Anthony Davis Discussion: Thanks For The Ring AD!!!

God damn - @vasashi17 how are you STILL beating this drum?

We won this deal both now and in the future - it's not close.

FO coulda been like Boston at the end of the day and just held onto their "assets".

We went for it because of Bron - and we're seeing the results of that now.

Lots of season left but I'm happy with what I'm seeing thus far.

Klutch may have forced a deal but don't all agents force a deal? Isn't that kind of their job to make their client happy?

Lakers at the ennd of the day had to pony up everything to make it happen for a superstar, generational talent. And you're mad at that?

Also - Lonzo/Hart are trash and Ingram has been great but he isn't helping that team get W's - we honestly ripped them off and we got to keep Kuz (who has sucked so far but we still kept a young player with potential) AND we still have our picks this year AND next year to improve the team further - and we are still finding gems in g-league and undrafted guys (See Caruso).

Give some effing credit where it's due.

 

Also, in those two games:

AD: 47 points
Gobert: 21 points

Jesus H. Mind boggling.

 

Hart hasn't been trash. And why does no one mention the fact that we'd have one of (Hayes/Hunter/Garland/Culver/White) all who are starter or rotation level players. Why does no one mention that our front office has been able to select starter/rotation quality players at 27-30 so there's two more pieces we sacrificed?

Yes, we've won the trade for the year... not by a small margin but a huge margin... but trades with future considerations have long term consequences, so it remains to be seen what the future brings.

Some people believe our actions of today have no significant effect on the environment and future generations. Some do. Only time will tell what happens. Right now it looks like AD is getting stronger and stronger, LBJ is as good as ever... but we are only a labrum or groin away from mediocrity.

It's fair to say we are doing well this year, while also worrying about the long term effects of our behavior.

Were the Clippers poor executives because they signed Kawhi?

The same crew that signed this group gave up all our young assets to sign him... are they any dumber or smarter because Kawhi is declining? No, we dodged a bullet... there wasn't genius involved.

There by the grace of God go us as the old saying goes. Enjoy the good fortune while we have it.

 

How you guys STILL beating the conundrum doe?

I gave effing credit to Klutch/AD...they made it happen. There was no waffling like George where Mintz did all the “hellbent” innuendo or Kawhi going dark till decision time...Rich/AD got fined for publicly demanding out of Nawlins. They strategically did it during a time the Cbags couldn’t even make a trade. They publicly deterred Ainge/Demps from even thinking about visiting it during the summer.

You want to give that credit to the FO tho? The same FO that created that type of AD leverage with those 1yr deals you guys heavily maligned? The same FO that was criticized by y’all for dumping DLo to go get Bron to start this wonderful dynamic duo? Oh yeah, that’s right...one dude left and now it’s all the rage celebrating grad FO. What a #condrum y’all are.

And now when they barren the asset chest to help supplement and insure the Bron/AD union, y’all want to shower them with credit. Go see their minutes and how painfully similar it is to MDA’s Harden/Russ duo. Be warned tho, your Achilles won’t be the same if you do.

Y’all act like getting the Klutch duo means it’s mission accomplished. Protect that investment. A third star would have done it. If not, then goddamn come up with a contingency where you ain’t potentially running the duo into the ground.

And btw, we don’t have our 2021 1st. We only get it if it’s not top 8. As of now we can’t even trade our 2020 1st in any potential trade even if we wanted to. But why would we want to? Bron/AD avg 35mpg is totally fine and sustainable through June according to the beat of y’all drums. Pft.

Hey, you’re preaching to the tinfoil choir over here. I think #HeStay too...still, it wouldn’t hurt if we had the option to sign him to a max extension right now, right?

 

I can buy the future picks can rarely bring you in a Tony Parker type and some of these rookies will get better. But man a lot of this is just hyperbole and this draft class after the top 2 looks like one of the worse in years.

Hart may not be trash but he's been below average (A PER of 13.1 which is below average and he's got a negative +/-)

Garland has been complete trash: he is not anywhere close to a starter or rotation level player on a title team
Hunter is a long ways off as well he's got a PER of a whopping 8 something and a negative+/-
Culver is a big step up with a PER of 9.8 and just a slightly negative +/-
Coby White with another massive leap up with PER of 10 something and negative +/-

Hayes is the only with an above-average PER but there is no indication that he would have been the Lakers pick.

Yeah, who knows maybe Davis's shoulder blows up but 4-5 years of a guy in the MVP + DPOY conversation is just worth more than a bunch of rotation players in the NBA. I mean you can go back to Barkley trade and Phoenix actually got some decent players like Hornacek and Perry out of the deal. However, right now the players the Lakers got out of the trash heap in AB and Howard and actually performing significantly better than anyone in the trade not named BI and he's in a contract year with a free reign on a bad team

Another way to look at this the trade actually opened the door for some other Lakers particularly Caruso to sign now that you don't have to worry about a dearth of guys like Lonzo and Hart in his position. I'd take Caruso easily over both Lonzo and Hart

 

but if NO picks junk like they usually do, it doesn't count, right? cuz post hoc.

sentient one moment:

sentient, one sentence later:

the decision to sign kawhi instead of continuing to be the clippers was f***ing brilliant. as was trading a bunch of non-stars for AD. what happens later is immaterial as it has nothing to do with what could be known at the moment.

our pursuit of kawhi was a good idea because he's a superstar and there weren't others available in FA. him not finishing the season wouldn't make that pursuit stupid in retrospect...because things are only stupid in the moment. if the bad outcome was easily foreseeable with the facts available.

you should try it. we're 20-3 and you're pining for brandon f***ing ingram. oh, and other stuff nobody cares about.

 

Appreciate both Pioneer and abeer's responses but look at the list of all time PER and you can immediately see the random people who pop on the list.
Sure the top two is pretty good but unless AD plays like he has the last few weeks for the rest of his career... he doesn't deserve to be above players like Shaq, Magic, Kareem... among many others. I'm not saying AD can never be a top ten player... but he has a lot of work to get there and this shows the flaw of using PER as the main metric. The rest of Pioneer's post is a fair and polite response.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_efficiency_rating

My point about comparing our trade with the Clippers is that we gave up six assets for one elite player. The Clippers gave up 9 assets for two elite players.

Both were risky moves but the Clippers still gave up less considering their moves allowed them to land both Kawhi and PG... and their players were going to be mostly likely lower picks than all of ours if you consider BI/Zo and #4 were all high lottery picks.

IF Kawhi is healthy, you cannot find fault with the Clippers move... but since he might not be, all of a sudden it seems rash and cursed.

My point is that if AD or LBJ gets hurt or if LBJ shows his age... the trade also doesn't look amazing. Considering AD's injury history as well as LBJ's age... to assume something might go wrong in either case wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination.

I am happy we are defying the odds... but a lot of the success is the function of pure luck more than prudent calculation.

 

Yogurt is soft. Soft bigs do soft things when they play against beasts. See 2001 NBA Finals for reference.

 

true I missed that good catch so only the Elgin Baylor game applies that makes it 58 years since and only 1 other game. And this was AD's 24th game with the club? Amazing.

 

I remember I was happily contented in absorbing Solomon Hill's contract LMAO

 

Let me ask you one simple question - if Doncic suffers a career ending injry this year, does it mean Dallas made the wrong move by drafting him?