No superstars(which is what matters most), but Wiggins, Jones, Valenciuanas, and Daniels are all contributors on contenders. The list isn’t as much of a dud as the caption makes it out to be.
behappysometimes
A whole bunch of (mostly) garbage. 17 over a 20 year career doesn’t even seem all that bad either tbh. Rudy alone just about covered half that in one deal.
levantoo
That whole conspiracy of LeBron leaving his teams without assets is exaggerated. Miami won 2 championships and have Jimmy, Bam and Herro. Cleveland won a championship and have one of the best teams in the league. You do what it takes when you have one of the greatest on your team.
SgameB
The average NBA career length is about 4 years and even most top-5 picks would be lucky to reach all-star status, most turn into rotation guys and many don’t even get qualifying offers after rookie deal. Its crazy to think that they would have a better chance at winning by drafting those picks than turning them into pieces to surround 2 top-10 players in the league right now.
Its not a matter of if they should trade those picks, the only concern is that they need to get good return on those picks and set this team up for the next 2-3 years to compete.
I hear this narrative that the lakers don’t owe anything to Lebron. Well, they owe it to themselves and the invested fans to win, and their best chance to win is to surround Lebron and AD with pieces. If they somehow manage to lose Lebron and AD because they were reluctant to trade picks for future security, I have a hard time seeing the lakers do anything as long as this ownership and FO are in-charge.
junahn
I mean Dyson Daniels was a smart move by lebron. He missed two fts to win us a game
Theingloriousak2
I mean we literally traded away Darius garland for ad but the pelicans are stupid lol
supremepoker
So……fuck them picks
DelaRoad
Sigh. It’s not about the picks themselves. It’s about the picks as assets.
Awesomefan09
There’s a misconception that the Lakers care about the players who would be selected with the 2027 and 2029 FRPs. They absolutely do not.
The main issue is the Lakers kept losing trades on the margins which is currently handicapping the ability to improve. Imagine if the Lakers managed to give up FRPs in 2019, 2021, and 2023 for AD. The 2025 FRP would be available to trade. Or if they didn’t inexplicably give up a FRP in the Westbrook trade. The team taking on more salary typically *receives* draft compensation.
If you keep overpaying in trades, that’s the expectation moving forward. It’s why the Pacers, for example, were demanding two unprotected FRPs for Turner and Hield when the market determined that neither player was worth even one.
yuurin98
They conveniently omitted Kyrie Irving who’s the number 1 pick and technically was traded away during LeBron’s tenure, just saying
EvilGeniusGL
“HaRdCoRe LoNgTiMe LaKeRs FaNs On tHiS SuB” – BUUUTTTT, BUUUTTTT, LeBron traded away our whole future! We won a ring, but I value young players who might be “just ok” instead! LeGM is a monster who doesn’t care for human life! KoBe WoULd NeVeR!
I’m an actual longtime Laker fan FWIW. The ppl I’m referring to above our the kids here pretending to be these loyal gatekeepers, while the reality is they weren’t old enough to even really experience the Kobe eras (yet are “huge/loyal fans of his” and they came of age during the Jim Buss/kids era.
While it looks like I’m age shaming I’m not, you can’t help when you became a fan of the team, but don’t call actual long time fans “LeBron fans” and don’t act like you know our deep history which is WINNING and not rebuilding.
Swaggyzilla69
It’s not that black and white. I doubt they’re scouting players for those years right now.
The team is limited on assets and if they force a trade and get it wrong then they won’t be able to include any 1st round picks in any sort of trade for a while due to the Stepien rule (a rule that prohibits teams from trading out of the first round for consecutive future seasons.) On top of that, they might be limited on cap space to improve the team moving forward if they trade for a large contract with several years left on it.
That means they would either have to keep running it back with the core of AD, LeBron, the players they traded for, and probably cheap contracts and hope that it works out eventually or be forced to rebuild while owing their pick every other year to a different team. There’s a reason why reports are saying that they’re reluctant to include them in trades.
theskeindhu
Didn’t his teams make the Finals 10 years in a row?
