r/lakers

Just got done watching winning time, finally. I know the show isn't a history lesson and it's not 100% accurate but it seems to me like the Lakers front office has always had problems. Now this may be sample bias coz the only front office I do care about is the Lakers but am I tripping?

• 2019-2020 -- 52-19, NBA champs, dominant

• 20-21 -- 42-30, lost in 6 games (1st rd) to Phoenix

• 21-22 -- 33-49, no playoffs

• 22-23 -- 43-39, miracle late season turnaround and run to the WCF; swept by Denver

• 23-24 -- 47-35, lost in 5 games in the first round to Denver

• low activity summer 2024 offseason

To those who "believe in the roster," I ask...Why?

Obviously, our current identity is heavily based on Bron and AD at the helm, with fan favorite AR (who really feels likes a 6th Man, in my opinion) also making major contributions.

D-lo is polarizing (but certainly has his moments), and everyone else on the roster is pretty "mid."

Even if you love (or believe in) this roster so much that you're reluctant to support trades, which team has a set of starting (or "sometimes starting") role players (or simply non-stars) that you appreciate, envy, or covet the most?

OTHER notables not in poll:

• CLE

• OKC

• LAC

• SAC

• MIA

Who is the worst starter in Lakers history results:

1. Robert Sacre

2. Smush Parker

3. Ryan Kelly

Previous day thread:

Most Overrated Player Results

1. THT

2. Lonzo Ball

3. Nick Van Exel

I will continue to do this despite some of the comments to scrap this. It is worth reading what the others think about the Lakers.

Most Underrated Results

1. Anthony Davis

2. Elgin Baylor

3. Gail Goodrich

4. Michael Cooper

5. James Worthy

Do we need to have a rule that if a player is selected in a category, we can't pick that player anymore?

Looking like this might be the team, boys. If it is, I'm thinking about the starters and rotation even though we've seen this team together for a while now. I figured it'd be interesting to think through how they might look against next season's western conference.

Below is my thought process:

Looking at the Defensive Matchups in the West

AD has the middle locked down on defense, but the lakers will have their hands full with point of attack and wing d this season. Below are Western Conference teams' primary ball handlers then top wing scoring threat. The bullets are my comments on who might take each primary assignment and how I see it going - these are just my two cents.

Mavs: Luka / Kyrie

• Have to start Vando here - he's the only guy who can guard Luka for most of a game. Christie isn't ready for that smoke, Lebron's not taking that defensive assignment and Rui can't move laterally.

• Kyrie runs wild pretty much no matter what.

Thunder: Shai / Dub

• Shai guarded by D'lo and Reaves is lights out. You want Vando in there to slow Shai down.

• Dub has to be guarded by Bron a lot, otherwise D'lo and Reaves are super vulnerable. They'll have to handle that matchup plenty, though.

Twolves: Ant / KAT

• Vando has to guard Ant. D'lo or Reaves are getting eaten alive. Christie has to step up and take that matchup some, too.

• I'm not worried about KAT and Gobert. Lots of options for how to play those guys successfully.

Suns: Booker / KD

• Vando again. You could put him on either guy, but Bron will spend a lot of time on KD. I think you put Vando on Booker and limit his playmaking. If you don't play Vando, you have two of Bron, Rui and Reaves on Booker and KD, which is a disaster.

Grizz: Ja / JJJ

• Gabe Vincent lol? Idk about Vando on Ja - I think you want a smaller quicker guy. If Christie take a step forward mayyybe he could slot in there, but it's a tough matchup no matter what

• JJJ options are Bron, Rui, Vando. I think all 3 would be fine.

Kings: Fox / Murray

• Same situation as Ja. Lakers are gonna get lit up no matter what. Like do you just let Reaves try his best and hope the offense carries you?

• I feel the same about Murray as JJJ - any of Bron, Rui or Vando are fine

Clippers: Harden / Kawhi

• I don't mind leaving d'lo on Harden. He's so slow and d'lo has a huge wingspan.

• Kawhi options are Vando and Bron. Rui's gonna play a few minutes and get lit up I'm sure. But we all know Kawhi's not going to be playing anyway.

Nugs: Murray / MPJ or Gordon

• I don't mind reaves on Murray. I would think he'd chase him around well - his fundamentals are solid.

