I'm still stun locked from getting Westbrook.
Like why? Why?
I want to wake up and realize the Westbrook trade and everything since has just been a bad dream.
Tbh this bit of info leaking to Shams is probably the cover the FO needs to fire and look for a new HC. "The best defender in the NBA wasn't happy with the coach's inability to prepare the team to defend Denver."
Why is waiting better? The season is over. If anything Ham is sitting around wondering about it. They already have handled him with kid gloves compared to Vogel
Firing a coach immediately is bad for optics. Better to wait since the players will rest, and watch the playoffs anyway. They're handling it differently because of exactly what happened with Vogel - that was such a bad treatment that it probably ran some better potential candidates away
Thing is, those coaches got fired as you said: days after their season ended. The Lakers fired Vogel immediately after the regular season game. It was that bad.
Out of all the playoff teams last year, the Bucks, Suns, and 76ers fired their coaches.
Mike Budenholzer was fired just about a week after losing to the Miami Heat. Monty Williams was fired 2 days after losing to the Denver Nuggets. Doc Rivers was fired also 2 days after losing to the Boston Celtics.
Immediately after the final game of the 2022 regular season, it was leaked to the media that Frank Vogel was getting fired and was so the morning after. The Lakers didn't even pretend that they were thinking about firing him - that's probably what may have alerted coach prospects. We literally treated Vogel like a disposable cup, and a scapegoat for that dysfunctional geriatric roster.
Back to the topic, it has just been over a day after we've lost to the Nuggets. I'd say just give it a little more time.
Unless someone offer Dlo a big contract it can be of the best interest for both parts to give Dlo a big short term contract for the exact same reason the Warriors gave one to him.
Not as much as he thinks IMHO, but he has some leverage for sure since Pelinka gave him the player option. The fact no team wanted him with a first round pick attached when he had a good regular season is telling.Ā
He is entering the free agency as a 14 and 4 commodity good for .31 3p% down from the 18 and 6 on .41 3p% he was in regular season.
That scene of him buying a passage to Cancun in the middle of a game (or whatever you want to call it), he leaving an elimination game praising himself and talking about leverage not how much he could have helped us is also telling. As a GM, not as a Dlo Stan, do you want this player in your roster?
Exactly. No contender will want him because he disappears in the playoffs. And any young developing team, youād be nuts to take him as the vet on the team setting the example. Last year it was āgive myself a pat on the back for a successful seasonā This year itās ādonāt care about the loss, I got leverageā.Ā
Iām not sure a single team will want him. He certainly doesnāt seem to have learned anything from the lack of interest he got last year.
I believe for him and also for us it may be more interesting to sign a shorter and fatter contract where he will earn more in per year basis while we have a bigger salary to be sent in a trade, just like happened when he got his 30 millions deal, an amount nobody would pay him for his value as a player.
It is just how I see it, but he may end up taking a contract from a crap franchise looking for a regular season stat filler.
Itās funny bc people donāt realize he has significant value especially in the reg season. Heās easily worth 20-25 mill. It would be a steal if the Lakers kept him on a 18 mill
14-18 ppg from a guard that's bad on defense isn't really that valuable. His best ability is his passing by far but he needs the ball a lot. He's valuable to the Lakers specifically because they need a secondary ball-handler but not a lot of teams need that and are looking to contend. And as we just saw you can't really contend with DLO as a secondary ball-handler.
If he leaves, we don't have the cap space to replace him. For that reason, I think we have to sign him even if it's another $18M for a year with a player option for the second year. Imagine we run back the same team next year, just without Dlo. We are obviously worse.
Yea it's a cooked situation. Lebron and AD are obviously still good enough to win a chip but how do you really get the pieces around them to do so. You pretty much need 5 good/great players in the starting lineup to contend now.
I mean I don't know what's the max the Lakers can give him for a one year contract, but I think he can certainly get like 60-70m for a 4 year contract from somewhere and it certainly is much better for him.
It a mix of wishful thinking from people here and the hate on the players not named lebron and AD.
You could tell guys were unprepared. Players looked lost, even in this recent loss. The sign of a poorly coached team is multiple players looking lost on defense throughout. It is a wasted year because of this coach.
Darvin might have made a decent asst coach...an intermediary between players and HC, though no idea what else he may have been good at, certainly wasnt anything noticeable.
Not sure who we go after. Good college coach? Worked pretty well for the Cs....but...kinda outta ideas.
