2018-2019 NBA Regular Season Thread

[True Lakers Fan]

I wasn't here so can't say you did this but come on....when he made the move, many at the time said the Lakers roster was better than his Cavs' team last year.

Those young guys are all a year older AND they added Lebron? Even if he "only" plays 60ish games seems they should win more than a handful of extra games.

I think that was a legitimate statement - Consider that at the beginning of the season, the Lakers were playing good. It wasn't until injuries happened that everything fell apart. LeBron missed close to a third of the season and Lonzo Ball has been gone a considerable amount of time. Just how far do you think Cleveland would have went without their two best players not named LeBron? Better yet, how far would the Warriors get without Kevin Durant and Stephan Curry?

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

AT Lakers

No chance. Sure thing win for the Lakers.

 

[dtgold88]

I think that was a legitimate statement - Consider that at the beginning of the season, the Lakers were playing good. It wasn't until injuries happened that everything fell apart. LeBron missed close to a third of the season and Lonzo Ball has been gone a considerable amount of time. Just how far do you think Cleveland would have went without their two best players not named LeBron? Better yet, how far would the Warriors get without Kevin Durant and Stephan Curry?

Cavs won 2 games vs. GS in the Finals without their 2 best and Delly as the #2. Cavs played 2017 season without Kyrie until Christmas and did fine. Played a number of games without Love, as well.

Obviously, 20 with Lebron is another story.

 

[dtgold88]

Snoop Dogg is offering his Lakers box seast for $5 because 'they f***ing suck'

 

[shopson67]

Both were salary cap casualties. Having to move them was part of the fallout from the Short Buss Reign of Error. They had to find some way to get Mozgov off the books, which cost them Russell and they needed to make sure they had cap space for 2 max level guys, which cost them Randle.

If they don't make those moves, especially the Russell move, they don't have Lebron.

Could they use both of those guys right now? Hell yes. But then they wouldn't have Lebron, sooo...

It's hilarious to see those 2 names constantly brought up. When they were Lakers, everyone except Lakers fans dismissed them as busts, just as everyone was dismissing Ingram before the trade deadline. Want to change that evaluation anyone?

 

[bksballer89]

They might win 3

Doubt it

 

[Wamu]

Damn. Now that's some top notch wagonriding.

 

[msgkings322]

Damn. Now that's some top notch wagonriding.

He might be repping the players on the jerseys. Also it seems to be more about fashion than actually rooting for the teams

 

[Wamu]

He might be repping the players on the jerseys. Also it seems to be more about fashion than actually rooting for the teams

Okay good point. Never thought of that. A players thing & not so much a team thing. Makes sense.

 

[shopson67]

He might be repping the players on the jerseys. Also it seems to be more about fashion than actually rooting for the teams

It's more about fashion for him (and a lot of performers).

 

[bksballer89]

He might be repping the players on the jerseys. Also it seems to be more about fashion than actually rooting for the teams

Yeah it sure is. He is a big time Steelers fan

 

[Wamu]

On this topic I do owe you an apology. was about 3-5 posters who were ripping him and I just assumed you were one. Not the case and my apologies.

I agree no chance he gets to the Finals without Lebron. Just like Phillip doesn't get there without MJ (or even Pippen) as well as Shaq/Kobe.

In general terms, do you really not agree with the statement when coaches are not liked they are the ones who take the blame with no credit, and the opposite is true when they are liked? Lue would get crushed if he were coaching the Cs with everyone healthy and fighting for the 4th spot.

And, of course, I never said Lue was a good or great coach as you implied I did. I think he's like most. Give him talent he might win. don't and he wont

It's all good. I don't criticize just to criticize. Well Jim Harbaugh. But that's a different topic. Crazy fucker.

And saying stuff like I want the Lakers to finish as bad as possible & never want to see them improve or that KD & Dray are the Beavis & Butthead of the NBA is just common sense.

 

[msgkings322]

It's all good. I don't criticize just to criticize. Well Jim Harbaugh. But that's a different topic. Crazy fucker.

And saying stuff like I want the Lakers to finish as bad as possible & never want to see them improve or that KD & Dray are the Beavis & Butthead of the NBA is just common sense.

