2552050, Put him in a significantly better environment and let's see. Posted by Cold Truth, Tue Jun-28-16 12:33 AM
The bulk of the Lakers recent issues stem from three situations:
-CP3 deal -The Howard/Nash experiment -Kobe's injury
Mitch is still a good GM. We've struck out on free agents the last two years and most people blew that way out of proportion. The first year, damn near everyone of any significance stayed where they were. Not only did they not come to the Lakers, they passed on everyone else as well. Brawn went home and that speaks for itself.
Last year was a mess with Kobe still playing the Alpha despite being clearly past the expiration date along with an inability to sell players on the actual on court product. The truth is we'd be in a worse position overall right now had we landed Aldridge.
We'll strike out this year not because we're a terrible organization with no leadership and inept management, but because we're clearly in flux. We're still The Lakers and giving him a taste of what that means *could*- not "would", people, but "could"- earn his trust enough to settle in enough to make things work.
>The Lakers don't have a strong yet patient veteran player to >mentor Boogie or a team culture that could absorb his >impulsiveness and harness his potential.
Not yet. We do have Bryan Shaw though, who I think would do just fine as an unofficial handler. Luke and Shaw also played with Kobe and Kobe and Shaq together in addition to playing under Phil. I'd say they have some tools to deal with difficult personalities.
>But as the team is structured, I don't see Cousins being much >different than he would be in Sacramento.
Well, my hypothetical thought (just to be clear for everyone who will be super duper eager to point out how we don't have the assets to land him, it was JUST a hypothetical thought) required considerable other hypothetical dominoes to fall into place, chief among them being Whiteside producing while the situation in Sacto continues to deteriorate.
In that fairly specific scenario, a guy like Whiteside could prove to be good trade bait. To that end there's no telling who we'd have by that point in time, who else would be thrown in to get him, etc.
>That being said, I think you're trying to get across that the >Lakers need a young player with talent that they could build >around.
More to the point, an established young talent who can do the heavy lifting while the kids are growing up. The biggest reason I brought up Cuz is because situations like his usually result in the player getting traded and the fact that Whiteside ***if he produces***could*** be a significant trade piece if it came to that. I'm just trying to think of potentially available players down the road.
>Outside of Jimmy Butler, I wouldn't know who that player would >be. If it were easy to find young players with potential to >grow, yet be emotionally mature, then the Lakers would have >already found him.
Well, I certainly didn't say or imply that it was easy to find that guy.... but I completely disagree with the notion that they would already have any quality players. Players aren't available until they're available and they're not obtainable until they're obtainable, and the fact that nobody like that is on our doorstep right this second doesn't mean that they won't be available a year or even six months from now.
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