LeBron James Discussion: Not Returning To The Lakers

This was exactly thought after thinking about it more today.

It's his passive aggressive way of saying there needs to be change.

Hint Rob: go get us some shooting.

 

At this point, what moves can you really make. All your new signers can’t be moved for months right?

 

Yes, in December

Has to be Russ.

 

I could see that happening as well. And I won't watch a single game along the way most likely unless it's just to interact with fellow fans. The team isn't worth watching at this point.

 

1. why am i starting to like windhorst? he always annoyed me historically, but he seems to have entered some sort of idgaf phase in his reporting and style that i enjoy. my friend and i call this "old kobe" phase.
2. anyway, the second part is what i attended to--i agree that if you can't shoot, why set things up as if you can? if nobody's going to guard your guards anyway, play a big and at least deter at the basket and pound people on the boards? if you're going to play a bunch of penetrators, set things up so that there are multiple drives from one side to the other until the defense breaks down. if you can't get all the way to the hoop, cause enough chaos in the middle of the floor to get an honest midrange shot up and then crash the glass with your bigs. you can take advantage of teams essentially zoning up in this way.
3. i'm not interested in lebron's feelings on personnel moves. ever again. ever.

we'll be out of contention by december. but we won't be at the bottom of the lotto heap.

too many teams will be either really bad or intentionally losing or a combination of both: sas, hou, utah, okc, orl, det, indy. plus i expect charlotte and washington to be bad and blow up, and maybe sac (and lol, yes, maybe us). maybe one of those teams surprises, but it will be offset by an injury that plunges an unexpected team into this group. in short--unless we TRY to lose games (our pick isn't ours, so this is out), we won't finish any worse than last year.

why does this matter? because i don't think we'll ever be far enough out of the play-in, given these facts, to warrant just doing nothing for that reason alone. at the very least, we need to be thinking about what can set us up best for next year, and that's more likely to be a trade this year than FA next year.

i do agree that it's possible nothing happens because the right trade isn't there. it wasn't there this summer, for sure. and we could have rotten luck there again, but seems unlikely to me. something will materialize, and i don't think russ just expires here.

 

This is honestly my take for a few reasons. One is pushing things along and trying to keep us fans at bay with the promise of a move to soon to come. It's essentially what I think we've been doing as we heard that there would be better deals at the trade deadline last year, then the same for this summer, and now that there will be better deals in a month. Teams don't want Russ and some don't want to deal with Rob. Hopefully that changes, but I'm certainly not going to get too invested in that hope.

The other is that we're not operating alone in a vacuum. It's something the podcast guys were hinting at and its long been my worry. Sure, there will be teams tanking but there will also be contenders and teams on the cusp looking for a missing piece. The Pelicans, Wolves, and Cavs all come to mind as recent examples. If you're on the cusp and you want to get over the hump, you're going to be looking for someone who could come in and add size or shooting ala Turner or Hield types.

Also, if someone like a Bradley Beal emerged we know guys like Riley or Morey are going to find 200m in their couch cushions and all the other teams will bend over to help them put a deal together.

So yeah, I think we've got to hope for some kind of miracle and that some star pushes his way here. I'm sure we're working back channels and Klutch/LeBron are tampering away but I'll be skeptical of all these things until an actual deal is announced.

 

i'm thinking we'll be able to scoop up the norman powells and robert covington types that the clippers have gotten seemingly every year just using expiring contracts.

 

That would be ideal.

 

as the date approaches, i'll be scouring underperforming rosters for vets or bad contracts they want to unload with goodies (like we did with russell/mozgov). too early to know yet.

 

We might have to wait till Jr to get a 3 point shooter

 

yep. what is talking with the press about missed shots going to do? they were in a tight game with the most expensive roster in basketball, led by HOF coach tyronn lue, even without being able to hit the broad side of a barn. we *should* be able to find ways to win more than half our games with lebron and AD and the things we do have. ask questions about that. i'd like to hear a thoughtful follow up--what sorts of things do you think can you do to offset the shooting issues, etc.?

 

he should talk about his 3 point shooting though hahaahahahahahaa

you suck leBrone

 

He's lost all cafeteria privileges as far as I'm concerned. The management staff will take it from here kthxbi

 

Unreal how good he is still: the 3 point shooting is a bit disappointing but he still puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the defense.
Defense is a bit meh but looks like he can still it on (Kawhii hit a pull up jumper over him but I don't think that was bad defense per see and the George block was great)

 

Stupid three at the end. Bro you're 2-9... It doesn't help that Nurkic is just roaming off Westbrook ala the Zubac with the Clippers game. Looks like Ham panicked and kept Lebron in for 14 plus minutes straight to close the game.. That ain't cool.

 

Has to be tough taking the high road when witnessing such basketball incompetence. Wonder if he'll still be biting his tongue 17 games from now