A Little FA News

[Retroram52]

Yep Trojanfight you have a point. However, there are no guarantees that throwing major money at a 30-year old big or several of them is going to make us any better than going with perhaps the next Whiteside in Upshaw and a second-year talent big in Black. Those two bigs may not jell with the players we have and then you spent a whole bunch of cap space for nothing. The point is, you have to trust your own process for building a team. You have to trust your scouting abilities as a franchise as well as judge of FAs that fir and go with the players you choose. If you can't trust that, than the Lakers are definitely in deep shit.

 

[lakersrule]

I remember reading rumors on draft night the lakers believed they could get Aldridge. Maybe false who knows. I think you need a steady balance of top free agents and lottery picks. Years ago when facing a rebuild the lakers drafted Andrew Bynum, traded for gasol etc and they were right back in it. My thing is someone has to get blame for letting Howard go, signing dantoni over Phil Jackson which may have swayed Howard to stay. How long does Byron Scott get to turn it around and blame it on bad roster if he doesn't? Next years free agents look pretty slim. After Durant what other big names are there? Not throwing in towel just yet but haven't seen much interest from the current free agency pool.

I don't believe you can just say well clarkson, randle, and Russell are the future great players. Clarkson best games came when season was a loss, randle was lost for the year and Russell is unknown. Not every player is going to pan out. What are odds they drafted 3 Allstars? Wait and see I guess. Players like Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard took league by storm almost immediately in rookie seasons. So myself am expecting the same with Russell

I'm sure they thought they had a good chance to get Aldridge, but doubt they thought it was guaranteed. That previous rebuild included a prime Kobe. Slightly different situation now.

I do blame Jim Buss for losing Howard. That was a result of choosing D'Antoni over Phil. That was a huge mistake IMO and ruined that reload plan.

 

[Louie26]

I absolutely love Kobe for what he's done for this franchise! However, he needs to stay out of future business as it relates to the team acquiring free agents. He's not part of the plan, the vision!

I'm all for him teaching D'Angelo the lay of the land. Teach him to be his own man/player, rather that someone he's not.

Let Jeannie and Mitch do the work, keep Jim and everyone else that thinks they know what's good for the future away!!

 

[Louie26]

Like I said drafting Russell was a mistake. Management over thought the draft and felt like this is Lakers of old and they can get any free agent they wanted. Dumb move! And now they are swinging and missing again. Time for Mitch and Jim buss to be gone!!! You never pass on a big like Okafor!!! Another loss season and no first round pick. It will be a long time before the Lakers are relevant again.

We've gone through this and I think MOST of us disagree with your opinion on the matter of drafting D'Angelo Russell. But it's your opinion and you may be right, in the end. But at this point, it's exactly moot.

Keep in mind, the Los Angeles Lakers never drafted Kareem Abdul Jabbar(trade), they never drafted Shaquille O'Neal(FA), Pau Gasol(trade), etc.....

They did draft, Magic Johnson and James Worthy among others.

So, despite who you think the Lakers should or shouldn't have drafted, is of no consequence. They drafted who they thought was the best available player, period.

My point, the Lakers are the Lakers. While they may have to work a little harder nowadays, I think top players still want to be a part of one of, if not, the greatest franchise in NBA history! Free agency will provide us top players moving forward. Patience fellow Laker fan!!!

 

[trojanfight]

Here we go again

 

[Louie26]

FWIW....

 

[Louie26]

Here we go again

trojanfight, what's your twitter handle, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[trojanfight]

trojanfight, what's your twitter handle, if you don't mind me asking?

@calitexican78

I don't tweet much tho mostly Retweet other tweets

 

[Louie26]

@calitexican78

I don't tweet much tho mostly Retweet other tweets

yeah, me either. Kinda cool stayin up with things from fellow fans.

 

[Retroram52]

Well, like I stated with other threads, I am not concerned with the Lakers not signing any FAs this year among the humongous list we were supposed to sign. WE have some very good young talent. We still have $23 million of cap space, and we may still see D. Cousins as a Laker by the trade deadline this coming season. We will also have a boatload of possibilities next year to look forward to developing.

So what if we finish in the top five this coming season. We will see the remainder of the Nash and Howard trades come off the books (the last of those trades will be done in 2018) and Kobe's contract will be done at the end of this year. All of the youngsters will have another year under their belts and we can go through this again next year. I am definitely looking forward to the summer league to see how all of the young talent plays as we develop our new core for the future.

