JJ Redick: “Probably the first time in my 3 years here that I feel like the pieces actually fit together.”
LeDidntFit
LeFitOut
LeftOut. It was right there!
fit out is a reference to a lebron tweet fwiw
That makes no sense
LeScorned
Stop trying to find a way to FIT-OUT and just FIT-IN. Be apart of something special! Just my thoughts
“be apart” or “fit in”? Which is it, LeBron??
I hadn’t realized “apart” for “a part” is so pervasive until recently.. For some reason it might be even more irritating than “loose” for “lose” or the rampant “grocer’s apostrophe”. At least “alot” and “alright”, etc, have the intended meaning…
Is “apart” largely Lebron’s doing? Advantage, MJ..
It’s kinda like resign and re-sign
Those aren’t your thoughts you liar!
LeSquarePeg
LeRound Peg
LeGoes in the square hole
In a square’s (butt)hole. Huh?
LeBroff
LeFit Jammed
L’OutOfShape
Shots fired by JJ
I bet JJ is replaced after lakers fail to make play in
Is ledidntfit jr still on the team.
LeWrongPuzzlePiece
Lewasted talent by the front office
Story of Lebrons career
I thought they podded together lol
LeTightFit
LeBye
LeFt
lol
LediddyDidnFit
[removed]
[deleted]
People making LeJokes but I’d bet he’s a lot happier Ayton is gone.
Lego hands
LeGo hands
Lol if only the ball had a peg
We all are 😂
I think he’s also happy Rui is gone. Rui was fantastic shooting threes and iso offense but horrible at everything else. JJ was the one who coined dribble pass shoot and Rui did one of those things.
I think he’s also happy Rui is gone.
I don’t think this is true. Rui’s minutes greatly increased over LaRavia’s in the playoffs, when rotations tightened.
And was also an absolute sniper in the playoffs. Give me 17.5ppg on 56.5% from 3 over a guy who might work marginally better in JJs system lol
As inconsistent as Rui was given his potential, he was solid for the Lakers during his tenure.
But you paid more for Mamu and he can’t even start it seems like. The defense is still a huge problem, starting 4 doesn’t exist, backup big also not good
I love Rui to death, but he’s not much better on defense other than a sturdier body. He’s just extremely limited at most everything else other than shooting. Poor passer, predictable driver, no handles…. If he was an avg 3pt shooter then all those drawbacks would be magnified.
And while the team doesn’t have a clear starting 4, it’s also the position with the most depth. There’s an argument for any number of games if they fix one or a couple things in their skillset. I’m fairly confident JJ will be able to find the right mix of lineups to gel, which he’s shown time and again in the past.
The looks he made on the sideline when butterfingers dropped another easy pass
Ayton was only here for one year lol
Didn’t Ayton fill a hole in the roster whereas LeBron was a weirder fit? Obviously LeBron’s the better player, but I don’t think Reddick is talking in terms of talent
Remember when Lakers fans were duped by Ayton at the beginning of the season? Hilarious
Who’s the designated scapegoat for LA this year? Bronny?
Its Reaves for sure because it cant be Luka.
It’ll be Kessler. They moved assets to get and then pay him a contract he may not deserve, and doesn’t have the “our guy” or “superstar w rabid fans” love that Luka and Reaves have
Reaves isn’t on as good a standing with the fanbase as you’d think. He’s been shit the last three playoffs and we get that he’s been injured, but if it’s happening every season, that’s clearly a big problem that he can’t be healthy when it matters
I mean, Kessler is a unique case where if he is the only one showing an inkling of good defense (which he may very well be) and can be a roll/lob threat, I think his value will be distinct enough. Reaves on the other hand may feel like a lesser/redundant to Luka, and now that he’s getting paid I can see people wanting him traded if the offensive fit is not good enough
He does not deserve the contract he got or the trade package. Utah and Kessler had LA by the balls
I’m not sold on Kessler.
Not a big enough name to be the scapegoat.