No the Warriors are the Beatles of the NBA

Curry is Paul, the genius talent
Draymond is John, the edgy one
KD is George, the emo one who was the best musician
And goofy Klay is of course Ringo

 

[CitySushi]

 

[True Lakers Fan]

Cavs won 2 games vs. GS in the Finals without their 2 best and Delly as the #2. Cavs played 2017 season without Kyrie until Christmas and did fine. Played a number of games without Love, as well.

Obviously, 20 with Lebron is another story.

I don't know of any teams that won a champion or went to the finals with their best players. Any team can adjust for a few weeks - that is meaningless -

 

[Stakesarehigh]

I don't know of any teams that won a champion or went to the finals with their best players. Any team can adjust for a few weeks - that is meaningless -

Yea to me taking A rookie Tatum, A second year Jaylen and a relatively low pick in Rozier and teaming them up with the group of vets and making the ECF was a big feather for Stevens imo even considering the relatively weak East. They did beat Milwaukee and Philly though granted both are better this year.

Heck Marcus Smart missed signifcant time including parts of the season and playoffs also last year.

 

[dtgold88]

He might be repping the players on the jerseys. Also it seems to be more about fashion than actually rooting for the teams

I guess I did that.......when I was 10.

 

[WiggyRuss]

Kevin Love on the media, the future of the Cavs and Zion...

Really amazing Kevin Love interview in The Athletic today.

here are some excerpts:

How would you describe the relationship today between players and media?

It’s a funny climate. Have you read the book “The Four Agreements”? It says to “Be impeccable with your word.” I think both sides can be held accountable for that. Both sides can keep each other in check, while (Cavs media relations staff) Tad (Carper) and B.J. (Evans) and Jeff (Schaefer) can play intermediary in that regard.

The other one is “Don’t take anything personal.” In today’s world, because there are 24-hour news cycles and everything else going on, stories don’t have that much time to really live. I think there are narratives like the Lakers, the AD thing, Kevin Durant and what is he going to do this summer, Kyrie and what are they going to do even though they have teams that are going to compete for a championship. There’s stuff like that that’s always going to be there. But I don’t think you can take anything personal — on both sides. Flip Saunders taught me everyone has a part to play. Everyone gets to write a verse.

The third agreement is “Never make assumptions.” Even with KD (and his recent feud with a reporter from The Athletic), I think with anybody calling somebody out, you just have to make sure you’ve done your checks and you make sure that if you’re going to do that, yes, you’re going to hold that person accountable. Just make sure you’re right. I think on both sides that’s the case. You also have to consider on your guys’ side of it. You guys have deadlines, you have to have stories, there has to be some weight to it and you want to generate readers and have a good story because that’s your livelihood, that’s what you work for. Just like we work for everything between the lines.

And at the very end, just do your very best. That’s the fourth agreement. Just do your best in every sense of it. So the relationship with the media is funny. I have come from a point where I didn’t have a good relationship, as you know, and just in humanizing myself and humbling myself and realizing that everybody does have a part to play. It’s just like the referees. People saying we can’t talk to them, we can’t have a relationship. I don’t like some of the calls they make as much as anybody else. And are there some guys you dislike? You’re never going to like everyone in the workplace. Are there some guys that walk in and do media that I don’t like? Of course. But it’s the same thing with you covering some guys.

But I will say this: There are good guys and bad guys in everything. And so much of the time commentary is now the content. But also the same goes for social media. Even us, we have to generate eyes and make this persona and trend or drive our personalities in some direction but it has to be constant or you’re going to lose it.

James Jones told me once when he was here that we need each other. Even though players don’t want to admit it, the media obviously needs the players and the players would just go around telling each other how wonderful they are without the media.

But guess what? People love this shit. You remember how bad we were for so many regular seasons and then in the playoffs we just (claps) did our thing. People love the soap opera. They love that stuff. But that’s also the reason we have a how-many-billion-dollar TV deal? You have to consider that. So much of that is lost. And not to get too deep, but go back to the beginning of civilization. Go to the Parthenon. It’s the fucking theater. People have been going to this shit forever. And there is a lot of comedic relief in it. You have to be able to laugh at it because you’ll fucking lose your mind if not.

Kyrie Irving said recently that the media can divide a locker room. Do you agree with that?

