Pure-Can-9432 | Hornets

500 | 13 hours ago

I hate how well the Celtic are run💀

ThrowawayCorporate2 | Knicks

122 | 12 hours ago

Brad Stevens as the GM and this psychopath as the coach. I hate them

Gandalf_from_3 | Celtics

56 | 12 hours ago

Brad Stevens?

Hour-Ad3774 | Celtics

41 | 11 hours ago

No you heard them right, Brad Smith quietly replaced Brad Stevens a few weeks ago. Real hush hush kinda thing.

ThrowawayCorporate2 | Knicks

14 | 11 hours ago

Lmao fuck I knew that sounded wrong

sstphnn | Celtics

24 | 12 hours ago

Plus a willing owner to let Brad do his magic and not interfere. Pretty awesome.

Ghorrhyon | Spain

4 | 9 hours ago

You got a new one recently, didn’t you? That makes it more incredible, tbh.

For reference, see Phoenix Suns.

sstphnn | Celtics

10 | 8 hours ago

Yep new owner and he quickly said that he won’t meddle with Brad’s operation. So far true to his word.

HansOberlander1 | Kings

6 | 7 hours ago

I mean why would you if it works? Not interfering with your GM seems so much easier if you won it all two years ago and are the second seed in a season everyone expected you to be bad.

JarvisCockerBB

3 | an hour ago

Dallas would like to have a word.

Mg29reaper | Celtics

93 | 12 hours ago

Hey we spead the love pretty good coach you have now

maiL_spelled_bckwrds | 76ers

3 | 11 hours ago

I despise it.

sunpar1 | Nets

-5 | 7 hours ago

The thunder attack people better than anyone and this sub hates them

One_Consequence3861

282 | 13 hours ago

Lowkey he cracked the code

pmurt007 | Lakers

189 | 13 hours ago

I’ve been saying it all year but this team’s “defense” is hoping our big 3 can create enough offense to outscore the opposition because the entire team plays zero defense, effort plays are little to none, and if any of those guys have an off night we usually get blown out because we can’t generate enough stops to stop the bleeding.

OverallGeneral7129 | Cavaliers

127 | 13 hours ago

The Lakers defense is hoping the other team misses

loyola-atherton | Lakers

45 | 12 hours ago

Just testament to our playmakers’ offensive talents when our record is an okay 34-22.

But that’s our wall. No consistency, almost no defense, and awfully lackluster hustle and effort.

69Helldiver420

8 | 8 hours ago

I mean honestly, if you look at the overall roster (no defense, not a lot of effort guys, only one real lights out three point shooter) and how the season played out (so many injuries, I think LeBron/Luka/Reaves have only played 12 games together and some of those games were min restricted) then their record is crazy good for the circumstances. Idk if sustainable long term but having a winning record when you have injury problems plus not a well constructed roster is a real showing of how good they can be offensively.

I mean shit if they get some consistent performances I wouldn’t be surprised if they win a playoff series

Ok_Possible_5702

15 | 12 hours ago

I’ve been saying it all year but this team’s “defense” is hoping our big 3 can create enough offense to outscore the opposition

I think everyone’s been saying that all year.

Quality_Cucumber | GSW

0 | 8 hours ago

No but he was specifically saying it and no one clapped.

CantTrussWypipo | Thunder

16 | 12 hours ago

Barkley been saying it since last season but Lakers/Lebron fans hated Chuck for telling the truth

sasadoncic | Lakers

-2 | 7 hours ago

No. What Barkley is saying is Lakers aren’t a good team because they’re not contenders. Which is false.

riverratriver | Spurs

7 | 3 hours ago

🤣No one outside of La thinks the fakers are contenders this year

sasadoncic | Lakers

1 | an hour ago

Huh? Nobody I know thought Lakers are contenders. But they are a top 4 in the West atm. Seems to me a good team… 2nd round, something like that.

