka are amazing. Squeeze two more years out of Lebron. Trade AR and build properly around Luka.

Get bigger and more athletic. Seriously if Rob doesn't fix this he should be gone.

At 17m Rui was actually the one to trade because his contract is up soon and probably won't be re-signed to avoid the second apron. That 17m coulda been broken into a more versatile roleplayer who can take tough assignments and maybe also one lesser but better fitting back up hustle big. He's only a good fit if you only look at shooting percentage (which is on volume too low and too shot shy to justify just how open he is all game). I don't know why Rob made so many trade pieces unavailable only to panic trade at the deadline. It means he saw the problem and still did nothing till it was late. Through the whole month the Luka trade was secretly brewing maybe he should have started making contingency moves to cushion the AD sized hole in the backline. Anything better than Mark Williams at the deadline.

Rui??

Read on Twitter

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Guys who were basically useless tonight and getting paid:

Vando:Spending 11m for 7 min tongith of nothing, just some defense. 0 pts
Vincent: 11M for 13 min. 0 pts
Kleber: 11M (injured)

Knecht isn't good enough of a shooter to play real playoff min on this team as constructed for defensive purposes

Idk why JJ didn't bring back Hayes in at some point, he actually looked better to start, but made 2 quick fouls and that was it

I still have some hope this series, I think we should win G5. I can see some home cooking

Then its the toughest game of the year, Game 6 on the road after Minny comes of a loss....

Win that one and its a toss up at home G7

Regardless of what happens this summer:
Need to upgrade in 2-3 spots

1) Getting a C is the most clear need of course. Either can sign Capela with MLE? Or its a trade for Claxton, Kessler, Ayton??, risk it on someone with injury issues such as RW3, Mitchell Robinson (I don't love taking this risk, unless we also get another C better than Hayes as well)

2) Get another 2 way guard/wing that will make an impact. Unsure who this target is. NaW for Mle if we trade for a C? Marcus Smart? Unsure on wings

[bigboi]

Realistic targets for Reaves + filler?

I'd look to hang on to DFS, that guy's great.

I see needs as a starting caliber big and a more balanced wing to slot into the starting lineup. Those wings tend to be expensive.

Can’t wait until bron is out the league at this point. Trade reaves for what lmao. Lakers are never sniffing a chip

[Mos_Heat]

Lebron and Luka are amazing. Squeeze two more years out of Lebron. Trade AR and build properly around Luka.

Get bigger and more athletic. Seriously if Rob doesn't fix this he should be gone.

At 17m Rui was actually the one to trade because his contract is up soon and probably won't be re-signed to avoid the second apron. That 17m coulda been broken into a more versatile roleplayer who can take tough assignments and maybe also one lesser but better fitting back up hustle big. He's only a good fit if you only look at shooting percentage (which is on volume too low and too shot shy to justify just how open he is all game). I don't know why Rob made so many trade pieces unavailable only to panic trade at the deadline. It means he saw the problem and still did nothing till it was late. Through the whole month the Luka trade was secretly brewing maybe he should have started making contingency moves to cushion the AD sized hole in the backline. Anything better than Mark Williams at the deadline.

Spoiler:

Rui??

Read on Twitter

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Guys who were basically useless tonight and getting paid:

Vando:Spending 11m for 7 min tongith of nothing, just some defense. 0 pts
Vincent: 11M for 13 min. 0 pts
Kleber: 11M (injured)

Knecht isn't good enough of a shooter to play real playoff min on this team as constructed for defensive purposes

Idk why JJ didn't bring back Hayes in at some point, he actually looked better to start, but made 2 quick fouls and that was it

I still have some hope this series, I think we should win G5. I can see some home cooking

Then its the toughest game of the year, Game 6 on the road after Minny comes of a loss....