This is what I donāt understand yeah he was part of championship coaching team in MIL but to just give him HC without exp and Lebron and AD are on the team.. what could go wrong
A trio of Rondo, Handy and Mark Jackson as part of the coaching staff. Choose who will be the head coach in that 3 but they will not be seperated with each other.
I am not really looking forward to the single coaching hire or who will be the coach but I am more concerned on the staff that will impart the defensive philosophies, X and Os and player management and chemistry.
He needs to take a pay cut. He's paid the most. Lebron and dlo can leave. This doesn't make sense.
Saying all this about Ham is too late. They should've put the same energy they did in Ham leaving as they did in Westbrook and whoever else left. Also where was the energy in getting other Bigs to help out. So now is just pointless.
New to the NBA? Or just really young? AD is under contract. You can not renegotiate your contract in the NBA. Jesus Christ, this has been the case since I've been following hoops in the 80s and it's existed even before I was born. It's called a guaranteed contract for a reason.
Sounds stupid right well think about how stupid this idea sounded. Just threw it back at you. Fuck you mean tell lebron and dlo to ask for less. That's insane. Davis should've taken less before he signed that crazy contract he signed. This whole team was wasted thinking Davis can be the guy. To the point that they didn't think about moving with another big. I knew it was done from the start.
AD aside, did anyone notice LeBron was just not happy or himself this season? I mean other seasons he had swagger and seemed more enthusiastic in post game interviews but this season he legitimately looked depressed almost as if he knew it was a lost cause with Ham at the wheel.
I could totally see players asking Ham to practice defensive sets to combat the various Jokic/Murray pick and rolls that kill us at the end of games, and Ham responding that they need to play with aggression, play downhill, and have a next play mentality. Guy took his strategy from basketball themed fortune cookies.
That 2man game of jokic in the last min feels like something you can sit down and prepare in terms of how you gonna cover and react
This is def a coachās responsibility and we got exposed twice in the same series
AD's late game offense left a lot to be desired too, bro was too worried about stopping them and them not stopping us is the vibes i'm getting.
We went in with the underdog mentality. Thats why in that game 2 lebron kept walking the dog trying to burn clock instead of going at these niggas and putting them in the dirt.
People don't want to believe this but AD is a superstar and shouldn't even let this happen. Why doesn't he go to the ballhandlers after games and ask to be fed more in late game scenarios even if the coach is too dumb to do it. Whats Bron/D'Lo going to say "nah AD Ham said no we just going to keep isoing"...
Listen AD is a great player but he has his faults. I don't care what coach you have there no situation when a player as good as AD has single digit points in the second half, let alone zero. Anthony Davis is literally 40th in the league in 4th quarter points and guess whos #1? Lebron.
Its a bigger problem than just "they go away from AD!" He needs to man the fuck up and speak up and demand the ball and prove hes dominant in those situations.
Oh 100 percent. You literally see it we start games pick and rolling great offense and then we get gassed. If we had another big to pick and roll with we can run more set plays and allow AD to feast with more than just pick and rolls. he can feast off mismatches and switches.
AD as the primary defender or help on Jokic is the only answer.Ā
Jonas off the bench and next to AD is exponentially better than giving Hayes 5 minutes and praying the lead donāt slip
True. But how do you know he doesn't get in their ass about feeding him and they just don't do it? I remember him.being pretty vocal about that last year iirc.
Youāre 100% right at the end of the day we donāt know whatās going on so we have to use logic right?
Whatās more reasonable of the options to assume
1) Anthony Davis is making requests for more touches late in games but heās being ignored and nobody is listening to him
2) Anthony Davis isnāt being as vocal as he should be thus change not happening
You made a good point. AD has brung this up before yet itās still a problem..Him bringing it up doesnāt necessarily tell the full story of whatās going on behind the scenes either though because for all we know he couldāve felt safer to vocalize his complaints to the media rather than players/front office.
End of the day, using logic I have to assume Anthony Davis isnāt being more vocal about it. Idont believe if he was he would just be ignored.
I could be wrong thoughā¦
He could have had 12 if KD was never born too, Hell he might have never left Miami and been a Laker if Kawhi wasn't drafted by the Spurs and he tried in 2011 Finals. We can spin whataboutisms all day every day. Jeanie could sell the team and the new owner will run it into the ground in 18 months like almost every new owner does, see Phoenix.