8--2 | Timberwolves

9 | 11 hours ago

The way the Lakers lose this season has been so interesting to me. The top end of the roster is supremely talented and they’re clearly capable of winning tough games, but when they’re not winning they’re getting blown out. Very up and down. I don’t catch a ton of Lakers games, but from the ones I’ve seen it seems like an attitude and effort problem, especially defensively, that starts at the top and infects the rest of the team.

LordHussyPants | Celtics

3 | 11 hours ago

people been saying that about luka for years now lol. “yeah he sucks at defence but he scores 30, who cares”

Time_Transition4817 | Pelicans

15 | 10 hours ago

That’s fine-ish and you take it because of what you get in exchange, but the next 2 guys on the roster can’t / don’t defend either. Reaves is below average. Lebron can turn it on occasionally, but he’s old as fuck and has played 2x the minutes Reaves and Luka have combined.

Like you see what a roster built around Luka can do, it gets to the finals. This aint that.

aviatorbassist

1 | 10 hours ago

I’ve asked this question before to Mav’s fans. I’m curious if the sentiment is any better now that Luka is in slightly better shape………

WTF does a championship roster look like around Luka?? The model seems to be some kind of weird cross between the 2nd run Lebron Cavs and 2018 rockets.

Jec1027 | Warriors

35 | 13 hours ago

Shoulda been cracked it. weak reaves, cone luka, and retirement home lebron

Ok_Shop7600 | Lakers

-22 | 13 hours ago

Hilarious coming from a warriors fan

NotDanKenz | Lakers

31 | 13 hours ago

I mean is he lying?

Ok_Shop7600 | Lakers

-24 | 13 hours ago

Retirement home when jimmy acl blew curry knees are falling off and dray is old and fat

Jec1027 | Warriors

24 | 13 hours ago

Two things can be true

WolverineLong1430

4 | 9 hours ago

Except one group got injured but plays defense with effort and the others are bad at defense with no effort. He threw in Dray because he can’t find a slick response lmao. He tried but failed.

floridabeach9

2 | 7 hours ago

definition of bitter

Jec1027 | Warriors

13 | 13 hours ago

Just being honest

SkyCrossSteel

9 | 13 hours ago

The Warriors still rank 9th overall in the season on defense. Since Jimmy’s injury they’re about average but if they have any amount of scoring going their defense is there.

Aggrokid

5 | 10 hours ago

Warriors are in the top half for team defensive rating.

OverallGeneral7129 | Cavaliers

15 | 13 hours ago

Beating a bottom 5 defensive team is not some incredible riddle. This Lakers team lost to the Bucks and Kings this season

junkit33

19 | 13 hours ago

You’re missing the point. He’s saying you stop the Lakers offense by tiring out those 3 guys.

BookkeeperDecent7170

6 | 13 hours ago

Not much of a code. Everyone knows Lakers cant defend for peanuts. No real rim protection and too many weak perimeter defenders.

Next year once LeBron is gone and they have tons of cap and picks, Lakers will rework roster to be more like 2024 Mavs (screw Nico)

Aggrokid

9 | 11 hours ago

The issue for them is the upcoming UFA class is bad. Outside of overpaying other teams’ RFAs, it’s hard to make good use of the cap.

It’s not like Lebron is wasted cap hold, he’s still putting up good numbers. So replacing his production while still giving AR big money will be a serious conundrum.

Current Lakers FO is not good enough to navigate this. Not until the new owners find their own Presti.

BookkeeperDecent7170

-12 | 10 hours ago

Pelinka is a title winning GM that brought Lebron, AD and Luka while signing undrafted guys lime Reaves, Caruso. Hes at least a top 10 GM.

Also Lakers are looking for role players not stars (they have Luka and will likely keep AR) in FA, and there are plenty that would take a paycut for a ring or to play in LA or with Luka.

Master_Succotash_506 | Celtics

5 | 9 hours ago

First paragraph is just LOL.

Second paragraph I can agree with but this year you guys got Ayton, acted like he would change his ways, and now a lot of you are frustrated at him even though everyone told you that’s who he was as a player. So how do you think things will be different with this FA class?

BookkeeperDecent7170

-5 | 9 hours ago

Name 10 better current GMs that have as good as resume as Pelinka since 2020.

