Why THIS Lakers’ Offseason is DO OR DIE
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Welcome to the Lakers Collective — a weekly Los Angeles Lakers roundtable featuring NBA reporter Jovan Buha (host of Buha’s Block), Trevor Lane (host at Lakers Nation & The NBA Front Office Show), and Jason Timpf (host of Hoops Tonight at The Volume).
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22 Comments
With Pelinka, we are already de4d.
Now, if Mark Walter takes over and finally build a professional front office, like he did with the Dodgers, then we'll start seeing moves we could've never expected. Not necessarily splashy moves, but strategic ones (through great scouting and negotiation), which could dramatically improve the role players' level and overall depth and versatility.
$50m doesn’t include the raise AR is finna get am I right? That’s $25m right there.
A bigtime player or full shakeup
Keep Luka, Reaves, Kennard, Hayes, Thiero, smart and Maxi. Get another co Superstar (doesn't need to be Giannis) alongside Luka who doesn't need the ball all the time, and fill the remaining roster with two way/3&D players. With our cap space and picks. I'm sure we can do that.
"No move" Palinka.
Jovan on point. The lineup are backups. Good deep bench for Lakers.
You guys keep talking about the Lakers' needs and lamenting on what an impossible task it seems, without talking about why it's an impossible task. The reason is because you need to hit on those draft picks so that you can have guys who are significant role players on rookie deals. No team in the league can build a Thunder team or a San Antonio Spurs type team, with the salary cap that the Lakers have this summer, which is actually pretty ideal. Yet it wont be enough without hitting on draft picks. You want all these guys that are gonna be important players, serviceable players, and you're lamenting on why $50-something million is not enough, and you're not talking about why it isn't enough. If you think somehow Rob Pelinka is gonna make you happy this summer, you're gonna be sorely disappointed because it's an impossible task for anybody. You need to discuss more about why it's an impossible task. It's because you need to hit on your own draft picks. You need to talk more about how Adou has to bust out next year. You have to talk about how the 2026 draft pick needs to be playable. You're not gonna magically build an OKC contender with $50-something million cap space.
At the very least we are replacing LeBron with a perennial all star and our young players and Austin are another year experienced. Imagine if this team had giannis instead of LeBron for example. First in the west no question
So to the haters stop crying over Bron taking his final $50 million contract. If Lakers don't get Giannis this summer Payton Watson takes over for Bron 😂. 5 more years of Laker exceptionalism in the front office with Rob and Jeanie Buss before Mark can step in.
They are waiting for 2027, so they will punt on this offseason
You get 5 solid starters plus 5 solid bench players,plus 5 developing youngs.Two starters are Luka and Austin.Five benchees are Laravia, Vanderbilt,Smart,Kennard and Hayes.The youngs might be Bufkin,Smith jr.Work around that.
It sucks because they have no assets really… surely in the summer they can make moves but I don’t trust rob to make the right one… this more signed Gabe off a playoff hi like cmon man.. dudes an idiot outside of Kobe
Giannis talk is all Propaganda. Fake news. This is the beginning of a rebuild, the new CBA is in place to bottle neck teams who do not build organically. Houston,Spurs, and OKC are your models of success the nba wants. When Brunson gets paid they’ll be in bottle neck hell with the TWolves as well. Lakers FO will get a few names to pacify the soft lakers fans. When all else fails fire coaches. Seen this movie before. Robert Sacre and Devon Eubanks. No one wants to or will help the Lakers. Grow organically, draft well, sign tradable player assets, trade players away who want large contracts but not willing to do the work during the summer. Most importantly have a system identity.
Luka or Austin but not both and let LeBron walk. They are all high usage, ball dominant, one way players and yet you talk about why Cam Thomas is a 6th man.
Lakers fans are delusional because you don't build through the draft and through positional needs.
I'd keep Austin and trade Luka.
When ate the Lakers going to invest in the draft where you can actually get an amazing player on a cost-controlled contract? I don't see how this strategy of trading for disgruntled, fringe All-Stars or overpaying to poach some RFA (looking at you Peyton Watson) and building out the roster with vet mins is going to work very well in this new CBA environment. You could argue it hasn't worked for over a decade as LA's last real championship was back in the aughts, a team that had a realistic shot at contending/repeating. The last impactful draft pick the Lakers had to make it to a 2nd deal was freaking Kobe Bean Bryant! This organization has been in the wilderness for awhile. Meanwhile, the T-Wolves draft Ant, the Spurs draft Wemby, the Mavs get Cooper Flagg, some sad sack team like Sacramento or Washington is going to get AJ Dybantsa and/or Darryn Peterson. That's your next generation of stars and they aren't wearing Laker uniforms. If Nico hadn't been idiotic enough to trade Luka to the Lakers they'd be a sinking ship, only now they have to mortgage away what every little future assets they have (not much) to build a team around him on his timeline because he's in his prime. Does that sound sustainable to any of you?
We have to find players that will not cost anymore than 20 million per year. This means Grimes, Sharpe etc. Also, we need to S&T Reaves and Rui if possible for players like Jones/Murphy etc. In other words, all acquisition types/kinds should be considered after the scouting/analytics departments are in place. We have to find those players that are diamonds in the rough.
Jovan is very dope. Glad he covers the Lakers causes he’s on point
I just hope we keep Buha😂
Where giving up on the season so much already?
If it is do or die do you want rob making the decisions?
I dont stand many things here.. I think many people are tired of his era, that it's not Just the pelinka Jeanie era, but it's the LeBron era.. all the Lakers channels, shifted from a Lakers-centric narrative, to a LeBron-centric narrative.
All of them. I save Just Jova from this, all the others, were all influenced, from Trevor to Jason, from Sliwa to the Cam Brothers Who still open their shows talking a 10 minutes about Bron.. I dont know what it is, but to me is Crazy… Thinking that, a team with Bron, Luka and Austin defense could be fixed, is so unrealistic that I dont know how to call it.. the only way to fix a defense like that, it's with AD or Bam.. and that's Crazy… So.. this issue is now much heavier, due to the fact that Luka play, like Bron, no defense and the same position, but, this issue kept hostage the Lakers for years. We had a player with a 45 to a 50 Mil not playing defense, with the Need to somehow cover him, with the media telling us all the fault was to the role players and the bench; that LeBron was top 10 Nba, that it was right not to cut his Money in order to build a Better team, because it didnt matter if he didnt play defense and talked against the team, in public. It was fine.
It has Always been someone else fault.. a decade, one title, no more assets, but it's on Jeanie, it's on Pelinka, it's on Russ, it's on AD, Austin, Dlo, Rui, Vando and everybody else.. finally is going to end and I Hope this reset all these Lakers guys who didnt sound as Lakers guys for a decade.. LeBron has been the Nba for 2 decades. When it came to the Lakers, yes, somehow it was a saviour, in 2020 it was still the best player by a matter of fact, but After then, things were really bad.. and the fault has Always been on somebody else shoulders. His game, year After year became a Little "less": little less defense, Little less great performances against great teams(or in the 4th where LeBron has Always been a Monster); Little less dominance and controlling the tempo, Little less ball handling and finishing at the rim: but for him, everything remained the same: the behaviours were the same, the requests, the comments via podcast or twitters, the pressure via heralds and klutch.. and the Lakers channels continued to tell us that it was fine, Until now.. I used to admire Bron, almost loved him, because he somehow was able to stand the MJ comparison.. if I am now turned to a "hater", most of the blame goes to all those Who tried to sell me a story Who wasnt real..
Pelinka already messed it up, his plans are litterally impossible, wasting time, thats what he good for.