[Bill Simmons Pod] Simmons on Lakers’ moves: “I’m just dumbfounded. I just don’t get it.” Goldsberry: “What are we doing with Walker Kessler? We are the Los Angeles f*ing Lakers. We go after George Mikan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaq.”
I didn’t realize a HoF center was available.
So you havent been paying attention to the Myles Turner situation
Yes.
Very HOF. Very available
Pacers and Bucks fans dont agree on much, but both sides give Myles Turner the praise and love he deserves
Will you accept jakob poeltl?
Why didn’t the Lakers trade for Jokic? Are they stupid?
Why don’t the Lakers, the bigger and more iconic franchise, simply eat the Nuggets, much smaller and less famous. Lakes are also, on average, much bigger than nuggies.
Better yet why didn’t we go after Wemby? Is Rob stupid?
Maybe we can get the Spurs involved in a 3 way trade so we can get some of that Texas bbq sauce to go with the nuggies?
I mean the obvious move is to get wemby. They had a chance to trade lebron for wemby. They must be dumb.
Arvydas Sabonis is in the HOF and his son is available
I actually think if he could be on the floor with Kessler he’d be a good fit. A great fit.
It really is the death of reason and the peak of huffing and puffing in online media
This specific segment was worse then normal, I specifically found the part implying Luka pushed them to get a center so his own numbers looked better Nasty work. Like the 1 time the dude had consistent center play, he went to the finals and generated the most lobs in any playoffs.
Yeah, just like that loser Brady campaigning to get Randy Moss so that he could pad his passing stats, right Bill? It’s almost like when you’re someone whose job involves passing a ball to a teammate it’s in everyone’s best interest when the guy catching the ball is also good.
Like the time Kobe got Gasol to pad his championships.
No one realized Luka was available, either. His point was just that, historically, the standard fan expects the Lakers to be able to pull off moves like that routinely because they always have. So throwing your cap space at Walker Kessler and thereby eliminating the chance of a lakers-like move is surprising to some.
And we have? We got Lebron, AD and Luka all within like the last 7 years.
Name another franchise that can do that.
Brooklyn apparently.
You have to have PG first.
/s
Ok, so genuine question, what Center is the modern Shaq rn? And could you get it with 2 picks?
It’s not rational… But neither was getting Luka for AD. That’s his point. I don’t really agree with him, but his point isn’t as dumb as everyone is trying to make it sound.
No because if we came out of this summer with just Ayton and Hayes again they would be clowning us for that and also making excited comments about “Luka has to be pissed, I bet he asks out next year.” This was just them clowning to clown rather than based in good analysis.
I’m not ecstatic about the cost we paid for Walker or his contract but theoretically he’s a great fit for us and has room to grow. Also just because we have always won with elite centers doesn’t mean it’s required.
For better or worse, they got a very good center because they didn’t want to waste more of Luka’s prime. Granted we still aren’t good enough to win due to the rest of the roster but we have objectively upgraded at the center position.
I agree big free agent signing chance goes down, but chance of a “Lakers blockbuster trade” goes up
With what assets?
Yeah traditional Lakers move would be to get Giannis
Shaq is indeed available!
Shaq would come out of retirement for the right money.
Shaq would come out of retirement for half a twinkie.
Giannis was. If he wanted to go to LA (by all accounts he didn’t want to be in Los Angeles, but Luka might’ve changed that), they that haul could’ve done it.
He’s not a center
I think the Wizards couldve been swayed for the right offer…
So does Goldberry want them to trade for Jokic or something?