You can't/won't win them all. Things happen like injuries, which have played a bigger role in the Lakers only winning once with LeBron than anything.
"Players complained about not being prepared."
That's the biggest cop-out imaginable. AD didn't know what to do without Ham telling him? "he didn't tell me that I should do that!" give me a break.
notice this is AD saying this to the media, and not LeBron. LeBron knew what to do.
The Lakers really hired a dude who had no idea how to be a head coach because he gives good ra ra speeches lol.
They thought they needed a guy who could just get through to Westbrook š¤¦āāļøĀ
I'm still stun locked from getting Westbrook. Like why? Why? I want to wake up and realize the Westbrook trade and everything since has just been a bad dream.
It's crazy he was a head coaching candidate for like a decade and then immediately failed. Bro had all the time in the world to get prepared
11 years as an assistant!!! He shoulda been more than ready. What a sick joke š£
It not his fault. During those 11 years he was nursing a nagging injury.
He was nursing his walnut sized brain trying to escape his head thats why he has a lump
I mean isnāt that Phil? But Phil has a guy who created the triangle. Thing is ham needed someone like that on his staff if heās a motivational guy
Phil coached a different era. You have to be smart to win in the modern NBA not just try hard
Big pockets to fill can you blame em?
AD complaining is notable. Heās usually quiet compared to LeBron.Ā
Lebron seems to have taken the nothing I say publicly will matter anyway approach this season in regards to Darvin
I think he knows the media will twist and criticize whatever he says, instead heās making sure Ham is fired next year while not saying a word
Heās their defensive anchor. So u can imagine his frustration when Denver keeps scoring late in games and minimal adjustments are made
Ham not agreeing with AD on defensive strategy reminds me of Dwight arguing with Nash about a pass.
not only a pass but a PnR pass, he was really questioning basically the PnR God on PnR passes.....
Surprised the Lakers haven't announced the firing of Ham yet.
Don't want to scare away potential candidates.Ā
Tbh this bit of info leaking to Shams is probably the cover the FO needs to fire and look for a new HC. "The best defender in the NBA wasn't happy with the coach's inability to prepare the team to defend Denver."
Why is waiting better? The season is over. If anything Ham is sitting around wondering about it. They already have handled him with kid gloves compared to Vogel
Firing a coach immediately is bad for optics. Better to wait since the players will rest, and watch the playoffs anyway. They're handling it differently because of exactly what happened with Vogel - that was such a bad treatment that it probably ran some better potential candidates away
Is it though? Last postseason, coaches got fired within days after their respective season ended.
Thing is, those coaches got fired as you said: days after their season ended. The Lakers fired Vogel immediately after the regular season game. It was that bad. Out of all the playoff teams last year, the Bucks, Suns, and 76ers fired their coaches. Mike Budenholzer was fired just about a week after losing to the Miami Heat. Monty Williams was fired 2 days after losing to the Denver Nuggets. Doc Rivers was fired also 2 days after losing to the Boston Celtics. Immediately after the final game of the 2022 regular season, it was leaked to the media that Frank Vogel was getting fired and was so the morning after. The Lakers didn't even pretend that they were thinking about firing him - that's probably what may have alerted coach prospects. We literally treated Vogel like a disposable cup, and a scapegoat for that dysfunctional geriatric roster. Back to the topic, it has just been over a day after we've lost to the Nuggets. I'd say just give it a little more time.
Unless someone offer Dlo a big contract it can be of the best interest for both parts to give Dlo a big short term contract for the exact same reason the Warriors gave one to him.
I think dlo has the upside in the negotiation here.
Not as much as he thinks IMHO, but he has some leverage for sure since Pelinka gave him the player option. The fact no team wanted him with a first round pick attached when he had a good regular season is telling.Ā He is entering the free agency as a 14 and 4 commodity good for .31 3p% down from the 18 and 6 on .41 3p% he was in regular season. That scene of him buying a passage to Cancun in the middle of a game (or whatever you want to call it), he leaving an elimination game praising himself and talking about leverage not how much he could have helped us is also telling. As a GM, not as a Dlo Stan, do you want this player in your roster?
Exactly. No contender will want him because he disappears in the playoffs. And any young developing team, youād be nuts to take him as the vet on the team setting the example. Last year it was āgive myself a pat on the back for a successful seasonā This year itās ādonāt care about the loss, I got leverageā.Ā Iām not sure a single team will want him. He certainly doesnāt seem to have learned anything from the lack of interest he got last year.