Kessler just needs to defend and grab rebounds. We were among the worst rebounding teams in the NBA last season and it bit us in the ass in a lot of late game situations. I think he’s gonna get a lot of easy finishing opportunities playing w Luka and Austin on offense
Reaves on a max now his standards skyrocketed
That is fair and applies to any max player. Playing for the Lakers comes with extreme pressure. He knew that when chose to sign with them (after rejecting the Pistons’ 2nd round draft offer).
It can be Luka. I can already see the ESPN headline “Was Nico right?”
Unless the Mavs win a title without Luka, Nico won’t ever be right.
Edit: to clarify, I meant unless the Mavs had won a title with the Luka trade pieces (AD) then Nico would have been right. (And since they are now a different team with Flagg and without AD, that ship has sailed.)
ESPN? That’ll be plastered all over this sub if we aren’t good lmao
It’s gonna be Luka. Usually whenever something goes bad with his teams it’s his fault, and when it goes well it’s because of other factors.
Oh so then when the Lakers win I won’t see 500 Luka highlights for each dribble he took?
Don’t worry, you’ll have 50 Windhorst, Perkins, and McMahon clips shitting on him for his defense despite dropping a 30 point triple double with three steals to compensate for it.
Lmfao. On Reddit it’s the opposite. If his team wins, he gets all the credit. If not, everyone else fucked up somehow.
What? Do you even browse here? There always at least a couple hundred comments saying he is bad at defending
Reaves is a fan favorite tho?
It’s gotta be someone like LaRavia or Grimes if they blame a starter.
Reaves was a fan favorite when he was making \(15M. This will be the first year he's paid \)40M+, people won’t have the same patience.
For me he is overpaid and it will be hard to convince me otherwise. He just dissapears if he cant get into the paint
reaves is one bad performance or another injury in the postseason away from being disowned by the fan base, whole season riding on him as the 2nd option barring any injuries to anyone else
We have a pretty big and petulant fanbase, who says all 3 won’t get shat on at some point lol
They are not big enough names, everyone knows you can’t really change much by trading Grimes or Laravia, but people know Reaves can potentially net you decent assets, assuming he continues his form in the regular season
Yeah it will be 4th or 5th starter. Or even someone from the bench that plays 10+ minutes.
Why not JJ?
Worry about JT being exposed as the overrated “star” he is instead of speaking on Luka
Reaves for sure, half the Lakers subs wanted to trade him
Believe it or not it’s JJ.
“Now that his buddy LeBron is gone…”
This is the obvious answer lol
Its either him or the training staff when Luka has his late season soft tissue injury.
Everyone except Luka would leave before JJ gets the boot. Ownership will change again before JJ gets removed
It was starting last year, and it’s always the same criticisms they have for coaches cause its the knly things they can see on the floor
Funny JJ doesnt realize its probably him…
Austin Reaves.
Half of the fanbase are already tired of him. If he would’ve played more poorly last year then they would’ve been on his head.
i dont think most fans are tired of him, but if he has another poor post season youll see that shift pretty quick. Im fine giving him the benefit of the doubt because its basically always injuries during the playoffs that kill him, but at some point that does become a concerning pattern.
Him and Luka being injured by playoffs is almost a given, no? You’re already running a depleted roster without 5 starter level guys. Both AR and Luka will need to play heavy minutes every game to make up for the depth.
You’re either out of playoffs because you rested them, or you’re in the playoffs and they’re on their last legs.
Luka deserved better than Nico, man.
We have a lot more depth compared to last year. We had the worst bench in the league last year and now we have players like Sexton off the bench. For context we had less than 10 bench points pretty much every game last year.
That’s why they were so injured last year we literally couldn’t sit them. This year we should have an upper half bench tbh. Sexton+Mamu off the bench should lead to great offense.
Hardly “half.” That is mostly a loud online minority (and bots). In real life, around LA and at Lakers games, AR is a fan favorite.
