Hinkie Process: Rebuilding in an Era of Distrust

[laloo]

The Lebron experiment has failed.

For four years, the Lakers and all their fans have endured the painful rebuilding process. It's been an imperfect process, but it yielded a handful of quality assets. These young players were encouraged to grow under a young coach who came off the best winning streak in history, a players' coach who had the full trust of both championship veterans and rookies, who pledged to run through a wall for him. The Lakers were young, dumb, and bad, but were refreshingly fun, unselfish, and modern. It was easy to root for them, because one could see the new culture being set for long term success. Top free agents such as Gordon Hayward, Paul George, Kevin Durant, and even Lebron James all took notice.

But under Magic and Rob, the Lakers didn't trust the process. They took a bad risk on an aging superstar and tried to change everything around. It failed.

But it's not irreversible, although D'Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, and Ivica Zubac have all been casualties in one way or another. Wasted value for sure.

So why not do the sensible thing? Change one thing. Trade Lebron. Get back to what makes sense; develop assets, manage the cap, and sign the right free agents at the right time.

Let's start with trading Lebron for...well, let's say nothing but capspace. Then we get Kawhi, who wants to go home but doesn't want to play with Lebron (can't blame him).

Can you imagine, building around a true 2-way MVP DPOY in his prime with $54m in capspace to spend to fill out the roster?

2019-20 season, 109m cap:

Lonzo 8.7m
Ingram 7.3m
Kawhi 32.7m
Kuzma 2m
Wagner 2m
Hart 1.9m

~$54m capspace to spend.

The Lakers should do this. Jeannie should. If Magic and Rob won't trust the process... somebody else does.

A former Stanford business school graduate, the architect of the 76ers' rise as contenders, a true analytics pioneer, somebody who is actually competent with experience:

Hmm..

[Kilroy]

Damn... A swing and a miss.

[Sedale Threatt]

We took a huge risk with zero guarantee it was going to work out. I think all of us had some level of doubt, especially after last year. Even now, we got some big breaks in terms of matchups — I think the Clippers and the Celtics would have been tougher than what we faced in those rounds — and injuries.

But the only thing that could make this title any sweeter is to know that Miles is out there fuming somewhere that LeBron James just won a championship in purple and gold.

[RamonSessions7]

Good thing we didn’t trade him for cap space I guess

[LAKESHOW]

We got plenty of room for mercy in 2020. We are Champions! Hell, even i have made some mistakes, like being pissed about Zubac.

Trust me, that Long ass losing streak was Painful for everybody. Painful. Seriously Painful. But Miles, in the end, we are all brothers who all go up together with the Championship of the Purple and Gold.

[danfantastk32]

Towards the end, Miles just got too fanatical, IMO.

I don't remember him hating the Lebron signing initially....but holly hell, he sure did hate it by the end of the first year. I think the first year should have been a wake up call to how truly terrible the team we had (sans Lebron) was. I'm too lazy to click a handful of buttons, but I do remember Lebron having like 26 points, 8 boards and 8 assists last season. We had quite a few injuries (including a month off for Lebron) but if this team had ANYTHING of note...we shoulda made the post-season.

I don't understand what happened to Miles. I get being upset....but that was next level. He couldn't go 10 minutes without saying something bad about Lebron. I hope he has it in him to take a deep breath....realize he was wrong, and then just let it go.

[Sofa King]

Lol this didn't age well

[ChocolateThundr]

At the time, things were looking pretty dark and dire. Many people were thinking similarly to but perhaps not as strongly as the OP's opinions. I am just glad LeBron, the team, and the management proved all our doubts wrong.

[Spanish_Laker]

Yikes.

This guy must have become a Warriors fan given how much he hates the GOAT.