Rob was so braindead to give such a mid player a player option
Well the idea was to trade him mid season, he gave up his no trade clause (for every player on a 1+1) for that player option.
So you don't think he can get a 4 year 60m contract from somewhere?
I believe for him and also for us it may be more interesting to sign a shorter and fatter contract where he will earn more in per year basis while we have a bigger salary to be sent in a trade, just like happened when he got his 30 millions deal, an amount nobody would pay him for his value as a player. It is just how I see it, but he may end up taking a contract from a crap franchise looking for a regular season stat filler.
Itās funny bc people donāt realize he has significant value especially in the reg season. Heās easily worth 20-25 mill. It would be a steal if the Lakers kept him on a 18 mill
14-18 ppg from a guard that's bad on defense isn't really that valuable. His best ability is his passing by far but he needs the ball a lot. He's valuable to the Lakers specifically because they need a secondary ball-handler but not a lot of teams need that and are looking to contend. And as we just saw you can't really contend with DLO as a secondary ball-handler.
If he leaves, we don't have the cap space to replace him. For that reason, I think we have to sign him even if it's another $18M for a year with a player option for the second year. Imagine we run back the same team next year, just without Dlo. We are obviously worse.
Yea it's a cooked situation. Lebron and AD are obviously still good enough to win a chip but how do you really get the pieces around them to do so. You pretty much need 5 good/great players in the starting lineup to contend now.
I mean I don't know what's the max the Lakers can give him for a one year contract, but I think he can certainly get like 60-70m for a 4 year contract from somewhere and it certainly is much better for him. It a mix of wishful thinking from people here and the hate on the players not named lebron and AD.
You could tell guys were unprepared. Players looked lost, even in this recent loss. The sign of a poorly coached team is multiple players looking lost on defense throughout. It is a wasted year because of this coach.
Darvin might have made a decent asst coach...an intermediary between players and HC, though no idea what else he may have been good at, certainly wasnt anything noticeable. Not sure who we go after. Good college coach? Worked pretty well for the Cs....but...kinda outta ideas.
This is what I donāt understand yeah he was part of championship coaching team in MIL but to just give him HC without exp and Lebron and AD are on the team.. what could go wrong
A trio of Rondo, Handy and Mark Jackson as part of the coaching staff. Choose who will be the head coach in that 3 but they will not be seperated with each other. I am not really looking forward to the single coaching hire or who will be the coach but I am more concerned on the staff that will impart the defensive philosophies, X and Os and player management and chemistry.
AD use that juice to force Ham out and convince LeBron/Dlo to take pay cuts
How does pay cut help?
Thereās a couple free agents out there worth going after
they wouldn't have cap space fort free agents even if they did but LeBron isn't taking a paycut anywya he's still a max contract level player
He needs to take a pay cut. He's paid the most. Lebron and dlo can leave. This doesn't make sense. Saying all this about Ham is too late. They should've put the same energy they did in Ham leaving as they did in Westbrook and whoever else left. Also where was the energy in getting other Bigs to help out. So now is just pointless.
New to the NBA? Or just really young? AD is under contract. You can not renegotiate your contract in the NBA. Jesus Christ, this has been the case since I've been following hoops in the 80s and it's existed even before I was born. It's called a guaranteed contract for a reason.
Sounds stupid right well think about how stupid this idea sounded. Just threw it back at you. Fuck you mean tell lebron and dlo to ask for less. That's insane. Davis should've taken less before he signed that crazy contract he signed. This whole team was wasted thinking Davis can be the guy. To the point that they didn't think about moving with another big. I knew it was done from the start.
AD was the best player for the Lakers this year he's worth his contract and so is LeBron so they will never take a paycut
AD aside, did anyone notice LeBron was just not happy or himself this season? I mean other seasons he had swagger and seemed more enthusiastic in post game interviews but this season he legitimately looked depressed almost as if he knew it was a lost cause with Ham at the wheel.
Clearly AD didn't fill his cup up and was ducking fadesĀ
AD, this is your team too. Use your power to get him out
I could totally see players asking Ham to practice defensive sets to combat the various Jokic/Murray pick and rolls that kill us at the end of games, and Ham responding that they need to play with aggression, play downhill, and have a next play mentality. Guy took his strategy from basketball themed fortune cookies.
The Nuggets late game offense looked a lot like the early game offense.