I’ll say this: This is something that I learned from Bron. It was a quick instance in the locker room. Something had come out and I hadn’t said it and hadn’t done anything or my words got taken out of context. I confronted him and said, “Just so you know …” He said, “They aren’t dividing us. I know. I know.” He’s 16 years in, this was like two to three years ago, that’s when I realized that so long as there is that trust and transparency, it shouldn’t divide a locker room. Because you can’t have so much noise. There’s only so many things you can think about in order to play your game. I think having a young locker room, even guys that are five years or less, having gone through it and being the Boston Celtics, being a team like that and Kyrie trying to be a main leader, that’s a tough thing to juggle. But that’s always been part of professional sports. It’s part of it. It’s just the way it is.

But it took you a while to accept that.

One hundred percent. But even in how I played, I had bad habits when I got here. I didn’t have checks and balances. I didn’t have so many vets. Even when I had somebody (in Minnesota) like a Luke Ridnour or Al Jefferson or even a Brian Cardinal who would sit next to me just in my ear, those guys were out. As soon as I got close, they were out. So I didn’t have that. I was relying on playing heavy minutes, in a lot of cases being selfish. But I also learned a lot of good things, too. Just the way it is.

Are you still happy with your decision to re-sign here?

Yeah. This had just been really tough because I’ve never missed so much time consecutively. So finding what it is that is going to drive this team the last few weeks, it’s what we want to get out of the season, how guys want to continue to get better. There have been some bright spots in terms of younger guys getting better. But it’s been tough, especially stepping into a leadership role and then you’re not out there for three months. That was really tough. Just finding a way to keep motivated and get whatever we can, squeeze whatever drops we can out of the season.

When we talked in September, I asked if this team can get back to being a contender while you’re still in your prime. You said you didn’t know, that it was still to be determined. Obviously, this season has gone a different direction than you expected, so I’ll ask you again: Can this team get back to a championship level while you’re here? Because it seems like the plan has been set back from where you were in September.

That was a big setback only because I missed time. We weren’t able to take advantage and grow anything. Larry (Nance) missed time, Tristan (Thompson) missed time. With all of our bigs, we’re not bad. It’s just been tough. Speaking of that revolving door, we’ve had over 25 players this year. But what can you do when your two championship bigs are sidelined? It’s tough

But there’s a draft every year. You’re going to have a rookie on your team almost every year. So do you feel more invested this year because of where you’re going to be picking?

Oh, sure. I knew that coming in we were going to have to grow something anyway. So in a good way, it’s almost like missing that time, obviously it fucking sucks. But maybe there’s a silver lining. And also on top of that, I feel fresh. My body didn’t take that continual (pounding). I mean I didn’t play after that first round my first year, but still, three straight finals is a lot on your legs and on your body. Anybody can say that. Bron is another exception to the rule. This is the first year he had anything. It’s a lot. I guess the silver lining could be building something without that wear and tear, and Tristan maybe the same thing.

 

[True Lakers Fan]

Yea to me taking A rookie Tatum, A second year Jaylen and a relatively low pick in Rozier and teaming them up with the group of vets and making the ECF was a big feather for Stevens imo even considering the relatively weak East. They did beat Milwaukee and Philly though granted both are better this year.

Heck Marcus Smart missed signifcant time including parts of the season and playoffs also last year.

That was supposed to say that I don't know of any team that went to the finals with their best player injured - I would like to say that Cleveland may have had a deeper bench then the Lakers do now - but the Lakers were missing two or three of their best players for a third of the season. Normal teams will lose a lot of games when that happens. The Lakers should have taken Tatum instead of Lonzo Ball though.

 

[dtgold88]

It's all good. I don't criticize just to criticize. Well Jim Harbaugh. But that's a different topic. Crazy fucker.

And saying stuff like I want the Lakers to finish as bad as possible & never want to see them improve or that KD & Dray are the Beavis & Butthead of the NBA is just common sense.

I still need to save my post for those who think I wont admit when I'm wrong.

I do hope we get a chance to find out if he can coach a team not led by Lebron...or even the Lakers. Would mean he at least has his health under control. Seemed like Ty had some bigtime issues.

Green has to be one of those guys you love on your team but otherwise.......