AR was also top 10 in All-Star fan voting before the calf injury last season, and I doubt many of those votes came from non-Lakers fans.
just talking out of your ass. Reaves is a fan favorite but with him making 45m AAV then the expectations are going to be much higher on him than when he was making $13m AAV. It’s not any different than LeBron making the minimum so you really can’t complain about anything he does or have some grand expectation from a 41 year old on a minimum contract.
Nahh Reaves is a fan favorite, 3 stinky playoffs and fans still love him.
25 and 26 is 3 stinky playoffs?
You must not be in the LAL sub.
Ik he has fans but he also has people begging to trade him. Idk how many of those ppl left with LeBron tho
The sub isn’t really indicative of your average Lakers fan. Those folks are terminally online, a ton are bron stans, and others enjoy being contrarian or dickish cause it’s the internet
Very few cause the bron fans were some of the biggest at fans
What the fuck are you even talking about? I wasn’t aware you spoke for the fans, mate?
The only people tired of AR are the ones who don’t understand what the word “injury” means. So basically, fucking idiots.
Why are you getting so angry u fucking weirdo
He’s not. He just used a word you are scared of, with an attitude you are scared of. You are gaslighting him.
Lmao who’s tired of reaves we all love him
Not at all. Playoffs are a question but he was also injured for a good portion of the season. He had that hot start to the season before he dealt with those injuries. We expected more in the playoffs, but it didn’t happen. I wouldn’t say we are tired of him though. Maybe a select few.
Kessler or Reaves and I lean more towards Kessler
Bronny is the fan favorite and no one knows if he’s gonna get playing time
Bronny is not a fan favorite lol
Dude he gets cheered in every arena he goes in
Yes, being lebron’s kid makes you a bit of a meme and gets you cheers
That’s not a fan favorite lol
Should be.
Only time dude will be playing is if they are up 20 with 2 minutes to go.
Human victory cigar.
Celtics fan favorite.
Smush
probably reaves
They gave him a shit ton of money for a regular season guy. He falls apart in the playoffs if they make it. JJ. It’s going to be a long season.
I’m going with Grimes because he’s the 4th most paid after the big 3 and he’s already being expected to cover for Luka and Austin’s POA defensive deficiencies.
I mean it entirely depends on the went wrong lol
Reaves
If they lose to Philly they will say he’s sabatoging for his dad if he doesn’t play well 😂
Lebron James ^^jr
The media! They did this
Not Luka
It’ll be Reaves come playoff time
There won’t be a scapegoat because the team is gonna go 82-0 and win a ring ‼️
JJ
LeBron’s off the team so no need for one
There’s always a scapegoat for Lakers and Luka teams
Never heard of any on the Mavs. Could name 15 each of the past 8 years on the Lakers
Lol Bronny won’t be contributing enough to get talked about so probably Luka
Nobody..
Lol this is not a shot at LeBron like everyone is pretending. The Lakers for the past 1.5 seasons were a team built for Bron and AD, not Bron and Luka. This team is built well around Luka and Reaves
We don’t even have a starting PF. Or a real wing.
In our case because Luka guards the 4, that’s the same problem atleast.
We have Grimes to guard their best perimeter player and we need a wing to guard their best wing. Against two big lineups we have Mamu so that’s good atleast.
Grimes is a high effort, but not particularly effective defender.
Nate Duncan had a really good chat about this on his podcast recently. Grimes is a great tool to have on an NBA roster but the Lakers are giving him responsibilities that seem to be far beyond his station.
Not only will he have to cover the best guard every night (and try and protect Luka and Reaves) but there’s also a good chance he will need to be fourth, and maybe third, best scoring option every single night. They are asking too much of an otherwise extremely serviceable role player. On nights with Luka or AR out they will be asking even more.
I really think is a terribly constructed roster. Looney as the only obvious back up 5 is probably the biggest crime. Will he be asked to start games when Kessler is out? WTF!
The Grant Williams special
Think most metrics would disagree with that.