 

[wildturkey]

But they do have an analytics department. That's not the problem. The current roster is. The Spurs roster looks a lot more appealing to a 30 year old top free agent than the current Lakers roster, especially when that player is turning down an extra $25mil. The Spurs are a contender now. The Lakers aren't. I'm really not shocked by this. Don't see why some are. What analytics could the Lakers trot out to convince Aldridge when they don't have much on the roster?

No, they don't really have one. They had a couple stories this year about it. They're at very bottom of the league in analytics. They're "department" consist of Rudy Tomjanovic and his son going over papers that are essentially just simple real +/- and that Byron Scott doesn't even use. Until this year, they didn't even bother sending a rep to the Sloan Analytics Conference. And the team never saw the need for SportsVu tracking cameras and all their benefits until the league installed them in every arena and from reports, still don't see the value in them. All the successful teams are invested in this. There was no need for a team with the coffers like LA to skimp on this. You're just letting rivals have an advantage.




You guys can sugar coat this all you want. Management failed to do what they set out to do. And that's from the top down, from Jeanie on down. You can nitpick each A level guy and find a reason he didn't come to LA and convince yourself its for the best. (Never mind the fact pretty much everyone here and across Laker fandom was all about getting those guys at some point and only changed face when they said No). But none of that changes the fact LA's plan was to get at least one of these guys over the last 3 years. Its why they kept the books clean. There's no doubt about it that was a major cog in the 3 year plan and they came up short.

 

[tomodach10]

We've gone through this and I think MOST of us disagree with your opinion on the matter of drafting D'Angelo Russell. But it's your opinion and you may be right, in the end. But at this point, it's exactly moot.

Keep in mind, the Los Angeles Lakers never drafted Kareem Abdul Jabbar(trade), they never drafted Shaquille O'Neal(FA), Pau Gasol(trade), etc.....

They did draft, Magic Johnson and James Worthy among others.

So, despite who you think the Lakers should or shouldn't have drafted, is of no consequence. They drafted who they thought was the best available player, period.

My point, the Lakers are the Lakers. While they may have to work a little harder nowadays, I think top players still want to be a part of one of, if not, the greatest franchise in NBA history! Free agency will provide us top players moving forward. Patience fellow Laker fan!!!

You don't speak for most!!! You are right about free agency when we got Kareem and others, but stop trying to sugar coat this. This is a failure. The Lakers management look like fools now. What other team has a national story about being under whelmed by a presentation???! It looks really really bad. Stop being a Homer and be objective. Some of us on ere Keep It Real!!! The top players have been shunning the Lakers for three years!!! I believe it is partly Kobe and management fault.

 

[Retroram52]

Well tomodach, I suppose we will know soon enough whether you are right or not.

 

[Louie26]

You don't speak for most!!! You are right about free agency when we got Kareem and others, but stop trying to sugar coat this. This is a failure. The Lakers management look like fools now. What other team has a national story about being under whelmed by a presentation???! It looks really really bad. Stop being a Homer and be objective. Some of us on ere Keep It Real!!! The top players have been shunning the Lakers for three years!!! I believe it is partly Kobe and management fault.

I guess I was trying to be nice about all your bitching, so instead,quit being such a dick, see how easy that was??

You're right, I don't speak for most, but unlike you, MOST didn't mind the Russell pick!!

Not sure what part of my post was being homerish, I believe objective was your word??

Because I choose to be patient means I'm being a homer?? Vocabulary isn't your strong suit, is it?

 

[Shaqdaddy11]

Well, that's gone out the window!

Who else is out there?

 

[Shaqdaddy11]

Best we can now really hope for is that Randle turns out to be a beast. That should sustain the front court a bit.

Re-sign Hill and Davis now?

 

[lakersrule]

No, they don't really have one. They had a couple stories this year about it. They're at very bottom of the league in analytics. They're "department" consist of Rudy Tomjanovic and his son going over papers that are essentially just simple real +/- and that Byron Scott doesn't even use. Until this year, they didn't even bother sending a rep to the Sloan Analytics Conference. And the team never saw the need for SportsVu tracking cameras and all their benefits until the league installed them in every arena and from reports, still don't see the value in them. All the successful teams are invested in this. There was no need for a team with the coffers like LA to skimp on this. You're just letting rivals have an advantage.

