LeBron James 2021-22 Regular Season Thread - Part ?

[zimpy27]

Not often a lebron led team does nothing at the deadline… kinda weird.



Also, Schroeder turned down 100mil.. dang

Lakers should grab him if he gets bought out

[Mos_Heat]

It's not that bad. They will have Westbrook's expiring and 2 first round picks to trade after the draft. Bradley Beal is a free agent, Jeremy Grant will be expiring. Vogel will be gone. They can go back to being in the hunt. I don't have confidence in their desicion making, but they will have options

[Mos_Heat]

As long as you have a boss you can be blameless.

I disagree they were in a good spot after the bubble too. Both of their best players past their prime. Multiple contributors we're on the team for 1 year deals. Not a lot of young players with team friendly contracts.

AD 27
KCP 27
Caruso 26
Kuzma 25
THT 19
They had Green's expiring 15m, 1st round pick in 2020(and 2021), full MLE, BIE. That's a lot of flexibility

Honestly trading DG was probably their first mistake, not sure if that was motivated by LeBron n'camp or what.

But looking back perhaps trading AD when he was at the peak of his value would have been best, obviously that never would have happened.

I do think their one big mistake recently is picking THT over Caruso. But I sort of believe their motives were financial there and future outlook, which was stupid.

All that being said. The team was never really in a great roster at any point. LeBron and AD just were insane that first season together and Rondo played his best basketball in a decade. Everyone else was simply acceptable or worse.

No one in the league has "great roster". The Bucks almost lost to Brooklyn, Brooklyn themselves are a mess, Suns barely got past the Clippers without Kawhi, the Clippers are constantly banged up, just like the Nuggets etc... They had a working formula AD+Lebron+ great defense. They had enough assets to get shotcreators whether it Lowry or McCollum or Derozan. But they blew it. And Pelinka gets his fair share of blame pie

[zimpy27]

Some people claiming they saw Rob Pelinka at Disneyland in the final hours of the trade deadline. This is too funny to be true..

Read on Twitter

[homecourtloss]

As long as you have a boss you can be blameless.

I disagree they were in a good spot after the bubble too. Both of their best players past their prime. Multiple contributors we're on the team for 1 year deals. Not a lot of young players with team friendly contracts.

AD 27
KCP 27
Caruso 26
Kuzma 25
THT 19
They had Green's expiring 15m, 1st round pick in 2020(and 2021), full MLE, BIE. That's a lot of flexibility

Honestly trading DG was probably their first mistake, not sure if that was motivated by LeBron n'camp or what.

But looking back perhaps trading AD when he was at the peak of his value would have been best, obviously that never would have happened.

I do think their one big mistake recently is picking THT over Caruso. But I sort of believe their motives were financial there and future outlook, which was stupid.

All that being said. The team was never really in a great roster at any point. LeBron and AD just were insane that first season together and Rondo played his best basketball in a decade. Everyone else was simply acceptable or worse.

Obviously the Westbrook trade was terrible but he was being pushed to do something and it was the only something that seemed to be acceptable.

If it were me I would probably have just ran the team back w/ Caruso instead of THT and tried to add Monk and McGee instead of Dwight, Ariza, Bazemore and DAJ.

But again maybe those guys were chosen by someone else. Who really knows.

Was surprised at the DG trade but also knew that LeBron couldn’t run it back as the full time playmaker he did in 2020. Schroeder also had a good year by many metrics and looked to add defensively, so I see it as understandable. When healthy, last year’s Lakers’ team was the best in the NBA even with an underperforming AD.

Gasol, ostensibly Schroeder, and Wes Matthews (a big plus when playing with James) were good additions while it seemed that Kuzma might continue to improve after the bubble. Caruso, KCP, Kuzma, Gasol, Matthews, Schroeder, a supposedly improving THT, Trezz on offense during the regular season…this looked to be a great roster.

What happened was that they overreacted to a loss vs. a Suns team that turned out to be a championship quality team for two years straight at least. Up 2 games to 1, they were up 10 early in game 4, LeBron winds up a +6 fro that game, they miss some open threes, AD’s injured and the wheels fall off and then they completely blew it up after Dummimd didn’t add anything (as most on here knew he wouldn’t).

[LikeABosh]

Some people claiming they saw Rob Pelinka at Disneyland in the final hours of the trade deadline. This is too funny to be true..

Read on Twitter

That is him, but it's an old picture. Just someone being an ****

[Ian Scuffling]

Some of you just need to accept that LeBron can have an outstanding on-court basketball IQ and yet have a poor understanding of roster construction and fit. He isn't the only superstar who fits into that category. Jordan, if he had his way, would have traded himself out of about six-championships had he had any meaningful influence over Krause.

LeBron and Davis preferring Westbrook to Hield likely amounts to little more that: Westbrook is an all-star, Hield isn't. Westbrook can drop 30 point triple-doubles, Hield can't.

LeBron has enjoyed great team success in spite of his influence over the GMs that he's played with. He's enjoyed success because he is perhaps the best player in NBA history and that has been enough to offset a range of poor roster decisions across multiple teams. There is no evidence that he has unique insight into roster construction and we shouldn't assume that he does because he's a smart player on-court.

Just wanted to say that right there was a great comment.

[tone wone]

AD 27
KCP 27
Caruso 26
Kuzma 25
THT 19
They had Green's expiring 15m, 1st round pick in 2020(and 2021), full MLE, BIE. That's a lot of flexibility

Honestly trading DG was probably their first mistake, not sure if that was motivated by LeBron n'camp or what.