They wanted us to get a center rotation of Jokic, Wemby and KAT
Money isn’t real
If you’re mark walter, that’s pretty true
Salary cap…err… Second apron is undefeated though
He’d just aspire to have Jokic and Wemby plant trees
Ngl with the current state of the market if the Lakers made some PR heavy pivot into being “AI forward” some dumb investors might give them seven bajillion dollars on the spot, like they did with that shoe company.
if the league doesn’t take Bronny for Wemby, wtf are we even doing
We could even throw in Knecht to sweeten the deal
Vando too, but they gotta add a couple seconds
I had someone tell me lakers should have beat knicks offer for kat of divencenzo and randle by offering reaves in 2024
Outside of the visually pleasing shot charts, Goldsberry’s functionally useless when it comes to analysis.
He also sucks up to Bill so much it’s unbelievable
Honestly one of the biggest reasons why I’ve stopped tuning in to Simmons is the sycophants he surrounds himself with, sometimes I’ll feel like I’m attending a cult mixer while listening
Lowe is the only one who consistently pushes back
Lowe is great, one of those people where his rep and good industry standing probably entitles him to step up to Simmons from a “broadcaster hierarchy” standpoint (which is a real thing, mofos behind the mic are all petty no Tom)
Exactly. Lowe and Russilo are so accomplished that the have the cachet to stand on their own. Guys on the rotating Ringer pods don’t have that level of clout or job security to stick up to Bill.
cachet
Lowe is such a gem. I love how much he loves the game.
I like when he talks football more than basketball I gotta say. You have cousin Sal calling him an idiot haha
He is honestly a casual with analytics. He has no clue what he’s talking about.
I was pretty excited when he came out with Sprawlball years ago but the entirety of the book is basically “players used to shoot from here but now they shoot from here” without any connective tissue as to why those shots (or honestly any shots) take place. I’m not sure I’ve even bothered to open it since reading it the first time.
He’s despised within the analytics community
No he’s not lol just talking out of your ass
He wanted what a couple of Lakers fans imply they wanted but didn’t know yet when they complained after playoffs:
Jokic, Wemby, and Giannis with Luka.
It’d be team international with excess of length, girth, amazing penetration, range, skills, and presence (defensive and offensive). Imagine all the passes, lobs, interceptions, and ball magic.
Imagine being the 5th player with those guys while they’re all banging down low.
It’s funny because if they had went out and got a late prime big name big people would be laughing at them for doing typical Laker shit lol
Last time they built around famous names we got the Westbrook era…
Yes, he literally said that right after this lol
I really don’t get the criticism. A 24 year old center with Gobert like potential for 2 firsts and 2 swaps is a pretty standard deal.
If Denver stumbles the Laker fan base will be calling for this 100%
ahhh so they wanted wemby or jokic
I’m sure we made the call and got laughed at and moved on.
Yalls # is probably blocked at the Spurs FO tbh
Pop blocked it day 1 and it was never unblocked
Yeah that shit been blocked since like 97 🤣
Even longer than that. Spurs haven’t traded with the lakers since 1990 lol
Dear pop, I wrote you but you still ain’t calling, left my cell, WhatsApp and jeanie bus’ bus at the bottom
Yeah it was weird we were forwarded to the janitor
Well hopefully Brian Cardinal was pleasant at least
Ayyyyy The Custodian!!!! Wasn’t expecting a Brian Cardinal shout-out on this post lmao
Spurs have a monopoly on all the weirdo odd-ball players the rest of the league told them not to like.
It’s a miracle Shane Battier and Chuck Hayes never got a stint there.
Shoutout Red Rocket and DeJuan “no ACL tear” Blair
The spurs traded kawhi to another country for a worse package instead of the Lakers who offered a better package.
Fuck em
Do you think that happens like a few times a week? Like someone will just call up Denver or San Antonio or whoever hoping to catch their GM going Nico Harrison Mode?
The best part about the Nico Luka trade saga is that we didn’t even have to call him. He called US.
Probably after bad losses lol
prob…. regrdless yall got nothing to offer
wtf do you mean? Bronny isn’t enough for you? Wemby is looking thick this off season y’all need to bail and we could have given you Ayton. Smh
#1 pick for #1 pick, makes sense
…any of yall interested in Risacher
Heard Wemby was available but the Lakers refused to include their last pick swap and 2nd round pick
Spurs asked for Hugo Knecht and you know the Lakers had to say no.