• Bron on Gordon and Rui on MPJ

Warriors: Steph (could say Draymond, but defensive matchup isn't critical there)/ Kuminga or Wiggins

• Steph's a bad matchup. Probably Reaves, right? Vando just wasn't quick footed enough last time I saw them play each other.

• Whatever on Kuminga and Wiggins. Let em cook. Bron on Draymond probably.

Pels: Murray / Trae Murphy

• You can definitely play D'lo and Reaves against Murray and the Pels

• Trae Murphy depends on how much he's progressed. Bron, rui or vando are fine on him.

I'm not going to worry about the Rockets, Jazz, Spurs or Blazers because none of them cause matchup problems for the Lakers to the degree that it could cause a change to the starting lineup.

Vando

So 4 teams really require Vando as a starter and 10 don't necessarily. However, the 4 teams that do are probably 4/5 best teams in the conference (Nuggets are the other). There's something to be said for preparing for those critical moments in the playoffs throughout the year by playing Vando with the starters.

That would make the bench: Rui / Christie / Knecht / Vincent / Wood

• Rui could function more like a traditional 6th man here and get more shots up.

Rui

Shot 42% from 3 last year, but starting him means Lebron is chasing 20 year olds around the perimeter instead of defending the PF. If you start D'lo and Reaves along with Lebron's newly awesome 3pt shooting is Rui really more important than Vando here? Maybe so to JJ Redick who has mentioned the Lakers' "math problem" referring to not shooting and making enough 3s. 4 3pt bombers around AD would definitely make for a top 10 offense...

That would make the bench: Vando / Christie / Knecht / Vincent / Wood

• Knecht might play the traditional 6th man role in this case if he can continue to get buckets the way he has. Vando could be an incredible energy guy off the bench and make some matchup specific starts.

Rui AND Vando

D'lo / Vando / Bron / Rui / AD is kind of a nasty lineup. So much length and athleticism everywhere. If AD has the ball in his hands more as a playmaker, I can see this lineup being really effective and balanced.

• Plus, Reaves becomes a 6moty candidate immediately off the bench.

Max or Knecht

Max isn't ready on offense and Dalton isn't ready on defense. At least that's how it seems to me at the moment - obviously these guys are young and developing fast. Anything could happen by the end of the season - they're both super hard workers with high upside fits on this team. As it is, both should be early subs off the bench if all goes according to plan.

My Personal Take

To me, it's critical that Bron play PF not SF on defense and preserve energy to run point on offense as much as possible. That's what makes the team run and what makes it special when it counts. That means Rui is out and it's Vando that needs to come in. With AD and Vando on the floor you need as much shooting as possible from the guard spots - so D'lo and Reaves it is.

Give me the lineup that went to the WCF two years ago: D'lo / Reaves / Vando / Bron / AD with Rui, Christie and Knecht off the bench. I love Rui as a 6th man and Christie and Knecht should be able to contribute good minutes on cheap contracts. Vincent and Wood - we'll see.

My list

Best:

1. Gold 90s era

2. Hollywood nights w/o sleeves (personally love these more than the Black Mambas aesthetically alone if you take out the sentimental factor)

3. White 00s Kobe era

Worst:

1. Purple pinstripe city edition

2. Current purples (hate the black stripe)

3. Mid 2010s Christmas jerseys. Just pick one.

Am I the only one feeling slightly infuriating to see that our 2 stars are arguably the best 2 players on the Olympic team…better than Tatum, Curry, Embiid, Ant, Booker, who should be better, but not?

We can’t waste their primes anymore and we need to win it all this year. Feel like we can win this with some role players who can hit 35% of open shots and just not mess up on turnovers, and a coach who knows his best rotation.

This is an offseason post if there ever was one, but spent some time looking through lineup data from last season and it magnified how much the usage of Taurean Prince hurt the team.

Before getting into it, worth reminding that Prince played the 5th most minutes on the team. Nearly 300 more total minutes than Rui. And the second most total minutes he has ever played in his career, second only to his sophomore season in Atlanta where (you guessed it) Darvin served as assistant coach.

I think we can all agree that Prince is a fine role player in a vacuum. But was completely miscast and overused by Darvin as a primary wing stopper and when asked to carry that defensive burden, nerfed the impact of lineups even with Bron and AD next to him.

