The fact that small market teams have been doing relatively well after going through the draft process (including us) should reduce our suspicions that rigging lottery is a thing. Just check the video of the lottery. A LOT of reputations are on the line in this process and Nico's Harrison's fate is certainly not worth it to all these people to bend over & give Flagg to Dallas. At the same time, I think these coincidences are not great for the League. LA will always be fine in the long term (plus Luka is not charismatic and has a lot of competition for the face of the league pendant.) The league tries hard to maintain the notion of fairness of the game. I think they should start doing peer review of its executives/ownership and if the review is sh*t for too long for a single organization, then league has a right to reorg it in some way (eg fire Nico Harrison & or maybe even temporarily take over managing for Ranadive's & Jordan's types) so fans can feel that they have recourse.
I freaking knew it!! Called this in February but I didn’t want to believe they would go through with it. They actually did it!
The league is set up. If this guy knew, so did everyone else involved. All of the trade rumors and negotiating, and this or that, is theater.
I see a not impossible option here… Maybe the Lakers are not good this year, and Luka gets tired. The Lakers can’t offer Luka any more salary that any other team due to having been traded (no super max) and actually he would get pais more after taxes with us (no State Income Tax in Texas). If we offer the Lakers a SnT for matching salary (for example, FVV, DFS and Adams work if I’m not wrong), and offer them draft compensation (one or both of the Suns picks), the Lakers would prefer accepting than losing him if he goes to a team with cap space. This is a true superteam: Luka-Amen-Jabari-Durant-Sengun Bench: Sheppard-Okogie-Eason-Capela We can fill the roster with free agents willing to win a ring. Any thoughts?
Looking at the roster make up, the Lakers added guys that have not really been able to stay on the court. They really need the no name guys and second rounders to significantly out perform because they will inevitably be asked to play big minutes. Ayton: played just 40 games last year, 55 the prior year and he was just 25/26 years old. Marcus Smart: has barely played in the past two years, he played just 34 games last year and 20 the prior year, when he did play he was not playing starter minutes. Rui played 59 game last year Luka: 50 games last year Reaves: 73 games, their most available player the past two seasons Lebron: 70 games, not sure what to expect out of him at 41 years old, at some point he is going to need to rest a lot more. This Lakers squad was top 10 in games missed last season, but what differentiates them is the number of starter games missed. This puts them at the top of the league essentially. If you look at the other teams who had players miss more total games, they are almost all lotto teams. 41 year old LeBron being your most reliable player is insane. Yet, they are wanting to push him out the door. Reaves has been available, but with Luka im not sure if he is going to be able to add the same amount of value with a redundant skill set as a lesser player. They likely should have made a separate trade to move Reaves, but his value is likely very low currently. Vegas odds are 47.5 O/U total wins, this actually seemed low, but makes sense. If Lebron or Luka miss significant time this roster is pretty terrible.
