Hey Leon Rose you smug ass ***** executive who couldn't do a damn thing when it really mattered,

Go **** Yourself.

Signed,

Knicks Fans Everywhere

The Lakers were a top 3 seed until AD and Lebron got hurt in a season that started a few months after they won a title. AD was injured vs. the Suns otherwise they probably win that series. And Lebron wasn't completely healthy.

They have gotten worse every offseason. The Schroder deal was terrible. Green is exactly the guy you want to surround Lebron with. They've burned two first round picks that could have gotten them legitimate rotation players for the playoffs.

They needed someone who could take the load off Lebron's shoulders but you can do that much cheaper than Schroder and Westbrook.

I completely agree that they got worse last off-season. That is clear now, but a consensus at the time thought they were making solid moves, increasing their depth, etc.

Blowing that to smithereens is now the right play. It was stress tested once LeBron and AD got hurt and there was nothing there. For sure, we can only analyse what we see and the stats produced, but I don’t think it’s much of a stretch for LeBron and AD to be done with the supporting cast from a human perspective. A soft group top to bottom that didn’t step up.

Teams in this situation always burn through picks and prospects, etc. The Nets have done the same things. It’s 3 stars and solid vets who want to ring chase, along with whatever else you can manage via MLE, Luxury tax, etc. You’re overpaying in these spots, making terrible long term value plays - but you know why you’re doing it.

Westbrook is a practical and realistic acquisition that answers the question ‘what happens if AD / LeBron miss time or need to have minutes managed in the regular season’. That above all else is their main immediate priority. Bringing in a shooter / some more spacing doesn’t address that. They have to get to the playoffs with home court first before they can worry about their ideal playoff fit.

This is a very good post.

Now let's all root for a fully healthy Lakers/Nets Finals!

and for the Knicks to land in the lottery and bink a TOP 3 pick!

I don't hate Westbrook to the Lakers, but think it creates some salary cap/luxury tax problems for the team that could turn really ugly. So seems unnecessarily risky.

It’s already ugly. Trevor Ariza ugly

When I say those signings seem solid to me, I mean in terms of getting 3 productive rotation guys for the minimum (Ellington as well) I still have major questions as to how Russ fits but that is sunk cost at this point.

We'll see what happens with Schroder then I think you can make a better judgement on it.

I do agree giving up Caruso when they had his bird rights makes no sense, just pay him and then deal him later if you want. However, this is pretty important but I think that move signifies ownership probably doesn't want to go the Ballmer/Nets aggro luxury tax doesn't matter at all route.

Dunc'd on mentioned they're a fractured ownership group and it isn't a bunch of billionaire PE/hedge fund bros so they may want to see a profit, especially after the pandemic.

Replacing KCP and Caruso with Westbrook and Ellington is going to crush their defense while the offensive improvement will be marginal at best.

Like I can't agree with the idea that offensive improvement will be "marginal at best", Caruso and KCP aren't positive players. For all the hate on Russ he was a positive contributor on 30% usage last year. Yeah, he's inefficient and toxic yada, yada but intimating that Russ isn't better than these lads filling a role with negative VORP is a bit mad.

You can go too far with the 'BUT WHAT ABOUT SPACING' type analysis. Most teams can't defend LeBron / AD + junk. This is a third weapon who can run you off the floor and get his. Playoff basketball is a different question. But they'll have the regular season to figure it out.

This isn’t directed at you personally, but I’m tired of people saying the clipps were a terrible matchup for KP and even more tired of Mavs fans and national media saying that KP as awful and needs to be moved. Carlisle literally told KP to stand in the corner and not move all game in order to create spacing.. It was obvious from watching the games and has been confirmed by everyone (including Carlisle and KP and Cuban) in post series press conferences. It’s a ridiculous strategy, but what is KP supposed to do? He followed orders bc he didn’t want to cause problems during the playoffs. If we would’ve won the series he would have likely been heavily involved the next round. If he didn’t just follow orders then all of the media and Mavs fans would have also tipped him for that.

