ya'll watching this entertaining-ass game?

*so far* these kids are bringing it to the dubs on defense... forcing quick shots and interrupting the rotation.

even bean's looking influential.

will they win? I DON'T KNOW! - luger

but still, one helluva game almost through 3 quarters. I'll be happy if the Lakers just take a lead into the 4th.

Even though I'm pretty sure the W's probably partied hard last night in LA and 4th quarter collapse withstanding, great showing thus far.

GOAT providing solid veteran leadership as Young Russ tries hard as shit. Only problem is Steph needs less than four minutes to completely turn the game around. This young Lakers squad feisty as shit.

Never seen him this aggressive, killing it

>Never seen him this aggressive, killing it

You force stupid shots nearly as much as Kobe

EDIT: That Byron agenda blew up on y'alls face.

Keep trying.

I already said I was wrong about some of Byron's decisions. I can admit when I'm wrong, unlike you.

Dubs gonna come out heated

should have. oh well. great win

When you've picked up your dribble and have nowhere to go, defender is reaching in...let the defender's hand touch the ball and then drop it like swiped it out, and then pick up the ball to get your dribble back lol. Shit was obvious to everyone but the refs lolol

.

Shit is sadly hilarious

with so much of his time being stuck focused on the Warriors and Kobe.

>Shit is sadly hilarious

once he's sat for awhile. The entire rotator cuff complex is already working over-drive to make up for his labral issue so once he sits and cools down, the pain level is extremely high to move it again.

Bust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP_6tQvkKPw
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================

2-27 from 3 or something like that...for a team that shoots over 40%...missing layups and shots in the paint. It is what it is, glad we took advantage.

despite single-digit percentages from downtown, dubs had a good amount of offensive rebounds/potential putbacks that they pissed away.

once clarkson learns to settle down a bit, this backcourt is gonna be well on its way.

Fuck that

It was a shock at the time but as I've gotten older and have visited Toronto, I get it. Them dudes didn't give a fuck abut the expansion Raptors and we're most definitely out partying the night before. Toronto is a fun place.

I expect a similar situation is to blame for this Warriors loss.

Everything went right the Lakers for and wrong for the Dubs. Ah well, it happens. The Dubs' dumbest loss of the season was also to the Lakers, and we went on to win the chip. So, it ain't no big thing.

Klay had a table at 1Oak (as always though so not saying much lol), everyone looked asleep at the wheel

Good day....a W against the champs for some confidence and still on track for 2nd best odds.

..solid strategy, subtle adjustments, discipline @ both ends of the floor, spacing, fluid ball movement.

a lot of potential.

meanwhile, gsw looked out of sync. they can afford to lose a game or 2 down the stretch, but they certainly need to be concerned bout having to play from behind and conserving energy for the playoffs.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

https://twitter.com/espn/status/706616696275128320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

GOAT's leadership is gradually rubbing off on the youngsters.

Ingram we can either roll super young, or maybe trade a young piece or 2 for another star player..

young ballers and cap space is how you come up.

Outside of Durant this is a thin ass crop to be throwing money at. I don't want to let go of Randle, Russell, or Clarkson. If we wind up with Ben, why bother throwing money at a small forward....even if it's Durant? Just let these guys grow up together.

I know we'll have to pay someone to meet that minimum so I'd just look for quality locker room vets for two-three year deals

I'd pick up Hassan depending on the money and length. He'll likely get a max deal but I think that's a dicey risk/reward proposition. He could continue to improve and be a nice piece in this mix but he seems to have some baggage from what I've read and heard and with Kobe gone I'm not sure that's the right guy in the locker room for a young group like this. Zaza might be a good get for less money.

If we don't get a top three pick, obviously I'd say go hard at Durant. Miss on him and someone like Barnes or Batum make sense.

and rolling with Russell and Clarkson....and Randle with Simmons or Ingram.... You add a center to that...you got Nance and Black and hopefully Upshaw.... You add a Starting Center and some more depth...

of course a coach.... with a young team like that....hiring Luke Walton would be kind of crazy with just a young squad all around....

but you're starting with a super young but talented squad...