Doesnt matter if they fail or not in FA, my point was always they have options

Aggrokid

1 | 7 hours ago

Lakers win record post Jerry Buss, mainly under Jeanie-Pelinka, was ranked 22nd in the league. CBS placed them as one of the bottom-ranked FO’s. They were headed to a Bron-AD sunset then got bailed out by the Luka donation.

BookkeeperDecent7170

-2 | 7 hours ago

Name 10 current GMs that have a better resume. You wont be able to

OverallGeneral7129 | Cavaliers

6 | 13 hours ago

Rework the roster with what assets?

BookkeeperDecent7170

-3 | 12 hours ago

They have 70M only in guaranteed money, cap is 166M. Thats 96M in Cap space, almost 2 max salaries. After using Cap they can still resign AR, Smart, Ayton if they want (maybe Hachimura, Hayes and Kennard too) or do sign and trades with some of them

On top of that they can also trade their 2026, 2031 and 2033 picks and can swap on 2028, 2030, 2032.

So to answer your question they have a lot of assets and cap space to freely remake the roster.

Hopefully you learned something

armandocalvinisius | Mavericks

8 | 12 hours ago

learn cap hold buddy

BookkeeperDecent7170

-1 | 12 hours ago

They can renounce cap holds/bird rights if they want to. As long as they still have some money left over they can at least resign AR even going over cap as his hold is insignificant compared to his next salary. Also they can do player options and then sign extensions beyond after cap space is used up

Point is they have many options to rework roster

Rrypl | Celtics

13 | 12 hours ago

If you renounce bird rights you can’t go over the cap to sign that player, unless you use an exception, which Reaves will definitely not fit in.

BookkeeperDecent7170

2 | 12 hours ago

Reaves absolutely is someone they can go over cap to sign. His cap hold is slightly more than his current salary. As long as they keep that cap hold they can resign him to a max over cap.

Alternatively they can sign and trade him to another team if they want too.

Vordeo | Jazz

1 | 9 hours ago

Keep in mind though that they have to plan for Bronny’s upcoming max deal.

JoJonesy | Celtics

191 | 13 hours ago

yet another diabolical Joe Mazzulla quote

One_Consequence3861

67 | 13 hours ago

I thought the same thing at first but this one makes sense to me.

JoJonesy | Celtics

33 | 13 hours ago

Oh, I know what he means. We got a lot of mileage out of attacking Luka to tire him out in the 2024 Finals. Still funny.

floridabeach9

2 | 7 hours ago

luka and lebron are pretty similar at this point in their careers. a little slow, a little methodical.

celtics can attack on offense AND defense. the celtics have a deep bench with very versatile very athletic players. obviously their stars arent game wreckers but they’re loaded with marcus smart types.

prettymuthafucka | Wizards

28 | 12 hours ago

How is this diabolical? Yall just use that word for anything

That’s just simple ball.

FartrelCluggins | BOS

15 | 10 hours ago

Diabolical response

BrotherDirect744

3 | 12 hours ago

It’s true tho

chakrablocker | Thunder

89 | 13 hours ago

im glad they’re keeping AR, they’re gonna waste 3 years before they admit it doesn’t work

8--2 | Timberwolves

25 | 11 hours ago

They have to keep AR, otherwise LeBron leaves and they’re no longer competing. Luka’s success with Kyrie in Dallas shows you can build a championship roster around him even if he’s paired with a bad defensive guard as his running mate, but rn the Laker’s overall roster construction isn’t there to support that. They need to move past Bron and start building their roster around Luka and AR as the engine of their offense.