Giannis, Bam, KAT, or Rudy
Those guys are all retired btw
But available. Mikan probably won’t be much help, though.
George Mikan died over 20 years ago, so not sure if he can really be called “available”.
It depends on the moon phase
Underworld: Rise of the Mikans
Depends on your opinions toward grave robbery and how useful a pile of bones would be on a basketball court
A pretty tall pile of bones tbh
Is he currently signed to a team?
Yes the Holy Ballers
Level 10 necromancer will probably be able to get some use out of him. You have two 5th level spell slots at that point so you should be able to do 2 hours of Danse Macabre
can still contribute more hustle and energy than Ayton though
Yeah I feel like Kessler is a better choice than Shaq. Could be wrong but I feel like Shaq is a bit washed now
He’s likely argue against that
Sounds like Reddit casuals. Why don’t they just go get Wembanyama or Jokic? This makes no sense!
They know their core audience.
you guys say this like they didn’t get Luka for a tube of toothpaste less than 2 years ago ago
I think we can attribute that more to Nico being the worst GM ever instead of giving Pelinka his flowers
It’s sorta not really what he’s saying though. He’s saying that historically everyone’s always available for the Lakers, so it’s weird that there wasn’t even reports that they were targeting big name guys.
Stuff like that honestly gets downvoted and laughed out of threads.
Simmons is a legitimate casual. He’s like you’re uncle who follows the sport but his analysis consists of stuff like this
He’s definitely entertaining but he’s not someone people should be watching for deep nuanced takes
Sounds like Facebook casuals. Even worse
Simmons hating on the Lakers? Shocker.
Why don’t the Lakers just get an elite center? Are they stupid?
Gotta admit that Snowtime Lakers is a good nickname
No chance to beat…Utah? Did he just say that?
God damn right he did.
People are sleeping on us but we have as much firepower on offense as anyone with George and Lauri and now Peterson, plus out interior defense is going to be terrifying with JJJ and Kess- oh fuck right shit we need a C.
The Jazz have Jaxson Hayes, the best Slovenian center.
Jaxson Hayes, the best Slovenian center. player.
Ftfy. I mean Slovenia? It’s tiny. Can’t be any other good NBA players from there.
You forgot nba champ Vlatko Cancar!
Little off topic, but what do you think the Jazz will do at the 5? Just slide JJJ to the 5 and Lauri to the 4? That’s the only real choice, right? No way they’d start Nurkic or Hayes.
Nah, JJJ is a PF, and works best as a PF next to a traditional big who can protect the rim and get boards. As things stand, Nurkic is 100% our starting C next season, and while I’d have preferred Kessler Nurkic was a serviceable starting C last season. JJJ (or Filipowski) may play the 5 in limited minutes for small ball lineups, but Nurk will be the regular.
Starting lineup will be something like George / Bailey / Lauri / JJJ / Nurkic at the start, though Peterson likely ends up a starter by the end of the year, and there’s a long term question of what to do with the SF spot (Lauri or Bailey, essentially).
I definitelt see the team finding a long term starting center by the trade deadline / next offseason though.
I hate to be the one to tell you but it’s fucking hard to find a starting center. We spent the last 8 years trying to figure it out.
I’d pump the brakes on using the past tense there tbh. I like Walker and think he’ll do well there, but he’s still very unproven.
But yeah it won’t be easy. I do think with the assets we have and the Ainges in charge we’ll be able to pull something off, even if it’s another overpay, but yeah it’ll be a pain. Nurkic is surprisingly serviceable, but he’s not the long term solution.
People are targetting Bill here but it’s Kirk who says far more stupid shit and usually nothing of real substance like this.