Win that one and its a toss up at home G7

Regardless of what happens this summer:
Need to upgrade in 2-3 spots

1) Getting a C is the most clear need of course. Either can sign Capela with MLE? Or its a trade for Claxton, Kessler, Ayton??, risk it on someone with injury issues such as RW3, Mitchell Robinson (I don't love taking this risk, unless we also get another C better than Hayes as well)

2) Get another 2 way guard/wing that will make an impact. Unsure who this target is. NaW for Mle if we trade for a C? Marcus Smart? Unsure on wings

Bro, he had 5 rebounds in 41 minutes of play and he's their biggest player. That's cool that he can make his open spot up 3s once in a while but that's just not enough from a starting level PF. It's just impossible to play Reaves and Luka and Rui and expect to win in games like this, when every loose ball every rebound matters so much. As a rotational piece he totally fine but unfortunately he paid like a starter and he's just not good enough all around

[Mos_Heat]

Ant outplayed Luka through out the series, JJ got outcoached. Reaves has been worse than expected. That's the main reasons. Roster is not balanced but we already knew that, it is what it is.

Luka-Reaves backcourt doesn't work against physicly dominant teams like Minny. They would have to think hard about moving him in the summer

In past 3 years Lebron had several heroic perfomances in losses that will be totally forgotten. Sucks

[Slava]

I didn’t think this was a championship caliber team but getting your ass beat with home court advantage in the first round by Julius Randle is a special kind of low.

[Tracymcgoaty]

I didn’t think this was a championship caliber team but getting your ass beat with home court advantage in the first round by Julius Randle is a special kind of low.

three players have showed up on offense this series.

Lebron,Luka and Rui.

Reaves has not been able to beat anyone off the dribble. He's shooting 42/35 splits and missed a bunch of wide open momentum swinging threes whilst Minny hit theirs.

We need Reaves to be good and so far he's shown why Rob should think about trading him and getting a two way player.

This team just lacks two way players in general. Need to get bigger and more athletic.

[Slava]

I didn’t think this was a championship caliber team but getting your ass beat with home court advantage in the first round by Julius Randle is a special kind of low.

three players have showed up on offense this series.

Lebron,Luka and Rui.

Reaves has not been able to beat anyone off the dribble. He's shooting 42/35 splits and missed a bunch of wide open momentum swinging threes whilst Minny hit theirs.

We need Reaves to be good and so far he's shown why Rob should think about trading him and getting a two way player.

This team just lacks two way players in general. Need to get bigger and more athletic.

Even with a bad Reaves series, this team shouldn’t be dropping fourth quarter leads to a less emotionally stable team. I think JJ and the staff got a little cocky thinking they have the ability to turn on the defense and enough wrinkles on offense to build on top of the two Trump cards. Losing this series would bring much needed humility to everyone around.

[thebigbird]

Honestly, part of me hopes LeBron just retires after the season because the knuckle dragging mouth breathers will see a 40 year old dude playing like a top 5-8 player in the playoffs and use it to trash his legacy when he loses.

Like, these are his averages in this series. Other all-time greats have won titles playing worse than this. But all we’ll hear is hate. The NNA has become an exhausting league to follow because of the media/social media discourse.

26.3 PPG - 9.5 RPG - 5.5 APG - 2.0 SPG - 2.3 BPG - 64.1% TS - 28.5 PER

[Ian Scuffling]

Great point, Slava. I didn't watch much of last year's playoffs, but was AR really this worthless then, too? When 40 year old Lebron is still your best two way player, it's an issue. I love Luka's offensive game, but after watching him on defense, it's really not very good at all. That and having absolutely NO serviceable NBA center on the entire roster means this team was never a serious contender. People are absolutely fooling themselves if they think so. Lebron, save that first game, has been more than you should ever expect out of a 40 year old player. Hell, he's been great for a 28 year old. Still adding evidence to his GOAT application. Someone said earlier that Lebron is more of a #2/3. The fact is that with AR being the inconsistent player he is, 40 year old Lebron is the de facto #2 player on this team. All of this says nothing about the bench, which was atrocious once again, yesterday. I don't know. Maybe, getting a "good" center, strengthening the bench AND hoping Lebron can squeeze one more year like this year out, possibly makes them intriguing for next year. As a Cavaliers fan, just say %^&* it, Lebron and come back home

