The Luka trade will never make sense because the finals mavs team had size and athletic players lol like it drives me crazy STILL 

100% agree. Imagine this Luka with PJ washington, Gafford, DJJ, Derick ljvely. I bet a team like that could make the finals!

I would say most lakers fans know this and the lakers won’t realistically have a chance to win until LeBron retires or comes back on a super team friendly deal.

size and super athletic 3&D players

Oh yeah. Tons of those guys just laying around waiting to get picked up. The idea that GMs just need to surround a guy with athletic and lengthy 3&D guys and all problems are solved is just a tired fan trope. That archetype of player is not common and costs a lot of cap space to sign.

The discourse on something like this is how easy and cheap it is to find the archetype of player that fits with a superstar. That matters a lot. Luka is obviously an insane talent and is worth whatever challenge it is to build a team around him. But it’s far from easy to just find those guys that will fit with him.

It’s genuinely driving me insane that people are sincerely trying to blame Luka for the Lakers being mid. Look at the rest of the roster! His two best teammates are a fringe all star and a 41 year old!

He is still young tho, so they have time to trade and draft around him. Everyone knew it wasn’t a good fit for the current Lakers. Dallas was perfect for him.

I wish this was mentioned more. Eventually LeBron will be off the books and even if he plays next season the Lakers still have massive cap space opening in 2026.

Trust the process. We have a good enough center in DeAndre Ayton and we off-loaded DFS for Jake LaRavia who is not only ten years younger and $30 million cheaper but DFS missed half the season and LaRavia is the only Laker to play every game so far.

We’re getting there. We have good young players to build around already.

The thing is, that’s just NBA history. 25 year olds need to learn how to win. You make a deep run, get pissed off that it wasn’t enough, and get a little better. It’s basketball malpractice that Luka wasn’t afforded the ability to run it back with a team built around him to see if a little better and a little better could be enough by the time he was 28, 30, 32. It could have been, we’ll never know.

These Lakers are a bad fit for him, the trade slammed shut his championship window and set his career back years. We all know he can average 32 in the regular season, yes it’s amazing but personally I want our stars to ascend in the playoffs like SGA, Giannis, and Jokic to see if they’re really that guy. For Luka, we’re a few years away from even finding out.

The Mavs built a great roster around him, then Nico traded him. Now the Lakers need to do the same, and it is going to take some time.

Trade him?

Thats a lot of players tbf.

It’s an effort issue more than an ability/IQ issue.

Harden can play defense too. Not an elite defender by any means, but a capable on ball defender.

Because he spends all his energy on offense.

Im not saying nico had good reasons to trade him (worst trade in NBA history) but this has to be why he traded him

It’s because he can do it for a week before getting injured

Luka has a perpetually injured body. Asking him to play hardcore defense will just run him into the ground faster. 

That’s just the reality of his durability. 

[removed]

Thats not the full quote. He adds that LeBron and Austin are the same way as Luka. Important bit to be left out.

This and also, it’s fewer than 1%.

Steph is the GOAT shooter, and he’s the GOAT off ball player.

But Luka is like a 1% offensive talent. It’s not like he is talking about Herb Jones not doing enough off ball.

I think he picked the perfect example - he doesn’t expect Luka to move like Steph - but when you see what Steph does and see how little Luka would have to do to add to his overall game the comparison is vast.

Steph is just the ultimate example of gravity, he was trying to show how impactful gravity can be.

He doesn’t need to do exactly what Steph does without the ball, but like 30% of it would be nice

That’s why steph has championships because he plays winning basketball. 

Why doesn’t every center just dunk like Shaq and why doesn’t every guard just score like Jordan? What do you mean some players play different styles?

Okay but who is Luka if he’s not trying to be in Steph’s category?

Agreed, but it’s only been a year, and LA didn’t have much flexibility.  They still don’t, really, just AR on a good contract for a team that has a lot of 3&D wings that needs a scorer / creator.  

“Defensive shooters”

aka

the unicorns of the NBA

They haven’t even had a real chance to build him around yet. They’ll have a lot of cap flexibility this summer especially if LeBron is off the books and they’ll have more picks to trade.