My pet peeve with him, big bobo, is how he keeps inserting full names of the people he’s talking to in his sentences
Once you notice it, tombersaw, any episode with him becomes unbearable. He does it all the time. As well as saying full names like Stephen Curry.
I have to admit, I completely missed the joke at first and wondered what AI circlejerk I’d fallen into. You, bigbobo33, and you tombersew, are truly legends.
(Followed by Zach Lowe saying, “10 out of 10, no notes,” before giving us 45 seconds of notes.)
Its a grift to make him seem more knowledgeable while talking about a game where he has no discernable ability to actually speak on.
How about his inability to go through a single podcast appearance without mentioning he worked for the Spurs. He was there for 2 years almost a decade ago.
I mean to be fair I would also never shut up about that.
Goldsberry is a genuine grifter. His entire career is throwing easily gettable stats on some stupid visualization, while offering zero ability to discuss why those things matter nor being able to give any takes/insights in general.
Its literally just “I really like xxx team defense”, “I tell my students all the time to look out for this” etc. And when he gets asked directly for his takes on some analytics he 100% deflects every single time to “Those stats matter, but what i look for is whether this player can go get a bucket and be the primary ball handler” or some generic shit
Its insane hes given a platform and showcases just how absolute dogshit The Ringer actually is (except for Lowe who is awesome)
Dude probably think he can gets Jokic if he offers the Nuggets 2 visual heat maps.
Can’t stand Kirk.
Dude
“Well listen Thebigjew, how about this, as someone who worked for the San Antonio Spurs…”
Has no chance to beat Utah lmfao?
I can’t wait to see our team to decide how much I can shit talk or not
I think you guys could be the number one surprise team next year. I really like Peterson and a full year of JJJ is going to be fun
Is it really gonna be surprising though? Honestly they were pretty close to being a .500 team this last season if they wanted imo. And then added DP and JJJ.
The Jazz are basically Schrodinger’s shit talk atm.
I think he meant Denver here tbh
3 white guys can’t work, but Kirk wants them to get Jokic. 2 star contracts can’t work together, but the Lakers need a star. Dogpiling bullshit
Kirk is an absolute clown about any team that isn’t the spurs. He’s such a shock jock
It was a very stupid conversation.
You can’t have multiple big contracts and succeed, but the Lakers needed to bring on more stars with big contracts.
They were working backwards from hating. I don’t love Collin Sexton, but he’s the sixth man any team would want. Walker Kessler has been a Lakers target for forever and it’s not like the Jazz were fully on the level with giving him playing time; they wanted to be bad and wanted to limit his minutes.
Their consistent knock was that Luka was reassembling the 2024 Mavs, but that team made the Finals! Why wouldn’t you at least want to consider a similar course of action that is proven to work?
I actually think Kessler is really good and will surprise a lot of people this year 🤷
There’s no safety net if he isn’t tho. And that’s the problem. If Kessler gets hurt, or just flatly regresses or isn’t what they thought.. then they are fukd
You can say the exact same thing about multiple teams. If Lamelo gets injured or doesn’t fit in Minnesota, how are they bouncing back? If Giannis continues to miss a lot of games, how is Miami staying afloat? Not making a move because risk are involved, is the reason some teams get stuck in purgatory for years, while wasting the prime years of their superstar.
The Lakers believe Kessler can be their Gobert, and have been chasing him for years. Why shouldn’t they throw caution to the wind for a 24 year old, that has room to improve, and he’s already really good?
It’s not like they gave up 4 unprotected picks. They are betting on being better than the Jazz while they have Luka, so those swaps won’t matter if they build properly and stay competitive. No one is going to complain if those picks traded end up at the back of the first round, and Kessler turns into a yearly DPOY candidate behind Wemby.
Saving your assets hoping someone like Jokic becomes available, makes zero sense if you want to keep Luka, when he’s telling you he wants Kessler, and that getting him would go a long way to keeping him there longterm. Pelinka did what most GMs would do in that situation.
