Who we getting when Kobe comes off the books.

[RingsDontLie]

We are not getting Simmons. Is everyone forgetting how bad the sixers are?


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Apparently you forgot that you still have to win the actual lottery. Just because they have the worst record doesn't mean jack squat, they had it last year also and us and Minnesota jumped them in the lottery.

Who do you guys think will go 2nd in the draft? With Russell, Simmons doesn't seem like the right choice for the Lakers any how. Lakers need to configure the team around Russell. The right choice for the Lakers is someone with quickness and size that can work the PNR with Russell. Think prime Amare Stoudamire for example, or prime KG. Are there any mobile bigs in the draft worth looking at, or do we need to try and steal Cousins from the Kings for Randle, top 2 pick, and maybe Lou Williams?

[FrozenIceCubes]

Durant told Byron Scott during last nights game that the Lakers are playing a lot better... diff seems like there is link on Durant possibily coming this summer if the Lakers give him the keys to who the new HC should be and what other star player he would want to play with.

[pickIBL]

A very realistic thought would be to bring in Vincent Collet to the coaching staff when this current staff likely gets shook up after the Kobe going away party.

The purpose of that would be to attract Batum, Fournier, and Heurtel. Russell could start at the 2 in that lineup. With the way the NBA is changing you could see Batum playing some 4 against teams like the Warriors.

And of course... your center would be... Noah.

[RamonSessions7]

We are not getting Simmons. Is everyone forgetting how bad the sixers are?


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Apparently you forgot that you still have to win the actual lottery. Just because they have the worst record doesn't mean jack squat, they had it last year also and us and Minnesota jumped them in the lottery.

Well this would be a solid pt. Except that Twolves had the worst record. And got the #1 pick. So, ya....

[Marionettetc]

Community college stats

Am I the only one who actually read Laker1's post? He said nothing about being "due" to win. He very, very clearly stated that when a team is long term bad, they have higher chances to win the lottery. No one needs 10 1st picks to turn around a bad franchise, the idea is that one success at the lottery is enough.

(AT LEAST ONCE)

It's implicitly implied, and not only that - literally stated by him.

[PKABOOICU]

whiteside, barnes would actually round out a nice young team for the lakers, and the fit would be fantastic

russell
clarkson
barnes
randle
whiteside

thats a very very nice young core of talent

[Vae Victus]

Whiteside is a bad idea. He's got DJ 2.0 written all over him. He's way too one dimensional and the GSW and other contenders have shown you need multi skilled bigs in case the other team shifts the game into a different direction.

Batum quite frankly isn't a good enough player to build around either. He's an EXCELLENT 3rd option who can help you do a little bit of everything, but committing big bucks to him as a centerpiece is folly. He's not efficient and his current year in CHA is giving him a big head thinking he's superstar and doing whatever he wants. His defense has been meh and he's piling up alot of counting stats due to high usage coupled with ALOT of TOs. Now if we can get him for a reasonable deal after striking out on KD, then so be it, but it'd be a sad day in Lakerland if that were the case.

Obvious step 1 is obvious, win top 3 pick and pick the best PF we can.

Sign a good coach, this too is PARAMOUNT to whatever we do. We need a good coach to pitch to the top flight FAs that the BS stupid train era is over and the team has a direction.

Convince KD, Horford, and Noah to come in as a package. Hope Noah takes a massive discount, give KD and Horford 3 year deals with 1 year opt outs so they can take advantage of being a super duper max and play the FA game again in 2017 (LBJ will be doing this as well). I LOVE Horford as he can play both 4/5 competently and i think Noah wants a bigger role on a CHAMPIONSHIP team (not scuffling in East with a hobbled Rose). KD is obvious as its gonna be HIS team as Kobe's successor in LA.

Personally i'd try to resign Lin to be backup combo guard similar to his role in CHA. His defense has been top notch and with his reputation down he can be locked up for the MLE. If Lin's a no go (he'd likely want to start somewhere), i'd pursue Deron Williams (he's in a late career revival under a good coach/system and might want to take a discount for a ring). Afflalo is another option assuming one of Lou Will/Swaggy P is off the books by the end of the year.

If the above moves happen i'd trade Randle + Lou Will/Swaggy P for the best 3+D wing we can find. Other option includes going after players like Dudley, Jeff Green, JJohnson for cheap. I think JJ can be a real possibility as he might be in ring chase mode. Another option is trading the aforementioned package for a good backup combo guard.

Draft BPAs or euro stash prospects with whatever picks we have.