[Tracymcgoaty]

Great point, Slava. I didn't watch much of last year's playoffs, but was AR really this worthless then, too? When 40 year old Lebron is still your best two way player, it's an issue. I love Luka's offensive game, but after watching him on defense, it's really not very good at all. That and having absolutely NO serviceable NBA center on the entire roster means this team was never a serious contender. People are absolutely fooling themselves if they think so. Lebron, save that first game, has been more than you should ever expect out of a 40 year old player. Hell, he's been great for a 28 year old. Still adding evidence to his GOAT application. Someone said earlier that Lebron is more of a #2/3. The fact is that with AR being the inconsistent player he is, 40 year old Lebron is the de facto #2 player on this team. All of this says nothing about the bench, which was atrocious once again, yesterday. I don't know. Maybe, getting a "good" center, strengthening the bench AND hoping Lebron can squeeze one more year like this year out, possibly makes them intriguing for next year. As a Cavaliers fan, just say %^&* it, Lebron and come back home

2022/2023 was his best post season.

Teams gameplan for him now and Minny have personell to stop AR.

Im not opposed to trading AR. We have Lebron and Luka. As long as we can squeeze at least 2 more seasons out of Lebron playing like this Reaves is redundant as a starter. His defense is swiss cheese and there is no need for 3 creators on the floor.

I'd love Okongwu and Herb jones on this team.

[thebigbird]

LeBron’s still fully capable of being a 1b on offense, imo. But he’s not capable of doing it in this current situation where he’s also tasked with playing all-defensive team level defense for 40+ minutes a night because his two guards are cones defensively and his genius GM put together a roster with zero playable bigs.

[trickshot]

Lebron and Luka are amazing. Squeeze two more years out of Lebron. Trade AR and build properly around Luka.

Get bigger and more athletic. Seriously if Rob doesn't fix this he should be gone.

At 17m Rui was actually the one to trade because his contract is up soon and probably won't be re-signed to avoid the second apron. That 17m coulda been broken into a more versatile roleplayer who can take tough assignments and maybe also one lesser but better fitting back up hustle big. He's only a good fit if you only look at shooting percentage (which is on volume too low and too shot shy to justify just how open he is all game). I don't know why Rob made so many trade pieces unavailable only to panic trade at the deadline. It means he saw the problem and still did nothing till it was late. Through the whole month the Luka trade was secretly brewing maybe he should have started making contingency moves to cushion the AD sized hole in the backline. Anything better than Mark Williams at the deadline.

Rui??

Read on Twitter

?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Guys who were basically useless tonight and getting paid:

Vando:Spending 11m for 7 min tongith of nothing, just some defense. 0 pts
Vincent: 11M for 13 min. 0 pts
Kleber: 11M (injured)

Knecht isn't good enough of a shooter to play real playoff min on this team as constructed for defensive purposes

Idk why JJ didn't bring back Hayes in at some point, he actually looked better to start, but made 2 quick fouls and that was it

I still have some hope this series, I think we should win G5. I can see some home cooking

Then its the toughest game of the year, Game 6 on the road after Minny comes of a loss....

Win that one and its a toss up at home G7

Regardless of what happens this summer:
Need to upgrade in 2-3 spots

1) Getting a C is the most clear need of course. Either can sign Capela with MLE? Or its a trade for Claxton, Kessler, Ayton??, risk it on someone with injury issues such as RW3, Mitchell Robinson (I don't love taking this risk, unless we also get another C better than Hayes as well)

2) Get another 2 way guard/wing that will make an impact. Unsure who this target is. NaW for Mle if we trade for a C? Marcus Smart? Unsure on wings

You answered your question. Gabe Vincent, Kleber and Vando were not bringing back starter level players at that point in the season. You have to sacrifice something worthwhile to gain something that fits. Lakers aren't losing because of offense, they are losing because they have no control over the margins.