Marcus Smart woulda been mighty useful
Isn’t Ziaire Williams an okay defender? I don’t know how much burn he’ll get, but he’s a wing
Probably a committee of LaRavia, Vando, Williams and Thiero. Not terrible I guess as they are all willing defenders.
Assuming Mamu is backup PF/C.
Isn’t Mamu our starting PF? He will space floor and shoot threes?
The issue with the lakers roster is that they don’t have 5 starting level players on the team. Luka, reaves, and Kessler are the only 3 guys who should be starting on a playoff team. Grimes, mamu, sexton, etc are all great off the bench but you need two of them to start
Oh fuck its the Luka Mavs all over again
doesnt help that they offload ALL their playoffs viable player but Reaves.
Letting Smart leave was just criminal. If they could anchor things defensively around Smart and Kessler I would give them a fighting chance most nights. Even keeping Ayton as insufferable as he is. How can you have Looney be your only back up centre, it’s bewildering.
Mamu can be our starting PF. But he’s slow as fuck and gets roasted by anyone remotely athletic.
From this interview (“2 other guys will not be white guys”), I’m thinking Mamu starts the season as a back up 4⁄5.
I’d assume Mamu is the back up 5 over Looney
He’s closer to pre-injury Maxi Kleber, a floor-spacing PF/C that’s best as 6th man. He’s too slow to guard wings.
We have real wings size and theoretical skill wise they just all have question marks. At the very least the Lakers loaded up on them playing the odds that one works out.
it is certainly built around Luka and Reaves - not ready to say built well with the rest of their supporting cast but we’ll see
Not built well compared to actual juggernauts like OKC and Spurs, but I think the tres leches trio with their support pieces is good enough for a 50-54 win reg season, and maybe a playoff dark horse with luck
Every team in the west got better pretty much. The lakers didn’t really do anything substantial. They’re going to be a lot worse than their fans lead on. 45 wins I say
We had 50 wins with a very injured team though so just from that I’d say we also improved.
Did they? OKC got worse. Timberwolves are TBD. Rockets got some dudes back from injury but they also have a lot of very old/injury prone dudes, is a 38 year old KD for sure playing 78 games again? Denver got worse. Golden State is another year older.
The only teams in the West that got better for sure are San Antonion who was ahead of LA already so that doesn’t impact their standing, and teams like Portland and Utah which LA had a comfortable cushion ahead of and they didn’t improve by enough to catch them.
Built around a goal for the play in.
the lakers have been a mess with pieces of scrap put together for the past seasons, they went all in this season with the cap space and for a good center, lebron/ad begged for and never got so that’s why the pieces fit for once but even then I’d say its too late with the other teams getting too stacked to overcome
The lakers weren’t built for anyone really. How does having a bottom 10 defense and bottom 3 bench every year help Lebron and AD
2020 Lakers had a top 3 defense in the league 🥲 Then Bron got injured, the front office overreacted and blew up the team, and we haven’t been the same since
If you’re “building around” AD, you go for more offensively slanted role players, with Luka you want more defensive ones.
The Lakers for the past 1.5 seasons were a team built for Bron and AD, not Bron and Luka.
But he’s also talking about that pre-Luka team he took over with LeBron and AD.
He’s saying the pieces didn’t fit together even before the Luka trade.
They didn’t, the team was low on wing depth. That’s why the team went on a big win streak after the DFS-for-DLo trade. I would argue that team was a bench PF/C away from being “complete” and balanced, but of course they ended up going in a completely different direction that made them way more imbalanced. Not that I’m complaining.
How exactly? They’re still talking about a starting 4 that they don’t have
Why would it be a shot at bron when they are boys and bron literally got him the job
Exactly, it’s just the easy thing to interpret and people love drama. Even LeBron would agree, the fit wasn’t great.
They weren’t event built properly for those 2 either lmao
tryna fit anything around Deadre Ayton just doesnt work
This team would work just about as well if you replace AR and Luka with AD and Lebron from 2-3 years ago. It just took them long enough.