Please enjoy each cut… equally

Your innie does all the little things that help to win games.

Cold Harbor

James Harden is way more athletic then Luka but Luka doesn’t massively choke in the playoffs

Yeah it was a shame because it took them so long to put that type of team around him but it immediately got them further than they had been. Another reason why the trade was so infuriating

It’s genuinely so baffling. Like Nico makes a bunch of trades to build the perfect team around Luka, makes it to the NBA finals…. and then trades Luka the very next season.

This. People like to talk as if you have an infinite amount of stamina and it’s all effort.

Sounds like the NBA version of wanting it more at a 9-5 where you work 12+ hours a day and need to make sure you’re the last to leave the office.

what’s the point of losing all that weight if it doesn’t help improve stamina

Theoretically you would be using less energy playing off ball as it would open up scoring opportunities for others. The hardest part about playing off ball is not a lot of guys can score as effectively without the ball in their hand for longer periods of time. Traditionally high usage rate players struggle off ball

I think it’s more that fans hoped he would develop more to his game off the ball and he hasn’t since he came into the league

I actually think it is a good example. It’s not that Luka would ever get close to Steph in terms of off-ball ability. But if a player with Steph’s offensive ability with the ball can do all that, can Luka not do something, even a fraction, to be effective on offense without the ball?

He ain’t running no place now - “tennis calf” out 6 weeks at least

Lebron, sure. He’s 40. Why can’t Luka run through screens? He’s a young buck.

before Steve Kerr, he was more a traditional PG and averaging a good number of assists in 2013-14 (24.0 PPG 4.3 REB 8.5 AST) but since 2014-15 he hasn’t averaged more than 7.0 AST per game but it did unlock Steph’s offense more than Mark Jackson did for his career at the cost of being a more traditional pass first PG (and having Draymond Green)

If Steph played in a traditional pnr style offense with shooters and a lob threat he could have averaged 33 and 10 his whole career but they probably don’t win rings because the rest of the team would be way easier to stop.

Warriors whole system is built off using him as a decoy half the time.

Steph plays both positions.

Really? Because Rodman made a pretty good career without the ball. 

Imagine Luka and Flagg out there every night.

Give Steph credit - he used to be a cone and constantly targeted. Now he’s not bad, like a 5-⁶⁄₁₀ defender, and isn’t targeted nearly as much as he used to be. Especially since there are plenty of easier targets on the Warriors these days! But even when he was bad, at least he tried, as opposed to say James Harden in the same era.

you are (deliberately) misinterpreting what he’s saying for upvotes

hes not saying Luka should run around the court exactly like Steph. he was just giving an example of how some other superstars move without the ball to help their teammates succeed. they do things other than stand still and wait to get the ball again.

but you knew that

There are all time great on ball creators/playmakers that are also elite off-ball.

The title of this post has an example for you.

I actually think everyone with these stats gets slandered in one way or another. Westbrook, Harden, Giannis, Durant, Lebron, sometimes Jokic

sorry but if he ends up scoring a ton but never winning a championship no one is going to see him as any better than someone like westbrook

Because he literally has the highest usage in the NBA and controls everything. Not saying he’s not talented, but if you watch the games you’ll see time and time again that counting stats don’t reflect how he plays

There’s more to basketball then stat padding

Eh, as someone who has been forced to watch a good deal of Sam Mitchel - as a coach and analyst - asshole isn’t the word I’d use.

He’s coming from the right place, and is often set up to be the cantankerous old head in the broadcast. He also gives people credit, and doesn’t really ever stray outside of basketball related criticism. He’s just a grumpy old head who has a very specific vision of how basketball should be played. One which doesn’t really exist at the highest level anymore.

Edit: that said, he’s flat out wrong fairly often and is set in his ways. There are way better analysts out there. But he’s not an asshole the way some other people covering the game are.

A team that has lebron james and Austin Reaves on it? You really think the best version of the team is only giving the ball to Luka? Have you seen how bad his conditioning is?

Do you not know the meaning of the word “options”