>
>I'd pick up Hassan depending on the money and length. He'll
>likely get a max deal but I think that's a dicey risk/reward
>proposition. He could continue to improve and be a nice piece
>in this mix but he seems to have some baggage from what I've
>read and heard and with Kobe gone I'm not sure that's the
>right guy in the locker room for a young group like this. Zaza
>might be a good get for less money.

>

..while it would be nice to take a young developing team and help mature them into savvy vets, the current market just won't allow for it. like it or not, it's still a business and fans want to cheer for a winning team.

pay cuts are rare in the nba (understandable), so unless something changes, nick young' time is limited. at the same time, teams willing to make deals with the lakers will undoubtedly demand something decent in return. without a lot of depth, that means the lakers will likely have to part with 1 or 2 young players with potential.

I'm okay with that, but the coaching carousel should be over. I know the media keeps hyping up guys like Walton, while the critics love the hammer Scott's approach to the game, but Byron's the only form of stability the lakers have (outside of Kobe) over the last few years.

I think Durant is the FA target, with Simmons being the plan for the future (lottery withstanding). should be interesting to see what other vets they look to bring in for depth and experience to help guide the youth toward their true potential.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

I think the long term overall health of this team, including the business side of things, should supercede the desire for instant gratification at the expense of the long term viability of this team.

Just so everyone is 100% crystal clear: I fully understand what we’re likely to do. I fully understand what fans want and the business realities and we’re the Lakers and the people and Time Warner don’t want to rebuild and all that good stuff. I get it. I know.

So if you or anyone else is going to nitpick my view of what the better long term path will be under the lens of what the current Lakers brass will most likely do in light of pressure from fans and shareholders and you’re unable to separate the “what WILL they do” from “what SHOULD they do”, let’s just avoid the ensuing mess entirely and end the conversation here because I think we all have general idea of what will most likely happen. Frankly, that makes for a ridiculously boring discussion. Personally I’d rather discuss the best possible options to build this team long term than have a boring “this is what they’ll most likely end up doing” discussion.

That said, if we want to become the West Coast Knicks, we’ll do the obvious and throw money at any and every name we can in hopes of hitting it big with a quick fix. It’s better from a business standpoint to build a foundation that can compete for the next decade than it is to hotshot our way into a three year window. We need to exercise some discipline here. We could seriously fuck ourselves if we go too hard trying to improve too quickly by jettisoning our youth so soon.

I think the pick should definitely alter our strategy FA. Again, to spell it out here, this is what I think they SHOULD do and I fully grasp that what they will do is most likely something entirely different.

If we wind up keeping the pick, I say KEEP IT. If this is the case, don’t throw big money at a guy who plays the same position. Let whoever that kid is cook. He’ll already be at least 4th in the pecking order anyways and we should be playing our current crop of kids full force at that point.

If we don’t get the pick, try for Durant and if he balks, try to pay a quality 3 and a 5 and call it a day. I say they should only spend to meet the minimum if we strike out on Durant, that way we have the necessary cap flexibility if we wind up with the opportunity to trade one of our developing pieces for a more developed, (ideally) relatively young star.

I think our MO here should still be youth + financial flexibility, pulling the trigger to go all out when we’re clearly on a bubble.

As far as a coaching change, I’ll wait to see what’s what after the draft to really start pondering that. I agree stability here is a factor and should be a significant part of consideration, but there are some intriguing options available this summer that won’t be if things don’t go well next year and that should be of equal, if not greater consideration IMO.

I do like the idea of giving Luke a shot with this particular group since our core could potentially approximate the GS makeup in certain ways and Luke is young enough with recent titles and a recent history coaching young players and we could have a chance to watch the entire group grow together. I think Scott Brooks is a sound choice personally, unless he’s running a collegiate program right now and we have to pay to get him out of a deal. Then there’s Thibs.