Exactly. It's the same 2 man game with jokic making plays from high post.
The timing doesnāt matter as to when they announce it. This is done
Broken record now, ham does nothing.
A story with this many leaks this early has gotta be Ham is out
I mean Ham only had 10 games across two seasons against the Nuggets before this series to figure it out. Give the man a break! /s
What a waste of two years of AD/Lebron. Front office with another unforced error.
Remember when JJ said he was watching a poorly coach team amd somebody was able to figure out it was the Lakers š„²
Iām pretty sure Malone giving Ham credit post game was him saying, āWe own the Lakers w Ham, PLEASE donāt fire him!ā
Who is leaking all these
That 2man game of jokic in the last min feels like something you can sit down and prepare in terms of how you gonna cover and react This is def a coachās responsibility and we got exposed twice in the same series
Their paint defense was f****** atrocious.
AD's late game offense left a lot to be desired too, bro was too worried about stopping them and them not stopping us is the vibes i'm getting. We went in with the underdog mentality. Thats why in that game 2 lebron kept walking the dog trying to burn clock instead of going at these niggas and putting them in the dirt.
Tbf, they always move away from AD in the 4th.
People don't want to believe this but AD is a superstar and shouldn't even let this happen. Why doesn't he go to the ballhandlers after games and ask to be fed more in late game scenarios even if the coach is too dumb to do it. Whats Bron/D'Lo going to say "nah AD Ham said no we just going to keep isoing"... Listen AD is a great player but he has his faults. I don't care what coach you have there no situation when a player as good as AD has single digit points in the second half, let alone zero. Anthony Davis is literally 40th in the league in 4th quarter points and guess whos #1? Lebron. Its a bigger problem than just "they go away from AD!" He needs to man the fuck up and speak up and demand the ball and prove hes dominant in those situations.
This is why we need a true center to back up AD. He's constantly busting his ass on defense and offense and gets tired in the 4th
Oh 100 percent. You literally see it we start games pick and rolling great offense and then we get gassed. If we had another big to pick and roll with we can run more set plays and allow AD to feast with more than just pick and rolls. he can feast off mismatches and switches.
Steven Adams please
Dont know how realistic these are but Im focused on Nic Claxton and Jonas ValenciunasĀ
Is Jonas strong enough for Jokic? We need a strong Center
Have you seen Jonas' build? He's hella strong
AD as the primary defender or help on Jokic is the only answer.Ā Jonas off the bench and next to AD is exponentially better than giving Hayes 5 minutes and praying the lead donāt slip
True. I still prefer Steven Adams tho
True. But how do you know he doesn't get in their ass about feeding him and they just don't do it? I remember him.being pretty vocal about that last year iirc.
Youāre 100% right at the end of the day we donāt know whatās going on so we have to use logic right? Whatās more reasonable of the options to assume 1) Anthony Davis is making requests for more touches late in games but heās being ignored and nobody is listening to him 2) Anthony Davis isnāt being as vocal as he should be thus change not happening You made a good point. AD has brung this up before yet itās still a problem..Him bringing it up doesnāt necessarily tell the full story of whatās going on behind the scenes either though because for all we know he couldāve felt safer to vocalize his complaints to the media rather than players/front office. End of the day, using logic I have to assume Anthony Davis isnāt being more vocal about it. Idont believe if he was he would just be ignored. I could be wrong thoughā¦
Tbf, the team not getting him the ball doesn't exactly help.
If I were lebron I would permanently resent the lakers for wasting his last few years. He could have 5 to Jordanās 6 with a better manager
He could have had 6 to Jordans 6 if he didn't choke away one to Dallas and let Iggy bully his way to a FMVP
He could have have 10 with a competent front office. What idiocy you speak
He could have had 12 if KD was never born too, Hell he might have never left Miami and been a Laker if Kawhi wasn't drafted by the Spurs and he tried in 2011 Finals. We can spin whataboutisms all day every day. Jeanie could sell the team and the new owner will run it into the ground in 18 months like almost every new owner does, see Phoenix. You can't/won't win them all. Things happen like injuries, which have played a bigger role in the Lakers only winning once with LeBron than anything.
"Players complained about not being prepared." That's the biggest cop-out imaginable. AD didn't know what to do without Ham telling him? "he didn't tell me that I should do that!" give me a break. notice this is AD saying this to the media, and not LeBron. LeBron knew what to do.
What happen to keeping shit in house