The two biggest media markets in the country each with over $30 Million in cap space to spend, yet not a single marquee signing so far. Has the "media market" myth finally been crushed? Also what can each franchise realistically expect at this point in free agency?
I think people want to play there but the Knicks have had inept ownership for decades and the Lakers have followed suit since the passing of Dr. Buss. I think in this day and age of cable and the internet the media market thing isn't as big of a lure for those teams as the quality of life those cities offer for a young professional athlete. But the glitz and glamour aren't all that appealing if the franchise is a joke. And both of those franchises are jokes these days.
I think part of it used to have to do with the fact that players could live in NY or LA. But it seems that, over time, they realized that they can live in LA or NY anyway even if they don't play on the local team. The NBA season is only part of the year and they are on the road half the season anyway. I mean, if you look at the free agency period, majority of the meetings are in LA even though they are with players that aren't even on the Lakers or Clippers. Most the players that make max or near max salaries live and spend the offseason training in LA and you don't have to play for the Lakers to do that. They see their brand is part of the big markets anyway even if their team is in some place nobody wants to visit.
They are very dysfunctional franchises and the two most left behind when it comes to analytics. Seems like players or at least many of them care about that too. Plus their rosters are a mess so they cant even offer the illusion of contending in the near future. But morr importantly both of them have old stars on their rosters that handicap bthe capspace and are not exactly the easiest to play with. But there are some big names still left. Plenty of time to make some good signings just not the ones they expected.
Everyone was like wow, they had to give Kobe that contract, but in reality they coulda gave him 15mil and it would been fine, now they gotta rebuild for years to come since no one decent wants to play for them, not to mention them being arrogant a-holes, asking LMA questions that puts him under pressure to check if he got me 1st mentality what king of bs is that, do you seriously think people care all that much about Kobe's corpse anymore? IF they've been smart should have went after the likes of Monroe hard with max, but as far as i know they weren't interested much, i mean they still think they're top destination, and instead going for players they could realistically get, no they go after top dog and try to show him that he should need them, when it's clearly other way around. Good luck using that next year pick.
phil jackson needs to listen to kendrick lamar. ""I used to be jealous of Arron Afflalo... It's 2004 and I'm watching him score 30..."
They did go after monroe. Both of them. Its tok early to write them off. Esp the lakers. Because the kings are still here to be used and abused and cant see boogie making it through the year with rondo and ellis.
I know they did , but not as hard, even Mitch wasn't at the meeting and they never appeared to any sort of lead in his sweepstakes.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kobe: "You see this next to me?" LMA: "Uh, yeah." Kobe: "You're welcome." LMA: "....what?" <a href="http://t.co/hSu30w9Lze">pic.twitter.com/hSu30w9Lze</a></p>— Ehh-tan-lee (@et_tanleyy) <a href="https://twitter.com/et_tanleyy/status/616347162713149441">July 1, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Lakers' mystique is still there. They just need to lock Kobe in a basement somewhere when the FA's visit. Knicks just aren't run well. Haven't been since JVG was let go. People are scared to sign there. It would be like boarding a plane when you know the pilot is drunk.
Have to pile on with the consensus here. They still have the media market draw, but at the moment the negatives of having such dysfunctional teams and poor management outweighs the benefit of the big stage. The Lakers' pitch seems to still have been centered on the publicity opportunities that come from being in LA, and not on playing with a legend or the promise of Randle and Russell. But, in both cases, I think their swing for the fences strategy is the wise thing to do. Greg Monroe isn't going to lead them to the playoffs, much less to contention. All he does is slightly stunt the quality of their next draft pick. Both teams need a real rebuild. If you can go out into free agency and pick up a real franchise player without giving up any talent, that's great -- you've leapfrogged sucking and gone straight to stage 2 of the rebuild. But, if you can't get LMA, then keep collecting your assets and stay flexible and wait for your opportunity.
Could it be people who can chose their destination, dont want to play with Kobe or Melo - esp Kobe...