Hidden in the losses is Lebron/Luka have actually been willing the team back into games all series. Reaves/Rui have gotten too long a leash so I'd hope they'd be the fresher ones in the 2nd half. In the minutes they go scoreless they bleed points, offensive rebounds and force Luka/Lebron on much tougher, physical assignments. They also get to play entire halves after going scoreless in the last. I'm sure Gabe could get hot here or there with the same trust. Basically it's time for JJ to scrap the template and find something more postseason compatible.

[nzahir]

At 17m Rui was actually the one to trade because his contract is up soon and probably won't be re-signed to avoid the second apron. That 17m coulda been broken into a more versatile roleplayer who can take tough assignments and maybe also one lesser but better fitting back up hustle big. He's only a good fit if you only look at shooting percentage (which is on volume too low and too shot shy to justify just how open he is all game). I don't know why Rob made so many trade pieces unavailable only to panic trade at the deadline. It means he saw the problem and still did nothing till it was late. Through the whole month the Luka trade was secretly brewing maybe he should have started making contingency moves to cushion the AD sized hole in the backline. Anything better than Mark Williams at the deadline.

Rui??

Read on Twitter

?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Guys who were basically useless tonight and getting paid:

Vando:Spending 11m for 7 min tongith of nothing, just some defense. 0 pts
Vincent: 11M for 13 min. 0 pts
Kleber: 11M (injured)

Knecht isn't good enough of a shooter to play real playoff min on this team as constructed for defensive purposes

Idk why JJ didn't bring back Hayes in at some point, he actually looked better to start, but made 2 quick fouls and that was it

I still have some hope this series, I think we should win G5. I can see some home cooking

Then its the toughest game of the year, Game 6 on the road after Minny comes of a loss....

Win that one and its a toss up at home G7

Regardless of what happens this summer:
Need to upgrade in 2-3 spots

1) Getting a C is the most clear need of course. Either can sign Capela with MLE? Or its a trade for Claxton, Kessler, Ayton??, risk it on someone with injury issues such as RW3, Mitchell Robinson (I don't love taking this risk, unless we also get another C better than Hayes as well)

2) Get another 2 way guard/wing that will make an impact. Unsure who this target is. NaW for Mle if we trade for a C? Marcus Smart? Unsure on wings

You answered your question. Gabe Vincent, Kleber and Vando were not bringing back starter level players at that point in the season. You have to sacrifice something worthwhile to gain something that fits. Lakers aren't losing because of offense, they are losing because they have no control over the margins.

Hidden in the losses is Lebron/Luka have actually been willing the team back into games all series. Reaves/Rui have gotten too long a leash so I'd hope they'd be the fresher ones in the 2nd half. In the minutes they go scoreless they bleed points, offensive rebounds and force Luka/Lebron on much tougher, physical assignments. They also get to play entire halves after going scoreless in the last. I'm sure Gabe could get hot here or there with the same trust. Basically it's time for JJ to scrap the template and find something more postseason compatible.

Obviously we would be moving a 1st rounder and or Knecht

We also have swaps

[Archx]

Ant outplayed Luka through out the series, JJ got outcoached. Reaves has been worse than expected. That's the main reasons. Roster is not balanced but we already knew that, it is what it is.

Luka-Reaves backcourt doesn't work against physicly dominant teams like Minny. They would have to think hard about moving him in the summer

In past 3 years Lebron had several heroic perfomances in losses that will be totally forgotten. Sucks

They said the same about Luka/Kyrie backcourt but Mavs found a way to play 2 rim protectors for 48 mins. On top of that they had good wings to support them. Unfortunately for Lakers, Rui at the center just doesn't work vs Wolves. Or it would work if Lakers had any extra punch off the bench like Mavs had last year.

This Laker team really looks like it was thrown together at the last minute. They'll need a complete off season or even more, to assemble a competent team that can actually compete for a ring in this new NBA.

