I don't know where the Lakers are heading. I mean, what is the blueprint for their success? I'll be honest, I don't have a lot of confidence in Pelinka and Magic to suddenly turn the franchise around after this debacle of a season. We haven't made the playoffs since Kobe got injured, and we haven't looked like it. Nothing that has happened this year has given me hope, we've gone backwards. Time to rub it out and start all over again.
Walton's not a good coach. I've been posting this for the past 3 seasons. His rotations are a joke, and the team plays like 5 individuals who haven't got a clue what their roles are, or the roles of their team mates. You watch other teams who whip the ball around, 5 players working together, we see none of that with the Lakers. We have players who think they are GSW the way they toss the ball around. Not much good dishing out a pass to trick the opposition if there's no Lakers player there to receive it. Seen that way too many times. Look away passes are fine, so long as there is someone expecting it to come to them.
Apart from LeBron, no players have any consistency of performance. Too many of them will come out one night and hit 30+ and we think what a good player they are, and the next night they can't manage double figures. The defence is a disgrace. Guys standing around creating big holes in the paint, allowing opposition players to just stroll in and score at will. Well done to KCP who will probably play all 82 games this season, but he is a classic example of someone who hits 25 one night, and follows up with single digits the following night. Kuzma a classic example. 41 points to 3/4 time, 2 nights later he hits 11. Up and down like a yo-yo. Way too many average performances for a player of his ability.
Our foul shooting stinks. I cannot believe professional players who find tremendous difficulty it hitting an acceptable % of free throws. This aspect alone has lost us several games during the year.
We have traded away good players and got bugger-all in return. Williams, d'Lo, Lopez, Randle, Zubac are players all making significant contributions to their new teams while we take on players who nobody else wants. So, we've made all this cap space, but no free agent of any significance wants to play with us, and I cannot blame them. The Lakers are light years away from our next championship. I don't see Butler as much help, maybe Kemba would be a good pick up, but we need a lot more than that. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable offering either of them max deals.
We keep hearing, rightly or wrongly, from the media that the players have been affected by threats of being traded. Sorry guys, you are highly paid professional players, paid to do a job, and until you DO get traded, you are expected to deliver a high performance to the Lakers, not mope around. If that's the sort of player they are, then piss them off.
Kuzma
2017-18: 1242 points in 77 games, ave 16.13
2018-19: 1308 points in 70 games, ave 18.69
Ingram
2017-18: 949 points in 59 games, ave 16.08
2018-19: 949 points in 52 games, ave 18.25
Lonzo
2017-18: 528 points in 52 games, ave 10.15
2018-19: 465 points in 47 games, ave 9.89
The improvement in these players, production wise, has been negligible at best.
We can hope and pray for a bit of luck in the lottery because we are going to need it. I can see us picking up more free agents on 1 year contracts like we did this season and hoping it works out. We've had 6 years in the wilderness, and to be brutally honest, there is nothing to suggest anything is going to improve anytime soon.
I know there are mitigating circumstances, but the bottom line is in 2017-18 we were 35-47 with a very ordinary roster. We secure the services of the best player in the world, and we are 37-44. Not good. Let's hope like hell Pelinka and Magic have something up their sleeves to surprise us.
Walton's not a good coach. I've been posting this for the past 3 seasons. His rotations are a joke, and the team plays like 5 individuals who haven't got a clue what their roles are, or the roles of their team mates. You watch other teams who whip the ball around, 5 players working together, we see none of that with the Lakers. We have players who think they are GSW the way they toss the ball around. Not much good dishing out a pass to trick the opposition if there's no Lakers player there to receive it. Seen that way too many times. Look away passes are fine, so long as there is someone expecting it to come to them.
Apart from LeBron, no players have any consistency of performance. Too many of them will come out one night and hit 30+ and we think what a good player they are, and the next night they can't manage double figures. The defence is a disgrace. Guys standing around creating big holes in the paint, allowing opposition players to just stroll in and score at will. Well done to KCP who will probably play all 82 games this season, but he is a classic example of someone who hits 25 one night, and follows up with single digits the following night. Kuzma a classic example. 41 points to 3/4 time, 2 nights later he hits 11. Up and down like a yo-yo. Way too many average performances for a player of his ability.
Our foul shooting stinks. I cannot believe professional players who find tremendous difficulty it hitting an acceptable % of free throws. This aspect alone has lost us several games during the year.
We have traded away good players and got bugger-all in return. Williams, d'Lo, Lopez, Randle, Zubac are players all making significant contributions to their new teams while we take on players who nobody else wants. So, we've made all this cap space, but no free agent of any significance wants to play with us, and I cannot blame them. The Lakers are light years away from our next championship. I don't see Butler as much help, maybe Kemba would be a good pick up, but we need a lot more than that. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable offering either of them max deals.
We keep hearing, rightly or wrongly, from the media that the players have been affected by threats of being traded. Sorry guys, you are highly paid professional players, paid to do a job, and until you DO get traded, you are expected to deliver a high performance to the Lakers, not mope around. If that's the sort of player they are, then piss them off.
Kuzma
2017-18: 1242 points in 77 games, ave 16.13
2018-19: 1308 points in 70 games, ave 18.69
Ingram
2017-18: 949 points in 59 games, ave 16.08
2018-19: 949 points in 52 games, ave 18.25
Lonzo
2017-18: 528 points in 52 games, ave 10.15
2018-19: 465 points in 47 games, ave 9.89
The improvement in these players, production wise, has been negligible at best.
We can hope and pray for a bit of luck in the lottery because we are going to need it. I can see us picking up more free agents on 1 year contracts like we did this season and hoping it works out. We've had 6 years in the wilderness, and to be brutally honest, there is nothing to suggest anything is going to improve anytime soon.
I know there are mitigating circumstances, but the bottom line is in 2017-18 we were 35-47 with a very ordinary roster. We secure the services of the best player in the world, and we are 37-44. Not good. Let's hope like hell Pelinka and Magic have something up their sleeves to surprise us.