14 Comments
Obligatory LeGM
No superstars(which is what matters most), but Wiggins, Jones, Valenciuanas, and Daniels are all contributors on contenders. The list isn’t as much of a dud as the caption makes it out to be.
A whole bunch of (mostly) garbage. 17 over a 20 year career doesn’t even seem all that bad either tbh. Rudy alone just about covered half that in one deal.
That whole conspiracy of LeBron leaving his teams without assets is exaggerated. Miami won 2 championships and have Jimmy, Bam and Herro. Cleveland won a championship and have one of the best teams in the league. You do what it takes when you have one of the greatest on your team.
The average NBA career length is about 4 years and even most top-5 picks would be lucky to reach all-star status, most turn into rotation guys and many don’t even get qualifying offers after rookie deal. Its crazy to think that they would have a better chance at winning by drafting those picks than turning them into pieces to surround 2 top-10 players in the league right now.
Its not a matter of if they should trade those picks, the only concern is that they need to get good return on those picks and set this team up for the next 2-3 years to compete.
I hear this narrative that the lakers don’t owe anything to Lebron. Well, they owe it to themselves and the invested fans to win, and their best chance to win is to surround Lebron and AD with pieces. If they somehow manage to lose Lebron and AD because they were reluctant to trade picks for future security, I have a hard time seeing the lakers do anything as long as this ownership and FO are in-charge.
I mean Dyson Daniels was a smart move by lebron. He missed two fts to win us a game
I mean we literally traded away Darius garland for ad but the pelicans are stupid lol
So……fuck them picks
Sigh. It’s not about the picks themselves. It’s about the picks as assets.
There’s a misconception that the Lakers care about the players who would be selected with the 2027 and 2029 FRPs. They absolutely do not.
The main issue is the Lakers kept losing trades on the margins which is currently handicapping the ability to improve. Imagine if the Lakers managed to give up FRPs in 2019, 2021, and 2023 for AD. The 2025 FRP would be available to trade. Or if they didn’t inexplicably give up a FRP in the Westbrook trade. The team taking on more salary typically *receives* draft compensation.
If you keep overpaying in trades, that’s the expectation moving forward. It’s why the Pacers, for example, were demanding two unprotected FRPs for Turner and Hield when the market determined that neither player was worth even one.
They conveniently omitted Kyrie Irving who’s the number 1 pick and technically was traded away during LeBron’s tenure, just saying
“HaRdCoRe LoNgTiMe LaKeRs FaNs On tHiS SuB” – BUUUTTTT, BUUUTTTT, LeBron traded away our whole future! We won a ring, but I value young players who might be “just ok” instead! LeGM is a monster who doesn’t care for human life! KoBe WoULd NeVeR!
I’m an actual longtime Laker fan FWIW. The ppl I’m referring to above our the kids here pretending to be these loyal gatekeepers, while the reality is they weren’t old enough to even really experience the Kobe eras (yet are “huge/loyal fans of his” and they came of age during the Jim Buss/kids era.
While it looks like I’m age shaming I’m not, you can’t help when you became a fan of the team, but don’t call actual long time fans “LeBron fans” and don’t act like you know our deep history which is WINNING and not rebuilding.
It’s not that black and white. I doubt they’re scouting players for those years right now.
The team is limited on assets and if they force a trade and get it wrong then they won’t be able to include any 1st round picks in any sort of trade for a while due to the Stepien rule (a rule that prohibits teams from trading out of the first round for consecutive future seasons.) On top of that, they might be limited on cap space to improve the team moving forward if they trade for a large contract with several years left on it.
That means they would either have to keep running it back with the core of AD, LeBron, the players they traded for, and probably cheap contracts and hope that it works out eventually or be forced to rebuild while owing their pick every other year to a different team. There’s a reason why reports are saying that they’re reluctant to include them in trades.
Didn’t his teams make the Finals 10 years in a row?