And without Green + Book/Allen/Brooks for stretches + No Williams on b2bs

This is a playoff team when healthy

Two games vs warriors and Lakers were winnable, but kinda balances itself with the 2 wins vs wolves

God damn, that’s a brutal schedule

Last 14 games have truly been an gauntlet

And 2 losses (Lakers, Warriors) were arguably decided by the ref. If they made the right call they could’ve won those games too

they’re so bad people don’t realize Luka statistically makes them better defensively

Hard to play defense with no defensive players on the team

I really think they’re the worst defensive team in the league. Every team at least has one good defender. A washed marcus smart is Laker’s best.

Really missed Luka’s defense out there

Would be the Hawks if they weren’t on a losing streak RN and fell into the lottery

Dillon Brooks seems to be like the new Chris Paul in that everywhere he goes, that team is now just good and tough to play.

From possible dumpster fire to competent team with a bunch of young good players and a clear offensive and defensive identity

A competent coach, Brooks doing so much, four nice guards (Bouyea, Gillespie, Goodwin, Booker), and a good center.

Very different from last year’s suns. And Green has shown good potential fit from the one game he played (he played 82 games each last 2 seasons)

They own us so far this year

25/0/0 paints such an amazing picture of this game from him in the best ways lol

Dillon “Norman Powell” Brooks

He had two jobs and fulfilled them perfectly. Shoot the ball and foul Lebron (yeah both fouls were on Lebron lmao)

Hilarious use of this quote

David Bowie said LA should sink back into the Ocean. Maybe he’s right.

He’s been like that all year. not just against bron.

You do know he’s avg 22 on the season? He’s been the Suns most consistent player this year. 

Bad bench is a bad bench. Add how they have near-zero defense and it’s a total glass cannon team.

He has played like a veteran the first minute he played for the suns, really awesome to see

Don’t think I expected KD for Dillon Brooks to be a good trade, but here we are.

& Bronny’s GrandPa.

So in his head lollll

AR’s a good player, I’d even say he’s an excellent player

Giannis is just leagues above WHILE being a better fit, if they got Giannis for Reaves + filler I’d be so cheesed at them robbing another team

Let’s super over-react to one game, hahahhaa

hilarious how the same narratives have followed him from dallas

turns out a top 3 mvp candidate may have positive impact even if RAPTORJIZZ disagrees

Real humans blamed Luka for the lakers problems and defense

Lmao

This team is built like a joke in the Modern NBA, the average fan is just a bot who blames the star for everything

lmao i was downvoted in the lakers sub earlier for pushing back against the idea that we need to change our offensive playstyle because Lukas “high ball dominance play-style will be the death of this team”. and pointing out that the defense is way worse and much more likely to be the teams downfall

the lakers offense is actually quite good - #7 in ORTG and #2 in FG%. theres no guarantee that changing the playstyle would improve the offense; in fact there any many reasons to believe the opposite. on the other hand, the DRTG is #23 and opponent FG% is #25

well we got a look at how the offense looked without lukas ball dominance tonight. and it was actually decent, though not necessarily better; adding luka back almost certainly wouldve been an improvement. but regardless, they still couldnt get any stops - the suns shot 59% from the field and put up 132. so can someone spell out to me how switching up the offense is going to save the team

The suns had 112 points after 3 quarters

Hows luka helping that?

He’s so insane that he can inflate any roster and make them look better than they actually are.

Realistically, if you look at this Lakers group, I actually think the Blazers, Jazz, and Mavs have more NBA quality players than the Lakers do. Heck, I even think you can really argue that the Pels do as well and they are 13th in the West.

it would only made the score tighter but if they’re behind then they’ll be behind till the end unless the other team chokes. if anything, they need Rui too because everyone else can’t shoot 3s even if their lives depend on it.

Smart and vando are about as good as it gets for POA Defense sure we would ideally want someone younger but I don’t think we will find anyone better than them without trading one of our stars and picks. Maybe thybull or davion but we might as well just keep vando at that point

I thought they had DPOY Marcus smart

Tbf he is coming off an injury, but yeah that was rough lol

He tries but he’s just not athletic at all. On offense he’s crafty, but he doesn’t get by on athleticism.

Who-yea? /S

Congrats on y’all’s win too! Love to see it

That’s a soft ass team. Put a little pressure on them and then fold.

I mean they didn’t have Luka. Kind of a big hole

There was a moment in the game where it looked like the suns were directed to switch onto reaves and go at that man every possession. It worked very well lol

He makes me think I can play in the nba

Honestly he’s basically worse version of Luka in most metrics. Which means his defense, compared to Luka’s below-average, is total dogshit.

He talked his shit but he goes at Bron

And also to extend Hayes, who has already cemented his name into Laker lore

Surprising to see

Don’t give me hope

Man that was a throwback to some dark times

Yeah that was pretty amusing with Bouyea as the only guard (is NHD an sg? Idk)

Sure if we get a Gianis or something. We can’t trade him for 3 and Ds. From watching Luka since the trade and in previous playoffs the guy needs a high level secondary creator or he’ll play in a way that makes Kobe look like pass first player and tire himself out by the 4th.

LeBron isn’t enough and hasn’t been an onball creator for the past 3 years. He’s still an amazing playmaker but he’s been most efficient offball and attacking rotations

It’s such a big difference for him when Kyrie joined and when he’s played with AR this year when they’re both healthy.

Who are they trading AR for that’s an upgrade considering his current contract?

He just got signed to an extension, I doubt that

You acting like lakers look ping to contend lmao they literally communicated that it’s going to be a gap year

Got 50m wasted on LeBron, a roster spot wasted on Bronny, and a bunch of skinny white dudes that cant do shit on defense. 

This has been said every year for the past few years and Rob hasn’t does anything except small trades. It’s not necessarily all his fault since the Lakers have very few assets, so I think he’s doing about as good as he can unless you want to gut the whole team and do a complete rebuild. I am still astounded by people who think that he was ever good at his job.

Would he fix those two issues?

Doesn’t this sub hate the Lakers?