3Peatkb24 wrote:Julius Russell wrote:I expect the kids to bounce back next week.
But , why can't Laker fans enjoy the heart of Huertas and Lou and Bass and Nance.
They could be here next season.
Also if we don't get the pick, no biggie
I disagree, keeping the pick is huge. We as fans have to stop saying stuff like not getting big FA's or a Top 5 pick is no big deal. We will never get better if we don't have either with that type of thinking. I personally am sick of losing and we need all the help we can get. Getting the pick can even give us the option to trade it to make the team better too. I am very appreciative of what the Lakers have brought to me as a fan in the past, it's unmatched to what any other sport team could've brought to me in my time watching sports but 3 incredibly rotten seasons in a row is enough and I am far from a spoiled fan or an entitled fan but it's time to start winning come next season. I have given it 3 seasons which is enough to get our plan/act together really without even bitching much compared to 90% of our fanbase so it's time. When do people want us to start winning, the year 2020 LOL. I say winning as just being competitive = .500 ball at least to show we have something building, I am not even talking about being a contender next season to even show how much more patience I have but these 20-62 type bullshit seasons need to stop. Even the Colts here in Indianapolis, since they moved to Indianapolis have only had 1 bad 3 season stretch and that was from 1984-1986 when they first moved here, they made the Playoffs in 1987 and have always been able to avoid being bad for a long period time since 1987. If a team stinks longer than 3 seasons than something is wrong with the franchise, that is keeping it real.
Nice rant. Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you, but the beginning of the decade began a perfect storm whereby this was going to be the result. Allow me to recap:
1) Trevor Ariza's agent said "no hometown discount." We show young Trevor the door and sign the older Ron Artest. We win back-to-back and mortgage the future.
2) The payroll is through the roof and Stern's 2011 CBA is designed to "level the playing field" (aka fuck the Lakers.)
3) The Lakers trade Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom for CP3, which is rescinded by Stern after pressure from Dan Gilbert and other small market owners. This trade would have brought us a star in his prime to build around and lowered the payroll, which not hamstrung us for years to come because the new CBA provided little financial flexibility. It also ruined Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol's trade value.
4) The front office valiantly tried to compete for championships by trading for Nash and Howard. For whatever reason, draft picks suddenly became precious commodities even though it makes no sense other than cheap space on rosters. The Howard deal backfired on so many levels, one of them being the perception of the Lakers organization by other players.
5) The FO miscalculated the summer of 2014; Mitch miscalculated the value of cap space (still does).
6) We sign Kobe Bryant to a 2-year, $48 mil contract. Even though there are two sides to this coin (business vs. basketball), what has resulted since then has been disastrous.
7) The front office failed to see the changing landscape. Players don't care where they play as long as they can go to a winner and the "small ball" phase came out of nowhere. Therefore, the Summer of 2014 produced nothing other than Randle who played 14 minutes. The Summer of 2015 was a bit of a step in the right direction even though our record doesn't show that.
8) The future isn't as bright either because the cap space goes up this summer and next summer, so all teams will have money to spend and FAs won't come here.
9) We don't know what the 2017 CBA has in store.
These have not been normal circumstances.