Then after we use up the cap resign Clarkson (3 years 30ish mil) and Black (min or thereabouts) to fill out the roster

C - Noah/Horford/Black
PF-Horford/Top 3 Pick/Randle/Nance
SF-KD/Nance/3+D?/JJohnson?Dudley?
SG-Clarkson/Swaggy P?/Lou Will?/JJohnson?Afflalo?
PG-Russell/Lin?Williams?/Clarkson

The team is balanced with versatile weapons all over. We can bring the pick along slowly but still with alot of time as Noah isn't 28+ min player anymore and Horford will eat up the rest of the C mins thus having alot of backup PF mins available (30-36). Randle however is the odd man out in this situation and thus trade bait. Nance just picks up whatever mins is leftover from 3/4. Backcourt is thin if we dont sign a backup PG, but i'd be willing to roll with a JC as backup PG if necessary. One of Swaggy and Lou wont be on the team (my money is on Swaggy even though i like him more) so if Lou is still around he would be backup PG in a pinch as well.

Regardless we cant do anything about the lotto, but we could look long and hard for the best coaching candidate possible. That really is priority #1 that we can control. Even if the draft and FA is a bust if we can at least come out with a good coach it'll make the future transition a helluva lot smoother.

[Levity]

you wont see many posts from me hoping to retain clarkson. but if its for 30 years/30 mil, then of course. but that just wont happen. he'll start at 15. some team WILL offer him that much. could expect more too. hes going to have a big 2nd half to this season, which will drive his value up.

[Vae Victus]

Well if we match him on a supermax offer sheet from another team it'll be like a 5 + 5 + 20 + 20 deal. Quite honestly too rich for what he's shown so far and it wont break the bank for years 1 and 2, the question is whether we believe he'll take the next few steps to deserved a 20 mil a year salary in the later portions.

At least with his teeny tiny cap hold we have ALOT of flexibility in filling out the roster first before we even need to think about signing him.

[Dr Aki]

lol "we won't match clarkson"

what the hell are you guys smoking? now isn't the time to allow assets to simply walk

[bbconair]

like i said, we aren't getting anyone good. in fact, we're getting demar! hilarious.

[madmaxmedia]

What's easier, convincing Durant to come to this current team or losing games? Ironically we need to do the latter to get Simmons and then we can do the former. You control what you can control - and right now there's only one thing to do, for Basketball Reasons.

And you can't be superstitious. You still go for the most ping pong balls. 4 losses separate us from the Sixers. We have 46 games to make that up. Best shot we got.

You still can't control the actual lottery though. I mean you're right, more balls the better. But chances are Lakers are going to have to go to Plan B regardless of whether they are worst or 2nd worst. You're only incrementally improving by going from 2 to 1.

I don't think it would be worth retarding the development of Russell and Randle to try to catch the Sixers, which is what I think it would end up taking to catch the Sixers. As bad a chucker as Kobe has been this year, I think having him play significant minutes also hurts the Lakers' lottery chances and we can't take him out either.

Unfortunately this team wasn't built to win the lottery, there's too much credible talent and credible young players (we have the right coach though!) But again, you really have to be expecting Plan B regardless.

[madmaxmedia]

We are not getting Simmons. Is everyone forgetting how bad the sixers are?


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Apparently you forgot that you still have to win the actual lottery. Just because they have the worst record doesn't mean jack squat, they had it last year also and us and Minnesota jumped them in the lottery.

Who do you guys think will go 2nd in the draft? With Russell, Simmons doesn't seem like the right choice for the Lakers any how. Lakers need to configure the team around Russell. The right choice for the Lakers is someone with quickness and size that can work the PNR with Russell. Think prime Amare Stoudamire for example, or prime KG. Are there any mobile bigs in the draft worth looking at, or do we need to try and steal Cousins from the Kings for Randle, top 2 pick, and maybe Lou Williams?

That's sorta like passing on Jordan because you already have Drexler. Meaning Simmons is the better prospect, so you draft him and worry about where Russell fits in (or doesn't) later.

But it's not like they play the same position anyway.

[madmaxmedia]

Odds. If a team is bad for so long naturally their odds improve of winning the lottery just by amount of tries at it and amount of ping pong balls. My logic in what I said is as the season goes on and teams seed for playoffs they will begin to relax and rest players. That's when I see this team winning some games we would otherwise get blown away in.


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If you flip a coin 100 times and get 99s heads in a row, on the 100th flip, you still only have a 50% chance of flipping a tail. What team besides the Spurs sit players going in to the playoffs? They would still crush us.

if you flip a coin 100 times and get 99 heads in a row, i'd say the coin had two heads

If you flip a coin and can just get 28 heads in a row, you'd match the odds to win that $1.3B Powerball on Wednesday.

