2014-15 Lakers Season Thread (21-61) KAT

This summer, if the chance comes, Love, Rondo, Neither, or Both?

  • Love

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Rondo

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Neither

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Both

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .
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Who's ready for a win tonight?

Rockets vs Jazz tonight...Jazz have been playing lockdown defense lately. Go Jazz.
 
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:lol: funny timing on that.

Spent 8-9 hours in ER last night with my daughter bein sick, nurse was in and out all night buggin us. :lol:

Repped man.
 
CP, leemelone said that he hates ya guts and can't wait for you to see him with da hands so you can catch dat fade ya ol can't make an omelette for yaself lookin *** boy but he hopes your kid is okay.
 
GTB I saw Kal's quote first, so unfortunately your very funny post was wasted. :lol:

Leemelone, thank you tho. She been asleep for about 15 hours, but seems to be restin comfortably.

Ainge and Mitch may forever be linked. Ainge jumped out early, 08, Mitch came back strong,
They both tailed off a bit, but Ainge managed to flip his old guys, Mitch has not.

I'd say as of now Ainge is ahead, but if Mitch can get Towns and maybe 1 real nice FA, he might pull back even.

We'll know more in 2-3 years or so.
 
I left out the Knicks portion of the article:
Solving Knicks', Lakers' woes

In the latest installment of the NBA Front Office series, Tom Penn (playing the role of GM), Chad Ford (assistant GM), Amin Elhassan (scouting director), Kevin Pelton (analytics director) and David Thorpe (senior consultant) take over the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks, who play each other Thursday night.

Want in on the conversation or have a question for one of the guys? Use #NBAFrontOffice.

Tom Penn: We're taking over both the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks today. It's a mess on both coasts. How do we fix it? Chad, let's start with the Lakers. What do we look like there?

Chad Ford: The obvious major liability is Kobe Bryant's $25 million salary next season. That is a massive hit on our cap room, which means that we'll have about $18 million to play with. It could be $9 million more if we decline Jordan Hill's team option. Our next highest-paid player is Nick Young at $5.2 million, and he hasn't had a great season for that price.

We do have Julius Randle. A lot of people thought that he could go as high as No. 2 in the draft. Because of how Kentucky plays, and it has so much talent on its teams, sometimes the stats don't jump out at you the same way that they might with other players. But he's one asset we should be excited about. Jordan Clarkson actually has played quite well, too. He's top five for PER for rookies this season. He's a combo guard playing point guard, and I'm not sure that he's a great player on a good team. But he has shown promise. So I think those are the two guys who are nice pieces. But none of those guys are cornerstone-type of players.

We're likely going to have a top-four pick in this draft; if it falls below No. 5, we have to send it to Philadelphia. The odds of that right now are at about 17 percent. That means we're most likely going to keep it. And this is a good draft. Within the top four, you're talking about Karl-Anthony Towns, Jahlil Okafor, D'Angelo Russell or Emmanuel Mudiay. I think those are the consensus top-four guys. We'll likely get the Rockets' pick this year, and its lottery-protected.

After 2015-16, it's pretty much a blank slate. Really, Young, Randle and our 2015 No. 1 pick will be the only guys on the roster. So from a financial standpoint, we're not the Brooklyn Nets -- we'll be fine down the road. And Los Angeles remains an attractive market for free agents.

David Thorpe: I love Randle, I like Clarkson. Randle, obviously will have to start from scratch next season because he missed this entire season after breaking his right leg. He's years away, at least two, from being a good player on a good-to-great team. But to me, the only focus -- besides making sure we retain that pick -- would be to develop the assets that we do have, because in two years the salary cap's going to jump to a big, big number. And Los Angeles remains a destination that should always feel like they could get players.

But looking immediately at next season, we have to make sure that even though we have cap room, we spend it wisely. We can't handcuff ourselves with bad contracts like the Nets did to themselves. We're better off losing next season even if it means passing on a 2015 free agent who could help them win games next season, but at a price that's above what they think he's valued.

Amin Elhassan: I agree with Coach Thorpe. I've said this before: We need to improve the infomercial. You've got to answer and convince the big free agent: "Why should I come to LA?" We have to push for our organization. Give him some good reasons other than we can pay him a lot of money, because as Coach Thorpe pointed out, there are going to be a lot of teams that can offer him a lot of money in a couple of years.

Thorpe: Sure. And whether it's Russell Westbrook or Kevin Durant in another year, Kevin Love this offseason, the list goes on and on of guys who either have L.A. connections or such a superstar status that we might be able to land them because of the location and franchise's allure.

But I would also think about what Boston did years ago. People talk about the big trades to get Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, but the key to that was they developed Al Jefferson. Eventually, they got more for him than they should have. There's no question there was a period of time when, along with Zach Randolph, Jefferson was the best paint scorer in basketball. Boston earned that by developing him, and we can, too, whether it's Randle, Clarkson or Ed Davis (who leads them in lots of important metrics this season in limited minutes).

We've got to develop guys so that we're always ready to pull a big trade, because regardless, we will have the opportunity to sign a big-time free agent or two or even maybe three (perhaps not at max deals). So from an organizational standpoint, think about what our mission is: Cut anyone we can who we feel is not as good as what he's getting paid, and keep anyone, if possible, who we think has real value. In some cases, we have to pay a free agent who's a nice role player, instead of a premium talent. We can't handcuff ourselves going into the 2016-17 season.

Kevin Pelton: But as you guys have said, we have so little talent that we could still sign the best free agent available (presumably Love, in terms of guys who would actually consider L.A.) and still likely be a lottery team in 2015-16. However, it makes the most sense to keep the cap clear and try to sign multiple stars in summer 2016 rather than tying up any of that cap space this offseason.

Penn: Do we keep coach Byron Scott?

Thorpe: We have to figure it out, but that doesn't mean we should keep him. I mean, I don't think anyone can argue he's done a good job or is a good coach. If you're arguing that, then you're just a big Lakers fan, which I used to be when I was a kid, by the way. I loved him as a player but I don't think anyone thinks he's anywhere close to being a top-echelon coach. That said, I don't think -- unless he's being obtuse about playing young guys -- there's an advantage to getting rid of him because until we know what the team looks like next season, how do we really know what kind of coach we want at this point?

Penn: OK, so maintaining that cap flexibility going into the 2016-17 season is paramount. Maybe one L.A.-minded free agent like Love could be considered. Regardless, we'll continue to develop some guys who might be able to produce some trade value, and keep Scott as coach until we have a better grasp on our roster.
Click to expand...
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/stor...fice-takes-los-angeles-lakers-new-york-knicks
 
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