What safety net do you want? Wemby as your backup lol
Apparently they (Bill and the other idiot) were expecting us to get Wemby for Bronny. Or maybe Jokic. Just you wait, imma turn on trade override and get that done real quick
Seriously, like every team is an injury away from a throwaway season. What are we talking about?
Kessler is going to provide so much stability for you guys on the defensive end in the paint. He’s a helluva get.
I don’t understand this critique on all these podcasts about some of these Western Conference teams’ moves by saying “well, it doesn’t get you to competing with the Thunder or Spurs in a 7-game series.”
Okay, no shit? Does that mean they shouldn’t try, waive the white flag for the next 2-3 years?
Injuries happen, performance jumps happen, unexpected lineup synergies happen. It’s just lazy analysis.
I think Lowe was on the pod a few weeks ago, and he mentioned that it is dumb how teams all just accepted that they should mortgage everything for a one or two year window instead of being consistently good for five or six years. He pointed out how the Mavs, with Dirk, made moves to be a consistent top four seed even after losing the 2006 finals. If that had been today, Dallas would have sold everything and not had the chance to make the run they did in 2011.
I’m a Cavs fan, and I don’t think it’s terrible if they win 50 games and get a shot in the playoffs each year, even if they’ll be considered underdogs to NY and Boston.
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Has Simmons defended the Brown trade? If not, your comment would make no sense.
He most certainly didn’t. Lol
The trade was just so he could keep at least one thing up his butt.
Simmons hates the Brown trade your point doesn’t make sense
I think the point is you can’t just show up to the HoF player store and pick out the next Kareem and Shaq.
You force yourself into a trade then you might get a crap return like Boston did.
Paul “used condom” George
Prophylactic P
Bill compared getting Paul George on his team to receiving a colonoscopy in this podcast. You think he approves of the Celtics’ moves?
Multiple times in the pod Bill said the only thing keeping him from truly losing it due to how awful the Jaylen trade was, is how the Lakers made bad moves as well. He made it clear he thinks the Jaylen trade is the worst Boston sports trade in history.
Worst except for mookie betts. Home grown star entering his prime, just didn’t want to pay the man despite no cap in baseball.
This is him coping 😂😂
💯this
I will never understand why so many people go out of their way to listen to this fucking dumbass
Because every once and while a masterpiece like “the Jaylen Brown trade happened during my colonoscopy” happens
You have people on this sub who faithfully listen to Paul Pierce and Jaylen Brown lol. At least Bill Simmons is articulate
At least Bill Simmons is articulate
“I had Paul George rammed up my ass”
That was art
Jaylen Brown is pretty stupid, but he articulates his stupidity well.
Edit: this guy is just straight up racist.
I can’t take him seriously when he tried to rationalize the PG trade
Wouldn’t be surprised if Tatum leaves before 2029.
Edit: since this sub is dickriding Simmons
36 minute mark
“No, it’s more like you’re using Paul George to get somebody’s money back, but ultimately flexibility, which I’ve been saying in this podcast since the season ended, if they traded Jaylen, I really thought it would be for flexibility. That’s why I never really liked the Giannis thing because I thought it put them in the same position they were in before with these two giant contracts. But with the Paul George piece, and you’re looking at it and you’re like, all right, maybe we get a year out of him, less minutes, he’s a more complimentary player than Jaylen, our chemistry is better, we can find out what we have with Hugo and Sharman, more Pritchard, and we’ll patch this together because we did this last year.”
He called it the worst sports trade in Boston sports history…
He literally said the thought he was dead when he heard the trade lol
Didn’t he say that getting a coloniscopy was better than the trade?
Kirk is pretty dumb when it comes to stuff outside of his spatial data and visual heat maps.
Dude doesn’t understand superstars don’t come in free agency anymore, and you need assets, lots of them to trade for a superstar center.
we get Jokic
How? 2FRPs + 2 swaps only gets you maybe Jokic’s left leg.