Here’s the data to show it…

The 4-man lineups with the worst net ratings from last season (minimum 250 minutes played) were:

• DLo/Reaves/Prince/Bron (-5.1 NETRTG)

• Reaves/Prince/Bron/AD (-4.7 NETRTG)

• Reddish/Prince/Bron/AD (-3.7 NETRTG)

• DLo/Reaves/Prince/AD (-3.3 NETRTG)

• DLo/Prince/Bron/AD (-0.3 NETRTG)

These are the only negative rated lineups out of that group. (Link to that data if interested in looking further into it.)

Saying all this to mostly say that this gives some reason to be optimistic about next season.

1. Replacing those Prince minutes with more defensively capable players in Vando and Christie should ultimately be a positive.

2. More importantly, having a coach who understands roles, usage and can adapt scheme to players’ strengths will go a long way in improving the effectiveness of Bron/AD lineups where we aren’t losing in the minutes they are on the floor. That just can not happen.

Breakdown:

Anthony Davis: 36 min (36 min last year)
LeBron James: 33 min (35 min last year)
Austin Reaves: 33 min (32 min last year)
D'Angelo Russell: 31 min (33 min last year)
Rui Hachimura: 23 min (27 min last year)
Max Christie: 23 min (14 min last year)
Jarred Vanderbilt: 22 min (20 min last year)
Gabe Vincent: 14 min (20 min last year)
Dalton Knecht: 13 min (rookie)
Jaxson Hayes: 12 min (13 min last year)

I ensured that there will always be a POA defender (Vincent, Christie or Vanderbilt) and a scoring option (DLo, LeBron or AD) on the court at all times. I used our last year's as some indication of how our future rotations would look (Reaves and AD matching minutes, DLo sitting early in the 1Q etc) and Vanderbilt/Rui's minutes in the 4th can be swapped based on whether we're protecting a lead or chasing one. Our need for a center who can absorb real 5 minutes to let AD play the 4 from time to time is pretty glaring, as is some size in our backup wings.

We literally have two of the best players on Team USA. LeBron can still take over at the highest level whenever needed. AD is dominant on both sides of the ball. FUCK THEM PICKS. FUCK THE NEW CBA. WE HAVE WHAT IT TAKES.

I guess this is a good thing for us Laker fans, getting Dalton at 17 and Bronny at 55. Then the dynamics of Bronny works for Dalton and Lakers the most.

1. Bronny giving Lakers intangible business value.

2. Drawing attention and pressure from Dalton, giving him room to make mistakes and develop.

3. Bronny not giving a d*** about critics and haters.

What do you guys think?

Recent reports on the FO trying but failing to make trades confirm that Rob manoeuvred our team into a difficult space.

Below you find my view on Rob's tenure with us. What I'd like to get out of this post tho is to get some realistic opinions on what will happen to him now that we are in such a tough spot due to his making.

Read the below if you are keen only: A big part of the mistakes of recent years are based on contracts we handed out (I.e. player options for bad players) and the ones we didn't (I.e. Caruso).

Other areas are a mixed bag: we proofed to be great at drafting players especially late in drafts but then we also made a couple of mistakes (i.e. JHS over Whitmore or others).

Rob's trades and overall roster construction are IMHO an overall negative too. Even tho he isn't the only one responsible he executed the RW trade. He also took our championship roster apart and the one after - even tho injury was the single biggest factor that year. However, he did a good job cleaning up after Westbrook and managed to recover nicely from the Kawhi drama back then too resulting in a championship.

Him handling coaches isn't really a success story neither. The Vogel scapegoat type of firing was bad for our reputation among coaches. The Ham hiring was proven to be a big time fail. The timing of his firing was obviously not ideal either as no clear options presented themselves at that time. We had to go with a former player with zero head coaching experience. I agree with that move but only because of lack of other options.

We already made the most important change of all: a new head coach

Better rotations, organized offense (Cranji mentioned rahh), and fresh air pumped into the locker room will improve our roster even if no pieces are added

Edit: No, I’m not saying we are 1A contenders; but JJ immediately addresses a cause for several dropped games last year—Ham/Reddish/Prince love triangle ceases, organized offense improves, etc.