Can you imagine if that deal really happened, between the freaking Lakers and Celtics? Pelinka would legitimately need to move countries in the middle of the night or he’d be murdered.

Every team in the league has caught on and will now trade away Paul George to kickstart a championship run.

But to do that you need to roster him first. He’s the most valuable asset in the league.

What about Max Christie, Anthony Davis, and a future first? Defense wins championships after all.

This could be a great trade for both sides. Boston gets Luka. Lakers get 5 1rd picks + PG.

Start the rebuild

The weakness being one entire side of the floor

He’s not wrong but also what were the Lakers supposed to do to compete with the Thunder and Spurs this year? It’s easy to criticize moves when you don’t look at any alternatives

Luka is just a nightmare matchup for them too though. With some shooting and a PnR partner, Luka has a shot against anyone.

Tbf you beat the Spurs by letting Castle, Fox and Harper shoot and hoping they miss. If they’re hitting open 3s you can’t really beat them.

Thunder also have some inconsistent shooting so I don’t see either of them as truly unbeatable, you just have to be in a position where they can beat themselves.

Or was he purposely laying in wait…

Sukuna moments before the WCS as well

With what assets

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Their perimeter and POA defense is really bad, Kessler and JJ gonna have their work cut out for them

Given their assest siutation rn, they need Thiero/Carr/Laravia to take huge leaps

Does the big trade have to be Reeves?

Big trade how? No draft assets at all now.

Big trade for who and how though?

Without picks you’re talking about a multi team trade. And who the fuck wants Reeves at $50 mil and willing to give up picks for him for multiple years?

This team defensively is going to be hunted on the perimeter. And depending on your big man (Chet/Wemby/Jokic) the frontcourt is going to be lunch as well.

They’re literally stuck if this doesn’t work out.

They gonna trade Luka lol

We are a much more balanced team.

Arguably the most balanced team in the league.

Knicks have been a 50+ win team with a balanced roster knocking on the door for 3 years now.

Fwiw Lowe was one of the few national media people who saw the vision for the Knicks and picked them in the Finals. He’s obviously not right every time but he’s very sharp

He predicted the knicks to win the east at the start of the year lmao

Lakers do not have OG or Mikal

Knicks have multiple defensive wings something LA is lacking

classic luka special is like

30 points 100% shooting in the first half

35 points 35% shooting team beats a bottom feeder by 5 luka played 40 minutes

Both him and Mo agreed that the team is probably better and made more sense around Luka, there’s a bit of selective editing going on here

Yep pretty much. Depth is king in the mid 2020s NBA. Lakers with the cap money had no way to acquire depth, the only thing they have left is hoping their draft picks develop. Unless you succeed in drafting or all your moves trading those prospects/picks are successfully building a deep roster, its just impossible to win titles in the NBA.

Why are the Lakers the only team that gets compared to the Spurs/Thunder? We just saw the TWolves trade for Lamelo and we weren’t seeing clips/articles like this. The Nuggets haven’t done anything. Both are teams that everyone thought were better than the Lakers last year, so why are the Lakers the only team that needs to overcome the top 2?

Always smart to let the players make roster decisions!

Might be able to get a buyout guy at some point too. Like Smart. I think this is a bit hyperbolic. Because the center rotation is as good as it gets outside of Jokic or Wemby. And the guard rotation is probably the best in the league. The wings are the entire issue, and they only need 2 of those to work out at a passable level.

I dont doubt Luka but the quality of competition is very very high when you talk about OKC and SA. Both also have mvp level talents but supported by much deeper teams and higher top-end talent. 

I am the spurs and thunder have much better rosters. SGA and wemby are just as impactful as Luka with much better teams around them

Luka playing at mvp level and staying healthy all year with this roster is at best 3rd seed - Luka hurt and/or the defensive flaws throughout the roster are exposed and the lakers are 6-8 seed in the west

Luka and friends vs MVP type Vic and Finals team Spurs

Luka and friends vs MVP SGA and Finals winning team Thunder

Not very pretty on paper

On what roster? The rest of the roster is extremely flawed.

What great feat did he accomplish for you to never doubt him? Luka fans speak of him like he’s a 3 time champ or something lmao

Besides this who knows, few unlucky injuries with unlucky timing and Lakers could be a favourites.

people underplay the fact that this is a completely legitimate strategy lol - just being good enough to take advantage of lucky opportunities. it’s how the Raptors won their title and how the Pacers made it to game 7 of the finals.