Basic_Commercial_806

8 | 9 hours ago

Reminder Kyrie averaged 27/5/4 on 59 TS% in the 2024 WCF comparing Reaves to him is asinine. One way guards that aren’t superstars are outdated now it’s better to let him walk than overpay him.

flaming_burrito_ | Lakers

22 | 8 hours ago

That’s ridiculously stupid. Either keep him, or sign him and trade him when his value is high. Letting him walk would be a disaster

Constant_Charge_4528 | Bulls

2 | 6 hours ago

Yup, the solution is to trade him but Lakers fans will throw a fit

Basic_Commercial_806

0 | 8 hours ago

If they offered the 22.5 mil/year he denied last summer that would be ideal. What would be stupid is doing what the lakers are about to do and give a one way non superstar 30+ million.

flaming_burrito_ | Lakers

4 | 8 hours ago

Plenty of teams would trade for Austin at that price

8--2 | Timberwolves

15 | 8 hours ago

Letting a player of his caliber walk is the worst thing you can do. If you really don’t want to build with him then sign him and find a trading partner.

Edit: Reeves is currently averaging 25.⁶⁄₅.¹⁄₅.9 on 66.7% TS lmao. If those are the stats you want to use it’s a perfectly apt comparison.

Faliberti | Celtics

2 | 11 hours ago

i mean this year should have been the year of trading bron to a contender needing the extra bump, but i don’t think the lakers are cutthroat like that. Then you see if you can build a good defense around AR and Luka, and move AR if its still not working. Moving neither this year was a huge mistake.

ImAShaaaark | Supersonics

24 | 11 hours ago

i mean this year should have been the year of trading bron to a contender needing the extra bump

I keep seeing this sentiment, but what contender has assets that would match his salary that the lakers would want and that they would be willing to give up? And if there are any, are they a team that LeBron would want to go to (since he has a NTC)?

ositola | Lakers

16 | 11 hours ago

No, it’s not time to think logically, it’s time to make nonsensical statements on the Internets

Victor_Wembanyama1 | Spurs

5 | 11 hours ago

Who’s ponying up for Lebron?

Simple_Wait_7286 | Hornets

89 | 13 hours ago

Very obvious strategy.

You wear them down, make them defend, and it impacts their offense because they are expending energy.

This has always been the strategy against Luka in particular.

junkit33

28 | 13 hours ago

People in this thread are saying this is obvious, yet teams don’t ever do it.

Simple_Wait_7286 | Hornets

46 | 12 hours ago

Because it makes the offense predictable. You can attack guys like Luka, AR all game but they will counter it with double teams or change their defensive scheme (like no switching). And as bad as they are defensively, at some point they will be able to force a few misses which stagnates the offense.

Most teams save the hunting for clutch time when the stars are more tired.

Remy13Hadley | Thunder

16 | 12 hours ago

Lakers has been consistently dicked down by good teams this season, so teams have been doing it

armandocalvinisius | Mavericks

6 | 12 hours ago

i dont really watch lakers much but when i tune in, JJ countered it good

just shrink the defense and live with the 3

not many teams has 4 guys that can dribble on same lineup over on over, so good bet by him. it’s always 24s on each possesion

BlackMilk23 | BOS

6 | 10 hours ago

Also a lot of teams let Luka get away with guarding someone who isn’t a threat to shoot on offense

cherryripeswhore | Knicks

1 | 5 hours ago

They dont do it cos its a high risk style of defending that requires elite high motor perimeter defenders. Teams that are not Boston or OKC cannot do this all game. Mazzula is a smart coach, but he has an elite team to execute his defensive philosophy.

Icy_Information_6563

3 | 10 hours ago

Its been the strategy against pretty much every ball dominant player. Teams did it against CP3 who’s a 9x all defensive player.

Western-Election-997 | Lakers

-16 | 12 hours ago

You mean the strategy of Luka passing to Smart for a wide open 3 and he dint hit rim?

Reality is Lakers shot poorly and Celtics got away with A LOT of fouls and missed goaltending

baccunawa | Celtics

57 | 13 hours ago

i need a life coach like joe. so inspirational

Aggrokid

7 | 10 hours ago

He’s just gonna stare into your soul for 2 minutes.