[milesfides]

You still can't control the actual lottery though. I mean you're right, more balls the better. But chances are Lakers are going to have to go to Plan B regardless of whether they are worst or 2nd worst. You're only incrementally improving by going from 2 to 1.

Huge difference between 1/4 and 1/5, especially when we're talking about Simmons, and more broadly, the major piece in building a contender

I don't think it would be worth retarding the development of Russell and Randle to try to catch the Sixers, which is what I think it would end up taking to catch the Sixers. As bad a chucker as Kobe has been this year, I think having him play significant minutes also hurts the Lakers' lottery chances and we can't take him out either.

Those are legitimate issues, I agree. But there are only 4 games separating us. We have perfect tank cover in Kobe's farewell tour. We have Byron Scott. We've got selfish players. The only thing to lock in the tank is to showcase Julius Randle and give starter minutes to Anthony Brown.

Unfortunately this team wasn't built to win the lottery, there's too much credible talent and credible young players (we have the right coach though!)

That's the sad part, we weren't build to win the lottery, but we're already in 2nd place. But if you're Mitch/Buss, you HAVE to take the next step, which is to go for number 1. We're trying our damnest to win, and we're 2nd to last. 1st would be cake if we actually tried:

We can lose every game for the rest of the year by doing this: showcase players to build their value, 5-game stints to build an individual rhythm but prevent any rotations from building a rhythm. Rotations and lineups win games, not any one player. So we'd be disrupting that flow.

Let showcased players play starter minutes one week, and absolutely sit the following week. The great part of this strategy is that players will be fresher and inflate their own individual stats. For example, I want 35 MPG of burn for Ryan Kelly every other week! He shouldn't be destroying lesser talent in the D-league - he should be raising his game and value on our team. If he struggles, that helps the tank, if he does well, he helps our own team or develops into a valuable asset. If he starts playing too well, sit him!

Same with Tarik Black. Same with Nick Young.

The guys I'd bring off the bench for the rest of the year and control their minutes: Nance and Clarkson (rFA this summer), Bass (I would have showcased him earlier, but I realized he was mostly lost in Scott's offense - he'll be valuable as a veteran backup), and Hibbert uFA - no point in playing him at all, he shouldn't be using our roster spot to earn his next contract.

[madmaxmedia]

What I don't understand is how there wasn't a prime directive to have DLO and Randle play full starter minutes from basically Day 1, to simultaneously help tank and give them experience. 'Worst case' scenario, they really surprise you and win you too many games, at least they got a pretty full rookie season in and you feel good about them going forward.

LOL at disrupting team rhythm, I guess Byron is a good coach for that. I feel Kobe is good tank cover for achieving what we have already done (securing 2nd worst place), but he's not bad enough to reach the Sixers...if anything I think he's had more decent games recently.

I like the goal of maximizing individual stats but at the same time retarding overall team production. I guess Kobe was in on the plan all year.

[milesfides]

What I don't understand is how there wasn't a prime directive to have DLO and Randle play full starter minutes from basically Day 1, to simultaneously help tank and give them experience. 'Worst case' scenario, they really surprise you and win you too many games, at least they got a pretty full rookie season in and you feel good about them going forward.

Yeah, this is the disturbing part; we know who's the culprit: Scott. But that doesn't explain Jim and Mitch's laissez faire approach to handling Scott's decisions that adversely affect the organization. Jim is on his self-imposed timeline, and Mitch could be locked into a half-decade of mediocrity. They have so much at stake, especially post-Kobe, to not be more proactive.

That being said, Scott has loosened up a lot w/ D'Angelo the past few weeks, so that might be the result of some directive. Still doesn't explain Randle, though.

[DEEP3CL]

We are not getting Simmons. Is everyone forgetting how bad the sixers are?


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Apparently you forgot that you still have to win the actual lottery. Just because they have the worst record doesn't mean jack squat, they had it last year also and us and Minnesota jumped them in the lottery.

Who do you guys think will go 2nd in the draft? With Russell, Simmons doesn't seem like the right choice for the Lakers any how. Lakers need to configure the team around Russell. The right choice for the Lakers is someone with quickness and size that can work the PNR with Russell. Think prime Amare Stoudamire for example, or prime KG. Are there any mobile bigs in the draft worth looking at, or do we need to try and steal Cousins from the Kings for Randle, top 2 pick, and maybe Lou Williams?

Brandon Ingram from Duke would be a good second choice if Simmons slipped from our grasp. Ingram is 6'9" and is a natural SF, he has a better jumper than Simmons but lacks being the all around player Simmons is...but Ingram is a scorer