Simmons working over time to deflect from the Celtics just doing one of the worst trades in recent memory
He spent over an hour on the Celtics and 17 minutes on the lakers. He’s not deflecting the Celtics trade
Who’s the Kareem to go after lmao why are these guys supposed to be experts
Pelinka is a dogshit GM but he’s better than Brad Stevens currently apparently lmao
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Deflecting Celtics rage onto Laker woes is definitely a Bill trait.
Modern journalism, lol
Why do yall listen to this idiot
Bunch of yokels sit around musing about how they don’t understand things.
All 3 don’t play anymore.
The Lakers are literally getting players that Luka wants lol
I don’t think those three guys are available. Kessler was.
There’s a podcast called Hot Hand Theory were both hosts applauded this move, citing how Kessler is a perfect fit with Luka especially from the perspective that he is an elite rim protector (99% percentile in the past 3 years). They mentioned how Quentin Grimes was forced into roles that doesn’t fit him since he left the Knicks and that they trust JJ to have him specialize in the catch and shoot/drive mode that he was so effective in. They mentioned how Sexton is also another great player at catching and attacking which is exactly the advantages that both Luka and AR create. Overall, both were extremely high on the Lakers and believe the team will be greatly improved. Their analysis is always backed up by data and thoughtful reasoning instead of emotional takes like this so I trust their judgment much more than this group’s reactions.
Finally, while not mentioned on their show, I speculate that Demar Derozan will try to find his way onto the Lakers and would accept a 6th man role at this point in his career. If that happens, the Lakers are going to be a very dangerous team.
For real i bet they didn’t even try to call up Shaq and offer a contract smh
This was some of the worst analysis I’ve ever heard on the BS Pod. True mental gymnastics to shit on the Lakers after that Celtics trade
I think it’s crazy he is talking about the Lakers moves when his team just traded their Finals MVP who just lead them to 56 wins this past season for Pandemic P
Two things can be true at once.
He saved a good 10-15 minutes to shit on the Lakers after spending 45 min talking himself into the Jaylen trade. Lol
Believe it or not, he talked about both.
He’s still salty about his Celtics getting PG after guaranteeing Giannis to Celtics 😂😂
Kessler’s kind of unknown quantity because the Jazz fucked with his trade value. He sat last season, the most important as a rookie, and the rest of time the Jazz was trying to tank. Kessler has the potential to be a high level starting center, and that’s the salary they traded for him. They gave up their picks so the Jazz wouldnt match. Sort of smart by the Lakers to do so many bad moves that only 2 FRPs left.
Goldsberry is one of the worst podcast guests out there. Never has anything insightful to say.
I go to Bill Simmons for all my fair and balanced Lakers takes
Kessler is a gamble but they obviously believe he’s healthier than let on with Utah because of all their tanking shenanigans.
He’s a top-tier rim protector which is extremely important when you have a backcourt of Luka and Reaves to help the backline.
He’s a major pick and roll lob threat which will help Luka and Reaves a lot.
He’s a great screener which will help Luka and Reaves a lot.
He’s a great offensive rebounder so they’ll be looking at more second chance opportunities.
He has well above average vision/passing/hand offs as a big man and isn’t a blackhole as a result.
Seriously who are you getting for 32 mil or less who can have this kind of impact.
This is a laughably bad take. What center in the league even fits that category, Jokic and Wemby might be it. Then what were the Lakers suppose to do, just sit with Ayton and be terrible in the Front Court next season? Kessler was arguably the best center available and compliments the team structure very well by being more defensive focused center that they desperately needed.
Acting like Luka is chopped liver all a sudden lmaoo
I hope kessler is an absolute rock on that team and shuts everyone up.
God I loathe Goldsberry he’s always saying these dumb things like it’s easy
All these geezers do is make rage bait content now ffs