This team is built for nothing but a first round exit
And even when it was built for Bron it wasn’t a good fit. They have had a team that made sense since 2020
Building well around two negative point-of-attack defenders is an oxymoron.
“Well” is doing a lot of work here. “Built” even more.
Yeah, the team basically falls apart if Luka is injured for more than 20 games
Built well? I mean it’s built for what Luka wants not what the team needs. I hope Luka doesn’t keep wasting his prime but he never is surrounded by the help he needs he just gets what he wants.
It’s just funny that once LeBron left, JJ says this.
Well it’s cause it’s actually applicable now. The only other time you could say this during JJs time as coach is post dfs trade but pre Luka trade which was 1 month in the middle of the season
it’s not….but it should be. That dude was stat padding his team out of contention the last two seasons. Easily had the worst +/- out of his own team the last two seasons combined and the worst, by far, out of any star player on a high seeded team. In fact, that bit wasn’t even close….
It be ya own podcast co-host
Et tu JJ?
LeOddManOut
LeWeDontEvenHaveAStartingPF 😭
LeMptySeat
LeByeBye
LeMewing
LaRavia and Grimes on the starting lineup. I dunno buddy.
I don’t feel like it’ll be Jake. There’s not a lot of depth, but Mamu and possibly Thiero seem like more talented people to put in that position
Thiero played like 6 mpg in 25 games last season and didn’t look great. If he improves awesome but if you’re counting on him to be a starter on a good team you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment.
I agree that it’s really ambitious to imagine he starts this season but the main reason he wasn’t integrated into the lineup more last season was cause he kept injuring his knee
Admittedly i’m only throwing Thiero in the mix because Reddick has been talking about his improvement.
I don’t been think the Lakers know who’s starting for them at the 3 or 4 but this is the best built team lol
I think Ziair Williams has a better chance of starting than Adou does.
Grimes is okay, isn’t he?
he’s only good on offense for tanking teams. And he’s not even good enough to stick around, it’s telling that the Pistons/Mavs/Sixers all dumped him even though he was young and on a cheap contract
On defense he was pretty good in drop coverage on the Knicks with Hartenstein behind him, so maybe he’ll be a positive defender again with Kessler behind him. But in general his POA defense got alot worse as he’s bulked up and gotten slower
He was great on the Mavs, Nico being Nico just didn’t want to pay him. And he hasn’t been asked to be a POA defender in a while, best still very good there statistically.
He looked quite good on the Sixers next to Maxey too
Na
Yes. I assume the other spot would be between Mamu and Thiero.
Who said Laravia was on the starting lineup?
If you look up Lakers depth charts, most have LaRavia as the starting 4. I think you’re right and it’s going to be Mamu, though. He’s an upgrade on Jake, but not a huge one.
JJ said the other two starters won’t be white. Maybe it was a joke but I took it as truth
Mamu as the starting 4 means that Looney is the backup 5 and that’s scary for the Lakers. I hope we see it.
The Lakers bench is going to be ass. Sexton, Carr, Thybulle, LaRavia, Looney is their second line. Any injury is going to open a huge hole in their lineup.
Mamu does have great offensive chops but he also has defensive gaffes regularly. It’ll be interesting to see if he fits well with Luka and Reaves in that regard
Don’t know how accurate it is but I have him down as a Rui who’s not as elite of a shooter (just good which is fine) but a much better rebounder
I’d bet its gonna be Ziaire Williams but theres almost definitely a trade coming either for a 4 or another backup big
LeRavia
He’s not. JJ said that he knows 3 of the starters and the other two aren’t white 😭
Luka, reaves, Kessler, but laravia ain’t starting
It’s gonna be Grimes and Zaire as the other starters, with Thybulle when he’s healthy
And Looney as the only backup center and they’re also without any POA defender who can also play offense, hell they don’t have any credible two-way player in the entire roster.