The above is why I was happy to see Carlisle go. I wish we had gotten someone other than Kidd, but it was time to move on from Carlisle.

I’m crossing my fingers that Kidd can rejuvenate KP and get him more involved. If he can’t, we have no real path to getting much better.

Signed, a KP apologist.

Ehh, they were playing Boban 30mpg by the end of the series. If KP could do more against the Clipps, they would've tried to get more out of him.

Clipps could basically switch anyone onto him and he couldn't make them pay in the post. PG/Batum/Kawhi/Morris are all tough to post up.

Against a more conventional big like Gobert/Ayton, he could have a better showing

This is the logical bull case for Russ, but I think it's intertwined with his bear case as well.

Russ puts up monster stats in the regular season. Credit to him, I suppose, as he plays those games hard (on offense where you can accumulate stats)

So he banks a lot of success playing his style, but it just doesn't work in the playoffs. Better teams adjust and exploit Russ's lack of shooting, off ball movement, defense, and BBIQ.

If he struggled more in the regular season, maybe he would have the impetus to change, but we all know he never will. This is in contrast to the champ Bucks who seemed to make a conscious decision last year to try and stop being an 82 game team, and instead use the regular season as preparation for what really matters...

It was also in conjunction with the rest of the playoffs getting hurt and their 1 big scare, their star some how avoided any major injury. Bucks have been very good in previous seasons--they've run bad (Covid/Bubble) and blowing a 2-0 lead versus the Raptors and they finally ran good (Harden/Kyrie hurt; Atlanta beating the Sixers and Trae getting hurt and facing the Suns in the finals (good but not amazingly good team with a lot of experience). Their scare, some how their star came back even stronger....

But agreed, going all in on the regular season makes no sense. When are they going to re-sign Bud?

You forgot the Pels. They gave up two first rounders, a draft night pick swap, to turn Bledsoe,Ball, and Adams into Graham,Sato,and Jonas. Zion surely going to be demanding a trade eventually.

I think Knicks are number one though. Noel,Burks,Rose and Fournier on multi year deals is Thibs at his finest.

Oh yeah. Pels are so ****ed. Is it a hot taek that they should have just traded Zion instead of whatever they did this offseason?

Zion won't demand a trade, he'll be the first star level player to decline a rookie extension, take the QO, and become an UFA.

He'll shock the world!!!

Then the Knicks will create enough cap space to sign him.

While there's no value to becoming an '82 game team'; there's also no value to needing 33 mins a game from both LeBron and AD lest you find yourself playing in for the 7th seed. They can't run back what they had, they need a way to take 5 mins or so per game off LeBron and AD while dialling down their regular season usage and get to the 1st round healthier and better seeded. There are few enough players out there who address those needs better than Russ.

The problems will be the playoffs, but there's a long road between now and then to figure stuff out. They'll look for things in the buyout market to make it fit better, etc.

But fundamentally I can buy the suggestion that LeBron / AD / Russ might not work it out to beat two or three of Denver / Dallas / Clippers / Nets in succession, which is what they might have to do to win a title.

But some of the takes here like 'worst trade of all time' / 'KCP, Kuzma, Caruso and Harrell are valuable pieces' / 'this only makes their offense marginally better' are just way over reaching.

Personally, I loved the trade.

But, you could get pick 15 in 2025!

Damn, has any player cost themselves as much money betting on themselves as Vic did. That dude got all-time bad advice.

In some very direct sense this is why Carlisle got fired

Oh yeah my bad, I wasn't as in tuned with draft night. Yeah they could be #2 worst offseasons.

anyone want to give me 4:1 that lakers vs nets will be the finals. small bet 100-200$

I saw a good take that was basically "it's so obvious that maximizing lebron is about surrounding him with shooters, and the lakers are basically so confident that lebron can basically make it work with whatever junk is around him that they're more focused on trying to shore up the lebron bench minutes with guys that can run the second unit (rondo, schroeder, russ) than they are with maximizing the lebron units."

I thought that was interesting