I'm not as confident as I used to be due to health, but maybe AD and Lebron can stay healthy for 1 more run.

This and the LuckyLloyd take really depend on Russ not being Russ, imo. Zero chance he comes off the bench right? So what’s the rotation look like? You start all 3, take Russ out after 6 min, then put him back solo to start the 2nd or something? I kinda doubt he’s gonna be cool with that.

I’m not totally against the concept working, and am very interested to see how it goes, but not very optimistic.

Also, I’d love to know how much of this was Pelinka and co doing a deep dive and concluding that “Save LBJ and Davis during the season” is the best way to go, and how much was “Dude we can get WESTBROOK? **** yeah”

That's fair but there's a huge difference between Lebron optimized and Lebron making it work. And Lebron needs shooters more than ever since he doesn't get to the rim as easily as he did before. Help defenders are able to clog the lane and recover in time given the Lakers terrible spacing.

I think he wants to enter the coasting on defense and offense (in the regular season) portion of his career. I'd think there are easier ways to do this than giving positive value for Westbrook with $90 million left on his contract. But, I guess it's more difficult to find than I assume.

I just think it makes sense to focus on optimizing the Lebron minutes instead of non-Lebron minutes considering the former will make up 85% of playoff minutes. It seems like they overreacted to AD and Lebron going down at the same time in the regular season and the team falling apart. It's unlikely for both of them to be injured at the same time and it's not like they lost to the Suns because of home court advantage.

The margin for error in 2021 for the best teams is much smaller than it was over the past decade. Every team needs quite a bit of positive injury luck to win a title.

KLow

GOAT Raptor...too bad it had to end this way, but at least we finally have a superstar who left Toronto on amicable terms (IMO Kawhi doesn't count).

Also makes passing on Suggs at #4 OV even more suspect, does it not?

I get there's far more to the comparison, but seeing Powell and Trent Jr. end up with identical AAVs is a bit tough to stomach. Would've been just fine with a longer commitment to the FVV/Pascal/Norm/OG core. Oh well.

Lowry a Superstar?

no fan base is wilder than Raps* fans lolol

Amazing. Lakers going full Space Cowboys on the NBA next year

Nike should make their alternate unis grey

Melo will be a great fit for the LAKESHOW!!!

Malik Monk for the MINIMUM to the LAKERS!!!

True MySpace Lock it up!!!!

Malik Monk for the min is nuts.

How are the Nets able to sign Mills? Isn’t their payroll 160 million?

YHTSI

lol

The Lakers signed someone in his 20s? Wade and JR must have said no.

Can I rescind my Bulls #1?

That’s a pretty good signing as they go!

Also Carmelo shot .407 from 3 last year.

In last year's playoffs, the Blazers outscored Denver by 39 points in the minutes Melo didn't play, and were outscored by 47 when he was on the court.

There's good basketball players
There are star basketball players
There are superstar basketball players
And then there's Kyle Lowry

I like that this guy still goes on about Raptors fans (i.e., some smallish percentage of fans actually attending the game) cheering during the Finals when Klay and Durant got hurt. This guy says this while simultaneously being a fan of the Miami Heat. Do you think he actually believes that some percentage of those famously classy Heat fans wouldn't have done the exact same thing? You know though, maybe he's right, there probably is something in the Toronto water that makes them morally inferior to the gentlepeople of Miami. Very logical, very smart.

And I love his dumb little asterisks, as though injuries aren't a big part of the result every single year. And how he still makes fun of the one poster who said Malachi Flynn has a chance to win ROY. Oh wow, some homer said something dumb about their team, thank god that's something veni (and every other commentator on the planet) has never done! Let's give him grief about it FOR YEARS.

On a related note, Tyler Scrubbo ****ing sucks. Good thing you took him out of your avatar before everyone realized what a massive fraud you are! But sadly, before doing so, you told us that TYLER HERRO HAS A HIGHER CEILING, HIGHER VALUE, AND WILL PROBABLY SOON BE A STRAIGHT UP BETTER PLAYER THAN BRADLEY BEAL. Remember that? Because I do, and it was miles dumber than some homer being optimistic about his team's rookie. These guys should give you a taste of your own medicine and run you and your idiotic takes out of here, but they're too nice.

And the constant "yltsi, yhtsi" in spoilers. Doing that in practically every single post makes you look like the most unoriginal dork in the forum. You wanna try communicating in some form of language other than mindlessly repeating your two or three favorite memes? You are such a basic, simple, one-note douchebag.

This stupid ******* is such a monumentally terrible poster. Permaban him, please, for the sake of the internet.

(in before he responds with putting my posts in spoilers and saying "yhtsi" or "gj;ge" or doing that "i'm happy for you, or sorry that happened" thing, because he's incapable of addressing any point on its merits without resorting to the memes. That's what he is. A human adult man who thinks in ****ing internet memes)

DifferentName Cliffs from above post:

Damn off-season getting SPICY.

Monk is solid. Melo is Melo.

Of course all Lakers transactions should be judged on one question only - How many regular season mpg rest does this buy LeBron? I says about 3.5 for these two combined so give it a B+.

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go home and put some water in venivedi's momma's dish. Good evening.

This is not my burner account, but I agree with a lot of it.
I want to cheer for the Heat now, but vinivici is actually going to make it somewhat difficult. My Lowry love will trump my vinivici hate however.

I genuinely think that Raps* fans are the only ones who would have cheered that injury because 1. other fan bases that have gotten criticized in the past would have been self aware enough to not cheer (e.g. Heat who got berated for 5 years, Lakers who constantly get criticized, Celtikks who are called racist) whereas the narrative was actually behind the Raps* because they had suffered for so many years with Demar's playoff inefficiencies and Lowry's occasional bagels. 2. Aforementioned playoff failures + cold weather had probably radicalized the Raps* a lot more than other fans. They really wanted this one, so much so they were rooting for injury.

We saw the analogous situation this year in Atlanta with the Giannis injury, and the crowd basically immediately went quiet and then cheered him when he got up an walked off. This subtweet says it all.



There's no defense for my Herro > Beal taeks. By January of 2021 I was ready to make the move.

One of the reasons I was against any trades was because it seemed obvious we would sign the best free agent in the 2021 class. And we did! Unfortunately it was Lowry's fatass, so now we have 5% chip equity instead of 25% with Beal/Dame etc

Thread just got interesting