How long before JJ waves the white flag and makes a giant SOS with gym towels?
Translation: we’re free from his klutch
Lost Klutch but gained Kushner
even though he got me the job
It’s really not tho.
Bronny James and Rich Paul: oh we ain’t done here yet
Bronny, Adou, Sexton, and Vanderbilt are Klutch clients
Have no idea why they didn’t do a trade before last season. Both sides would have benefited more last season having done so
LeBron had a No Trade Clause and was on an expiring max contract. For a trade to work, both teams and LeBron would have had to have been willing to do the trade, and the other team would have had to send back matching salary for LeBron, possibly hurting the Lakers’ cap this past summer in the process.
Say what you will about LeBron, but his career-long strategy of signing short term deals to maximize his leverage over ownership/GMs is very successful
It’s successful because of who he is as a player and his injury history or lack thereof (compared to 20 something year career). It was the smart thing to do but he’s like the only one who can do it. You’d need a guy who’s a top 5 player without any injury concerns and that player then has to want to do it this way to maximize winning.
why would lebron have been okay with gutting his next team so they can take in his salary?
This is actually about Luka and that whole AD trade. Obviously none of the FO expected that so they were signing players for AD as the centerpiece.
If that trade didn’t happen, This was supposed to be the offseason to go all in around AD and Reaves.
People forget Luka’s only been with the Lakers for a year and a half. Hardly any time to fully reconstruct a roster
Can’t even blame them, like once they got Luka I think most people figured it’d be a couple years minimum to get a roster change that fits going from an AD center piece to Luka is way different styles.
Lakers haven’t had a legit center since the Luka trade. As a Bron fan, this lakers current team makes a lot more sense than previous seasons with the addition of Kessler.
AD was only part time as well
Don’t tell me fellow lakers fan that. Lakers were surprised to land Luka so it set all their plans aside and they had to pivot hard to Luka.
Let’s also remember they gave up as little as they possibly could in the Luka trade and should ostensibly be much more hamstringed than they currently are
Aggregator website: “Redick – ‘LeBron did not fit’”
Their offense was great last season. Top 3 I think. I really see them being 3rd seed Ngl
They gonna be fighting for the 6th seed lol
4th.
Not 3 years from now.
Oh man can’t wait to use some of these clips for my hating hours
Lakers gonna be a fun hate watch
That’s all the jazz have is hate watching other teams lol. Yall must hate watching your own team. Although I don’t blame u
Nah we gonna be good this season
Lmaoo.
LeLockeroomCancer 😭
Sure, JJan.
LeDistraction
LeBurn 🔥🔥
On the one side of the court.
He knows how this will be received. He has to right? He could have said, we lost one of the greats but we have a squad that fits well or something like that. So what gives)
It’s funny to hear him say that when I think general fan consensus is the exact opposite
Who are their wings and defenders? It’s 2 amazing scoring guards but extremely bad defense, so that’s unbalanced. Zero defense on the wings to balance It out unless you think Thybulle is getting PT, and then I don’t even know whose starting at the 4
They kept Vanderbilt and LaRavia, then added Quentin Grimes, Matisse Thybulle, and Ziaire Williams.
None may be Marcus Smart individually, but that is a much deeper group of capable (young) wing/point-of-attack defenders than last year, when there was basically no reliable defensive depth behind Smart.
Thybulle alone led the league in both steals (4.5) and deflections (8.7) per 36 minutes among qualifying players last season, despite only playing 16 minutes per game.
And at the 4, it does not have to be one fixed starter for every matchup. Vanderbilt can handle defense-heavy assignments, while LaRavia and Ziaire give them more size on the wing. Most importantly, the defensive structure is different because Walker Kessler is now behind them at center—he gives them the rim protection that lets the perimeter defenders pressure ball handlers and take more risks.
The issue is not whether Luka and Reaves are good defenders; it is whether the roster around them has enough defenders and rim protection to cover for them. This version of the roster is much better built for that than last year’s.
