Kansas Crimson

Sparko wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 10:52 pm That is the thing. They changed the rules so he could be shoved and pushed without a foul being called. Jordan got calls. Wilt was on such a different level from anyone.

The biggest story to come out of All-Star weekend was not Cade Cunningham’s Rising Stars MVP award, but rather the news that James and his representatives over at Klutch Sports, chiefly Rich Paul, are unhappy with Lakers management. James has now endured two consecutive putrid seasons with a lifeless supporting cast, so some frustration is certainly in order. The reader will surely note that the most consequential move the Lakers made last offseason was swapping their bench for Westbrook, who is almost unplayable at the ends of close games, at the request of James after he held a bunch of summer meetings and essentially picked Westbrook over Damian Lillard. That disastrous choice (to the degree that it was an either-or choice) reflects poorly on both sides, and no matter who ultimately holds fault, losing one million games in embarrassing fashion is going to exacerbate existing tensions within any team.

[...]

Since he left Cleveland for the first time 12 years ago, James’s teams have traded their first-round picks with regularity. The only two first-rounders LeBron has shared the court with in that span are Norris Cole and Moritz Wagner, who both stink. Remember too that James had the Cavs trade No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love shortly after signing for Cleveland in 2014. The Lakers are currently out two picks and a swap thanks to the Anthony Davis deal, which also required them to flip the fourth pick in the 2018 draft to New Orleans. It makes sense that you would leverage future assets in order to maximize your chances of winning with a guy who was the best player in the league for like 15 years, and James has won four championships, so the approach has worked. Those picks are somewhat irrelevant if the team trading them is good enough to pick near the bottom of the first round every year, but you start to get bad memories of the Brooklyn Nets-Boston Celtics disaster when your team is 27-31 with an unhappy superstar, an injured superstar, and a basketball void you are paying like a superstar for one more season.

The uncertainty that’s animating this Klutch-Lakers beef is that James will be a free agent after next season. He’ll be 38 then, on the cusp of his 21st NBA season. By singling out a bunch of other GMs for praise and raising the specter of a return to Cleveland or a link-up with his son Bronny, James is exercising the tremendous leverage he has over the Lakers franchise. The degree to which the Westbrook fiasco is his fault is irrelevant, since he’s far more important to the fate of the franchise than Pelinka, and his agency’s growing sway within the NBA means the Lakers almost have to play ball. Maybe he should have turned the heat up, you know, before the trade deadline, but after what looks like an early exit from the playoffs, he’ll have a nice long offseason to engineer whatever comes next.

Cascadia wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:40 am What can the Lakers really do in the offseason? They have no assets to trade.

I believe their next 1st round pick is 2025 and Westbook isn't going to pass up his $47M player option.

BasketballJayhawk wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 7:56 am LOL @ T-SHIRT fans overvaluing championships.

Lots of "experts" have made lists. They always value championships too.

CrimsonNBlue wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:40 am Lack of championships is a knock on Wilt, but there are caveats, and their lack of mention is annoying to me when putting these all-time lists together.

There is a reason we don't take Russell's title count against MJ's at face value, but media tend to do just that when ranking Wilt. The League was just so much different. Way smaller. No real Free Agency to speak of. It was also a second job for many. Everything was stacked for a superfranchise like Boston to stay in power.

Wilt was stubborn and probably too obsessed with his own legacy. Leading the league in assists was no accident, and honestly, it's maybe a knock on him that he did. Plenty of modern players get dragged here for chasing stats. But, the point being, I do think if Wilt had realized his legacy was going to come down to lack of titles, that he simply would have had more of them. He was that dominant.

And as far as that dominance, people underrate Wilt because of how bad they perceive his competition to be. I get that, he was an outrageous outlier. But, in the same breath, media will talk about about how historically dominant Bill Russell's defense and rebounding was. Do they not see the contradiction and double standard of those statements?

Cascadia wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:40 am What can the Lakers really do in the offseason? They have no assets to trade.

I believe their next 1st round pick is 2025 and Westbook isn't going to pass up his $47M player option.

CrimsonNBlue wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:43 am

Cascadia wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:40 am What can the Lakers really do in the offseason? They have no assets to trade.

I believe their next 1st round pick is 2025 and Westbook isn't going to pass up his $47M player option.

Yep, and that's why I would not trade a top 5 pick for 2 years of LeBron in his 40's. What kind of player and pest to the front office are you getting? And then, as the article suggested, the Lakers are in their 2nd season in a row where they're not close to contenders, and would be completely out of the playoffs this year if they were in the Eastern Conference.

Cascadia wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:48 am

CrimsonNBlue wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:43 am

Cascadia wrote: ↑Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:40 am What can the Lakers really do in the offseason? They have no assets to trade.

I believe their next 1st round pick is 2025 and Westbook isn't going to pass up his $47M player option.

Yep, and that's why I would not trade a top 5 pick for 2 years of LeBron in his 40's. What kind of player and pest to the front office are you getting? And then, as the article suggested, the Lakers are in their 2nd season in a row where they're not close to contenders, and would be completely out of the playoffs this year if they were in the Eastern Conference.

I think the only hope is to try and move Davis. But he's injured a lot, will be 29 next season and is owed $38M, $40M and $43M the next three years. What kind of return can you really get for him? I don't think you could find a team that would take Davis and Westbrook.

They'll do something, but it's not going to make things much better. That roster stinks and it's only getting older (and worse)

It remains murky, however, what exactly Pelinka was supposed to do at the deadline, and to what end.

If the Lakers traded their one available first rounder, a 2027 pick, and it didn’t make them a contender — which by now feels completely out of reach — it would have only limited their ability to improve the team in the offseason.

It’s obvious that James wanted him to do something. But Pelinka no doubt remembered that the last time he yielded to James’ management instincts, he got saddled with Russell Westbrook.

It is notable that maybe for the first time in James’ tenure, he did not get what he wanted out of Pelinka.

And now there is a divide between two of the key pillars in the unorthodox power structure of the Lakers that includes Jeanie Buss, Pelinka, James and Klutch, and much of the Rambis family tree.

As is true for the dynamic between any NBA star and his team, what’s best for James is not always what’s best for the Lakers. Pelinka shoulders at least some responsibility for the long-term health of the organization

That is of course not of as much interest to James as he chases a fifth title and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record.

And it only makes sense that he would focus his frustration on Pelinka’s inactivity at the trade deadline, because if he were to peel back any additional layers of the team’s roster, he would see his fingerprints all over it, too.

[...]

The relationship between LeBron and the Lakers now feels far more transactional than it ever did before.

This is a franchise that has long prided itself on keeping its stars happy. Now, the biggest of them all is, quite apparently, rather unhappy.

Here is the only question left to ask: In 2022, where is the line of what the Lakers are willing to do for a star?

jfish26 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 10:29 amHe's the GOAT, but he's also that guy.

Overlander wrote: ↑Tue Feb 22, 2022 7:26 pm
As he is a self-admitted cuckold, he is seeking the feeling of hopefully finding the upper hand, at any cost.