SloshaPacana

44 | 13 hours ago

Yeah no shit i mean theyre a bottom 5 defense

How you defend them is you outscore them in the first three quarters and they’re like 0-99 in non clutch games, they just shut down and can’t come back because they can’t get stops

Hilarious team honestly, one of the weirdest teams in recent history, just pure ass or win in close games, no in between

samhit_n | Lakers

32 | 13 hours ago

I honestly can’t blame the Celtics for playing so intensely on the day Pat Riley’s statue was unveiled. Riley has to be public enemy No. 1 in Boston, since he prevented them from winning 8–10 championships across his tenures with the Lakers and Heat.

MinnitMann | Celtics

22 | 13 hours ago

we just had a whole (fantastic) tv series highlighting his greatness. feels even better to stick a nice juicy L to that statue.

International-Chef33 | Celtics

21 | 13 hours ago

I love that the show ended with the Celtics winning

ihatedougford | Toronto Huskies

19 | 13 hours ago

It’s like when LeBron and the Cavs mutilated the Celtics on PP’s jersey retirement day. Hate runs deep

SloshaPacana

7 | 13 hours ago

Doncic spoiled KG’s jersey retirement too

Apprehensive-Rain601 | Lakers

1 | 13 hours ago

lol that’s like the perfect comparison

HypeeMe_Up

11 | 13 hours ago

Had nothing to do with Pat Riley.

Jaylen Brown is just Luka Doncic’s father.

JVT32 | Celtics

5 | 11 hours ago

First time watching the Celtics this year huh? It ain’t all about the trash ass Lakers.

HorsNoises | Celtics

2 | an hour ago

This is how they play every game.

JVT32 | Celtics

0 | 11 hours ago

First time watching the Celtics this year huh? It ain’t all about the Lakers.

AdministrationNo312 | San Francisco Warriors

20 | 13 hours ago

Scheierman frustrated Luka!

Imaginary-Ebb-1724

23 | 13 hours ago

Mazulla is Luka’s worst enemy

Figured his game out for the last 3 years. No Tatum, it’s still the same.

Rich2364

21 | 13 hours ago

Translation: They can’t defend, and he’s correct. Bron is old and Lazy. Luka is slow, out of shape, and lazy, and Reaves tries but he just isn’t good.

Mickeyjj27 | Celtics

14 | 12 hours ago

Luka is still out of shape? Granted I haven’t watched much Lakers but I swear I kept seeing posts during the offseason about how much pounds he shed and better he looked

SufficientEducator72

8 | 12 hours ago

Too much running in today’s league to overcome all the alcohol

Rich2364

7 | 12 hours ago

He’s in better shape, but I wouldn’t say he’s in the shape he needs to be in.

Livid-Cardiologist94

6 | 10 hours ago

I swear only Luka can lead the league in ppg on good efficiency, be 3rd in apg, and be deemed out of shape and lazy. He didn’t look good tonight but thinking he’s the problem is so bizarre when you watch the other 14 players on the Lakers.

SXNE2

9 | 10 hours ago

He’s amazing on offense but he also saves all of his energy for the offensive end. He’s a traffic cone on defense. He can’t play a complete game on both ends. If he tried on defense he wouldn’t be nearly as good on offense because he’d be too tired. This isn’t an issue with other elite guys.

Rich2364

5 | 9 hours ago

I never said he was the problem. I still think he’s a top-five player in the league. This Laker team has a lot of problems that don’t include Luka.

Adorable-Bike-9689

5 | 8 hours ago

Shaq and Barkley were lazy sometimes and out of shape half the regular season. Both were MVP contenders for years. That doesn’t take away their talent

Catch11

2 | 10 hours ago

Yeah his defense was actually fine today. Most of the time when Luka seemed like a cone he was injured

necropuddi | Vancouver Grizzlies

5 | 12 hours ago

Lazy is a weird term to use for Bron and Luka. Bron especially. Luka needs his stamina to carry the load offensively (where he has a bigger impact). Bron needs his stamina because he’s 41 and wouldn’t last till playoffs otherwise. Lazy implies that if they worked harder they’d play differently. Suggesting that the most durable athlete in league history needs to work harder is peak reddit.

ositola | Lakers

2 | 11 hours ago

We got smacked today by a bench player but it’s not because lebron isn’t 31 and luka doesn’t have to spend all his energy to carry the offense

necropuddi | Vancouver Grizzlies

4 | 11 hours ago

It’s because the supporting cast don’t deserve roster spots.