Thybulle is a nasty defender. Not sure you can keep him on the floor in the playoffs due to his offense but if so that’d be huge
I also didn’t realize they got Ziaire. I’m a nets fan so saw a lot of him recently. That’s the type of person they need
I understand the argument better now that you’ve explained it this way
Now ask these questions for the last two years he coached. Atleast this year they have more of an offensive system with more guys who can dribble pass shoot
What? How? They lost LeBron and gained Walker Kessler. Nothing else too significant happened in their offseason
I like Walker Kessler a lot but gaining him and loosing LeBron doesn’t improve your passing dribbling shooting. They also lost one of their best shooters in Rui (albeit he didn’t do much else, but still an elite shooter)
They got more skilled at center obviously, but way worse at wing.Genuinely question- who is their starting 3⁄4?
I know Lebron is old but he was their connective piece, and perhaps the greatest connective piece in nba history. Moves the ball and makes everyone better, and versatile enough to make a nonsensical roster work. They don’t have that anymore
Grimes, collin, mamu all can dribble pass shoot? Rui couldn’t pass. And yeahh lost lebron but that was necessary. Without that lakers could never start to build around luka. Lebron can never be a 2 mil. Player even when he is paid like one. Even i Philly, sure he’s being paid like a minimum but will he ever not be part of the core? Or ever just the things without the authority he brings?
Collin sexton is a scorer, not a passer. Actually very very much not a passer relative to his usage when he plays. Just another scoring guard with atrocious defense
Grimes is basically guard Rui. Sure he’s a better passer but they’re both in there to shoot, it’s not like grimes is some great playmaker. But sure he is skilled , good pickup for sure
I like Sandro a lot more than Ayton. I hate Aytons game. But he’s a journeyman
Meanwhile you lost Marcus smart your 1 actual guard defender.
I understand losing Lebron allows them to build. And they’ll acquire defense over time. So if that’s what you mean I understand. But as currently constructed it’s such an imbalanced roster, with a heinous defense
You know the roster doesn’t make sense when you can’t even tell me the starting 5
I mean I get where he’s coming from. Since the year after the bubble it’s been nothing but oddly fitting pieces papered over by Bron and AD later Luka
The LeBron Schism
Lakers celebrating now that Lebron is gone lmao
And yet, they’re going to be a worse team.
The pieces are all white lol
)!a
He always put talent out there first instead of “fit” because that was the best way for them to win, and he knew that. Best fit would’ve been a worse team with less superstar talent.
Now that one is gone, sure you can fit pieces better technically because LeBron, Luka, and AR are pretty similar players that took up a ton of cap. But you still needed them out there 35 mins a night whether it fit or not because that was the best chance to win at the time and those were your best players.
I was thinking Ayton more than LeVron. We tried to hype someone with no hope 😭😭😭
LeBet on it
I’m a fan of JJ - I would love to see him have a big season
Its the firat time in years without a weirdo creative agency trying its hardest to manipulate the situation. I understand why they did it, but they are pros at marketing, pros at creating digital networks using 50k old iphones, each with 3 google accounts on them. They are not pros at scouting.
Rare LeBron dig. JJ’s always been overly complimentary of him
This isn’t a shot at LeBron it’s a shot at the FO if anything.
It’s not a shot at anyone. The roster was designed for LeBron and AD. Then they had the opportunity to get Luka at the cost of AD and obviously they are very different players so the roster didn’t fit. They spent 18 months making moves around the margin to try and help the fit a bit but didn’t want to commit major assets since they’d circle 2026 as the offseason to spend their capital.
It’s not a shot at LeBron, but it is about him. It’s not exactly rocket science that having 3 players who excel more with the ball in their hands will lead to diminishing returns when they play together.
That 3rd player is almost always going to be relegated to a primary off-ball role and the best players in the league in off-ball roles do 2 things: shoot 3s with good volume/efficiency and defend with high effort/effectiveness.