You guys can sugar coat this all you want. Management failed to do what they set out to do. And that's from the top down, from Jeanie on down. You can nitpick each A level guy and find a reason he didn't come to LA and convince yourself its for the best. (Never mind the fact pretty much everyone here and across Laker fandom was all about getting those guys at some point and only changed face when they said No). But none of that changes the fact LA's plan was to get at least one of these guys over the last 3 years. Its why they kept the books clean. There's no doubt about it that was a major cog in the 3 year plan and they came up short.

"The Lakers say they have six people working on stats, four of whom focus on data provided by SportVU, the six in-arena cameras located in the rafters of every NBA arena that use Israeli missile-tracking technology to record the movements of each player, the referees and the ball 25 times per second every game.

Two of those SportVU people are based in L.A.; two others -- including the Lakers' top SportVU consultant -- are based in the home of the Lakers' biggest rival: Boston.

"Just so you know, he's born and raised in Southern California, not Boston," Kupchak said of their top SportVU consultant, whom we'll call Jack. (The Lakers declined to reveal the identity of their analytics staffers, provide much information about them or allow them to be interviewed.)

Jack attended graduate school at UCLA with Kupchak. "He's somewhat of a basketball fan," Kupchak said. They stayed in touch over the years and talked about analytics, eventually discussing the type of person an NBA team needs to hire for such a task. The topic came up as SportVU started to become more and more available; all 30 teams had access to it beginning in the 2013-14 season. "And then he was able to say, this is the kind of person that you need," Kupchak said.

Kupchak said he hired Jack about two years ago.

Jack keeps in touch with the two SportVU staffers in L.A. through conference calls and visits. The other employee in Boston, Kupchak said, is tasked with helping break down the data into a more digestible form. The Lakers' other two analytics staffers are former Lakers coach Rudy Tomjanovich and his son, Trey, both of whom are based in L.A. Kupchak said Rudy has worked in a "statistics-based analysis role" for several years with the team, working with more conventional stats, such as information found in box scores, and also using NBA.com's StatsCube, the league's official advanced statistical analysis tool.

Another element is Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss, who in a 2012 interview with ESPN.com said he has a "defensive rating, basically, that involves the offense, defense and then the impact depending on how much they play." It's a formula that Buss said then that he developed himself. "I'm up to all hours of the night doing numbers. Trying to tweak it. Trying to get it better. Seeing if it truly [corresponds]," he said in the interview. It's unclear what involvement -- if any -- Buss has with the Lakers' day-to-day analytics operations. (The Lakers declined to make Buss available for an interview.)" - EPSN

Their analytics department isn't just about Rudy and son looking at +/- numbers. Is it as in depth as other teams? No, that's true. How do you explain all the shitty teams that are using complex analytics? Did analytics help Cleveland make it to the finals or was it Lebron? Great players and deep teams are still necessary to win, regardless of how complex your analytics department is. The Lakers don't have that now.

I'll give you that management failed in their pursuit of FAs these last two summers, but you do have to take into account the context of each individual situation. Carmelo was blown away by the Lakers presentation. He went with the money. The Lakers were not Aldridge's top choice. They failed to convince him it should be. Not surprising given his age, desire to win a championship, and the comparative rosters of the Lakers versus the Spurs. DeAndre was always considered a long shot.

I'm not changing face. Of course I'd rather see Aldridge or DeAndre sign. I'm not going to get emotional over it but rather understand the realism of individual situations.

 

[lakersrule]

Best we can now really hope for is that Randle turns out to be a beast. That should sustain the front court a bit.

Re-sign Hill and Davis now?

Likely at least one of them. Hopefully Davis.

 

[tomodach10]

I guess I was trying to be nice about all your bitching, so instead,quit being such a dick, see how easy that was??

You're right, I don't speak for most, but unlike you, MOST didn't mind the Russell pick!!

Not sure what part of my post was being homerish, I believe objective was your word??

Because I choose to be patient means I'm being a homer?? Vocabulary isn't your strong suit, is it?

Yea calling people a dick really demonstrated your expansuve vocabulary. "Lighten up Francis" lol

 

[lakersrule]

That ESPN article claimed the Philadelphia 76ers as the top analytics teams in all sports. It's really serving them well.