But looking back perhaps trading AD when he was at the peak of his value would have been best, obviously that never would have happened.

I do think their one big mistake recently is picking THT over Caruso. But I sort of believe their motives were financial there and future outlook, which was stupid.

All that being said. The team was never really in a great roster at any point. LeBron and AD just were insane that first season together and Rondo played his best basketball in a decade. Everyone else was simply acceptable or worse.

Obviously the Westbrook trade was terrible but he was being pushed to do something and it was the only something that seemed to be acceptable.

If it were me I would probably have just ran the team back w/ Caruso instead of THT and tried to add Monk and McGee instead of Dwight, Ariza, Bazemore and DAJ.

But again maybe those guys were chosen by someone else. Who really knows.

Was surprised at the DG trade but also knew that LeBron couldn’t run it back as the full time playmaker he did in 2020. Schroeder also had a good year by many metrics and looked to add defensively, so I see it as understandable. When healthy, last year’s Lakers’ team was the best in the NBA even with an underperforming AD.

Gasol, ostensibly Schroeder, and Wes Matthews (a big plus when playing with James) were good additions while it seemed that Kuzma might continue to improve after the bubble. Caruso, KCP, Kuzma, Gasol, Matthews, Schroeder, a supposedly improving THT, Trezz on offense during the regular season…this looked to be a great roster.

What happened was that they overreacted to a loss vs. a Suns team that turned out to be a championship quality team for two years straight at least. Up 2 games to 1, they were up 10 early in game 4, LeBron winds up a +6 fro that game, they miss some open threes, AD’s injured and the wheels fall off and then they completely blew it up after Dummimd didn’t add anything (as most on here knew he wouldn’t).

What happened with Gasol, Matthews and Dennis is the braintrust (Pelinka, LBJ,AD) underestimated just how much of a zero Vogel was as a offensive coach.

Caruso and KCP were shooting 3s at near 50% clip that 1st month. Once they fell back down to earth the offense fell with it. By the time AD started missing games LA practically gave up trying to score in the half court. The offense was abysmal. Seriously, go back and watch that Suns series. It was a complete manifestation of every offensive issue they had all season. The entire 2nd half of Game 4 through Game 6 were just brutal offensive ineptness....and Games 1 and 2 weren't that much better

A serious franchise would've fired Vogel on the spot . Instead these bozos gave him the task of making Westbrook work.

[zimpy27]

Hield would have been awful. Even worse than Westbrook.

[Statlanta]

I'm guessing the season's gonna end with Jeanie being forced to spend more of her pockets, LBJ/AD have less sway in GM decisions, Both Pelinka/Vogel fired, and Russ traded.

[falcolombardi]

Hield would have been awful. Even worse than Westbrook.

in hindsight derozan was actually the right trade despite how much it was dreaded here by most of us lol

davis/lebron/derozan/caruso/monk would be a surprisingly complete lineup

[RCM88x]

Hield would have been awful. Even worse than Westbrook.

in hindsight derozan was actually the right trade despite how much it was dreaded here by most of us lol

davis/lebron/derozan/caruso/monk would be a surprisingly complete lineup

I definitely agree that DeRozan would have been better (probably would have said the same 6 months ago. However, we don't know if SA ever even entertained trading him to the Lakers. They might simply have refused to trade with LA.

[zimpy27]

Hield would have been awful. Even worse than Westbrook.

in hindsight derozan was actually the right trade despite how much it was dreaded here by most of us lol

davis/lebron/derozan/caruso/monk would be a surprisingly complete lineup

Yep, not going to dig it up but I was one of the few that thought DeMar would have been great. He was willing to come for a discount too - Kuzma+KCP in an SnT would have been moved because of the hardcap.

Caruso, KCP, DeMar, LeBron, Davis.. it would have been beautiful.

But everyone at that time seemed obsessed with 3%

[trickshot]

Lakers need a sugardaddy owner. It's reasonable because sport franchises run contrary to your typical investment venture where you are literally supposed to cut as much cost as possible for profit. You still have to do it wisely but sports spending is basically pay to win.

[falcolombardi]

looking him up since he got brought yo here

bembry looks line a role player that could help the lakers, same with gary Harris

is a shame we all know pelinka will go for schoeder instead or somethingh like that when the team needs wings

[zimpy27]

Do you guys think Westbrook+Jordan for KP+Powell would have been a good deal?

I would have done that.

[thebigbird]

Do you guys think Westbrook+Jordan for KP+Powell would have been a good deal?

I would have done that.

I would’ve traded Westbrook for literally any player in the NBA.

[Freighttrain]

Hield would have been awful. Even worse than Westbrook.

in hindsight derozan was actually the right trade despite how much it was dreaded here by most of us lol

davis/lebron/derozan/caruso/monk would be a surprisingly complete lineup

I'm not mad at the FO that they glanced over DeRozan, no one saw his progression coming. Letting Caruso go on the other hand was just outright baffling and made no sense. Not signing for Kyle Lowry because we valued THT is also just mindboggling beyond belief. Signing Westbrook was even worse in hindsight, but no one expected it to be this bad. FO has really messed up some blatant and obvious mistakes every fantasyGM wouldn't have made. And that is a big problem.

[trickshot]

Worst part about the Nets big 3 is they didn't even fail on the court. We were robbed of watching a high ceiling team make a playoff run.

The worst part for the Lakers is they basically reacted to nothing.

[Greyhound]

I like this starting lineup.

Bradley and Johnson are not glitzy but they work for what the three stars need alongside them.