Game Thread: Blazers Vs Lakers Apr 03, 2015

[wildturkey]

Turkey is on point!!!

It is a damn fine deli meat.

 

[LALakersboy24.7]

This is just stupid reasoning from top to bottom. Can't rely on a guy from draft that isn't deep in talent? The pick would be in the Top 5 in a draft where the consensus is the top 4 prospects all have all star potential. You can absolutely rely on that. This isn't drafting a guy 16th and praying for the best. All draft picks have bust potential, but the chances of one of those 4 guys hitting are high. It's foolish to just blow off a chance at that with some "oh well" attitude.

Secondly, so what if we have Clarkson? I like the kid but the reality is all he's done is prove he can at least be a rotation player. His raw stats look nice but a good chunk of that could easily be bad team syndrome. Even on garbage teams, someone has to score so that doesn't necessarily make that guy great. Look no further than Kendall Marshall last year. Some people were going nuts that he was the Lakers PG of the future. But he's nothing more than a rotational PG that dropped good stats on a poor team. The point is its still too early to lock Clarkson into a core role for the future. He COULD be that, but he could also very well just be a guy that maxes out as a spark plug off the bench. That's why you don't pass on a guy like Russell or Mudiay in the draft. You're gonna look really stupid if you had a chance at one of them, passed on them, and Clarkson is a glorified 6th man 3 years from now. You can have both. There's no reason not to. One's development won't impede the other, especially since Clarkson looks more like a 2 guard while the other two guys look more like PGs.

And lastly, this team needs help EVERYWHERE. Why the heck would you pass up an avenue for improvement (the draft) in favor of free agency? You use BOTH. You try to accumulate the best collection of talent you can get. There isn't a spot on the roster that should be set going forward. Just because you have Clarkson and Randle doesn't mean you're set. You have no idea what you have. I already told you about Clarkson but with Randle, the dude hasn't even played a game. He could be Zach Randolph. He could Anthony Bennett. You have no idea. No one does. You can't make that call. That's why you need that pick this year to bring another top prospect. Like I said earlier, there's potential busts with every pick, but what are the odds that the two (Randle and our pick this year) would both be busts? Possible, but slim. If one hits, you're looking good. If both hit, you're set. You don't shrug off opportunities like that.

I agree with this 100%, and another thing I would like to mention. It wouldn't be smart to go ahead, and let the pussy ass Phoenix Suns get our 1st round pick. Who is a division rival. Fuck that shit!!

 

[tomodach10]

It is a damn fine deli meat.

The best lol

 

[tomodach10]

Sixer's would get our pick.

 

[trojanfan12]

I think folks are reading too much into what Shaqdaddy said. Obviously, the best thing for the Lakers would be to get a top 5 pick and no one has suggested otherwise. However, before the season, there were people acting like missing out on a top 5 pick would set the Lakers back a decade.

That simply isn't the case. The emergence of Clarkson combined with what is expected from Randle means that, by performing well in FA, the Lakers are back on track regardless of whether they get a top 5 pick or not.

If the Lakers somehow miss out on a high pick, it just means that there is more pressure on them when they go into the FA period. Like Shaqdaddy, I'm not going to lose much sleep if they don't get that pick.

End of the day, I think we all want the same thing and that is for the Lakers to land that top 5 pick AND perform well in FA.

 

[Retroram52]

Nailed it TJF12.

 

[tomodach10]

Trojan with all due respect.. You have to stop trying to get into other peoples minds and explain what someone else's mind is comprehending from reading and what they should be comprehending according to you. I believe I comprended exactly what he said.

 

[Shaqdaddy11]

Trojan with all due respect.. You have to stop trying to get into other peoples minds and explain what someone else's mind is comprehending from reading and what they should be comprehending according to you. I believe I comprended exactly what he said.

I don't think you do...

 

[wildturkey]

I think folks are reading too much into what Shaqdaddy said. Obviously, the best thing for the Lakers would be to get a top 5 pick and no one has suggested otherwise. However, before the season, there were people acting like missing out on a top 5 pick would set the Lakers back a decade.

That simply isn't the case. The emergence of Clarkson combined with what is expected from Randle means that, by performing well in FA, the Lakers are back on track regardless of whether they get a top 5 pick or not.

If the Lakers somehow miss out on a high pick, it just means that there is more pressure on them when they go into the FA period. Like Shaqdaddy, I'm not going to lose much sleep if they don't get that pick.

End of the day, I think we all want the same thing and that is for the Lakers to land that top 5 pick AND perform well in FA.

A decade could be a stretch, but it could easily be 5 years. The market of the NBA has changed rapidly over the last year or two, faster than most everyone thought (including the Lakers) due to the way the cap is going to go up. The initial Lakers plan had them having cap room in 2016 and being able to lure FAs to them because they're LA and they have money. But due to the cap rise, easily 2/3rds of the NBA will have significant cap space. Where LA thought they'd be competing for top guys with 5 to 6 other teams like it had always worked in the past, now they'll be competing with 16 or more. And given the rapid rise of social media making it where guys can be stars in any market (ie Lillard in Portland getting Foot Locker ads, Westbrook in OKC doing what looks like softcore pron for a jean company), guys also no longer have to come to LA (or NY or a big city) to build a brand. So two of what has traditionally been LA's biggest cards to play have lost some of their effectiveness. The Lakers weight in free agency can't be counted on as a certainty anymore.

That's why the draft is more valuable than its ever been to teams and vital that LA gets a pick this year. It does two things. Provides younger talent to be a more attractive team to lure in FAs because if recent years are any indication, guys aren't going to teams that have absolutely nothing. And secondly, it's insurance policy if LA isn't able to get the FAs of its desires. That's something that just shouldn't be casually dismissed for an attitude that essentially boils down to "we're the Lakers. we'll be ok".