Western-Election-997 | Lakers

-10 | 12 hours ago

I’d challenge you to actually watch the game and see Luka defended fine

It was Ayton and others getting cooked repeatedly

Rich2364

7 | 12 hours ago

Where did I say I was talking about this game specifically? I’m talking about in general, my guy. If you think Luka is an okay defender in general, I don’t know what to tell you.

shin4258 | Spurs

18 | 12 hours ago

Everyone knows the Luka-Reaves-LeBron trio is awful at defense.

No-Profession422 | Supersonics

3 | 9 hours ago

Awesome at ‘efense, though.

Sweg_Coyote | Spurs

10 | 12 hours ago

I need a GPS voiced by Mazzulla

BlackMilk23 | BOS

10 | 13 hours ago

It’s obvious to everyone with eyes that this is the best strategy but there are so many stat nerds and box score watchers that will happily write entire think pieces to convince you otherwise.

SloshaPacana

4 | 13 hours ago

Stats that say Luka, LeBron, Reaves are awful defenders and the Lakers who are a bottom 5 defense?

BlackMilk23 | BOS

9 | 13 hours ago

I watched someone on Instagram argue about how Luka was an under appreciated defender because of his steals and defensive rebounding numbers.

Whenever LeBron does a chase down block… “See be still got it.”

Yes it’s stupid. But my point is that people cherry pick what supports their favorite teams and players.

KyWy75 | Celtics

9 | 12 hours ago

He’s right, the best defender of those guys is a 41 year old with sciatica

Chessh2036 | Hawks

4 | 12 hours ago

Convinced if the Hawks hired this man he’d have them be a Top 5 seed every year.

geupard12 | OKC

3 | 13 hours ago

Sending this to coach diagonal

1216996 | Celtics

3 | 11 hours ago

Like, literally, Joe? Just confirming, since this is coming from you

deevee12 | Knicks

1 | 10 hours ago

Luka Lakers are an all time fraud team

Just a deeply unserious franchise in all aspects

Fun_Position_6969 | Minneapolis Lakers

3 | 7 hours ago

The nerve of this coming from a Knicks fan. Lmao.

heirofsorrows | Clippers

0 | an hour ago

Ad hominem.

Fun_Position_6969 | Minneapolis Lakers

1 | 4 minutes ago

Go plant a tree. There’s another one for you.

sasadoncic | Lakers

2 | 7 hours ago

Mazzulla is a certified crazy genius. Can’t hate that man.

PutingUnggoy

2 | 4 hours ago

Joe >>> Ime

sobanoodle-1 | Knicks

1 | 12 hours ago

Bro said, send the dogs out 🗣️

AwareUniverse

1 | 11 hours ago

Stole Herb Brooks’ whole flow.

This is exactly what Herb said about the Soviets in 1980. “You don’t defend them, you ATTACK them.”

klam5 | Celtics

1 | 2 hours ago

Damn Joe don’t be saying it out loud!

DistributionOk9687

-1 | 12 hours ago

haha right, all are negative defenders

cl353 | Heat

-2 | 12 hours ago

lebron’s been surviving on defense with aura and random elite spurts for years now lol

Goerj

-2 | 10 hours ago

You mean “foul them”

Western-Election-997 | Lakers

-20 | 12 hours ago

“You gotta foul them”

And it works when refs were on Celtics payroll tonight

rocket_beer | Celtics

4 | 5 hours ago

Imagine a Laker fan complaining about not getting enough whistles 🤣

And to top it off, suggesting that the Celtics are getting any kind of celebrity whistle 🫠

[Bobby Manning] Joe Mazzulla on stopping Luka, LeBron, Reaves: “Everybody’s like, how do you defend them? How do you defend them?” “You gotta attack them.”

[Bobby Manning] Joe Mazzulla on stopping Luka, LeBron, Reaves: “Everybody’s like, how do you defend them? How do you defend them?”

“You gotta attack them.”