Zach Lowe had the same opinion. OP clipped the quote and gave this out of context as if Zach hated the moves when he went on (along with *Mo Dakhil) to say he thought the Lakers were still going to be very good just not good enough to get past the Thunder and Spurs which is fair.

The “….this is an unbelievable reach for Walker Kessler” is skipping over so much more of the conversation. No wonder these guys on podcasts always say “don’t aggregate me”

There is definitely a low floor if things don’t pan out, but to pretend a generational player doesn’t have a shot ever is incredibly stupid.

Not at all - we’re solid and not the abyss that people here seem to think we are.  We’re still not on OKC or San Antonio’s level, and need to upgrade to have more than a puncher’s chance. We’ll need a little luck, that’s for sure.  But you can say that about 25 other teams in the league.

Yes the roster was what it was, but the people who think we punted our season yesterday can never give you a coherent answer as to what they would’ve done in this free agent season.  They’re wishcasting Luka walking, but don’t seem to acknowledge that he certainly walks if we stand pat and hoard picks, since this subreddit thinks that First Round Picks Uber Alles.

It’s definitely a challenge but we have a franchise player and youth+athleticism to spare. There are worse spots to be in.  Certainly more work needs to be done and of  course I would be the field vs us 999 times out of 1000 but I think people here are letting their anti Laker bias show in writing out our obituary before the next season even starts.  After all, we’ve seen how good all of us are at predicting what will happen in the league 

Really solid ain’t winning a title

We do this every year with the Lakers. They do something in the offseason and this sub goes full “well ACKTSHUALLY this Lakers roster is really good!” Just go back to the Ayton threads when he signed, “he just needed a change of scenery, NOW he’s going to be serious, the Lakers will fix him!”

On paper they shouldn’t be a bad team. They just don’t seem like contenders either

The Wolves, Lakers, and Nuggets are all in a similar roster building position that said some injury luck can open up a path to the finals for all 3. Or who knows maybe Harper wants to the focal point on a team and forces his way out and the rest of league analytically thinks his game is cheeks and they get a bad return. NBA is unpredictable and you just need to put the best team you can out there 

Yeah. Rings or blow it up culture is toxic and a terrible way to enjoy basketball. However, the Lakers and their fans/media will probably always be this way, more than any other franchise. With the draft changes and the Spurs /Thunder dominance, I don’t think the Lakers are seriously trying to compete for a championship this year. It’s murkier now to guess at intent though because a very mid team like this Lakers 1-8 will complete due the playoffs and sell tickets, or just miss the playoffs and do well in the draft positioning. This team is basically built for that.

 They win either way.  They can hold onto Luka, sell the fans and media a story about building a roster to compete, and be in a relatively good position at the end of the season either way. 

The last thing to consider is this. If there are no better free agents to acquire and spend your cap on, you should at least acquire decent players that you can an use in a trade later. Doing nothing and saving your cap for some future deal can really screw you. Teams aren’t letting their best players even make it to free agency if they can help it.  In the new drafting regime, mid level players are going to get more money and they are starting to figure that out. Lakers made some decent moves in my opinion given their choices. 

I don’t think anyone is saying the Lakers will be bad or a disaster. Lowe wasnt saying that either, I listened to the pod. Just that there’s no way they can compete with the elite teams in the west.

Brother. You guys basically just swapped a 35 year old Paul George for Jaylen Brown.

Sixers just got Brown for free while getting rid of PG lol

Yes who doesn’t remember this years playoffs where Reaves and Luka both went down and the season was basically over immediately. They get lucky all the time!!!

This is the things that’s so frustrating about this conversation. On paper no team in the NBA can compete with the spurs or Thunder. If we all had our memory of the Finals wiped the sub would say the Knicks have no chance to compete with them either.

The reason this is the drumbeat is so loud with the lakers is that everyone was hoping for an implosion and they’re mad that the roster basically makes sense even if we weren’t able to reverse engineer acquiring 30 first round picks or getting insanely lucky in the lottery

Nah bro, shut up. Just don’t try, that’s definitely the move.

Lmao his takes have gone to shit ever since he joined ESPN and then the Ringer.  Will always be one of my favorite writers for the NBA in his Grantland days, but as far his talking head/podcast takes it’s just something to listen to while driving.