[trickshot]

Ant outplayed Luka through out the series, JJ got outcoached. Reaves has been worse than expected. That's the main reasons. Roster is not balanced but we already knew that, it is what it is.

Luka-Reaves backcourt doesn't work against physicly dominant teams like Minny. They would have to think hard about moving him in the summer

In past 3 years Lebron had several heroic perfomances in losses that will be totally forgotten. Sucks

They said the same about Luka/Kyrie backcourt but Mavs found a way to play 2 rim protectors for 48 mins. On top of that they had good wings to support them. Unfortunately for Lakers, Rui at the center just doesn't work vs Wolves. Or it would work if Lakers had any extra punch off the bench like Mavs had last year.

This Laker team really looks like it was thrown together at the last minute. They'll need a complete off season or even more, to assemble a competent team that can actually compete for a ring in this new NBA.

Facts. Huge wake up call to have a season potentially ended because you couldn't match up with Randle and Gobert. Two guys who never forced a playoff mismatch in their whole careers. Reid is understandable. Imagine what Adams, Zubac or Jokic would have done to Rui/Hayes.

For the Luka fans this is year 3 being severely manhandled by the other team's big and Rob is being given an extension for getting lucky he was best buds with Nico Harrison. Front office was late to the small ball trend by like a whole 3 years.

[tsherkin]

Front office was late to the small ball trend by like a whole 3 years.

ON a broader level, it IS nice to see the league getting a little bigger again, and the post renaissance of the past few years as well.

[Doctor MJ]

Even with a bad Reaves series, this team shouldn’t be dropping fourth quarter leads to a less emotionally stable team. I think JJ and the staff got a little cocky thinking they have the ability to turn on the defense and enough wrinkles on offense to build on top of the two Trump cards. Losing this series would bring much needed humility to everyone around.

I'll also say that when they acquired Luka my immediate thought was, "Incredible move, but they won't be a contender until they make more trades."

That run where they were having remarkable defensive success understandably made people excited for the present, but right now this team is more poorly built around LeBron than when they had AD and more poorly built around Luka than what he had in Dallas.

This is going to be a BIG off-season for the Lakers, and specifically it's going to be big for LeBron's denouement because the team should be looking to build specifically around Luka now rather than LeBron.

[Fadeaway_J]

Even with a bad Reaves series, this team shouldn’t be dropping fourth quarter leads to a less emotionally stable team. I think JJ and the staff got a little cocky thinking they have the ability to turn on the defense and enough wrinkles on offense to build on top of the two Trump cards. Losing this series would bring much needed humility to everyone around.

I'll also say that when they acquired Luka my immediate thought was, "Incredible move, but they won't be a contender until they make more trades."

That run where they were having remarkable defensive success understandably made people excited for the present, but right now this team is more poorly built around LeBron than when they had AD and more poorly built around Luka than what he had in Dallas.

This is going to be a BIG off-season for the Lakers, and specifically it's going to be big for LeBron's denouement because the team should be looking to build specifically around Luka now rather than LeBron.

My worry when the trade happened (as I expressed on here) was that Pelinka would get additional runway from the time that was needed to reorient the team around Luka (which I expect him to bungle). As it happened, they just went ahead and rewarded him for Nico Harrison's stupidity before the season even ended.

[trickshot]

Front office was late to the small ball trend by like a whole 3 years.

ON a broader level, it IS nice to see the league getting a little bigger again, and the post renaissance of the past few years as well.

It's just crazy someone saw that and went to put together the slowest, most unathletic, most lethargic small ball lineup in recent history. Second only to the one when Dlo was still here.

[tsherkin]

Front office was late to the small ball trend by like a whole 3 years.

ON a broader level, it IS nice to see the league getting a little bigger again, and the post renaissance of the past few years as well.

It's just crazy someone saw that and went to put together the slowest, most unathletic, most lethargic small ball lineup in recent history. Second only to the one when Dlo was still here.

Very Pelinka, though.