Do today's Lakers remind you of Sterling era Clippers sans racism?

[danfantastk32]

Hey.....you hear any clipper news lately?

That's what I thought. We may be entering phase-3 of our "clown show" with Wallace (I like the guy, like the hire personally) but at least we're being talked about. Nobody gives half a turd about the other team. They really aughta pack it up, and head on up to Seattle. Seattle clippers.....you know it sounds right. Good name for them.

And this is the big difference. Anyone talking about Kawhi coming back? Anyone even know if Kawhi is still on earth? That's right, nobody cares. Meanwhile some player mentions wanting to play in a different system, and everyone's photo-shopping him in a Laker jersey. These may be dark times, but here we all are talking about Westbrook this - Westbrook that. Ham....good coach, or no. Who hates/loves Clutch. Etc etc. All part of the 35-38 year ride.

clipper fans are sitting alone in their sandbox.....circling the Laker regular season games. Oh boy, must be thrilling. I can just feel our foot in Vegas sand now....

[danfantastk32]

I prob just totally jinxed it. Watch them get Lillard

[soxfan2003]

No... Sterling never wanted to win a championship... I think we did, we just failed miserably...
Sterling's teams were always about being just good enough to be profitable as the second fiddle to the Lakers... He never really seemed to want to try to compete with the Lakers...

We basically had 2 disaster seasons... The first was due to AD's complacence after winning his first ring, and a couple bad moves... the second was pure arrogance and disrespect for the game... You can spread that around between LeBron, Klutch, Pelinka, Jeannie, AD, Westbrook, to varying degrees...
Sterling did that every season... the second he found himself with a half way decent roster, he found a way to screw it up... For decades...
So for one season, we look a little like the collective average of the Sterling Clippers... But it isn't quite that bad...

That said, unless we get some smarter people in the FO, there's little hope next season will be any better, and if we do this again, it may even be worse than Sterling... Because he was incompetent on purpose... We'd just be inept...

I may be an ignorant fool on this one but I actually believe Sterling eventually wanted to win a championship since he was an intelligent enough guy to realize the economic and perhaps status payoff. It may have just been negative media cajoling him into trying a little.

He just thought it did make sense to pay much money to be mediocre given how the NBA draft/lottery systems worked and wasn't willing to take much risk to improve his teams revenue stream. But once the NBA started raking in cash, it did seem like he was willing to spend a little more.

I do 100% agree that it isn't fair at all to compare the Sterling era Clippers with the Lakers.

Despite probably being the number 1 market for FAs, the Lakers right now are in tough shape in the quest for a championship unless they throw loyalty to Lebron + AD out the window. I don't think they can afford to trade player of AD's or especially Lebron's status without those players approval or at least without one of those players public approval. That is the bad news for the Lakers, the good news is Lebron and AD probably have enough juice left to still be a real good duo post Westbrook.

[danfantastk32]

Despite probably being the number 1 market for FAs, the Lakers right now are in tough shape in the quest for a championship unless they throw loyalty to Lebron + AD out the window. I don't think they can afford to trade player of AD's or especially Lebron's status without those players approval or at least without one of those players public approval. That is the bad news for the Lakers, the good news is Lebron and AD probably have enough juice left to still be a real good duo post Westbrook.

Yeah....it's a rough spot. The problem with trading Lebron and AD is that we'll get pennies on the dollar in return. I don't think anyone thinks AD's best days are anything but behind him now. He'll have great flashes...and then need 2 months off. He'd be a great boost for a team on the cusp trying to get a ring......but you gotta hope he's healthy at the right time.

How much you payin for that??

Lebron is still good, but he obviously can't carry a team very far anymore purely on his back. I think you might get the most for Lebron, as you can stick him on almost any team, and he'll make it alot better. I think his defense is not as bad as last year. I mean....you hustling for that squad?? Lebron's smart. He saw the writing early, and took the season off. He can still ball, but with him comes the whole "Lebron world" circus. And of course, his age HAS to factor in. You're not building around the guy. Your renting him for 1-2 MAYBE 3 years. Again....how much you payin' for that?

And then there's the matter of the $90 mil that has to come back. What manner of horrid contracts will that look like?

Let's just say we somehow managed to get 3 first round picks, one DECENT player who's prob overpaid...and has 3 years left, and about $50 mil in riff-raff. Mostly 1-2 year contracts. <------ I can't imagine we'd do better than that. And none of those picks will be top-10.

Are we really better off?

I think we ride Lebron into the sunset.....prob about the time AD expires, and then look at what we can do with the cap-space. We'll also be getting our picks again by that point. Not pretty, but I think it's best plan. The Lakers need to spend the time getting their house in order, and looking like a decent destination again. That aughta be their priority for the next 3-4 years.