NuggetsWY wrote:The Rebel wrote:Am I the only one that thinks that the Clippers and Lakers did not have near the great offseason that so many are claiming?
National media loves their changes - I'm not so certain they've even held their own. The worst aspect of the Lakers' off season was losing Green - my opinion. I think they'll miss his defense. Adding Schroeder & Matthews & Harrel doesn't replace Green, but they are going to be welcome changes. Replacing one player with three doesn't work, but it will improve their depth. I do think Gasol is a slight upgrade over Howard, but not enough to make a big difference. I'd say the Lakers improved, but I'm not convinced any of their moves will make a huge difference.
In my opinion, the Clippers needed to do more to even begin to be considered an off-season winner. They should have been looking for a PG. Losing Harrel and adding Ibaka is a positive move.
I actually think Mathews for Green is a pretty even move on court production wise.
I think Gasol is a downgrade. He looked bad most of the time for the Raptors last year and is declining pretty quickly, I don't see him as an upgrade on Howard anywhere but in shooting the 3 point shot.
I also think replacing Rondo with Schroder in the regular season is an upgrade, but playoff Rondo is a beast and that is likely a downgrade when it matters most. I said going into our series he was the 1 guy who scared me in our series, and he and Howard were the biggest issues we had. I also think Schroder is going to struggle learning to play off the ball, he has always been ball dominate, and it is not an easy transition to now become a guy off the ball 90% of the time.
Like Joker and others I also think the Lakers and their health benefit more than anybody by the time off from the Lockdown.
As for exchanging Ibaka for Harrel, I think that is a pretty lateral move against anybody but the Nuggets where Ibaka is better against Jokic but still not very good.
I also think green was a bigger loss than anybody will admit too. Without Harkless Green was the only good defender they had in the front court off the bench.
I do think Kennard is an underrated fit but he is pretty injury prone, and their best distributer is Ky Bowman, which tells me they are still going to have trouble in the playoffs when teams can scheme against them.