i'm more on the side of jj being a mixture of nervous and loyal to the guys who have been putting in the hours/work all year. the gabe thing was the same. he just couldn't find a way to justify sitting a dude that he thought was giving his all and putting the team first, etc. i get that, but it just feels like other teams find ways to get minutes for their prospects without blowing up chances at winning or alienating all the vets. but maybe the answer is simply having fewer options.
Yes, and I added to the post last page saying I agree that Adou “should” still get some run and experience THIS year. Wholeheartedly.
They’re absolutely pretending, because that’s what you do when you’re the Lakers, you say championship or bust to the media and fans even if you know it isn’t happening this season. If they aren’t, and they really believe this roster can win it all, then they shouldn’t be in their jobs because that’s delusional and poor talent/roster evaluation. I’m not hating on them here, again, this is just what the Lakers do, say the goal is championship even when it’s not gonna happen. Only in rare rebuilding years did they ever even hint at otherwise. I just wish in years that we had no real shot at it, that we wouldn’t straddle this middle ground for a first or second round exit, over playing and developing youth for the future, which probably doesn’t hurt that same first or second round exit anyway. But we don’t do that here, rather than develop something for going forward we hurt ourselves in the long run and continue to use a revolving door of vet min guys, rentals, reclamation projects, etc.. If we ever hope to change the culture around here, to start to be better at finding homegrown young talent for cheap on the margins, at some point we have to change that. I never expect us to be OKC or SA in that regard and have a roster full of it, but I’d like us to try it with 2 or 3 young players at least.
Well the fact he gave Gabe such a sucking long leash just doesn't help JJs case here. Particularly since the Lakers have gotten their a** hands to them by physical guards and wings over and over again. It's frustrating as there is a need that hasn't been filled and you have this athletic freak who fits the bill. Even if Vando Jake Rui were more consistent on offense they just kind of get torched with the bully ball types
only way to get a roster full of it is to suck for multiple years like those two teams did. laker fans would never put up with it from what i've seen. plus, we got luka at a weird time, so here we are. and frankly i don't care about the messaging to the media. everyone knows we aren't winning unless several guys get hurt (which, btw, seems to happen annually now, so maybe that's a source of confidence!), but i feel like we're not the only team that, when asked, talks of the championship as the goal every year save the tank. like, cleveland and ny are no closer than we are this year, but i'm sure that's their stated aim. my beef is best exemplified by looking at the nuggets. everyone would agree they've been in contention for the past few years, right? championship the goal at all times. christian braun was bad his first two years. net negative. they found 16 and 20mpg for him in 76 and 82 games! watson sat a lot his rookie year, but got 19 and 24mpg in years 2 and 3 (while still struggling, i'll add). strawther played 20mpg in 65 games last year after a jhs-ish rookie year and still struggled as well. dalton knecht was better as a rookie than these guys, and his reward has been a drastic reduction in games and minutes played, despite just being similarly bad. and maybe knecht is another jhs (who i think is literally no longer playing basketball), but it's also possible he's not, and we just have ZERO patience. knecht was better than jaylon tyson (also old like knecht) as a rookie, but tyson got opportunities his second year and is playing well now. like half the C Bags rotation this year is guys who were either really inexperienced or pretty bad before this year. and that can't all just be the C Bags' system, as the guys who left (e.g., horford, kornet) look about the same as they did there in other places. 23 year old rookie daniss jenkins was basically jhs during his similarly brief rookie appearances. anyway, yes, some of this is better scouting, better coaching, etc. but some of it just patience and a willingness to deal with some growing pains.
Agreed on almost all of this, but as far as the Knicks and Cavs, the Knicks already went all in and paid a ****load for their roster so yes they genuinely are going for it all, as much as that franchise can. The Cavs also traded for Harden, so yes they also are truly going for it all. Being in the East, either one of them COULD make the Finals, and then key injuries to OKC from trying to go back to back could happen and they’d have a real shot. It’s always a toss up between a handful of teams in the East, but out here it’s brutal, we could yet again end up with Denver round 1. I get what you’re saying, but it’s just different circumstances, we have no legit shot as is unless key injuries happen to every team along the way for us, LeBron looks 35 again come playoff time and figures out how to play with our other 2 stars, and some of our non-defenders suddenly become neutral or positive there. Those teams you listed genuinely are TRYING to win it all is what I mean, where we are killing time until we have cap space. Again, I don’t have an issue with it at this point, it just is it what is, which is why I’d love to see someone like Thiero get time with the main team. As you said can it really be that much worse than some of the minutes Jake and Vando have given us at times?
Well stated. There are more than a couple guys every year given real burn, on Championship Level squads, that aren’t project to be ROTY candidates. Out of the last four really good players we developed(Zubac, The Eagle, AR, Max), we discarded two and traded one(understandably). I remember when JJ was hired, there was all this talk about player development. We haven’t seen nearly enough of this come to fruition.
yeah, fair enough--they can claim they're doing everything humanly possible to win now. whether that makes a ton of sense or not is up for debate.