Bron just couldn’t do those 2 things at his current age and I think we’ll see those issues play out in Philly as well.
Philly is a much better fit because the other guys arent ball dominant nor below average defenders. 40 year old Lebron, Reaves, Luka all overlap in skillset far too much. Not the same case in philly IMO.
Pretty much everyone in that Philly lineup is either average or below-average defensively. Maxey is outright bad defensively (although he will make the occasional highlight reel play defensively), Edgecombe is average, Jaylen Brown is solid on-ball but terrible in off-ball defense (which is the vast majority of defense any player plays), and injuries have brought down Embiid to an average defensive player at this point with his effort on that end declining as well.
To put things in perspective, Philly had the 17th ranked defense last year in defensive rating. They brought in two players who are going to be worse defensively then the guys they had starting in those spots last year. The Lakers were ranked 20th last year and that’s probably around where the Sixers will realistically be this year too.
It’s true. It’s not just about Lebron through. Him, Austin, and Luka were too much to fit on one roster. One of them had to go
I’m still of the opinion that they really figured something out last year before the major injuries and could have been really dangerous to San Antonio in the 2 vs 3 matchup which they obviously would have got if not for health and it’s unfortunate we didn’t get to see it
They figured it out offensively, but the 3 of them can’t fit together defensively no matter who’s next to them. Luka and bron should be guarding 4s and reaves should be guarding 3 and D guys. Not tenable for a contending team past the first round
Yeah it’s unfortunate as a fan of the lakers they couldn’t fully realize the complete healthy team. But LeBron ultimately didn’t want to be the 3rd option Swiss army role and wanted a high contract so naturally he went to Philly to be a 3rd option on a minimum
well naturally lebron would have higher expectations/responsibilities than AR while also being paid LESS.
So might as well go somewhere where you
get paid less without the burden of expectation/responsibilities.
If Bron came back on the same deal he gave philly JJ would say the same thing because it’d still be true
I don’t feel like it’s a LeBron dig at all, the roster was previously poorly constructed. It now makes a little more sense.
The pieces fit better as he said.
It was a punk move. He didn’t have to go there. He could’ve kept it classy. He threw everybody who’s not there anymore under the bus. And we know who this was directed towards. I guess the squad now is more his “flavor”…🤔
Calling JJ a racist like he’s the one who’s running the front office and chose to get rid of lebron and bring in kessler certainly is a take
Is it a punk move if he’s right? You don’t think Bron said the exact same thing to him before he left?
This is not a Lebron dig. The Lakers didn’t have a center when they had Lebron and AD, which they clearly needed, and they didn’t have a good one last season, especially defensively.
They also had no POA defense, which Grimes, Thybulle and Zaire give, nor did they have rebounding, both offensive and defensive, which Kessler and Mamu provide.
Overall last season’s team was a mess synergy wise,and it’s honestly a testament to LeBron’s greatness and Reddick’s coaching that they got that far in the playoffs without Luka.
To add to your point they had Javalle and Dwight during championship season. That kept AD healthy long enough. Then they let those big guys go.
And Caruso, KCP, and Rondo. All those archetypes are what made that bubble team work, along with having a good coach instead of Ham.
Getting a 5 month break in between the season is what actually kept AD healthy enough.
I think those 5 months of additional rest weren’t enough to make AD last through the whole playoffs
Also a testament of Houston missing 60% of its core for almost the entire series.
Far?
LeUnfitPiece
All the weirdos in here are gonna think it’s about LeBron but it’s not. Not at all. People forget when Luka got traded mid season the lakers were built completely differently. It’s hard to go from building around LeBron and AD to having to create a roster that fits Luka
JJ is such a douche bro
Bye bye Klutch
[ Removed by Reddit ]
“Stop trying to find a way to fit-out and just fit-in!” Am I right?
Do they though?
All White Squad let’ssss gooo!! #LakeShow #FlakeShow
I love the Lakers. I hope they fart.
They better win it all with all this talk
Shot at LeBron