Also NO PHIL. No. Do not want. Time to move on from him. I don’t want him hiring another one of his guys so he can impose more triangle….. among other things.

..i gave an honest assessment and opinion of the current situation, not a challenge to you or your perspective lol.

its fairly obvious that you're well versed and capable of wishful thinking while maintaining a sense of logic & reality.

i agree that the lakers have an incredible opportunity unfolding before them, but i disagree on the need for a coaching change to capitalize on that.

*part of me doesn't want to give up on the idea of mitch pullin' one last rabbit out of his hat, but i know that's not likely.





*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

I’m plenty relaxed. I also know how these things can go.

I wasn’t trying to be a smart ass. There are plenty of people who would chime in “they aren’t going to do that! Shareholders profits fans oh my!” so rather than wade through that potential slog I figured I’d make it crystal clear that there are really two distinct conversations to have and that I’m not all that interested in exploring the much more limited obvious and likely scenarios we all know will be on the table.

Regarding Byron, I don’t know that we ‘need’ a coaching change.
I don’t like Byron’s handling of this season at all and I don’t think that the current successes with this group required the benching of Randle and Russell to get there. I also don’t like his cowtowing to Kobe and letting Kobe dictate anything.

Personal feelings aside, I think the decision to keep Byron or hire someone else shouldn’t be taken lightly. Byron definitely deserves a shot at a season with more reasonable expectations without so many external distractions and the entire franchise could use a dose of stability. I just think that those factors should be weighed against whatever options are available at the time in conjunction with where we land in the draft/free agency spectrum. I think the lottery draw will and should be the prime factor driving all of these decisions next year.

Goddamn, it would be a thing of beauty watching D'Angelo Russell and Brandon Ingram running a half court offense together. They'd compliment each other beautifully.

I'm also just being greedy, as I want LA to have a Duke star so I can buy a sweet jersey.

i want him so much more than simmons its not even funny.

It seems Simmons is a bit of tweener and his shot isn’t quite on par with Ingram, so there’s that. If there’s not a huge talent/potential gap, then yeah, Ingram is the guy for this squad. Still, Ben and Julius together on the glass with Jordan an Russell is highly appealing to me. Plus we’d be flush with playmakers and if we wound up getting Luke we’d have an interesting dynamic to approximate some of the GS mojo. I’m less familiar with Ingram than I am with Ben though. My guess is Ingram would feast with Russell and Jordan, assuming we keep Jordan and don’t let him walk in favor of Derozan. I wouldn’t be mad at that.

I’m a very casual follower of the college game though so I’ll defer to Frank here, though I can never tell when he’s separating his team allegiance from his general basketball perspective.

I have faith in you guys, leapfrog those Nets & Suns!!! LAKERS!! LAKERS!! LAKERS!! LAKERS!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! C'MON YALL, LETS GET IT POPPIN!!!! (/^O^)/

please baby no more parties in LA

Probably a mixture of heavy duty partying Saturday night and getting to big over confident in terms of assuming they'd automatically steamroll the Lakers. I wonder if any of the players stayed up late watching McGregor get that work.

Not a good look to get embarrassed on national television, but I'm guessing the Warriors won't care too deeply.

On a somewhat positive note, Kerr can use this game to humble the Warriors a bit.

it's either going be "oh man, does GS have problems?"

OR

"has someone finally figured out how to stop Curry?"

more than a blip. They'll probably tear Orlando out the frame later. Maybe, maybe if they miss the record by one game...some jackasses will point back to "ZOMGZ....when they lost to the Lakers".

i mean, they gotta create content i guess.

Lol

I wonder if my fellow 80's babies will get what I'm referencing there.

.

largest winning differential between two teams in NBA history

chalk another one up for Vino

could be how the Warriors losses this year have come against teams with below average talent, while they seem to have relative ease against the top tier teams.

I can't see too much being made about this particular game, although I do think it's pretty bad for the Warriors to lay such a stinker on national television.